Indiana Hoosiers Football

Team Overview

Indiana, the doormat of Big Ten football.

It makes no sense. Northwestern should be the doormat of the Big Ten and it was for many years before Gary Barnett, and later Randy Walker, picked it up by its bootstraps.

Meanwhile, Indiana has continued its legacy of awfulness and its coaching carousel—five different coaches since 2000—has perpetuated the problems.

In 2011, IU had its worst season since it went winless in 1984.

It is true that 2011 was a transition year, but as previously mentioned, transition years and Bloomington are getting to be familiar bedfellows.

Besides, none of the other transition years witnessed the Hoosiers lose to a 6-6 team from the MAC and a 5-7 team from the Sun Belt Conference.

This season, because it's Indiana, second-year coach Kevin Wilson won't have to make a bowl, let alone win a conference championship, in order to show progress.

Nevertheless, with a favorable schedule he'll need to win at least five, which means the Hoosiers will have to win their first conference game since 2010.

Team Breakdown

2011 Record: 1-11

2011 Conference Record: 0-8

2011 Home/Away/Neutral Record: 1-5/0-6

2011 Record vs. Ranked Teams: 0-2

Record Last Five Seasons: 20-42 (tied for 103rd in country over that period of time)

Conference Record Last Five Seasons: 6-34

Home/Away/Neutral Record Last Five Seasons: 15-18/5-21/0-3

Record vs. Ranked Teams Last Five Seasons: 0-13

Best Record Last Five Seasons: 7-6 (2007)

Worst Record Last Five Seasons: 1-11 (2011)

Number of Coaches Last 10 Seasons: Four

Coach Overview

Kevin Wilson will enter his second season as the head coach of the Hoosiers. His first season has to be considered an unmitigated disaster (even by Indiana standards), but because it is Indiana, he will have time to adjust.

Wilson has had a well-traveled career. He spent nine years at Miami (Ohio) and another three at Northwestern under the aforementioned Randy Walker before moving to Oklahoma to work under Bob Stoops.

He was the co-offensive coordinator or offensive coordinator for 10 seasons before moving to Bloomington.

His experience in Ohio and Illinois belie his knowledge of the Big Ten area.

On the other hand, one would figure the OC at a powerhouse like Oklahoma could have secured a better first head coaching gig than Indiana.

Either way, despite returning the most starters in the Big Ten and the fourth-most in all FBS football, Wilson will have his work cut out for him.

Coming next Tuesday, an overview and breakdown of Indiana's offense.

No. 143: Duwyce Wilson, #81, WR, Indiana
2011 Stats: 17 catches, 217 yards, 3 TDs

Strengths

Physically, Duwyce Wilson is what you want out of a receiver; he's big (6'3", 200), fast, and has great hands and body control in the air. He's one of a troika of returning wideouts with significant experience for the Hoosiers, and he's got the skills to put up good numbers this year.

He's out for the spring as he recovers from a knee injury, but head coach Kevin Wilson (no relation) says he's ahead of schedule on his rehab.

Also, it should be noted that Wilson is a pretty high-character guy; he was raised by two deaf parents (he can hear just fine), and he's in school to become an interpreter for the deaf. Seriously, you should watch that feature by the Big Ten Network on the right there.

Weaknesses

Like many receivers who switch to a new, less productive quarterback, Wilson's numbers dipped pretty substantially in 2011. His numbers dipped by about half from his 2010 totals of 30 catches and 488 yards as a red-shirt freshman.

Some of that is due to Wilson missing the last 3.5 games of the year with a knee injury and another missed start against PSU with a bad back, but he had five games with one catch or fewer even when he was on the field too; he can't disappear like that in 2012.

2012 Prediction

Kevin Wilson's going to be throwing the ball, whether it's Tre Roberson in the pocket or someone else, and with the departures of Damarlo Belcher and Dre Muhammad, Wilson's going to be on the field a lot for Indiana.

