Indiana's Offensive Line is Working to Get Better From the Base Up

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

All eyes will be on the Indiana offensive line on September 2nd. It is a unit that has been criticized and scrutinized all off-season as their position coach Darren Hiller held on to his job as others around him lost or left theirs. Hiller, who has shed weight over the offseason and looks like a different person, is rebuilding his room from the feet up.

“It starts with our feet, right, you know, and as there's feet, there's hands there's eyes, there's everything.” Hiller explained on what needs to improve technique wise in fall camp.

Hiller told reporters on Thursday that his group has had a great camp. He likes the strides his players have made and is embracing the grind and boredom of fall camp.

One of the knocks of the offensive line in 2021 was their lack of physicality. Hiller admitted that on Thursday and said that he has put an emphasis on being more physical.

“I don't like talking too much about last year, but last year, I just think we were a little bit soft in our protection and things like that. So the emphasis was, you know, from from a run game perspective, you know, schematically, you know, there's some schematic changes and things like that, but from a schematic changes, we try to simplify some things as far as what we're doing and trying to get them to run off the ball a little bit more in the run game and then pass protection, you know, just really understanding that it's got to be still there, the physical aspects still has to be involved.” Hiller explained.

Hiller is not the only one in charge of changing the mentality of the room. Senior tackle Matthew Bedford is taking matters into his own hands.

“I am taking responsibility for my young guys. When we mess up, it is not just Coach Hiller yelling at us, it is, after he gets done, about making sure each guy knows what he’s talking about.” Bedford said.

Hiller likened pass protection to playing defense in basketball with unlimited fouls (so 90’s Knicks-Pacers games should be practice tape right?).

“You get unlimited fouls. You can smack him, you can throw both hands, you can snatch him, and you can do all kinds of things to defeat a defender in pass [protection]. That is basically what [offensive line coach Darren Hiller] is saying.” Bedford explained. “Playing basketball is mirroring the guy with your feet. A lot of times, guys will float or overset, and the defender will be able to get up under them. Some guys will underset and give up the edge and end up in a position to get a holding call. It is all about mirroring the guy with your feet. The fouling part is just being aggressive.”

“We're not doing monkey rolls, we're not doing anything that is unnecessary. We're trying to get better at the fundamentals.” Hiller said.

Only time will tell if the message of physicality has sunk in and the work has paid off.