Grading Out Indiana's 2018 Football Season

Tom Allen and IU have their work cut out for them Image: Sammy Jacobs Hoosier Huddle

Grading Indiana Football’s 2018 Season

Now that the 2018 IU Football season is concluded, we will go back and give our evaluation of how things went. We’ll look at IU’s best win, worst loss, the coaching staff, both sides of the ball, players of the year and overall program intangibles (game day ops).

Offensive Player of the Year: Stevie Scott, RB-

True freshman Stevie Scott was thrust into action because Indiana’s top two running backs were lost for the year before the first half of the first game was over. Morgan Ellison was suspended in August before being dismissed from the team and Cole Gest tore his ACL in the second quarter against FIU. Scott set a freshman record for rushing yards (1,137) and a true freshman record for touchdowns (10). He was clearly the brightest star on an offense that struggled with consistency. The Hoosiers have a potentially great backfield coming back next year with Scott, Ronnie Walker, Cole Gest and could potentially add Ivory Winters and Sampson James as freshman next season.

Defensive Player of the Year: Bryant Fitzgerald, DB-

Coming into 2018 many people were excited to finally see what Bryant Fitzgerald could do after being ruled ineligible last season due to a snafu by Indiana’s compliance department. IU had star power in the defensive backfield with Jonathan Crawford and Marcelino Ball both returning, but neither had stellar years. The most consistent player on defense in my opinion was Fitzgerald. He played in all 12 games and totaled 31 tackles (24 solo). His biggest impact came in the takeaway department. Fitzgerald accounted for five of Indiana’s 26 takeaways on the year. He had three interceptions and two fumble recoveries. He has the chance to become a really special player for the Hoosiers over the next few years.

Special Teams Player of the Year: Logan Justus, Kicker-

It was a two-man race for special teams player of the year, but as the season went along, Justus was clearly the best part of this phase for IU. Justus was a Lou Groza Award Semi-Finalist and helped eased the transition from Griffin Oakes. Justus led the Hoosiers in scoring with 77 points. He hit on 15-of-18 field goals and 32-of-33 extra points. The kicking battle between Charles Campbell, a top kicking recruit from 2017, and Justus will be one to watch over the next nine months.

Best Win: 20-16 vs. Virginia-

There can be some discussion here between a road win against FIU or this one against Virginia. FIU ended the regular season 8-4 and was a win away from a division title. Virginia finished 7-5 and third in the ACC Coastal division.

This was a potential swing game for the Hoosiers and securing the win in a monsoon gave Hoosier nation hope that this year could be a good one. Stevie Scott broke out and ran for 204 yards and two touchdowns. 

Worst Loss: at Minnesota 38-31-

There can be discussion here as well, because IU outplayed Penn State the week before and because of special teams miscues coughed up three touchdowns, but from a pure shoulda, coulda, woulda stand point this unenviable title goes to Indiana’s 38-31 loss to Minnesota. Indiana came out flat, fell behind 31-9, came all the way back to tie it at 31 before having Minnesota bust loose on a deep pass late in the game. So yeah, this one stings the most. Minnesota finished 6-6.

Offensive Grade: C-Minus

Stevie Scott and the rushing attack carried the class on this side of the ball as IU’s offense was smoke in mirrors and the numbers they put up in the passing attack were basically empty calories.

Running Backs

As we said above, running back Stevie Scott had an outstanding season and gives the Hoosiers something to hold onto as they go through off-season evaluations. With as good as Scott was, IU did not find an effective back up. Fellow true freshman Ronnie Walker had a couple highlights but finished the season with just 32 carries for 141 yards and two touchdowns and quarterback Peyton Ramsey was the team’s second leading rusher with 111 carries for 354 yards and five touchdowns. As a team IU finished 10th in the Big Ten in rushing offense averaging 157.3 yards per game. It was an improvement over last season, but still a long way off from being where it was under Kevin Wilson. While being 10th in the conference in rushing is nothing to write home about, it is an impressive feat seeing that defenses were playing 11 yards off the ball all year due to Indiana’s inability to stretch the field consistently. 

Quarterback

Speaking of the passing game, let’s talk about the attack that ranked THIRD in the Big Ten in total yards, but TENTH in yards per attempt. If this were basketball, IU’s pass offense would be called a volume scorer. Many people will shout to until their lungs burst about things like completion percentage and total yards and that Peyton Ramsey needed more help. Have fun with that, because those stats paint a false picture. Ramsey was not an incompetent quarterback, far from it, but he is a flawed one and his flaws led to an inefficient passing attack. Ramsey completed 295-of-447 passes (66%) for 2,875 yards and 19 touchdowns. That’s not a bad year if you just look at the stats. However, Ramsey also threw 13 interceptions and averaged 6.4 yards per attempt. Until late in the season, he hesitated to throw the long ball and his short passes didn’t have enough steam on them to allow his playmakers to make defenders miss. When he did throw deep, he gave his receivers a chance to make plays and they did and the offense clicked. When he didn’t pull the trigger, the offense struggled to get anything going.

