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New strength coach


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Sounds like a really good hire.  He's from Indiana, and he was a grad assistant at IU in the 90s.  Also spent time at Michigan and Notre Dame.  He might not have the flash that Ballou and Rhea just because of their work on social media, but he has some great connections.  After working in the NFL for 4 years, and at two of the biggest college programs, he should have the contacts to be able to pull in some really good assistants.  I saw that he was with the Giants under multiple head coaches, so he must be pretty well respected.

I've seen that he has a strong focus on injury prevention, so that is good.  Not sure what his emphasis is besides that.

I would think he would be a good recruiter for us too.  Can't hurt to have a guy who was just in the NFL.  With his time at IU, Ball State, Michigan, and Notre Dame, he might be able to help recruiting some guys in the area.

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6 hours ago, Seeking6 said:

Sounds like he checks all the boxes we want. Indiana ties, impressive resume. Really nice pull for Allen and IU. 

Have a feeling, Indiana just got better.  In many ways, the hires on the defensive side and thr new SC might be an upgrade.  Time will tell...

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His wife is an IU grad too, so this looks like it could be a long term hire if things work out.  He isn't a guy looking to move up the ladder like Ballou/Rhea.  He's already been there.  For the Giants, he was hired by McAdoo, retained by Shurmur, and he was just retained by their new coach, Judge, so it isn't like he is coming off getting fired.  He left on his own to come here from the NFL.  At only 45 years old, he could be here for a while.

I feel like the only place the coaching staff possibly got worse is the OC spot.  I like Sheridan a lot and some people say he's a rising star, but DeBoer is going to be really tough to match.  I think Peoples, Jones, Wright, and Teagarden to ST are all upgrades.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, KDB said:

Wellman will be the third highest paid strength coach in the country.. Behind Iowa’s Chris Doyle and Ohio State’s Mickey Marotti.

It’s interesting if they paid him more than Ballou got at Bama.  It may tell you something about how people liked working with Ballou.  Because if he were well liked, they could have outbid Bama, since the new guy is paid more than Bama is paying.  

I like IU’s emphasis on the position.  IU knows it’s never going to have the athletic talent coming in that OSU, UM, or PSU will get.  IU needs to make it up elsewhere, and athletic performance is a very good spot for that.  If you outperform on physical development, you may be able to close the gap.  In other words, if ever there were a position where IU should pay up, Tom Allen continues to prioritize the right things.  

As an aside, I’ve said for years that, on the field, special teams is a position with a huge opportunity to get a positive delta over a more talented team.  If you are sound on specials, make your kicks, pin people back on punts, etc., there is so much hidden yardage.  Again, much like athletic development, this is an area where IU could bridge the gap between the recruited talent at OSU, etc and us.  This has yet to happen, but if we can get it right, we can take another step forward.  

Also, for kids in college now.  Look at some of the eye popping money some of these guys are getting.   It may be a major worth thinking about.  :)

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1 hour ago, BobSaccamanno said:

It’s interesting if they paid him more than Ballou got at Bama.  It may tell you something about how people liked working with Ballou.  Because if he were well liked, they could have outbid Bama, since the new guy is paid more than Bama is paying.  

I like IU’s emphasis on the position.  IU knows it’s never going to have the athletic talent coming in that OSU, UM, or PSU will get.  IU needs to make it up elsewhere, and athletic performance is a very good spot for that.  If you outperform on physical development, you may be able to close the gap.  In other words, if ever there were a position where IU should pay up, Tom Allen continues to prioritize the right things.  

As an aside, I’ve said for years that, on the field, special teams is a position with a huge opportunity to get a positive delta over a more talented team.  If you are sound on specials, make your kicks, pin people back on punts, etc., there is so much hidden yardage.  Again, much like athletic development, this is an area where IU could bridge the gap between the recruited talent at OSU, etc and us.  This has yet to happen, but if we can get it right, we can take another step forward.  

Also, for kids in college now.  Look at some of the eye popping money some of these guys are getting.   It may be a major worth thinking about.  :)

I would guess Wellman will be #1 out of the group, but Ballou + Rhea will likely be decently ahead of him.  I think if we really wanted to, we could have paid enough for those guys, but I think the draw of Alabama was what really lead to those guys leaving.

I do really like that we emphasize strength & conditioning and special teams.  I was not sad to see Inge go.  I thought he was a borderline disaster with special teams.  We were better there this year, but I think a big part of that was because Allen had more time to oversee things without being the DC.  I think I read recently that Allen said he was going to spend more time there this coming year.  Hopefully Teegardin does well.  He was a special teams coordinator a few years ago at Valpo, so lets hope he is an upgrade.

We also have a lot more talented guys on special teams than we used to.  It used to be walk ons, and 1 and 2 star guys.  Now we have 3 star guys who are backups on offense or defense.  Our overall depth makes a big difference there.  I think the additions of Whitehead, Campbell, and Wracher show Allen is serious there.  Really hoping to start seeing us improve on kickoff and punt returns.  I thought we did a ton better on kickoff coverage last year, and Ellis showed some promise on returns.  Still a lot of room for progress in a lot of areas though.