He showed flashes of potential and downfield playmaking ability; barring injury, expect that to translate to numbers that exceed his 2011 totals.

No. 149: Bobby Richardson, #95, DL, Indiana
2011 Stats: 27 tackles, 3 sacks, 4 TFL, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovered

Strengths

Richardson burst onto the scene in 2011 as a true freshman, working his way from scout team defensive tackle to the starting defensive end for the last six games of Big Ten play. As you can imagine, his versatility is a major asset, as he can play basically anywhere at 6'3", 274.

Weaknesses

Richardson isn't going to be 20 years old until late in the 2012 season, so he's still catching up physically to the upperclassmen in the trenches — no easy task in the Big Ten. He also needs to increase both his own personal production as well as start leading the defensive line. The Hoosiers had the third-worst rush defense in the nation last season. Richardson has his starting spot. Now he has to do more with it.

2012 Prediction

Indiana's got a lot of improving to do on the defensive side of the ball, and a big portion of that is going to have to come from pure personnel upgrades. Richardson should be growing into a leader on the line at this point, and as he improves the overall quality of the line, Indiana's going to depend on him in new and different ways — moving inside on passing downs, reading running backs out of the backfield, and other tasks that become more natural with experience. Richardson's production should rise, Indiana's defensive prowess should improve, and we should be looking at a future All-Big Ten defensive lineman (either at DT or DE) by 2014.

Kevin Wilson just can't hang on to quarterbacks.

First Wilson secured what would be the recruiting coup of this still young decade, when he was able to get five-star quarterback Gunner Kiel to commit to the Hoosiers early in the fall. Once everyone stopped laughing long enough to realize Kiel was serious, things seemed to be looking up for the Hoosiers. 

Despite average quarterback play at the position in the beginning of the year, the injection of Kiel into the offense in 2012 seemed like an instant jump start. Here was a player with the physical tools to compete for the job right away—and quite possibly start four years for Indiana.

It didn't hurt that the other options were uninspiring. The original starter for the season was Edward Wright-Baker, who played well against the non-conference schedule, but still failed to lead the Hoosiers to a win over a FBS conference team. An injury would soon sideline the incremental progress Wright-Baker was able to make over his first few games.  

It was then time for Dusty Kiel, brother of Gunner, to step into the starting job and try to turn around the misfortunes of the Indiana offense. That went poorly. In four games of action, Kiel completed less than half of his passes (39/82) for 427 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception before succumbing to an injury

Neither would see meaningful playing time the rest of the way.

Both Dusty Kiel and Edward Wright-Baker left Indiana with two years of eligibility left—both were red shirt sophomores—but could only cash in on both years at an FCS program.

What that means for Indiana is that the team expecting to have four quarterbacks on the roster competing for a starting job in 2012 is now down to just one: Tre Roberson.

It was Roberson who stepped into the starting role vacated by the two older quarterbacks upon the injury of both. It was, perhaps, the play of Roberson that ultimately closed the door on the two quarterbacks' Hoosier career.

Roberson at first split time with Kiel in the Illinois game only to see a few snaps against Wisconsin the next week. By the Iowa game he was back in control of the starting spot. By the end of the season he was one of the few glimmers of hope Indiana had going forward.

Roberson had four games where he was able to rush for more than 70 yards, and was only held under 100 yards passing against Michigan State. While his decision making ability was still rough—six interceptions to three touchdowns—his ability to make plays with both his arm and his legs gave Indiana a more dangerous element than it previously had. 

Best of all, as a true freshman in Kevin Wilson's system there is presumably more room for improvement, than for that of two upperclassmen who spent their formative years in Bill Lynch's offense.

Even with Roberson, the presumed starter, there are still concerns. Namely depth.

With both experienced upperclassmen moving on from the program, Indiana is walking into a potential buzz saw. Roberson has potential, but also a bad habit of turning the ball over—as well as a penchant for running, which could expose him to injury.