Offensive Line

The offensive line was much better in 2018 than it was in 2017, but there is still a ton of room for improvement. While they run blocked fairly well late in the year, the pass protection broke down. If the offense is going to take the next step they will need to figure out how to replace Nick Linder, Wes Martin and Brandon Knight.

Wide Receiver

I said before the season that this unit had a chance to be sneaky good and they showed that they could be really good. Donavan Hale and Ty Fryfogle had break out seasons. Hale finished led the team in touchdown catches with six, third on the team in receptions (42) and second in yards (508). Hale became a go-to target at time, but all too often was overlooked by Ramsey. Hale did struggle with drops at times. Sophomore Ty Fryfogle gave Indiana another big-bodied deep threat who can go up and grab 50-50 balls. He finished the year with 29 receptions for 381 yards and three scores. Redshirt junior Nick Westbrook came on late in the year to finish as IU’s leader in yards. He caught 42 passes for 590 yards and four touchdowns. Seniors Luke Timian and J-Shun Harris were reliable out of the slot, combining for 83 receptions, 747 yards and two touchdowns. They will be missed next year, however IU should get a healthy Whop Philyor back in 2019.

Tight Ends

The tight end position had a lot of bodies, but not a whole lot of production. After having an open rotation in the beginning of the year, Mike DeBord settled on Peyton Hendershot as his main man at the position. Hendershot finished with 15 catches for 163 yards and two scores, but struggled late in the year. The lack of a rotation and a middle of the field passing game using this position also held back this offense.

Defensive Grade: C

The defense took an expected step back after losing a bunch of talent, but it was a bigger step back than people imagined. While the Hoosiers did well with takeaways, creating 26 of them, they were exposed to big plays at critical times. The trade-off however, is that Indiana played a ton of underclassmen and it SHOULD help future defenses.

Secondary

The unit that stood out the most, for both good and bad reasons, was the secondary. The Hoosiers ranked 12th in the Big Ten in passing yards allowed per game at 240.6 and gave up the second most passing touchdowns, 27. The highlight though was 13 interceptions a year after only recording five.

Many of the issues in the secondary can be blamed on youth as eight underclassmen saw time at various positions. However, upperclassmen Jonathan Crawford and Marcelino Ball did not have great years to help the transition. Crawford made some plays and was IU’s leading tackler, but looked a step slow most of the season, while Ball couldn’t consistently find his level of play that made him a freshman All-American. The good news for Indiana fans is that Jaylin Williams, Bryant Fitzgerald, Cam Jones, Devon Matthews and Jamar Johnson were all freshmen. They should only get better.

Linebackers

Linebacker was the biggest concern for the Hoosiers coming into the year and while they received a few pleasant surprises, it was clear they missed the athleticism of Tegray Scales and Chris Covington. Reakwon Jones played well when healthy, but made only 36 tackles in 10 games and senior Dameon Willis headlined the group with 62 stops. However, there is hope at this position, freshmen Micah McFadden was terrific is a reserve role making 20 tackles and Thomas Allen played well in spurts. T.D. Roof, who was deemed eligible to play prior to media day became the biggest playmaker of the group. He recorded 39 tackles and four tackles for loss. There may be some position shuffling on defense in 2019, but there is reason for optimism.

Defensive Line

The biggest need for the Indiana defense according to Tom Allen is along the defensive line. The Hoosiers did well with what they had, but their depth was tested at the tackle positions when LeShaun Minor didn’t play and Juan Harris left the program, throw in that Jacob Robinson played in only six games due to injury and it was a recipe for disaster. The Hoosiers need to get bigger and faster along the defensive line. All too often the defense was gashed on first down and failed to create enough of a pass rush to make it difficult to throw down field. It all starts up front. The Hoosiers will head into the offseason needing to replace Robinson, Mike Barwick Jr. (28 tackles), Kayton Samuels (nine tackles) and Jamerez Bowen (10 tackles). It won’t be easy, but Jerome Johnson returns as does Shmar Jones, that’s a decent place to start.

Special Teams Grade: D-Minus

This unit should have gotten an ‘F’, but Logan Justus, Dan Godsil and Drew Conrad were good enough to carry the group to a barely passing grade. Special teams is something that IU NEEDS to be at least decent at in order to get to where they want to be. In 2018 it was at best a liability.

Field Goal Kicker

Logan Justus was very, very good for the Hoosiers this year. He was steady and consistent. He made 15-of-18 field goals and 32-of-33 extra points. He made the transition from Griffin Oakes look easier than it should’ve been.

