Practice notes from DJ Fezler, who is doing a great job covering fall camp for us.
- Indiana head coach Tom Allen continues the use of a megaphone throughout fall camp, however at this point of the week his voice his shot, rendering him quieter than last week.
- Now that the team is participating in padded practices, there’s more competition and more intensity on both sides of the ball.
- Both the offensive and defensive positional groups start practice with quick, rotational drills focusing on fundamentals. On offense it’s securing the football and playing through contact, while on defense it’s the opposite. Allen continues to expect takeaways and tackling from all defensive positions.
- The tight end group struggled today to start practice. Too many times did passes from Indiana’s quarterbacks fall through their hands and hit the turf without the pressure of a defender running alongside them.
- Redshirt sophomore Peyton Hendershot started drills with two dropped passes over his shoulders. To make an excuse for him: he wasn’t wearing any gloves. By the time the pass-catchers made their way to the next session, his gloves were on and he didn’t have issues with drops the rest of the day.
- The running backs were led by sophomore Stevie Scott once again, but not far behind him was redshirt junior Cole Gest. He has shown quick bursts of speed out of the backfield. He has a natural set of hands and a knack for catching passes. There doesn’t seem to be any concern about his knee as he doesn’t even wear a brace during drills.
- The quarterbacks have made noticeable improvements on their timing and decision making, even when compared to the first day of fall camp on Friday.
- In individual drills with wide receivers, all of them were very consistent in their placement of the football through the air, especially on routes breaking to the sideline.
- “What you’re seeing is receivers and quarterbacks gelling,” offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer said after practice. “Knowing based on where the defender is at where the quarterback might throw the ball. When they were going down the field, when they should turn and look. It happened one time where we weren’t on time, but there were so many today where we did a great job.”
- Before they entered team drills with the defense, redshirt junior Peyton Ramsey and redshirt freshman Michael Penix Jr. led the offense in a two-minute drill, where they had to receive signals from the sidelines and execute the play call.
- Freshman athlete David Ellis struggled during this session when he was called on to play wide receiver. Wide receivers coach Grant Heard had to constantly remind him of his role in the formations. However, Ellis did see some work with the special teams unit, primarily as a return man on punts and kicks.
- When the offense joined the defense for a team session, the two units were pitted together in a competition: one point to the group that wins the play. The offense started fast as Gest burst through the middle on a draw play without being touched until he had already broke the line of scrimmage and into the second level. Penix Jr. followed up on the very next play with a touchdown pass to junior Whop Philyor along the left seam.
- Both sides of the ball contributed to a high-intensity session that involved numerous instances where players would exchange choice words to each other after the play was over. There were a couple of minor altercations between players but nothing too serious.
- In the end, it would be the defense that came out on top, stopping the offense more times than the offense could make plays.
- Each of the quarterbacks, including redshirt freshman Jack Tuttle, made multiple connections deep down the field in team and seven-on-seven drills. Meanwhile, the run game was strong for the offense, especially the second and third-string players like sophomore Ronnie Walker Jr. and freshman Sampson James. They all took handoffs and fought for hard-earned yards up the middle.
- “Ronnie, Sampson, Cole, all those guys are doing a great job,” running backs coach Mike Hart said after practice.” All of them have had good days, they’ve had bad days. The biggest thing for the group is consistency.”
- The two groups transitioned to seven-on-seven afterwards, where Ramsey was the most consistent quarterback of the three. He was in rhythm with his wide receivers and completed a handful of passes in a row against the first defense.
- Penix Jr. continued the trend of completing deep passes when he was called in to throw the ball. He floated a ball deep down the left sideline for junior wide receiver Ty Fryfogle. Fryfogle made a diving catch in front of his defender and inside the red zone.
- This session was a catalyst for more tension when fifth-year wide receiver Donavan Hale caught a deep pass along the right sideline and tossed the ball at the defensive players watching the play. His actions were called by the referees and coach Allen told him to get out of the drill.
- “We still have to do the little things right. Don’t get caught up in all that trash,” Heard told the pass-catchers after the session was complete.
- Ramsey and Penix Jr. ended practice with strong showings against the defense in the live-tackling session. After Ramsey went three-and-out to start, Penix Jr. drove the offense down the field for a field goal.
- The next time Ramsey got the call, he completed a deep pass of his own to fifth-year senior Nick Westbrook on the left sideline. That same drive, Scott got back-to-back carries at running back and took the second run into the endzone for touchdown after breaking a tackle of the sideline.
- “It really felt good, that was really one of my first runs where I finished a big run and scored,” Scott said after practice. “That’s been something I’ve been trying to improve and coach Hart has been telling me to improve and work on.”
- Ramsey. twice made big plays during this session, first when he delivered a perfect pass to redshirt freshman wide receiver Luke Shayotovich on a fourth-down situation. He followed up with a completed pass on the left sideline to redshirt freshman wide receiver Miles Marshall to put the team in field-goal range before the clock expired.
- At the end of a practice that had emotions running high at times, Allen instructed his team to shake hands and hug one another before the team took a knee to hear him speak before ending the day.
