25 Questions With Striped pants

 What is their body of work?

This was one thing...

Indiana has not had a ton of success on the football field.  Their last winning season was 2007.  They were also winless on the road last year.  Having said all that, they were good enough to beat BG 42-10 last year.  Their only win this season was over Indiana State, 28-10, a team they put 73 on last year.

How many seniors and juniors on the two-deep?

26, which is a typical number.

Who are their returning statistical leaders?

CB Tim Bennett led the nation in passes defended last year.
WR Shane Wynn was #19 in the country in receiving TDs.

What was their turnover ratio?

They were -3 last year.

Offense:

 How is their QB play expected to be?

Last year, they were experimenting with two QBs when BG came to town.  Nate Sudfeld has clearly established himself as the starter now....he threw all the passes against the Sycamores.  IU ran the ball a lot in that game--Sudfeld threw only 18 passes for 111 yards.  He was 3rd in the Big 10 in passing efficiency last year and threw for 335 against BG.

What was their scoring and yards per play?

They were high powered last year.  They put up 38 points per game with was #16 in the nation.   They run a lot of plays, so their 6.5 yards per play is good if not great. While they only scored 28 against ISU, they did get 566 yards of total offense, also 6.5 yards per play.

Can they run the ball?

Yes.  The answer is yes.  Tevin Coleman, their TB, is a high quality back.  He averaged 7.3 yards per carry last year and over 10 in the opener and went for 129 against BG.  His backup, D'Angelo Roberts, also had 100+ in the opener.

This is another.....

Did they pass the ball?

Well, as noted above, Sudfeld was very effective last season.  He completed 60% of his passes at over 13 per catch, which is very effective, and had 21 TD over 9 INT.  His top 2 WRs did graduate, so there are a couple unknowns there.  Also, as noted, they only threw 18 passes against ISU.

How was their run/pass balance?

Well, in the opener they ran 68 times and passed 18 but last year split it 50/50, pretty much.  Remember, Wilson comes out of the Oklahoma tradition, so running can be expected.

Did they convert on 3rd Down?

They were very, very good last year, with 47%.  That was 23rd in the nation.  They were 8 of 13 against BG.

Did they score in the red zone?

They had 5.2 points per trip last year, which is good.

Did they protect the quarterback?

They were very good.  They gave up only 18 sacks on 488 attempts, which is 3.7%.

Defense:

Defense.  Well, that's where things are different for IU.  They struggled on defense last season, and have a new DC this year after the previous one--Doug Mallory--was fired.  Brian Knoor is new to IU but not to BG, as he was head coach at OU for 3 seasons.  He has implemented a 3-4, which, it seems to me, might be the new defense to take advantage of the spread offenses teams are using.  Note:  their new D-line coach is Larry McDaniel, who held the same position at BG.

Not this sport....

Topline: Scoring and yards per play.

They were 114th out of 120 on defense last year.  They also gave up 6.7 yards per play.  Still on the topline, Phil Steele ranked them #12 in the Big 10 for each of their defensive units.

Did they defend the run effectively?

They allowed 5.4 yards per rush last season and on a per-game basis they were among the 10 worst rush defenses in the nation.

Could they be passed on?

They were 103rd last year in pass efficiency defense.  They allowed over 13 yards per reception and 61% completions against.

Did they get off the field on 3rd down?

They allowed 47% last year, which is not good...113th in the nation.

Did they defend in the red zone?

No, 5.3 points per trip.

Did they pressure the QB?

20 sacks for the year on 435 passing attempts, 4.5%, which is below average.

Special Teams:

Punting?

They were 11th in the Big 10 in net punting.  They were blocked twice and gave up on return TD.

Punt Return?

Shane Wynn is back, and averaged over 14 yards per return--even though there were only 7 attempts.  He scored once.

Placekicking?

Their PK is new.  He has only tried one FG, and it was a 26 yard miss.

Kickoff?

Perfect record...5 KOs, 5 TBs.

Kickoff Return?

Wynne did the work here, too and was decent.  They started on their 26, which is not great.

Miscellaneous: Overall atmospherics and intangibles.

So, what do we have here?  First, should be a big Falcon crowd on Saturday and our guys have a history of rallying for a game on the big stage.  Let's hope the crowd gets our guys going, but we can't expect Indiana to be intimidated.

Indiana had a bye week and has only played once, so in some sense we don't know what we are looking for.

Obviously, if the Indiana defense remains weak, BG has a question mark in terms of exploiting it with the injury to Johnson.

Indiana did lose two straight years to Ball State.

Also, with both teams playing fast...well, hard to know what that means.

Early in the year, I had BG winning this one, but with Johnson down and our defensive struggles, I now fear that IU will win.  Let's hope the home crowd rallies and the defense remembers how to play in space, because what you saw from WKU will be nothing compared to this.