Kickoff Specialist

Kickoffs were another story. Indiana chose to go with Jared Smolar as their kickoff specialist and over the first couple of weeks he looked good. In the first three games he booted 10 of his 18 kickoffs for touchdowns, after that things went downhill quickly. In the final nine games, only 13 of his kicks went for touchbacks. IU opted to pooch kick it to an upback after Penn State shredded IU’s coverage units. The only problem here was that the pooch kicks weren’t consistently good enough to be very effective. Smolar will need to improve his leg strength in the offseason if he wants to keep this position.

Kickoff Coverage

Absolute disaster is the term most people would use for the majority of the season for this portion of special teams. Opponents averaged 24.4 yards per return and totaled 782 yards on 32 returns. Those are the hidden yards that change field position and win games. Pooch kicking helped a little bit, but it says a lot when giving the ball to the opponent around the 30-yard line is better than chancing a big return.

Punter

Haydon Whitehead was OK this season. I thought he took a step back after a really nice first year. He averaged only 36 net yards per punt with one block and several other punts that could’ve been blocked. Again there was no adjustment to his game when people started sending more pressure. Out of his 52 punts, 21 were fair caught, 16 landed inside the 20-yard line and three went into the end zone for touchbacks. He was not the weapon in 2018 that he was for Tom Allen in 2017.

Punt Return

J-Shun Harris scared everyone away since he is a GREAT punt returner. He changed the punt game by just being out there as opposing punters shanked quite a few to keep it away from him. However, IU again did not adjust to an opponent’s adjustment and ranked 95th in punt return efficiency according to S&P+. Harris also had a costly fumble late in the game against Penn State.

Coaching: D-Plus

It would be very easy to give this area a lower grade because there were somethings that clearly were mishandled. They pass, but barely. Tom Allen is a good football coach, there is no doubt about that, but there are clearly things he needs to get figured out as soon as possible if he wants to survive in Bloomington past his first contract.

The most glaring deficiencies came on offense as the Hoosiers went with Peyton Ramsey to start the year. A move that made sense, but was a safe play. Personally, I thought freshman Michael Penix was the best choice for the position, even if there were growing pains to deal with. Other roster mismanagement included the use of freshman Reese Taylor who essentially wasted his freshman season as a decoy.

On the bright side running backs coach Mike Hart has made waves. He turned a potential disaster into a bright spot with the break out year from Stevie Scott. Hoosier fans can look forward to a deep, talented running back room next season. 

Changes must be made to upgrade the offense, whether that be looking to a new leader or changing the scheme is up to Allen, but a big change has to come. Indiana dinked and dunked their way down the field and that’s just not a winning formula for a team that is just less talented than most in the Big Ten. It’s difficult to ask even the best teams to go 75 yards in 10 plays every drive.

On the defensive side of the ball, Allen needs to delegate his coordinator duties so he can focus on the rest of his program. He can still be involved with it, but he needs to take a step back. The Hoosiers finished 11th in the conference in scoring defense by allowing 29.9 points per game, a number that would have been significantly higher if it weren’t for 26 takeaways.

The special teams staff also needs an overhaul. As stated above, IU cannot get to where they want to be with putrid special teams play. The Hoosiers were 114th in kickoff efficiency and basically waved the white flag on every kick return from the Ball State game on. They didn’t even try to put anyone who is remotely explosive back to return kicks outside of Marcelino Ball a few times. Adjustments were few and far between and a unit that was solid last year was a complete disaster that should’ve cost the Hoosiers a few more wins.

Program Intangibles: C-Minus

Indiana is a program that needs to make everything as easy as possible for the fans to come to the games and to where all the program has to do is focus on winning. There were plenty of off the field distractions this season. Morgan Ellison was dismissed from the team and game day operations had more than a few flaws, most recently uncleaned bleachers for the Bucket Game. There are videos going around social media showing what looks like google feces all over seats in Memorial Stadium. That doesn’t happen at winning programs. If IU really wants to win, they have to do every little thing correctly both on and off the field. The parking and tailgating situations that were horrendous this year, should be an easy fix.

Final Thoughts

Some make think my grades are too lenient and I think that is a fair take. It would have been easy just to put an ‘F’ next to a lot of categories, but IU did enough to no have that. Although the season was a failure in outcome, there are pieces here IU can build with. People may not want to admit it, and it took me a season-and-a-half to admit it myself, but IU is in rebuild mode. The hope was that Allen could continue building on the foundation that Kevin Wilson put down. However, that foundation had cracks. Wilson mismanaged the roster to a point where it will take two or three classes to fix. While IU didn’t suffer through a year zero like most rebuilds, it wasn’t continuing into year six of a coaching staff. This is a tremendously important offseason for Tom Allen and the Hoosiers. They have to keep together and add to a pretty strong recruiting class and make the necessary changes for the program to be successful. 2019 will not be easy, IU plays their usual Big Ten East schedule in addition to that they draw Big Ten West champ Northwestern at home and travel to Nebraska and Purdue as cross division games. If the right moves aren’t made, IU can be in for a long year.