By Jordan Hansen
Part 7 of the Big Ten football summer previews — Indiana
Driving around in circles apparently lives deep in the heart of every true Hoosier.
Vehicle racing has long been an important part of the state’s storied history, and the Indianapolis 500 is one of the most prestigious races in the world. NASCAR also has a huge race in Indianapolis (the Brickyard 400), and dirt track racing is also huge in the state.
Oh, and there’s also the Little 500, a massive bike race near Indiana’s campus that draws 25,000 spectators and looks something like this scene from Breaking Away:
In racing, drivers take four turns and end up right where they started. It’s also a great metaphor for the last four years of Indiana football.
Hoosier coach Kevin Wilson has been at the school since 2011 and has yet to produce a winning regular season. After a dreadful 1-11 start to his time at Indiana, he’s gone 19-29 since, which isn’t exactly encouraging.
However, after taking his team to a 6-7 record (including an overtime loss to Duke in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl), Wilson was rewarded with a six-year contract extension.
Always good on offense, the Hoosiers lost two huge parts as star running back Jordan Howard and quarterback Nate Sudfeld were both drafted by NFL teams.
The pair’s offensive production was a huge reason the Hoosiers were able to win any games last year. Sudfeld threw for 3,573 yards and 27 touchdowns with just 7 interceptions.
He was my pick for the Big Ten quarterback of the year award, and he led the league in passing yardage, yards per attempt, quarterback rating, and passing touchdowns.
Howard and fellow running back Devine Redding were incredible, rushing for 1,213 and 1,012 yards, respectively. They finished third and fifth in the Big Ten in those stats.
Redding returns to the field next year, as do a good handful of last year’s offensive linemen.
Offensively, the Hoosiers will figure something out. They’ve been solid in the area over the past few years, and it’s not the problem with the team.
That falls — mostly — on the defense.
Indiana finished dead last in 2015 in passing and scoring defense. Its rushing defense really wasn’t any better, finishing 13th and only outdoing lowly Purdue.
Wilson hired a new defensive coordinator during the off-season, but it’s going to take more than a year to fix a unit that’s developed an unsavory reputation for giving up lots of yards.
Now, if Indiana were in the Big 12, not playing defense wouldn’t be much of an issue, but in order to content in the Big Ten, it’s a requirement. The Hoosiers are also trying to do all of this in the tough East Division, which includes Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State.
It’s very likely Indiana will struggle during the coming year, and it will take one hell of a coaching job to get the team out of the loop it’s stuck in.
