Wilson expects team to show confidence

IU head coach Kevin Wilson’s offense at Oklahoma ran 20 percent more plays than any other team in the country.

Wilson said he believes one of the main reasons for this was the confidence his players had in themselves to correctly execute plays.

“You play fast when you know what you’re doing,” Wilson said. “You also play fast when you’re confident, so if you know what you’re doing, knowledge is power and power is speed.”

Wilson said he believes a confident team begins with confident coaches. He said he has learned over the years that if coaches call a great deal of meetings and cram sessions before games, that sends a message to the players that coaches lack confidence in the team.

Wilson pointed to co-defensive Mike Ekeler as a good example of a very positive and upbeat coach who has faith in his players.

“Every day is the greatest day ever and every place is the best place ever, and the kids love the guy,” Wilson said. “He’s a heck of a coach. We have a scheme that we believe in.

“The players have embraced it. He’s got a couple of really good linebackers, so those guys will do well for us.”

Players like senior tight end Max Dedmond immediately adopted the confidence and positivity of the coaches.

“We definitely walk around the complex with a different swagger,” Dedmond said. “From minute one, he showed that he had confidence in us and we definitely have confidence back in him.”

In spring practice, Wilson used past results to instill confidence in the squad. He showed film clips of plays and moments from 2010 during breaks in practice, focusing on current players making plays against Big Ten opponents.

During practices, he also used past games to set up fourth quarter simulations. On March 22, the Memorial Stadium scoreboard read: Indiana 24, Iowa 14 — 4th Quarter.
While some may see this as highlighting what was eventually a fourth-quarter loss, Wilson used it in a positive way. He said he put his players in that situation to give them a bit of mental fourth quarter experience.

“Instead of saying we’ve lost those games,” Wilson said, “I was just saying, ‘Look, it’s the fourth quarter now and we’re not going to play well in the fourth quarter next year if we don’t do it now.’”

Senior wide receiver Damarlo Belcher said he believes an important change Wilson needs to make is in the mental game in the fourth quarter.

“A lot of times that we lost in the fourth quarter, it was because of our mindset,” Belcher said. “He definitely changed our mindset, so we’re thinking ‘winning,’ instead of ‘oh, we don’t know about it.’”

With five quarterbacks competing to start, Wilson said he wants to make sure that whoever earns the starting job is sure of his job security and confident that his coach has faith in him.

While Purdue coach Danny Hope said the rival Boilermakers are “very likely” to run a system with two quarterbacks, Wilson will not use a quarterback platoon.

“We don’t plan on playing two,” Wilson said. “I don’t want a quarterback looking over his shoulder.”

Along with the new mindset, the new staff has brought high expectations, which senior linebacker Jeff Thomas said he takes very seriously.

“You measure success by whatever you want, but when it comes down to it, you’ve got to get wins,” Thomas said. “The expectations are so much higher with everything that we’ve got no other option. We’ve just got to go forward.”