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INDIANA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 10, 2016

Kevin Wilson

Bloomington, Indiana

Indiana - 30, Ball State - 20

KEVIN WILSON: Good win, played better, played hard. I thought Ball State was a good team in coming in, played well. Made us work offensively. Defensively until the end I thought our guys were battling to keep them out of the end zone. So good effort. I thought we could clean up a little. Good to be 2-0 and have an open date week this week.

Q. Second half especially fourth quarter, it looked like the offense just couldn't get going. Was that a combination of just the line not getting good push or play calling or penalties or something?
KEVIN WILSON: Sometimes to the edge when you're not a receiver getting hats on the position supporting the play, so it's everyone -- sometimes we need play calling, scheming, we're trying to make everybody happy, and sometimes, it's like what are we thinking here. At the end we kind of settled down at the end and went back to some simple stuff that was working early. So just got a little out of whack. We've just got to do better.

Troubling thing to me is 2 of 13 on third down. We had no interceptions, ball almost got out one time, but other than that, took care of the ball. We've got to be better, better in 3rd downs. Still think we leave points on the board.

Q. Any updates on Feeney, Simmy?
KEVIN WILSON: Yeah, they're hurt. You always ask hurt questions.

Now let's talk about the game. Danny got hit in the head and has a concussion. Simmy has an ankle injury that looks like it's probably going to require surgery, and if that is what it is, we'll see the timeline.

Also our two team captains in Marcus Oliver and Dan Feeney, and they both played as freshmen, and they both were injured, and you've got a redshirt year. That's why sometimes you play those guys, so we'll see if that works out, but it's good to see the guys stepping up.

I think he had only played one play, and the guy just rolled up on a bubble pass, and I think when the guy went to make the tackle, it looked like I saw on video, on TV, looked like the guy rolled up the back of his ankle, and I think he might have an ankle that might require a surgery.

Q. Can Simmy come back in the bye week, come back against Wake Forest?
KEVIN WILSON: Yeah, they got all that protocol stuff. So we'll see. It seems good, but it's serious injury. I know medically we take it pretty seriously. We're pretty in tune with that, like I think most people are. I think the Big Ten, our school in particular, I think we're very on top of that, take it pretty seriously.

We're going to take several days off here. A lot of times an open date you practice a few days and give the guys the weekend off. We're going to do the opposite. I thought it was too early in the year. We're going to watch tape tomorrow and go out recruiting Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, because I thought we'd just be practicing to practice.

I want to get them back next weekend, and on Friday and Saturday be thinking football instead of off time because sometimes when you come off the open dates you're a little sluggish, so we've had a lot with Thursday night game and then nine days until this game and then the two weeks, but now we come out of that one, it's 10 straight, and we've talked a lot about just trying to develop our team through preseason, through the first game, through the second game and through the open date that we have depth to overcome injuries, and we've been a good enough team, although last year we lost a draft pick that no one could replace in a 1,000-yard back. I mean, how many catches did Westbrook have today, three? Three, two touchdowns? 139 yards? I guess we can't replace Simmy, so I guess we'll just run on every play.

We've got players, man. We're a Big Ten team, you deal with it. I saw a great team a couple years ago with the third quarterback. We've got to deal with whatever happens at quarterback. We're not a great team yet, but we're moving, and if we get an injury -- I mean, Dan Feeney plays as hard as any kid I've ever seen. Our goal today was for someone to come over for Dan Feeney. What happens is when you've got a fifth-year senior went in there, you've got Bailey playing, Wes Rogers, and we still played pretty good football. We're fortunate. We're not a great team yet, but we're getting depth and we're getting good enough that it's not like woe is Indiana if something goes wrong, we're just going to keep playing and keep pushing and keep working, and that's kind of where we're at right now.

Q. Talk about with this kind of wonky start to the season with the Thursday game and the bye week just two weeks in, what do you want out of having an open date so early in the year?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, our thing was we've got to keep developing the depth of the team. We've got to -- today was punt team, last week field goal protect, special team value. We've got to make sure the quarterback, what he can and can't do and like. We've got to make sure we develop, we're going to play multiple receivers and running backs like we've always done, and tight ends, with Fuchs's injury, we developed a tight end, and we've got to play a lot of guys on defense.

