Coaches bring new style to IU

Patrolling the 50-yard line at Memorial Stadium Saturday, coach Gerry DiNardo eyed his football team as it participated in pre-practice stretches. Piercing through the 40-degree wind blowing toward the north end of the stadium was the scratchy, Boston accent of defensive line coach Joe Cullen. \n"In between these white lines, everything else in your life is gone," Cullen told his linemen, wearing shorts and a T-shirt while the rest of the staff sported pants and crimson "Hoosiers" sweatshirts.\nWelcome to spring football.\nDiNardo and his staff got their first opportunity to view their inherited team for the first time on the field Saturday and Sunday in the first two of 15 practice sessions that conclude with the spring scrimmage game April 19. The top things on the staff's agenda were: Discover the skill level of their players and teach the offense a new system -- the pass-heavy West coast offense. \nSenior fullback Jeremi Johnson said the new staff is pressing the basics of the game while introducing little pieces of the new styles on both sides of the ball. \n"(The coaches) are taking it slow, but they're also going fast," Johnson said. "I don't know how to put it, but we're learning."\nWithout pads, DiNardo said he and his staff cannot determine the skill level of his team, but that hasn't hampered the implementation of the new style of IU football. Once the coaching staff was announced in mid-January, they held meetings with the players to help them along with the new system, something DiNardo said has shown up on the practice field. He also said the staff hasn't had to break any "old habits" of the players that had grown accustomed to former coach Cam Cameron's style.\n"We don't even know what they've done in the past," DiNardo said. "Anytime you teach something, if you're a good teacher, you assume it's new and you just go on."\nWithout the pads, the only tackling being done were by two children wrestling over a stray football on the sidelines, but that didn't hurt the intensity of the team on the field. With the help of personalities such as DiNardo, Cullen and offensive line coach Steve Addazio, who was continuously pushing his linemen, some IU players were left waiting for the day the squads would gear up in pads. \n"It was so hard for us, even though we didn't have pads on," senior strong safety Joe Gonzalez said. "It was so hard to not to try to mix it up on those days because there's so much emotion out there.\n"If I call my mom right now and she asks me how practice went, 'exciting' is the only word I can think of to describe it with."\nGonzalez also said learning the terminology is providing a challenge on the defensive end. With the introduction of a new style of play comes a new set of terms that must be developed so players have an understanding of what their coaches want from them and what plays they are calling. \nGonzalez said the players must catch on quick since this is the first chance for the players to take the field, and this is their only chance to impress the people who will be deciding when and where they play.\n"They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and that's so unbelievably true," Gonzalez said. \nBut the pressure is on the offense as they must switch from an option-heavy system that was centered around former quarterback Antwaan Randle El. Junior quarterbacks Tommy Jones and Gibran Hamdan are going to be the focus of the new system as they are the only quarterbacks with actual playing experience.\nJones said he knew coming into spring ball that everything was going to be different, and that is something he has accepted and enjoyed. \n"(Quarterbacks coach) Al Borges has done a great job with us so far getting us mentally ready," Jones said. "Now we just have to get on the field and actually do the reps and get more comfortable with it. It's a big change."\nNew headgear\nWith the new color scheme, logo and mascot for IU athletics the football team will have a redesigned look this season, doing away with with oval IU that was brought in with the hiring of Cameron. While the players confirmed the new helmets are maroon, they are not disclosing the design. But they have seen them, and they are impressed. \nJohnson even said it reminded him of watching Hooiser football while growing up in Louisville, Ky. Gonzalez said the first time he saw them was when DiNardo brought a bag into a team meeting Thursday that no one paid attention to, but they caught the senior's eye.\n"He pulled out our helmets for next year and wooo, they are pretty," he said. "There's something about a helmet. It's a power symbol"