Following Wednesday's IU Football practice, IDS football beat writer Jordan Littman had the chance to sit down with linebacker Chase Hoobler, entering the 2012 season as the top returner at his position. Check out what the sophomore player had to say:
IDS: How are you feeling? How do you feel camp is going so far?
Hoobler: As a defense, I feel like we're playing a lot better. Just coming off of last year, we've been together through winter, spring ball and summer, so we're playing defense better overall. Just knowing our assignments and doing our jobs, we're a lot more comfortable.
IDS: How do you feel you're coming on personally?
Hoobler: I feel more comfortable being in - I know what to expect and I know what I got to do to get better, to help my team and to help other guys out.
IDS: How have you taken on a leadership role on this defense, especially with an influx of young guys and JuCo transfers?
Hoobler: I feel like we're all a pretty young defense, so everyone needs to step up and be a leader and do their job. As a linebacker, we're supposed to make our calls out on the defense and make sure everyone's aligned right, so that's what I'm just focused on. Basically, I've got to do my own job, so that if everybody does their own job, we'll be in good shape.
IDS: Do you feel like everything is going according to plan for yourself?
Hoobler: I still need to work on stuff. I'm not in any way, shape or form as good as I can be. I have a whole bunch of stuff (I can improve on) like technique, hat and hands, getting off blocks and stuff like that. I need to communicate better with our defense but that goes along through practice and being in those situations like in scrimmages and stuff.
IDS: What have you been seeing out of Junior College transfer linebackers Jacarri Alexander and David Cooper so far?
Hoobler: They bring great competition and leadership, and they play some good roles on the defense. Jacarri will come in and start yelling and getting everybody excited, and that gets the whole defense riled up. Coop's a good leader, and as of now they've both learned the defensive package really well, and they're playing really well right now. And we need that.
IDS: What do you expect out of your defense this season? Do you think you guys have made a lot of strides in the offseason?
Hoobler: We had a lot of new players come in, especially the JuCo guys, who have brought a lot of competition. We were young last year, and that season was rough. But going through spring ball and winter and summer together, I feel like we're all more meshed. We know that just with one more year of experience it doesn't hurt anybody, so I feel like that's helped the defense as a whole a lot.
IDS: What's your experience been like being coached by IU Coach Kevin Wilson?
Hoobler: I mean, he's more of an offensive coach for me, but I know what to expect out of him, and I know what he expects out of us. He demands perfection, and that's what we've got to give him. If we're not doing our job or doing our assignment, he's going to let you know. We have to bring it every day, and if we want to be a top Big Ten team, we have to play like it every day in practice.
IDS: As a leader on this defense, what are you expecting out of this team for this season?
Hoobler: I expect us to win every game. We just have to play physical and keep on our assignments. We had a lot of blown assignments last year, missed coverage and wrong people blitzing, and that hurt us a couple of times. Just the experience, everybody being on the same page, being through the same system again, knowing where to be and what techniques to use more, I think that's helped us a lot.
