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Spring Ball Chatter: Linebackers
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Chad Wilt is at Indiana doing what he’s always done, and what he never has.
That might make all the difference.
Wilt’s responsibility as new defensive coordinator includes coaching linebackers, a big change given he’s only coached defensive line.
Oh, he’s also never been a defensive coordinator before.
Is that a problem?
Not a chance.
“I am not in a place where I am a fish out of water, so to speak,” he says. “I am not coaching the receivers. That would be a very different role. I am still staying in the front seven.”
For those unfamiliar with football terminology, the front seven is defensive linemen and linebackers.
Ultimately, according to Wilt, it comes down to “block destructions.” It’s about blowing up blocks, which blows up offenses, which gets the defense off the field and IU’s offense back on it.
“You talk about run fits and understanding those concepts,” Wilt says. “You talk about block destructions, which is tackling with your hands, elbows in and thumbs up, getting your shock to lock-outs, clearing off of blocks. Guys understand that. They understand blocking scheme and how they fit.”
If that seems confusing, well, the players get it.
“He brings a lot of terminology I have never heard,” says linebacker Jared Casey, a Kentucky transfer. “I have learned a lot from him.”
Adds University of Miami transfer Bradley Jennings Jr: “He is very intense and very passionate. He comes with that passion every day.”
Welcome to head coach coach Tom Allen’s restore-the-winning plan, which includes returning the defense to its takeaway-and-attack roots. Both were missing last season.
Allen will resume calling defensive…
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