Bloomington Leader

OTAs Help Maximize Spring Practice Preparation

Tom Allen is a maximize-the-time coach. He wants to take full advantage of preparation opportunity to restore Indiana back to its football winning ways of 2019 and ’20.

Take, for instance, OTAs, also known as Organized Team Activities.

They aren’t official practices, but they do allow coaches and players to get together and prepare for spring practice, which began Saturday.

“We maximize the rules and allow our guys to get ready,” Allen says. “It’s the next step in growing and developing our players.

“(Because of the transfer portal), you have more turnover and more guys who are new that you will rely on to play in the fall. These OTAs are very valuable to us.”

IU had eight of them in the four weeks leading up to spring practice, along with all the conditioning and strength training workouts going on since January. Certain equipment can’t be used. You can’t throw footballs. But more than ever before, you can teach and instruct.

“You can get the run fits and checks and adjustments on defense,” Allen says. “You work on execution on offense. You can do a lot of things on air. It’s a chance to teach concepts without throwing the ball

“It’s very positive to have more rep time and get things on film, teach, review, and within our eight hours to be able to have meetings.”

Overall, Allen lists three main spring practice priorities:

Improve fundamentals and technique.

Install the offensive and defensive schemes, and make the necessary adjustments.

Identify the depth chart and give a lot of players a lot of reps.

With veteran linebacker Cam Jones using the NFL Combine to boost his pro prospects, the Hoosiers need someone to step up in leadership in general, the linebacker room in particular.

That looks to be veteran linebacker Aaron Casey. Jones missed the final seven games with a foot injury. Casey led the Hoosiers with 86 tackles, four quarterback hurries, and two forced fumbles.

“Aaron Casey would be the guy,” Allen says. “He had to step up last year, and has to elevate that this year. He has the opportunity to step up into that role. I expect him to do that.”

Allen mentioned two other strong leadership possibilities – husky Noah Pierre, who had 39 tackles, three sacks, and a fumble recovery last year, and outside linebacker Myles Jackson, a transfer from UCLA who totaled 18 tackles and an interception. 

“Those three guys have really established themselves as leaders. Allen says.

As far as the secondary, expect to see more from Phillip Dunnam, Bryson Bonds, and Louis Moore at safety, as well as younger players such as Trevell Mullen, Jamari Sharpe, and James Monds III at cornerback.

Allen says Dunnam needs to “take the next step” after getting playing time last season as a true freshman. The same is true for Bonds and Moore.

“The safety position has as much depth as any position as far as the number of guys who can help us,” Allen says. “You’ll see several different faces there this spring, and we’ll figure out who the top guys will be.”

Allen describes Sharpe as a long athlete who can really run. He says Monds III and Mullen have a lot of talent and strong work ethics.

“We redshirted those guys (last year) to give them a chance to develop. It’s going to be a big spring for them. They stick out to me at the corner position.”

Allen seeks overall offensive and defensive improvement, and if that sometimes means copying plays or concepts from other teams, so be it. He says last year coaches took a concept from an NFL team.

“There’s no question we all copy things from each other,” he says. “You’re looking for things that fit with you. We’re all trying to find ideas from other people.”

Coaches sometimes use spring practices to move players around to see if there’s a better position for them. That won’t happen much this spring, although Cooper Jones, a 6-6, 280-pound defensive lineman, will move to the offensive line. Jones redshirted his first season and played in seven games last year, totaling four tackles.

“He has the length and toughness we’re looking for,” Allen says. “He wants to play.”

Allen brought in three new coaches in offensive line coach Bob Bostad, co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Matt Guerrieri, and co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach Anthony Tucker. The No. 1 priority for Allen was finding coaches who share his values as a coach and a person.

“When you find guys that fit and the things they value and care about are the things that you do, that accelerates the bonding and blending,” Allen says. “The things you think are important are the things they think are important.”

A top priority for any coach is relationship building with the players. Allen constantly sees players in his new coaches’ offices.

“They are meeting with guys all the time,” he says. “Those relationships take time to build up. That’s the first thing they started doing.”

While Indiana, like many programs, has moved away from spring games to avoid injuries, it will have a tailgate event on April 15 that will allow fans to watch the Hoosiers scrimmage.

“I wanted fans here, to be able to see us in person and watch us scrimmage under game-like situations,” Allen says.

Original source can be found here.