Behind him will be no game experience at the FBS level, but thanks to the recruitment of Juco-transfer Cameron Coffman there will be some game experience. Coffman is coming off of a season where he was able to lead Arizona Western Community College to the National Junior College Athletic Association National Title Game (try saying that five times fast) with a stat line of 2,244 yards, 21 touchdowns, six interceptions and a completion rate of 61 percent.  

Coffman will enter Indiana with three remaining years of eligibility and should at least give the Hoosiers a backup plan, if Roberson doesn't work out or gets injured.

However, it will still be a bumpy ride over the next couple of years due to many things outside of just the quarterback situation. The Indiana program is in desperate need of a serious rebuild.

Thanks to the departures of Wright-Baker and Kiel, Kevin Wilson just lost a lot of his margin for error.

My wife would be the first to tell you she knows little about college football, but at the same time she has a way of grasping just enough to ask some tough questions. For example, I casually mentioned last night that Indiana (where our son went) won just one game this season.

"How are they going to recruit," she asked. "What do they have to offer? What are they going to say when some kid asks about their record?'

Good questions all. Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson has one season and now must travel the hustings looking for talent. Truth be told when he took the job there was a not a surplus of D1 players chomping at the bit.

Derek Dooley at Tennessee can at least tell recruits they will run out at home games to a massive sea of Volunteer orange. The joke at Indiana is 50,000 tailgate—30,000 see the game.

So what does Wilson's to-do list look like today? Glad you asked:

1—You can't allow football to be treated like the little brother to the basketball team. I'm not saying have an MMA showdown with Tom Crean, but publicly the message needs to be Indiana football is serious business and better days are ahead.

2—You know right know you're not going to get the 5-Star guys so make sure you are finding every player that missed out on being recruited by established powers by a hair. Tell them they will have every reason to expect to start -- or at least get a lot of minutes.

3—Let the current players know they better show up next spring in the best shape they have ever been in.

4—Get yourself in front of every booster club, civic club -- wherever you can get an audience. I've heard you're not smooth in front of a crowd. Get smooth. It's not hard.

5—Do the same on campus. You don't have to be a cartoon character, but be visible and known.

You're a one-win team. Trust me—everyone is overlooking you. Use that while you can.

The Indiana Hoosiers face a tough test tomorrow in Madison, Wis. 

They're facing the No. 4 ranked Wisconsin Badgers, the same team that beat them 83-20 last season in Camp Randle.

Wisconsin is coming into this game after a week. Two weeks ago they trounced Nebraska 48-17.  The Hoosiers are coming in 1-5, after losing their first two conference games at home to Penn State and Illinois.

The Badgers will once again give the Indiana fits.  They have the best all around offense in not just the Big Ten, but arguably all of college football.

The Badgers are led by transfer quarterback Russell Wilson.  He's completing 74 percent of his passes this season with 1,391 yards, 13 touchdowns and only 1 interception. 

His favorite target is Nick Toon, who has 25 receptions this season for 447 yards and six touchdowns.  That's not his only threat though.  Jared Abbrederis has 20 receptions for 328 yards and two touchdowns.

The run game though, is Wisconsin's bread and butter.  They've always been built to pound the ball.  They have two key threats in Monte Ball and James White.

Ball has 93 carries for 511 yards and 13 touchdowns already this season.  His counterpart James White has 56 carries for 329 yards and three touchdowns himself.

The rushing attack is hard to slow down, since they bring all kinds of power. 

It's almost pick your poison with stopping the Badgers.  If you try and stop their run they will throw all over you.  If you bring extra defensive backs, the Badgers will run it down your throat.

Wisconsin averages 523 yards per game this season, which is ninth in the nation.  The rushing game averages just over 242 yards, which is good enough for ninth as well.  The passing game averages over 200 yards too.  They average 289 yards a game which ranks 31st in the nation.

Indiana on the other hand is a polar opposite.

Their offense averages 368 yards a game which is 82nd in the nation.  The passing game is the best with averaging 268 yards a game which is 44th in the nation, while the rushing attack gets just 118 yards per contest which is ranked 92nd.

