Indiana beat writers: Hoosiers' defense could struggle against Michigan State's Le'Veon Bell

Diamond Leung | By Diamond Leung |
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on October 05, 2012 at 2:35 PM, updated October 05, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Indiana Northwestern _Slag(1).jpg Indiana's D'Angelo Roberts runs past Northwestern's Traveon Henry for a touchdown in the fourth quarter as Northwestern beat Indiana 44-29 in Evanston, Ill. on Saturday.
The Old Brass Spittoon is on the line Saturday in Bloomington, as Michigan State has dominated Indiana through the years and won eight of the past nine games.

We emailed the Bloomington Times-Herald's Dustin Dopirak, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel's Pete DiPrimio and the Indianapolis Star's Terry Hutchens to get a better look on what the Hoosiers have in store for the Spartans.

1. Indiana has won only six Big Ten contests since last beating Michigan State in 2006. Where do the Hoosiers stand today with making progress under second-year coach Kevin Wilson?

Dustin Dopirak: It's still Indiana and that means the Hoosiers still in the midst of a seemingly eternal uphill climb on a really slippery hill. Progress, for a number of reasons, has been really difficult for this program to make over the decades, and Wilson is dealing with the same issues that every Indiana coach has. The biggest, obviously, is that defeat begets defeat, and that the Hoosiers have to recruit against the obvious fact that they historically don't win very much. There are degrees to which they can overcome this and every Indiana coach has had some level of success against it. They've all managed to get at least a few recruits they weren't supposed to get and develop a few players beyond their high school star ranking, but creating momentum that flows from development to recruiting and therefore back to development and making it a positive cycle has been very difficult for IU to achieve.

That being said, Wilson appears to have created as much of a foothold and a foundation as he could by this juncture. Last year's transition was extremely difficult with a significant amount of attrition which essentially amounted to a program reset. The Hoosiers played and started a ton of true freshmen and were one of the youngest teams in the country if not the youngest. This year there's significantly more stability. The players that are there now at least want to be there. That's not to suggest that they give Wilson what he wants every day, but they're much closer to it and they at least want to do what he's asking him to do. The atmosphere around the program is much better. There's significantly less tension, and therefore the team seems generally more in sync. That should make them considerably more competitive even if it doesn't make Indiana a contender yet.

Pete DiPrimio: IU is better in terms of strength, speed, experience, understanding what the coaches want and overall effort. However, the Hoosiers still lack Big Ten-caliber talent. Until that is addressed, they will continue to struggle. Defense is a big recruiting emphasis. IU has had poor defensive play since the mid-1990s. That is the No. 1 priority.

Terry Hutchens: I think they're making progress. It's hard to make consistent progress until they stand behind a coach and give him the support he needs to turn something around. IU hasn't done that since the late 1990s with Bill Mallory. Since then they've had five football coaches (Cam Cameron, Gerry DiNardo, Terry Hoeppner, Bill Lynch and now Kevin Wilson). With Hep it was a tradgedy with a guy that could have potentially turned things around. He was the right man for the program before dying of brain cancer while the IU coach in 2007. Lynch was a good replacement but had a little bit different style and wasn't moving them quickly enough in the right direction. Now you have a guy like Wilson, who doesn't have the results early but you can clearly tell that he's doing it the right way. He got rid of 25-30 players over the course of his first year and a half and now appears to have only players in system who buy in. He has the support of the administration and athletic director Fred Glass, who gave him a 7-year deal worth $1.2 million per season. He has played a ton of freshmen over the first two years (32 last year and 12 so far this season) so he's building the experience they're going to need moving forward. My guess is they're another year or two away but you get the feeling that they're going to be competitive again. What that means for this year is probably very little. There are a couple of teams coming up that I think IU will be competitive against though I wouldn't expect Michigan State to be one of them.

2. How has the broken leg that ended the season of quarterback Tre Roberson changed the offense, and what can it do to be successful against Michigan State's defense?

