The Hoosiers Enter The Spring With Plenty of Questions Surrounding The Secondary, With Many Potential Answers.
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Entering the 2015 season, all the prognosticators, including us at Hoosier Huddle predicted that Indiana would struggle mightily defending the pass. Unfortunately, that did not begin to describe the Hoosiers complete inability to slow down any of their opponents’ aerial attacks. Out of 127 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, Indiana was second to last, giving up a putrid 313 passing yards per game.
Honestly, this was not a particularly difficult predication to make, as the team entered the season with four new starters in the secondary. To make matters worse, the only player with starting experience in the defensive backfield, Chase Dutra, was sidelined for the first three weeks of the season.
The Hoosiers enter the spring session with plenty of question marks, but a plethora of semi-experienced options, a much better place to be than they were a year ago.
Over the next six weeks the coaching staff will need to assess which of the returning players best fit into new defensive coordinator Tom Allen’s schemes.
In addition to the new hybrid secondary player (Husky), it remains to be seen how the Hoosiers 4-2-5 defensive alignment will affect the play of the corners and safeties. Is there a greater or less of an emphasis on the field verse boundary cornerbacks? Rashad Fant, the team’s unquestioned number one cover man, thrives as the team’s field cornerback. Will the team look for a bigger body to place opposite of Fant on the boundary side of
the field?