Indiana also struggles to score points.  They only average 23 PPG which is ranked 91st.  The Badgers average almost 50 points a game. They rank third in the nation.

The defense for Wisconsin is stingy.  They will blitz and make you turn the ball over.  Indiana on the other hand struggles once again on the defensive side of the ball.

For all of those reasons, Indiana will enter the game as 40 point underdogs. 

I honestly think Wisconsin will cover the spread at that margin and make a big day.  They need all the attention they can get in preparation of running the tables and making them part of a National Championship game conversations.

Prediction:

Wisconsin 87 Indiana 13...no that's not a typo

It looked like Indiana would upset Illinois and give the 19th-ranked team its first defeat of the season early, but the Illini held strong in a 41-20 victory on Saturday.

Indiana freshman Shane Wynn returned the opening kickoff 98 yards untouched for the fourth-longest return in IU history. That gave Indiana a 7-0 lead.

On Illinois' first play from scrimmage, Adam Replogle sacked Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase for a two-yard loss that led to a three-and-out.

It was the start Indiana needed.

On Illinois' second possession, a quarterback-to-running back exchange resulted in a fumble, and IU's Brandon McGhee recovered near midfield. Four plays later, kicker Mitch Ewald nailed a 44-yard field goal. 

With 5:55 left of the first quarter, Indiana was already up 10-0.

It all changed from there, though.

On Illinois' third possession, star Illini receiver A.J. Jenkins and quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase connected on a 77-yard touchdown strike. It was Jenkins' sixth touchdown of the season.

Scheelhaase saw Indiana was blitzing its corners, and he made them pay.

On the ensuing Indiana possession, quarterback Dusty Kiel was sack and Illinois defender Tavon Wilson returned the fumble 66 yards for a touchdown.

Just like that it was a 14-10 Illinois lead.

Indiana showed a little bit of fight on the next Illinois offensive possession when Adam Replogle sacked Scheelhaase and forced a fumble in which freshman Bobby Richardson recovered at the Illinois 2-yard line.

Indiana ran three straight running plays in which Illinois stuffed them all three times, which led to another Mitch Ewald field goal to bring the score closer at 14-13 Illinois.

Illinois answered back with a touchdown strike from Scheelhaase to freshman tight end Jon Davis for his first career score. After an weird decision by head coach Ron Zook, Illinois was stopped on a two-point conversion attempt, but Illinois led 20-13.

The Illini never looked back from there.

Jenkins and Scheelhaase hooked up for a second touchdown at the end of the half with a 67-yard strike that gave Illinois a 27-13 halftime lead.

Illinois sealed their first 6-0 start since 1951 on a Scheelhaase nine-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

The Illini added another touchdown and the Hoosiers scored a garbage-time touchdown by freshman quarterback Tre Roberson with 5:29 to play in the game to end the scoring at 41-20.

The touchdown was Roberson's first of his career, as he ended up 11-for-17 for 148 yards and an interception on the day. He got most of the action due to starting quarterback Dusty Kiel's struggles.

Kiel was 6-for-19 with only 71 yards.

Stephen Houston was the leading receiver and rusher on the day for the Hoosiers, with three receptions for 70 yards and 14 carries and 68 yards.

Scheelhaase led the attack for the Illini in going 12-for-22 passing for 210 yards and three touchdown passes in the air. He also had 18 carries for 88 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

A.J. Jenkins had another big day, with six receptions for 182 yards and two touchdowns.

Illinois will try to tie that 1951 team's start at 7-0 next week at home in Champaign against the struggling Ohio State Buckeyes.

Indiana (1-5 overall, 0-2 Big Ten) will hit the road the next two weeks against tough conference opponents.

Next week the Hoosiers will travel to Madison, Wisc., and take on the Big Ten's best Wisconsin Badgers. The week after that they travel to Iowa City and take on the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Indiana returns to Memorial Stadium on Oct. 29 against Northwestern for Homecoming.

