B1G 2016 // Indiana Potluck IV: Who Needs Defense? (We Do.)

Scotty's Brewhouse is a mostly Indiana-based chain of restaurants mostly known for a variety of burgers and other bar food style cuisine. Their location in Bloomington is conveniently located to campus, just a few short blocks away into downtown Bloomington. Why it's in the Potluck: We're talking about the Indiana defense today, which can and has driven many to drink.

Indiana is not really known for playing defense, which may have something to do with why we're yet again welcoming a new defensive coordinator to Bloomington. Do you know of some magical item or potion we can use to suddenly acquire a passable defense, and if not, how the heck do we fix this mess?

Andrew Kraszewski: Not really, and to be totes honest I wouldn't share such a panacea with a division opponent if I knew of one (the kissing_heart emoji appeared here, but I couldn't figure out how to make it show up in the article. - C4B)

But srsly, sometimes patience is necessary. As I often bring up, Pat Narduzzi's first few defenses in East Lansing sucked. The '09 version was so bad that a lot of fans demanded he be fired. Then the staff found the players they needed to play press man and the rest is history. There are plenty of functional schemes you can run; you just have to find a coordinator who knows how to install his system and give him the time to do it. In IU's case, maybe pick a guy who you think can work with what you have (whatever that might be) instead of requiring yet another multi year reboot on that side of the ball.

Graham Filler: Indiana needs a shtick. Iowa recruits angry zero-star mud-eaters from its home turf, sits them for one year, and magically they turn into serviceable (or better) d-linemen and linebackers. Or just run Punt-Block from Madden 1999 every down and live with the consequences.

MNWildcat: Give them black jerseys and have them bang their arms together. Totally works.

StewMonkey13: This seems two-fold, to me. 1) There's the spread team defense conundrum of having an offense that scores so quickly that it puts the defense right back on the field. Other teams that play this style have been somewhat successful with creating a defense that's super aggressive, blitzing, rushing the passer, and taking chances getting turnovers. 2) What I'll term as the Masoning of the defense. Seems like Wilson puts all the talent on the offensive side of the ball. Hard to have a good defense, when it's been completely picked over, and is literally just the leftovers.

AlnamiasIV: I don't get what's with Indiana and its defensive inabilities. It would be easy to blame Wilson, but Indiana has had a lousy defense for multiple coaches stretching back into the late 1990s. I do get why they keep hiring offensive-minded head coaches. The B1G is a defense-first league, always has been. And as IU will never be able to compete with the best defenses in the league, it makes sense to go in the other direction, be the one that is different in the hopes that it pays dividends. It would be exactly the opposite in the Big 12--if I'm Iowa State, for example, I'd go defense first, which would be exactly the opposite of all the other teams in the conference. Anyway, that explains why IU looks to focus on offense but not why the defense has been so bad through so many coaches. Unfortunately, I've got no answer for that, but new DC or not, I do not expect the Hoosier defense to be any good next year or at any point in the immediate future.

Jesse Collins: Hire Bo Pelini? But seriously, if you find out, let us know. We apparently forgot how to pass defense last year.

LincolnParkWildcat: C4B, you play a lot of Magic the Gathering, right? Can’t you conjure something up? /ducks.

In all seriousness, keep working hard, and if the current guy doesnt work out, hire someone young and hungry from a staff with a proven defense.

GoForThree: Yeah…stop being a basketball school.