Nicolas Toomer Talks 2023 Indiana Cornerbacks
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 How's the transition and is it living up to what you learned about when you were
00:04 recruited here the first time?
00:05 >> Yeah, they had a lot of the same coaches from when I was in high school, so
00:09 it was a pretty easy transition.
00:10 They had a couple coaching changes, but for the most part,
00:13 Coach Shelby recruited me in high school, Coach Allen recruited me in high school.
00:17 I kinda knew what I was getting into as soon as I stepped in the portal,
00:20 I kinda had instant contact with them.
00:21 It always felt like home to me, so it was an easy transition for me.
00:24 >> You've played all over the defensive backfield safety corner.
00:28 Looks like you're sticking a corner here.
00:30 What about that?
00:31 What's your takeaway from that position and what can you bring to that position?
00:36 >> Obviously, it's a big thing in the league right now and
00:38 at every level to have longer corners, guarding bigger receivers.
00:41 So just bringing length and physicality to the outside and
00:44 experience on the defense.
00:45 I'm the oldest in the room right now, so just bringing experience and
00:49 just knowing the game and bringing a different sense of intelligence to the DVU.
00:52 >> Coach, so you guys have done a lot of mixing and
00:56 matching to kind of try to develop chemistry.
00:58 How tough has that been and
01:00 is it an easy process to sort of do that in four weeks of training camp?
01:04 >> No, I think one of the biggest strengths of our team is team camaraderie.
01:08 So just mixing and matching, getting to know your personnel,
01:11 getting to know everybody's strengths and weaknesses, and
01:12 just starting to play off of each other.
01:13 You start to get a feel of who's good at what things and who's not and
01:18 where we're deficient, so you kinda pick up in those areas.
01:21 But it hasn't been very difficult, no.
01:23 >> Do you think it's easier or
01:26 harder when you've got so many new guys in that secondary?
01:29 Do you think it'd be harder to be the only new guy trying to build that chemistry
01:33 with a group that's been around for a long time?
01:35 Or do you think it's harder to try and get so many guys blended together?
01:38 >> I think that when we have a bunch of new people just coming into a new place,
01:41 the hardest thing to eliminate is just everyone's pride.
01:44 Everyone comes from a different school, everybody's coming here to play.
01:46 We didn't transfer not to play.
01:47 So I think what our program does well at is just being a team, one unit.
01:51 We really emphasize there's no individuals.
01:54 Just everybody loving each other.
01:56 It's competitive and not combative.
01:58 We're all pushing each other.
02:00 We all wanna see each other do well.
02:01 >> Being one of the more experienced guys in the room, do you have an example of
02:06 something you might try and teach the younger guys in the team just during
02:09 practice or any advice you might give them?
02:11 >> Just leverages, alignments, just detail and everything.
02:15 I think one of the biggest things I got from Stanford is just being a true student
02:19 of the game, just detailing what personnel groups,
02:23 what routes you're gonna get at certain looks.
02:25 Just playing smart, not playing very robotic,
02:28 just kinda knowing the game and having some instinct when you're on the field.
02:31 >> How do you balance that with studying film like that,
02:35 knowing the game like that, but also not overthinking it so
02:37 you can keep playing fast out there?
02:38 >> I think you just gotta prioritize and
02:40 you gotta get all your mental work in the film room so you can play fast.
02:45 You have to know it like this, like you're snapping, before you can play fast.
02:49 And so I don't feel comfortable playing if I don't know everything I'm coming
02:53 against.
02:53 >> This is obviously a group that struggled the last couple years,
02:57 the DBs as a whole.
02:58 When you kind of come into this group and try and reshape it for more success,
03:01 what's the biggest area of impact you feel like you can make?
03:05 >> Like I said, again, just reiterating,
03:07 just we have a lot of people coming from different places.
03:11 Just having a family-like culture in the room,
03:15 all being smart, all being on the same page at all times.
03:19 With the secondary, if somebody's off, that's what shows up on TV.
03:24 We can make mistakes in the secondary and it's broadcast everywhere.
03:27 If you make a mistake up front, we have to fix it.
03:29 But just everyone being on the same page, everybody being cohesive, and
03:33 that's how we win games.