2019 Football Season Defensive Recap for the Indiana Hoosiers
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The Hoosiers defense had their shining moments in 2019 Image: Amanda Pavelka Hoosier Huddle
Written by Nathan Comp (@NathanComp1)
We start our review of the 2019 Indiana University football season with an in-depth look at how the defense performed. We start in spring practice and go through the bowl game.
Statistics
Preseason Recap
The Indiana football defensive year began far before the 2019 season had begun. After the Hoosiers’ 2018 season-ending defeat against Purdue that deemed them bowl-ineligible, Coach Allen immediately got to work. After serving as both the team’s head coach and defensive coordinator for his first two seasons, Allen decided that he would be relinquishing defensive coordinator duties to focus his attention more completely on the entire team. On December 27, 2018, Allen elevated then-linebackers coach Kane Wommack to the position of defensive coordinator.
“Kane Wommack is ready for this opportunity," Allen said. "I have tremendous confidence in him and his understanding of our entire defense, from the front to the back. I will still be heavily involved, but Kane will take over the play-calling responsibilities, the organization of our defensive staff and all that we do on that side of the ball."
Wommack had previously served as the University of South Alabama’s defensive coordinator in 2016-17 before joining the Indiana program in 2018. He worked with Allen as a graduate assistant in 2012-13 at Ole Miss under defensive coordinator Dave Wommack, Kane’s father. A significant factor in Wommack’s hiring was his familiarity with both Allen and Allen’s defensive scheme, the 4-2-5.
From there, the Hoosiers sprung into offseason lifting and practice responsibilities.
The first public sighting of Wommack’s defensive unit came in April’s spring game. Though the defense ultimately lost the game, there were numerous positive sightings. Most notably was the number of takeaways they were able to force, something Allen had always stressed and something that carried over to Wommack’s defense.
Noah Pierre was named spring practice’s most improved defensive player, while Andre Brown was named most outstanding defensive player. Raheem Layne, Bryant Fitzgerald, and Cam Jones were the defensive members of the LEO award for their performances in special teams play.
Season Recap
When looking at the 2019 season as a whole, it’s hard to summarize it to just one single thought. As to be expected with a unit as young as Indiana’s and with a new defensive coordinator, there were times where they looked dominant and others in which they looked lost and a step or two slow. However, if I had to wrap up the season in just a couple words, it would be this: The Hoosier defense did just enough to do what it was expected to do.
Now this may be vague, but I’d argue it actually is a great recapping statement for the entirety of the 2019 Indiana football team, not just the defensive unit. For the first time in decades, Indiana was finally able to win the games it was supposed to win and compete in the games in which they were not favored. You can say the same thing about the defense.
No, I wouldn’t go as far as to say the defense was the “reason why” Indiana won the most games in a season since 1993. There is certainly still some progress to be made for the defense to get to the level that Coach Allen aspired when he took the head coaching job in which the defense is the sole reason for a victorious season.
But what the Indiana defense did do was exactly what it was expected to do. It was expected to win its games against inferior opponents, which it did, and compete against the conference’s best, which outside of an Ohio State and Michigan blowout, it did.
It was finally able to look at a four-game conference stretch, after a heartbreaking defeat on the road at Michigan State dropped the record to 3-2, and think, “We can win every upcoming game. And better yet, we will go out and prove we can.”
It was never perfect. The Maryland and Nebraska games surely proved this fact. Both opponents finished the season under .500 and at the time were playing the games against Indiana with backup quarterbacks. At times, the defense let these backups look like they should have been starters all along. But what they didn’t do, which teams of the past were certainly did, was fold and give in. Instead, they fought and clawed their way to victories, forcing takeaways and making just enough plays to do just what they were expected to do.
The Gator Bowl loss will always sting. It was the first time in the season in which the defense seemed to revert back to its old ways. It took a game that it should win but crumbled in the end and suffered a fifth straight bowl defeat. It shouldn’t overshadow what the defense was able to accomplish for the first twelve games that got them in that position, but will always be a “what could have been” looming over the 2019 season.
2020 Expectations
The future is promising for the Indiana defense. Playmakers like Reakwan Jones, Allen Stallings, and Khalil Bryant have exhausted their eligibility and will move on from IU, but they leave behind a defense that still has most of its pieces from this year’s Gator Bowl team.
Tiawan Mullen, Micah McFadden, and Cam Jones will continue to improve and move into leadership roles. The defense will have more depth than ever and for the first time in a while, experience – including postseason experience. The “youth” aspect should be starting to fade and I’d expect to see a unit hungrier than ever to repeat this season’s success.
"We're building for the future," Allen said after IU's Gator Bowl loss. "We're building a program that expects to be in these games every year."
If I had one focus area for the 2020 season, it would be tackling. As simple as it sounds, when the defense struggled this year it was often because it was missing tackles that it should make. It started in the season’s opening game against Ball State in which they missed 25 tackles and continued throughout the remainder of the season.
Other than that, continue to get stronger, faster, and continue Allen’s rigid focus on the fundamentals.
Highlights
Jamar Johnson Interception Return for a TD against Tennessee
Tiawan Mullen Strip and Recovery against Northwestern
Jamar Johnson Strip, Allen Stallings Fumble Return at Nebraska
Reese Taylor Game-Sealing Interception at Maryland
Juwan Burgess Strip and Recovery against Maryland
Reakwan Jones Fumble Recovery on Opening Play of Homecoming W against Rutgers
Cam Jones Pick Six against UConn
The Indiana Hoosiers open the 2020 season on the road at Camp Randall Stadium against the Wisconsin Badgers on September 4th.