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2 hours ago, Leathernecks said:

I would guess Wellman will be #1 out of the group, but Ballou + Rhea will likely be decently ahead of him.  I think if we really wanted to, we could have paid enough for those guys, but I think the draw of Alabama was what really lead to those guys leaving.

I do really like that we emphasize strength & conditioning and special teams.  I was not sad to see Inge go.  I thought he was a borderline disaster with special teams.  We were better there this year, but I think a big part of that was because Allen had more time to oversee things without being the DC.  I think I read recently that Allen said he was going to spend more time there this coming year.  Hopefully Teegardin does well.  He was a special teams coordinator a few years ago at Valpo, so lets hope he is an upgrade.

We also have a lot more talented guys on special teams than we used to.  It used to be walk ons, and 1 and 2 star guys.  Now we have 3 star guys who are backups on offense or defense.  Our overall depth makes a big difference there.  I think the additions of Whitehead, Campbell, and Wracher show Allen is serious there.  Really hoping to start seeing us improve on kickoff and punt returns.  I thought we did a ton better on kickoff coverage last year, and Ellis showed some promise on returns.  Still a lot of room for progress in a lot of areas though.

On special teams I hope we work on covering onside kicks! 

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11 hours ago, Bob said:

On special teams I hope we work on covering onside kicks! 

I hope we work on being prepared to recover onside kicks.

When a room of kids called for the team to watch for it, but the ST Coach didn't have his guys ready, that said all I needed to  know.  

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4 hours ago, jblaz13 said:

I hope we work on being prepared to recover onside kicks.

When a room of kids called for the team to watch for it, but the ST Coach didn't have his guys ready, that said all I needed to  know.  

Especially with the way kickoffs are these days, no reason not to prepare for it. Just tell the deep guy to fair catch it and you start at the 25. Worst case is they kick a dribbler down field and you return it to at least the 15-20.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Must have missed this from a couple days ago. I know people have varying opinions on Odell Beckham Jr but he tweeted out over the weekend to Wellman how happy he was for him and couldn't wait to get some work in. Guess it wouldn't be a surprise to see Odell in Bloomington in the future.

 

welcome to twitter fam! Congrats on everything , and thank yu for all uve done for me brother! Really appreciate it, finally we can get some work in again! Hope u and the fam are safe! I’ll see u soon! LUV
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Another high profile player coming out talking about Coach Wellman. This time it's Brandon Marshall. If we didn't know already....I think we really, really got a good one here gang. 

 
Congratulations to the best in the business. I had the pleasure to work with him with the and he showed me the difference between good and great.
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On 3/18/2020 at 9:01 AM, jblaz13 said:

I hope we work on being prepared to recover onside kicks.

When a room of kids called for the team to watch for it, but the ST Coach didn't have his guys ready, that said all I needed to  know.  

Dont blame the ST coach for that...thats all on Tom Allen.

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19 hours ago, Indykev said:

Dont blame the ST coach for that...thats all on Tom Allen.

It always falls on the head guy at the end of the day , but every coach who directly works with a position share in a degree of the responsibility and are culpable. Players too since it isn't exactly Pop Warner! 

It takes a chain of failures on the sidelines to manifest in failure on the field/court and the sh** rolls downhill for sure.  

.

 

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1 hour ago, jblaz13 said:

It always falls on the head guy at the end of the day , but every coach who directly works with a position share in a degree of the responsibility and are culpable. Players too since it isn't exactly Pop Warner! 

It takes a chain of failures on the sidelines to manifest in failure on the field/court and the sh** rolls downhill for sure.  

.

 

I thought he was saying don't blame the strength coach(ST) because he has nothing to do with the on the field stuff.

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1 hour ago, jblaz13 said:

It always falls on the head guy at the end of the day , but every coach who directly works with a position share in a degree of the responsibility and are culpable. Players too since it isn't exactly Pop Warner! 

It takes a chain of failures on the sidelines to manifest in failure on the field/court and the sh** rolls downhill for sure.  

.

 

Tom Allen said they talked about the on side kick but he didnt think they would at that point in the game and didnt put the hands team on the field... on no one but Tom Allen, nothing rolling anywhere here because Tom Allen stepped in it. no other way to look at it.

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23 hours ago, Indykev said:

Tom Allen said they talked about the on side kick but he didnt think they would at that point in the game and didnt put the hands team on the field... on no one but Tom Allen, nothing rolling anywhere here because Tom Allen stepped in it. no other way to look at it.

In light of that yes, blame for calling for no hands team goes totally to Allen. 

 

Youth football online needs to revise their advice for the frontline if the separate point I am making is off base, though.  I'm not just acting difficult here or any tone . I'm literally drawing from all sources learning how to coach my kid in football. I am a little confused at the moment being in thinking it is on the Special Teams coach to make sure eyes are up every time before the last kickoff in the last game of the year ever comes to what happened. These are grown men including the players and I call confusion(be me now, I mean)! I just thought that is how being honest worked. I get leadership and responsibility. Bad small details by players are on Allen too since he hired the position coaches.Not losing sight of that being on him when it boils down. I meant it in the context I support.

didn't expect this would get disagreed with ,so I didn't really have anything to say.I just know I don't want to be misunderstood and cost my kid any games..

https://youthfootballonline.com/coaching-special-teams-in-youth-football/

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