Hoosiers Secondary Still in Question as Hoosiers Come Out of Productive Bye Week to Face Spartans

Written by Matt Smith

The Hoosiers came out of the Penn State game two weeks ago with many different injuries to their secondary and other positions all over the field. However, the Hoosiers are getting healthier after a much needed bye week.

One of those players was Raheem Layne who went down against the Nittany Lions.

“I feel good about Raheem [Layne], he has been out there, and the other two (Tiawan Mullen and Reese Taylor) are still working to get back,” Tom Allen said during his Thursday press conference. “We don't know about either of those guys yet and won't know until game day.”

One of the biggest keys for the Hoosiers against Michigan State is stopping the run game, Kenneth Walker is leading the nation in rushing and Indiana will need their two linebackers Micah McFadden and Cam Jones to not allow him to get to the second level.

In his press conference and throughout the season, Allen has spoken very highly of McFadden.

“Micah and Cam are two of our best players and [have been] for many years. The thing I have really seen the biggest growth in is their leadership, especially Micah,” Allen said. “He is more verbal. He has always led by the way he practices and prepares and how hard he plays and executes on game day, but just think his sideline leadership beyond guys just in that [linebacker] room.”

Allen spoke just as highly when speaking about Jones.

“He was phenomenal all summer long leading our guys during workouts. There is no doubt they set the tone for the whole defense, the whole team for that matter, in how we work, how we pay attention to the little things and have been able to match that up with great play,” Allen said.

As far as preparations this week, Allen said the focus was on reps and getting the team healthy as  another top-10 team comes to Bloomington.

“Some guys would just do individual and a lot of technique work, but not do the team reps to take some shots off their bodies. I think that was a big focus, but also for the whole team, like even some guys that didn't take team reps, they did all of the individual, all of the technique work, all of the one-on-one [drills] to be able to improve our fundamentals and technique in blocking and tackling,” Allen said.

Indiana has a lot to improve on going forward into the season and having the week to focus on the little things might help them land their first conference win of the season.

“To me, it was just an overall sharpening of what we do, making some adjustments and changes to things that have not worked or that we are not getting out of it what we want, a thorough self-scout and evaluation, and then just fundamentally improving,” Allen said.