Daunting Task Awaits Hoosiers in Happy Valley

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

Indiana is heading into just its fourth game of the season but for the second time, they will be lining up against a top five opponent. After losing to then #2 Ohio State in the opener, the Hoosiers took down Virginia in Charlottesville and then trounced Georgia Southern in Bloomington. This week, they travel to Happy Valley to battle the #4 Penn State Nittany Lions and try to deal with one of the best backfields in the country. Thus is life in the Big Ten East and the Hoosiers know they face a massive uphill battle.

“It’s a tremendous challenge for our program,” Tom Allen told the media on Monday. “We have a tremendous challenge ahead of us going into Beaver Stadium there in the state of Pennsylvania against Penn State. Penn State is considered by many, one of the best teams in the country. Some would say the best team in our conference right now and they seem to be playing at that level.”

Making matters even more adversive are that IU heads into the contest as a battered squad. Defensive linemen Nate Hoff and Juan Harris are both injured. Marcelino Ball’s status is unknown after a lower body injury last week. Kiante Walton is out for a few weeks after surgery. A-Shon Riggins, Simon Stepaniak, Mike Majette, Rashard Fant and Donavan Hale are all considered questionable with various injuries.

“You get to points in seasons when you want to be healthy. Sometimes you are, sometimes you are not. And other young men have to rise up and play to a level that you expect them to; what this team demands, what our conference demands, and it’s part of it. You have to pony up, as we say,” Allen said of the extensive injury list.

Indiana’s banged up defense will need quite a bit of “ponying up” if they are to contain the current leader in the early race for the Heisman Trophy, Saquon Barkley. The junior tailback currently has 518 rushing yards to go with 335 receiving yards he’s found the end zone six times. Barkley is made even more dangerous by the presence of Trace McSorley, one of the nation’s best quarterbacks.

“There’s not a quarterback, tailback combination in the country right now that’s playing at a higher level,” Allen said. “They are doing a great, great job, and they are dangerous and confident. The logical thing is you have to find out what they do really well and you have to find a way to take it away. You have to make them beat you with things that are not their strength. If they can beat you with the things that are not their strength, then they are probably just better than you.”

On the other side of the ball, the Hoosiers will hope to continue the performance that Morgan Ellison and the running game had against Georgia Southern. Of course, PSU is a far different animal than the Eagles were but IU clearly has found something in the true freshman from Ohio. Ellison’s 186 rushing yards were the fourth-most for a freshman in school history and his physicality and bruising style was very effective throughout the contest. If IU can get Ellison going, they will likely try to connect with Simmie Cobbs on deep balls to strike quickly against a defense that proved it could be had for a big play or two in their narrow win over Iowa. Running the ball effectively is a must in order to make the IU attack balanced and in order to drain the clock with Barkley and the PSU offense on the sideline. Indiana will also hope to have continued excellence in the special teams department from J-Shun Harris, Griffin Oakes and Haydon Whitehead. The Hoosiers will be nearly three-touchdown underdogs when the game kicks off in State College this Saturday and that’s very understandable. IU has a lot of injuries, PSU is as talented as they’ve been in quite some time and winning in Beaver Stadium is extremely tough. Tom Allen feels good about where his team is and he thinks they are better prepared for this top five matchup than they were for the Buckeyes in week one.

“You know certain things now that you didn’t know before about your team, and I think you have a different level of confidence. We’ve gone on the road and we’ve played well, and we are now expecting to go on the road again and play well again. We have that first road trip under our belt and we are ready to go attack it again.”