Indiana in the Buff with Mr. Komodo: Indiana Chops Down Trees

Week 2 is in the books. The Indiana Hoosiers moved to 1-1 on the seasons defeating the not so mighty Indiana State Sycamores. That wasn’t too surprising given that Indiana State is definitely in the bottom half of FCS football schools. That doesn’t mean we didn’t learn us some things about our Indiana Hoosiers this week. Let’s recap what happened and what we learned.

What Happened?

The Hoosiers defeated the Sycamores 41-7 in a game that really could have been 41-0 had Indiana not pulled an Indiana. The pedantic Indiana offense that racked up just 153 yards against Ohio State exploded for 558 yards of offense, including 344 though the air and 214 on the ground. The lone Indiana State score came on a fumble by Jaylin Lucas that Indiana State took back to the house.

Lucas finished with 88 yards by land and 39 yards by air and 2 touchdowns. Josh Henderson, Christian Turner, and Tayven Jackson also scored on the ground. Omar Cooper Jr led the Hoosiers receiving core with 101 yards. Donaven McCulley and Josh Henderson also eclipsed the 50 yard receiving mark.

The Indiana defense played pretty well too, holding Indiana state to 93 yards of total offense, with about 60 yards of that coming on one series in the second quarter. That long drive ended with a Nic Toomer interception in the end zone on 4^th down.

Andre Carter, Lanell Carr Jr, Marcus Burris Jr., and Race Stewart were all credited with Sacks. Phillip Dunnam and Aaron Casey finished with 8 and 7 total tackles respectively. Casey also had a pass deflection.

What’d We Learn?

Hello QB1*

Tom Allen would not make a commitment to who QB1 would be on Friday night. To be honest, I don’t expect to find out until Saturday at 11:45 AM who QB1 will be officially. However, it appeared that Tayven Jackson simply went out and took the job away from Brendan Sorsby in my assessment.

Jackson finished with 236 yards though the air on 18/21 pass attempts. With Jackson in the game, the Hoosiers offense just felt different. It felt comfortable. It felt relaxed. It scored on 5 drives.

QB2 Brendan Sorsby finished the game 9/16 with 108 yards. When asked about Sorsby earlier this year, Allen said, “he’s got big arm talent.” And he does. Sorsby made some throws Friday night that were pretty spectacular. To me though, he still feels nervous. Jittery even. I think the entire offense feels that way with him in charge. Tayven just seems more cool, calm, and collected to not have won the job at this point.

*Editors note - I wrote this before seeing Tayven was named the starter. I’m keeping it because I spent 5 minutes writing it and I don’t care to rewrite it

Special Teams Will Be An Issue

Special teams is going to be an issue this season. Indiana got away with several elementary penalties on special teams this week (2 running into the kickers, which 1 could have definitely been roughing) and that’s going to be a big problem. Indiana also kicked the ball out of bounds multiple times on kickoffs and Tom Allen was not happy.

He has a right to be, but he also has to get it fixed. The Hoosiers were penalized 7 times officially, with the 2 running into the kicker penalties declined. I’m struggling to remember just how many were special teams, but I believe at least 5 were. That’s simply too many miscues. If that happens this week against Louisville, Indiana is toast.

Stay Healthy Please

By the end of the game, injuries were starting to mount for the Hoosiers. Thankfully, we’ve not heard any inklings of “out for the season,” but still they’re starting to get banged up. Cam Camper finished the game on the sidelines after coming down hard. EJ Williams ended the game in street clothes with a wrap on his hand. Indiana is fortunate enough to have made it to this point without a showstopper, but here’s hoping the injury ward can get healed up quickly.

On to Louisville

Indiana will take on the mighty Louisville Cardinals this week in a game that can be described as, “who the fuck put this game on the schedule?” The Cardinals come into the game 2-0 with wins over the mighty Murray State and the formidable Georgia Tech. The Cards have a familiar face as head coach in Jeff Brohm, a man who has only lost to Indiana once in his head coaching career (nobody fact check that).

This game is very, very simple. Can the Hoosiers defense slow down the red hot Cardinal offense, and can the Hoosiers offense score enough to give itself a chance to win? Those are the only two questions that matter. Indiana appears to be an early double digit dog at a neutral site game, so we’ll see what happens.

Gametime: Saturday, September 16^th – 12:00 PM EST – Big Ten Network

Betting 9/11 2:38 PM EST – Louisville (-10.5); Indiana ML (+300); O/U 53.5