DD: It's taken away a major weapon. It doesn't change the offense schematically, because Indiana went in to the season hoping to run Roberson significantly less than it did a year ago. He spent all offseason working on becoming a better pocket passer, becoming more patient to wait for a play to develop, strengthening his arm and becoming much better at reading defenses. By bringing in Cameron Coffman and Nate Sudfeld along with offensive coordinator Seth Littrell, the Hoosiers were making a statement that the plan was to become a much better passing team and that Roberson had to adapt or lose his job because they weren't just going to run zone read option all day anymore. Roberson adapted, though, became a better passer and better leader, and he still had that athleticism to use when the situation called for it like it did in the UMass game. He wasn't going to go for 114 yards and two touchdowns on five carries every game, but teams would still have had to account for his speed.

Cam Coffman and Nate Sudfeld can both do what the offense asks, however. They're both accurate passers and generally smart with the football. They can run the fast tempo and hit the quick passes. Sudfeld has the better arm, Coffman has a little more experience having taken his JUCO team to the national title game last year. Not sure who they're going to go with yet.

PD: The offense is basically the same, but it is now run by junior college transfer Cam Coffman and true freshman Nate Sudfeld. Neither are dual-threat guys, as Roberson was. Sudfeld has more potential, but was in position to be redshirted until Roberson was hurt. He’s being force fed reps and playing time. The pattern is Coffman starts and Sudfeld replaces him at some point either because Coffman gets hurt or struggles. Look for both guys to play Saturday.

TH: The loss of Tre Roberson was a huge blow for this Indiana football team. He was clearly the best player they had. And someone who could do a lot of things both with his legs and his arm. He was the one x-factor that could keep IU in a lot of games. Not quite to the level of Antwaan Randle El but beginning to get into that conversation. Similar to Kellen Lewis from a few years back. The good thing for IU is they still have two capable quarterbacks. Cameron Coffman is a JUCO transfer who led his team last year to the junior college national championship game. He's only a sophomore, participated in spring football so he has a decent grasp of the offense, and comes from a football family. His dad played in the pros, he has a brother playing pro football on a practice squad now and another brother who is a quarterback in the Arena Football League. He has his limitations but at the same time he's a steady replacement. Sudfeld has a bigger arm but doesn't have the same grasp of the offense and sometimes seems to have trouble doing some of the little things. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Sudfeld make his first career start against Michigan State. If not though, I'm sure he'll be in soon enough. As for what the Indiana offense can do. They'll try to do a lot with short passes and swing some stuff out of the backfield. Look for tight end Ted Bolser to be involved, too. IU has three or four running backs who can break plays but not a true headliner. We once thought that would be Stephen Houston, who gained nearly 800 yards in eight Big Ten games a year ago, but he hasn't lived up to that expectation yet. Indiana's best chance will be a ball control offense that allows the IU defense to stay off the field a little bit. Whether that can truly happen, however, remains to be seen.

3. Indiana has the last-ranked rushing defense in the Big Ten, but what can it do to try to stop Michigan State running back Le'Veon Bell?

DD: At the very least, they can load the box and play more base defense than they have and bring some bigger bodies to deal with the running game knowing that Michigan State isn't great with the pass. That being said, Indiana's not really good at defending the pass either whatever the numbers may say, and this may be the week Andrew Maxwell gets it together or at least the numbers appear that he does. At the end of the day, the Hoosiers have to be able to simply win one-on-one battles by shedding blocks and making tackles. They couldn't do that against Northwestern and they're going to have a hard time doing that against Michigan State. It's really that simple and that difficult.

PD: The Hoosiers are in big trouble here. They’ve shown no sign of being able to stop a quality rushing attack. Ball State and Northwestern gashed them for major yards. It’s unlikely they will be able to stop the Spartans. They need huge games from defensive tackles Larry Black and Adam Replogle. They also have to play far more physical than they have this season.

TH: Indiana has struggled against good, quick backs. The speed is always the issue. IU has done an OK job at times against tailbacks but seems to too often give up the big play. That will be the challenge against Michigan State. Despite being the worst rushing defense in the Big Ten (giving up nearly 400 yards on the ground to Northwestern will do that to you, by the way) these guys have a little bit of swag to them and feel like they're better than they have played. Not sure how far that will take them, and it may do very little this week against Michigan State and next week against Ohio State, but I think when IU plays Illinois and Iowa and maybe even Penn State there will be a better chance for these guys to be successful.
