Matchup To Watch: Indiana’s Quarterback(s) vs. USC’s Leaky Defense

The reigning National Champion Indiana Hoosiers continue their title defense this Saturday against the USC Trojans as the Hoosiers come off a much-needed bye week to reset and re-focus. The reason such resetting and re-focusing is needed, of course, is due to Indiana’s recently lackluster offense. In what started as a bang where Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover was an early candidate for the Heisman Trophy with a perfect passing record has now come to a screeching halt.

Indiana has now put together some of the poorest passing attack performances of the Cignetti era. At times this manifests in the form of efficiency, yardage, accuracy, or a combination of all three. On top of these issues that seemed to surface so quickly, Indiana has also run into issues running the ball. The rushing attack looked better against Minnesota before the bye week, but still has loads of room to get back to their displays earlier this season and throughout the Cignetti era.

Regardless, the passing attack needs to be the biggest area of focus for this offense right now. Josh Hoover has been officially labeled as not being 100% healthy for a couple of weeks now, but we don’t know much more beyond that. Against Minnesota, backup quarterback Grant Wilson received several snaps and played well in place of Hoover. How much of that replacement was Hoover’s injury vs. Hoover’s performance is unclear, however.

What is clear is that this Saturday represents a potential “get right” game for the Indiana offense and specifically the Indiana passing attack. USC’s defense is, as the title of the article describes, leaky. They allow the 4th most points per game in the Big Ten, the 8th most total yards per game, the 6th most passing yards per game, and the 10th most rushing yards per game. On top of that – and maybe even more glaring – the Trojans have the fewest interceptions in the Big Ten with 3 total INT’s on the year. As such, this USC defense can be attacked, and the risk in the passing game has proven to be minimal as well.

Whoever starts at quarterback for the Hoosiers – whether Josh Hoover is healthy and back to the Josh Hoover we saw earlier in the year, or Grant Wilson rides the momentum he brought in the win over Minnesota – will need to show that this passing attack and offense as a whole deserves respect. The Hoosiers are already being disrespected in the College Football Playoff rankings; beating USC will prove to the committee that they were wrong about the Hoosiers and that the defending champions are yet again a force to be reckoned with.

As always, thanks for reading! Stay locked in with Hoosier Huddle for all things Indiana football – and Indiana sports in general – all season long. Go Hoosiers!