Allen, Offensive Staff Looking at Shuffling the Offensive Line Personnel
/
Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
Indiana head football coach Tom Allen and offensive coordinator Walt Bell hinted at lineup changes for the Hoosier offensive line ahead of IU’s trip to Nebraska. The offensive line has been a point of contention for a few seasons and the issues are rearing their ugly head again.
“There are definitely some movement options for our offensive line. The bottom line is, whoever those five guys are on the field, they got to execute and give us a chance to be successful.” Allen said at his Monday press conference.
Indiana’s offensive line has been hit hard by injuries early this season as right tackle Matthew Bedford tore his ACL in the opener against Illinois and center Zach Carpenter went down in warmups against Western Kentucky with a hand injury. Backup center Cam Knight has missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury as well.
The replacements haven’t fared well however. Parker Hanna has filled in at right tackle while the staff is slowly bringing Joshua Sales into the mix. Caleb Murphy filled in nicely against Western Kentucky, but was pushed around too easily by Cincinnati. Right guard has been a position where some youth has been injected into the rotation. Tim Weaver has been replaced by Kahlil Benson on a number of occasions this season.
“Josh got a chance to play. He's young but he needs to keep growing and developing. He's in the mix as well. Kahlil has played well. We're trying to bring Kahlil along; I think that has kind of been the rotational purpose for having him taking those reps with Tim. Just a dual purpose for that, to create more depth at that position.” Allen explained of the situation.
The Hoosiers offensive line ranks 79th nationally in sacks allowed and 111th in tackles for loss allowed. For an offense looking for consistency, that’s a giant speed bump. The Hoosiers have recruited the line well on paper, but the results have not been there. However, it seems the time has come to shuffle the lineup.
“We've we got to make sure that we're doing everything that we possibly can to have our best five guys out there” offensive coordinator Walt Bell said. “Whether that be having to move guys around or do whatever we need to do.”
Some of the moves may depend on the health of Zach Carpenter. If he can not play moving another player to center may be in the miix. If he does play, maybe there is a youth movement up front.
The Hoosiers are on the road again Saturday night when they take on the 1-3 Nebraska Cornhuskers. We will see in pregame warmups what those changes are.