Before each Ohio State game, Eleven Warriors catches up with a media member who covers the opposing team to get their perspective on the Buckeyes' upcoming opponent.
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| INDIANA HOOSIERS |
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3-6 (1-5 B1G) ROSTER / SCHEDULE |
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NOON – SATURDAY, NOV. 12 OHIO STADIUM COLUMBUS, OHIO |
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FOX FOXSports |
For the second week in a row, our conversation on this week’s edition of Across The Field centers around what’s gone wrong for Ohio State’s next opponent, as Indiana has lost its last six games in a row entering Saturday’s game in Columbus. Zach Osterman, who covers Indiana for the Indy Star and has been a regular guest around these parts before the Buckeyes’ annual battles with the Hoosiers, joins us again to dive into what’s led to the Hoosiers’ struggles.
What are Indiana’s biggest flaws, and why have the Hoosiers fallen back to the bottom of the Big Ten so quickly after contending for a conference title just two years ago? Is Tom Allen’s job in jeopardy as a result of this year’s struggles? And after Northwestern gave Ohio State a competitive game as a massive underdog last week, is Indiana capable of doing the same this week? Osterman gives us answers to all of those questions and more.
Indiana started the season with three straight victories, including a win over Illinois, but has lost six straight games since. What’s caused the season to derail so badly?
Osterman: To be honest a little bit of everything. Offensive line play hasn’t improved, which has caused cascading problems across an offense that doesn’t have the playmakers or player-by-player athleticism to compensate for that. A defense that was supposed to be revitalized by Tom Allen taking back playcalling duties has had good moments but never really been consistent enough to compensate for that too-often neutral offense. And thus complementary football has been all too rare in the last two months. Even in IU’s wins, there were doubts about the Hoosiers’ long-term outlook, and those doubts have proved fair and legitimate.
The Hoosiers went 6-2 during the abbreviated 2020 season. They’ve gone just 5-16 since. Was Indiana’s 2020 success just a fluke in a weird year, or are there other reasons why the momentum built that year fizzled so quickly?
Osterman: It’s a funny thing — it’s hard to sell 2020 as a total fluke when you consider Indiana had been to three bowls in the previous five years, had improved recruiting and development, and had thus clearly seen more talent on its roster than in recent memory. I think it’s possible some of the ambition and drive that pushed the Hoosiers on their rise from 2015-20 dried up a little bit with the disappointment of last season. And coordinator hires that, while perfectly well-intentioned, have not worked have undoubtedly set IU back too. Couple that with some recruiting misses and ...
Ultimately, I think the fairest thing to say is that success will always be harder here, but it will always be more precarious too. It’s not easy to sustain, even after such a solid period of program building.
Tom Allen signed a seven-year contract extension in 2021. Given the lack of wins since, is his seat getting warm?
Allen: I think it’s warm enough in the sense that the last two seasons have gone badly wrong. Is he in danger of losing his job this November/December? I seriously doubt it at this point. His buyout is substantial, given Indiana is still digging out of a COVID deficit, and frankly at a place like this, you need to give a guy time if for no reason other than to show the next coach — if you eventually have to make that move — that if he does stuff nobody has in 30 years at Indiana, he’ll get time and patience too. I don’t know if that’s good or bad long-term, but I think it’s a fair way of looking at IU as a job and what Allen has done with it, not just in the last two seasons but across his entire tenure.
When Indiana has won games this season, what have been the keys to success?
Osterman: Primarily it’s been getting playmakers involved enough to sustain drives on the offensive side of the ball. It’s obviously a huge issue that one of the most prominent of those, Cam Camper, is now out for the year with a torn ACL. But when Indiana has moved and scored the ball, it’s been because tempo kept a defense on its heels until it made mistakes, and IU had the right guys in position to capitalize on those mistakes. Coupled, obviously, with a defense that on a good day still has the capacity to move a lot of pieces around, confuse a quarterback with good coverage and blitz disguise and then seize on the mistakes it creates on that side of the ball. But complementary football has been in short supply in Bloomington this season.
Which Indiana players are most capable of giving Ohio State trouble?
Osterman: Offensively, I’d throw out the three running backs, Shaun Shivers, Josh Henderson and Jaylin Lucas. Shivers is small but explosive and packs a punch for his size. Henderson isn’t quite so fast vertically but has a penchant for finding space and making players miss. And Lucas is probably the most explosive player on the team, even as a freshman.
In Camper’s absence, expect to see more of Emery Simmons, D.J. Matthews, Andison Coby and Donaven McCulley in the receiver corps, but none of those guys has shown yet that they can be a true No. 1 target in terms of productivity. Like so much else with this offense, though, that’s partly a function of line play.
Defensively, the secondary has playmakers when it’s playing well — Tiawan Mullen, Jaylin Williams, Devon Matthews — plus Aaron Casey at linebacker. If linebacker Cam Jones plays, he has a case as the best at his position in the league, but he’s been out injured for several weeks.
Aaron Casey leads Indiana with 70 total tackles and nine tackles for loss this season. (Photo: Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times/USA TODAY Network)
Indiana enters this game as a massive underdog, but Northwestern was too and it managed to keep things competitive with Ohio State. Do you see a path for Indiana to challenge the Buckeyes, or is this game destined for a blowout?
Osterman: I would tend toward the latter outcome because a) weather isn’t a factor, b) the game is in Columbus, not on the road, and c) Ohio State presumably got the wake-up call last weekend. Northwestern was also able to control some elements of that game – at least in what I saw – running the ball, which is something Indiana just can’t do very well, against anyone. Is it possible? Sure. Indiana would need Ohio State to overlook this weekend a little bit, and it would need some big plays to break its way. But it’s hard for me to envision this as much more than a routine Ohio State win.