The Indiana Hoosiers (1-2) travel to Denton, Texas for their first true road matchup of the season to face the North Texas Mean Green (0-3) on Saturday.

The game is at 7 p.m. at Apogee Stadium and can be seen on ESPN 3.

The Hoosiers are coming off their first win of the season while the Mean Green just got demolished by Alabama 41-0, the No. 2 team in the nation, last Saturday.

This will be the first time the Mean Green has played against a Big Ten opponent.  It also is the second game in the new stadium that opened this year.

The Mean Green is coming off of a 3-9 season and is led by a first year coach.  Their best players from last season graduated or have been kicked off the team.

Expect Indiana to keep the offense going this week.  The Mean Green have given up 41 points in two of the three games this season, and the third game they gave up 48 points.  Indiana should score often and early.  North Texas has been routed in the first quarters of their first three games. They have been losing by a combined score of 48-7 in the first quarter; burying them in a hole that they haven't been able to overcome in 2011.  Indiana was up 21-7 after the first quarter versus South Carolina State last week.

Expect big days from sophomore quarterback Ed Wright-Baker and 6-foot-5 receiver Demarlo Belcher for the Hoosiers.

Saturday will also be the Hoosiers last non-conference test as they open the Big Ten season next weekend at noon against Penn State in Memorial Stadium.

Prediction:

Indiana 45  North Texas 24

Indiana may have come out of Memorial Stadium on Saturday with their heads hanging after a disappointing finish against Virginia to start the season 0-2. But the Hoosiers showed some signs of life late in this game. Virginia is clearly more talented than a rebuilding Ball State team that beat the Hoosiers at Lucas Oil Stadium, but that did not stop the Hoosiers from looking far more impressive against the Cavaliers.

So have the Hoosiers begun to turn a corner, or is this merely an illusion to raise hopes in Bloomington, only to shatter them in the coming weeks?

Although quarterback Edward Wright-Baker had a great debut against Ball State (20-32 for 272 yards and 1 touchdown), the running game struggled mightily behind a mostly veteran offensive line led by senior tackles Justin Pagan and Andrew McDonald. Matt Perez and Stephen Houston each failed to break 45 yards while splitting the carries.

This allowed Ball State to dominate time of possession and wear down the Hoosiers defense. The defense surrendered a shocking 210 rushing yards to the Cardinals.

Last week, the game appeared to be slipping away when Virginia scored on their first drive of the second half to go up 23-3. However, Indiana then ripped off 28 straight points, assisted by three turnovers from the Hoosiers defense.

Just when the defense could have folded up shop and packed in for another loss, the unit stood up and shut Virginia down completely. Although the defense still surrendered 160 yards on the ground to the Cavaliers, the aggressive play shown in the second half will be exactly what is necessary to slow down opposing Big Ten offenses.

The rushing yards produced against Virginia were not a ton better than those produced against Ball State (148 compared to 103), but Virginia also has 10 returning starters on defense, including three senior defensive linemen who are solid against the run. The effort could actually be much better than the statistics show, especially considering the top three rushers (Wright-Baker, freshman D'Angelo Roberts, and Matt Perez) each failed to break 50 yards. If Roberts can continue to see holes opened up by the line, he could break some huge plays before the season is over.

Two keys to having success in the Big Ten is rushing the ball enough to keep opposing defenses out of full–on pass coverage, as well as playing solid defense. Indiana may not have been very good at either of those under Bill Lynch, but the second half against Virginia showed that Indiana can play smart defense and run the ball effectively.

Ignore the turnovers that cost Indiana the game. The second half against Virginia proved that Indiana may not be a cellar dweller in Kevin Wilson's first season at the helm. The next four weeks will be critical, as the Hoosiers have a winnable set of games against South Carolina State at home, North Texas on the road, and Penn State and Illinois at home.