So our whole thing was just developing depth because once we walk out of here and we're playing Wake Forest, we'll keep growing, but we're going to stand on what we are, and our thing was with the preseason and the first game, and we were taking -- again, I thought we could be a good team and be 0-2, because I thought these two teams on the road, and they were good enough -- you don't play well you can lose in college football, as was evident today.

I respected who we were playing and I knew we had to play well to win, but I told the coaches before preseason, as we go through preseason, it's not about preseason, and we didn't look at this like as any game that you guys are going to write -- like I didn't -- this team had our full attention, as did FIU, okay, because a year ago we're down here trying to hold them out of the end zone. So the first two teams had our full attention, but we were looking at getting through this game and next week because now we're going to truly stand and play 10 weeks of Big Ten FBS football and what kind of team we're going to be.

We saw it, and we're going to keep evolving during the season, but I think you can evolve -- we had the two days coming off, now we've got the open date, rest. Coming out of pre -- we've had time to not rush into a game, and we've been trying to develop our team. I don't know we have, but that's been the thought process.

Q. Without the benefit of film, how would you evaluate Lagow today?
KEVIN WILSON: He was good. I had a couple calls -- protection's got to clean up. We didn't do a good job protecting for him. He did a nice job getting the field, and we've got to get it out of his hand. We've got some protections and some things that broke down, and we've got to clean that up. He's got a good look about him. He's what, 17 of 20 or so, stats are stat, but he's 2-0. That's a good quarterback. Got to get better.

Q. What do you think about the way the defense played, particularly finishing the FIU game and starting this game?
KEVIN WILSON: I thought they were really good until the end where we wore down, the pump block got a little momentum, got a little stale. I just thought to get the touchdown late, credit for Ball State. Continuing, fortunately when it was a 10-point game on the blocked punt -- excuse me, when it was a six-point game and they blocked the punt, they kicked the field goal or the extra point, should have went for two with three scores. This could have been a three-score game. That's one of the reasons we're in the fourth quarter just trying to run it a little bit because we like to have a three-score game, and they blocked the punt, still three-score game. With three minutes to go, it's a two-score game. So even if they got the onside kick, they still had to score twice. I thought Richard, like our team, managed the game good and got a good look about him.

Q. How pivotal were the turnovers early in the game, to get those?
KEVIN WILSON: Good. I mean, defense has been good. Great effort keeping the ball in bounds on the one play, hit us on a big pass, came back the next play, got burned, made a pick. Really good player because good players get beat, especially when you're a freshman. He had a mistake second play of the first game, next play killed the guy. He got beat on a big play in the first drive I think it was, or the second drive, and they ran -- the next time they ran the play, he picked it off. Now, maybe he wasn't throwing as good, but that's a sign of a good player, and that was good for the defense. It was good -- I thought the first half was good team football. We were getting stops.

Offense left a few things on the board. I thought the way we managed that drive in the first half, Griffin told me he had to be inside the 40 to kick it, and I thought he was going to kick it. He was inside the 40, kick it, take a chance.

That was good team football the first half. Started the third quarter with a big play, played pretty good. Offense got a little stale. Punt team got a little stale. I think we -- it would have been great to be a little crisper at the end, but that was good football and a good team win. And again, a lot of respect for Ball State. I thought they were going to come and play well, and I thought our guys had to play well to beat them. We've got to play better. That was a good effort today.

Q. When you see the punt block at the same time, aside from that, how encouraged are you with Joseph?
KEVIN WILSON: Joe has been kicking good and again, just broke down on the numbering of the count and who's got who. We just missed -- assessed who we had, and it's kind of like, who do I have and the guy got free, because that -- by our clock, on the field we had it as a 1-8-5 get-off and it was snapped, if you're under two, you think it's pretty good, and that one got blocked.

We've got to play -- we spent a lot of time in this room when you're talking kicking, and we went through the season, or the seasons, and showed punt blocks that have haunted our team, and that's just disappointing.

