The Indiana football secondary was depleted heading into the 2023 season — both from the transfer portal and graduation. One of the lone returners who had played a limited role a season ago was Phillip Dunnam. Dunnam appeared in 12 games as a true freshman but didn’t see his true role appear until the last two months of the season.
So, when Indiana saw that Ohio State and its talented wide receiver core would be coming to Bloomington for week one, Dunnam’s name was tossed around as someone who would have to step up in a big way immediately.
That he did.
Dunnam came up with the only takeaway of the game when he picked off Buckeyes’ quarterback Kyle McCord on a 4th-and-2 play on the Indiana 22 yard line early in the second quarter.
It was not only a critical defensive play, but it gave the IU offense a bit of energy, turning that into its only three points of the day.
Those were the plays that Indiana football head coach Tom Allen challenged him with all offseason.
“Yeah, it’s been very important growth. We’ve challenged him,” Allen said of Dunnam on Monday. “He’s one of our most talented defensive players, I believe. He’s still young. He did play for us last year as a true freshman in a limited role. But he was a guy we knew we needed to have him take the next step.”
Dunnam would finish the game with six tackles and that one interception. He graded as the 12th-best defender among all players (min. 20 snaps) in the Big Ten in week one with a rating of 76.7.
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His performance was a result of all of the hard work he put in over the summer, but more importantly in practice. Something the coaching staff spent all offseason preaching.
“That play that he made, I could show you 50 times already on the practice field … if you do it in practice, it’ll show up in the games,” Indiana football defensive coordinator Matt Guerrieri said. “He’s become more consistent. He’s matured. He’s bought in, doing a really good job.”
“He just has a great feel — he made the exact same play in practice. We talked about it,” Allen added. “It’s amazing you play the way you practice and just reinforce that, be able to reaffirm to each player, hey, this is why it matters how you do things every day.”
Not only has Dunnam made that type of play before, he’s also been all over the field in practice and was the most effective defensive player when it came to takeaways in fall camp.
“He’s been our biggest takeaway guy during fall camp, and it showed up on game day. So just a talented player, without question, but he’s still young,” Allen said. “Gotta be able to stay locked in, stay focused, and he and Josh have been holding down that rover spot for us.
After leading the Big Ten and the entire country in both interceptions (17) and also red-zone defense in 2020, the last two years have totaled just 12 interceptions combined. When Matt Guerrieri came to the Indiana football program, he preached takeaways being the DNA of this defense. Because of that the McMahon family — yes, that McMahon family — gave the Hoosiers a ‘Takeaway Belt’. Declan McMahon is the grandson of WWE icon Vince McMahon and a current walk-on on Indiana’s roster.
Safe to say that belt worked.
“He’s been our leading interception guy in practice, so it was — not expected but like ‘oh there’s Phil’. He’s doing it in practice so it’s expected in the game,” Middle linebacker Jacob Mangum-Farrar said of Dunnam. ” … He got our takeaway belt … a WWE takeaway belt to hold up for whoever gets an interception or any takeaway … have something to hold and build energy off of. I was really happy for him because he does it so much in practice.”
At the end of the day, belt or no belt, whatever brings a swag and ‘mentality’ to the secondary — and Dunnam — is what Indiana football needs.
“The biggest thing to me from a defensive back is mentality,” Guerrieri said. “You can talk about skills and talent but mentality is the biggest thing and our guys had that in that (OSU) game.”
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