Although it may be presumptuous to assume Indiana wins all of those games, Hoosier fans should be happy with a 3-3 start following the clunker of a game to open the season. That is just what will happen assuming Indiana has turned the corner, which I believe they have. If so, Indiana could be playing for another bowl bid late in the season, which is an exciting proposition for a state that has struggled mightily in football this decade.

The Virginia Cavaliers won their first game on the road under head coach Mike London on Saturday night, 34-31, in front of a raucous crowd of over 41,000 fans in Indiana's Memorial Stadium.

Indiana looked down and out after trailing 20-3 at one point in the third quarter.

It looked as if Indiana would fold and give its home opener away for the first time in nine seasons.

Give head coach Kevin Wilson credit. He rallied this team to something we haven't seen in quite some time.

They could have packed it in to a superior opponent and go off to an 0-2 start and start looking forward to next week.

Not this team. Indiana rallied to score 28 straight points to take a 31-20 lead.

After an Indiana touchdown, it made the score 31-23 with 6:34 left to play in the game.

Virginia rallied to score to close the game to 31-29 on a touchdown run by Perry Jones and set up a two-point conversion.

Indiana had horrible pass coverage all through the drive, and that didn't change on the two-point conversion.

Virginia quarterback Michael Rocco hit his tight end Paul Freedman for the game tying two point score.

It looked now this game was heading into overtime.

Indiana got the ball back after the kickoff with 1:36 left.

They decided to throw on 3rd-and-3 from their own 23-yard line and Ed Wright-Baker who looked a lot more comfortable all game made a huge mistake that cost Indiana the game.

Indiana noticed it was a three-man rush from Virginia and decided to shift the block protection to Wright-Baker's right side.

Third-team all ACC Cam Johnson came to Wright-Baker's blindside and made a miraculous play to sack him and steal the ball out of his hand in one motion.

Wright-Baker should feel ashamed. He let his team down and the 41,000 fans who came out to support the Hoosiers.

Why would he hold on to the ball for so long and why did he not even glance to his left side or even feel pressure?

Last week I was very critical on Wright-Baker due to his uneasiness in the pocket and scrambling to incoming pressure. I thought he redeemed himself last night and he took 10 steps back on that inexcusable play.

Virginia ran the clock down and on fourth down Virginia kicker Robert Randolph kicked the game winning 23-yard field goal to end the game

To give Indiana credit is a must, though.

The stats at the end of the game was as close to even with a bigger team than they could have asked for.

Indiana led the first downs margin, 21-19.

The third-down plays were almost even. Virginia was 6-of-15 while Indiana was 7-of-16.

Indiana held the Cavs to 162 yards rushing which was a lot better than the 210 that a dismal Ball State team had last week.

The penalties were even with both teams committing six.

The turnover battle was pretty much even. Both teams fumbled the football twice and threw an interception.

The other key stat to look at was the time of possession. Virginia won that stat by a slim margin, 30:30-29:29.

So obviously in a game that close someone needs to make a play to win the game, and Ed Wright-Baker made that for Virginia in handing them the game at the end.

Indiana's defense played much better this week too.

I made it in my keys to win yesterday for Indiana and that was to make first year starter Michael Rocco beat you. Rocco was 15-of-29 with 191 yards and zero touchdowns with two interceptions.

They didn't let a back get over 100 yards all game. Jones led Virginia with 22 carries for 78 yards and a touchdown.

That's about all you can ask for from a defense who played so miserably last week.

Ed Wright-Baker ended up 16 for 30 on the night with 171 yards and a touchdown and interception.

Wright-Baker was also Indiana's leading rusher carrying the ball 15 times for 48 yards.

Running back Matt Perez led the touchdown attack on the ground in carrying the ball 13 times for 47 yards and two touchdowns.

Wright-Baker for the second straight game only hit receiver Demarlo Belcher four times for 53 yards and no touchdowns.

Indiana (0-2) will host the South Carolina State Bulldogs (1-1) next Saturday in Memorial Stadium at 3:30 p.m.