We knew before the game that one of the keys for Ball State would be to steal a possession in the kicking game somewhere, when we talked about punt block, and we didn't answer the call. We'll have to clean that up.

Q. Nick Westbrook has become a big-play guy the first two games. What about him has helped him step up?
KEVIN WILSON: I don't know. I mean, one, I think he's really good, and I think Donavan Hale is really good. I think both those guys are as good as Simmy, just raw talent. And they've just got to mature into being the players that those guys are, so it's good to see him grow up a little bit. He's just maturing. He was more physical today. Last week he had better maybe numbers as far as catches but he wasn't as physical. Today he physically played a lot more competitive and played harder, and that was good to see.

But don't underestimate what Ricky and Mitchell and those guys can do, too. Just plays had been called it happened where Nick was No. 1 progression and made the big plays.

Q. How do you feel like the defensive line played?
KEVIN WILSON: I think okay. I liked the -- liked the way at the end of the game he got some blocks and get off the quarterback a little bit more, but Ball State had good mix, they were patient with the power run game, and their zone, and they tried not to stress the quarterback out. I thought our defensive line played hard. Like to be a little bit more impactful once in a while, but good effort by the guys.

Q. Was the running game, just assess that the way you guys ran?
KEVIN WILSON: It was okay. I mean, that style of defense, the box is going to be loaded, and like I said, Richard played well, but we've go to take advantage more and get those receivers playing better to be more high end. Running game was solid, not flashy, a little tough sledding, but we can do better. Good effort, though.

Q. It looked like the bubble screen was open all day. Was that just part of them being a little overaggressive on that?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, we had one on 3rd down we just get called, just throw behind and our young man loses his balance. When you put numbers to stop the ball, I mean, those are run plays that when he those the bubble, it's just if the numbers -- if you put extra guys to stop the run -- like I say, it was the line not getting the push, but sometimes it's the receivers not blocking the extra guys, the safeties and those guys, or it's executing the bubble stuff. That's just a little bit of their structure.

Sometimes, too, I think us taking some of those shots had to happen, and it would have been nice to hit a few more. Again, every team is different, but I think the way we're playing right now, as good as Richard might have done, our receivers, I think our offense has got to keep coming and be better on 3rd down and show we can beat you throwing the ball.

Everybody is going to start by stopping the run, and we've got to take advantage of being able to stop the run and make the plays, and bubbles were part of it.

Q. You attribute that to anything in particular?
KEVIN WILSON: Just offense, not getting some 1st downs, keeping them off the field. Same defensively. We finally had two games, we finally had a cramp -- I think the cramp score now is like nine for the opponent, one for us. We did have one cramp today. So for the camp cramping game it's a 9-1 cramp deal. It's amazing you have to think of a 10-play drive, on the second play he got cramped up. What were you doing over there for 12 minutes if you didn't drink any water?

Q. If you were controlling when you had bye, when would you --
KEVIN WILSON: I think in the middle is better, like five, six, seven. I think two late does you no good because it would be great to go recruiting this week. I think you never want it week one because then you're playing straight through. Week two I saw like Michigan State has got one, and it's hard to schedule. It costs a lot of money, people want to play, just -- there's not a lot of options. But perfect -- guys like between 4 and 7. I don't think this one is bad because all we judged is getting this team deep enough and developed enough for that 10-game run, and so we didn't feel the pressure of having a lot. We thought we had time to keep evolving. We needed to be good enough to win. We needed to have enough offense and defense to win. We needed to attack and be aggressive enough to win, but we also felt because of the Thursday night, this game, we had like four weeks to keep growing -- we had three, four weeks of preseason and now three, four weeks with the Thursday night and the open date early to keep coming as a team. That was our thought.

It'll be interesting to see if we keep coming. A lot of teams come out of an open date and play poorly, and we're doing a different open date schedule than normal this year because it's an early open date. If you come -- if you don't play on Saturday, we're not going to play a game next Saturday but we're going to come out and run around, got to play a little football Saturday, got to keep our kids in football mode, keep that schedule moving.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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