Communication is Key to Offensive Success as Hoosiers Head to Loud Happy Valley

Written by Matt Smith

Indiana is coming off one of their more complete offensive games on the season last week against Western Kentucky. The Hoosiers gained 507 yards as a team, but settled for field goals on four drives.

The offense has been struggling for the majority of the season, but Michale Penix and the offense had a bounce back game against the Hilltoppers. However, the Hoosiers need to be better in the red zone and not settle for field goals. 

Part of the struggle in the red zone last week has to do with penalties. The other part, offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan attributed to the play call.

“There were certainly a couple calls, I thought were a little bit too aggressive, trying to throw the ball down the field,” Sheridan said. “We had some momentum, we were driving the football and we went back a few yards.”

However, in certain circumstances field goals are a good thing. For example, when the Hoosiers drove down the field at the end of the half and got into field goal range.

As far as this weekend, the Hoosiers will travel to Beaver Stadium in a primetime nationally televised game. Beaver Stadium is one of the loudest stadiums in the country, so the noise will be a big factor in the game.

“Those environments challenge your communication,” Sheridan said.

The Hoosiers will try to pump crowd noise into their practices in order to simulate some of what they’ll be going through in Saturday’s game.

“It’ll be nothing like what they’ll experience on Saturday, it doesn’t matter how loud Mitch makes the speakers,” Sheridan said. “The one thing that has been a benefit, is we played the opener against a packed house, but we expect it to be rocking and it’ll be a challenge.”

Michael Penix has also struggled coming off of his injury last season, however, the Hoosiers remain confident in him due to his evaluation of the film following each game.

“One of the things we try to do as a coach is listen,” Sheridan said. “When you play quarterback, you have to make decisions quickly.”

Sheridan also said that sometimes quarterbacks can make good decisions and it’ll go poorly, but sometimes there are bad decisions that go well. When all of that happens the coach needs to listen to what the quarterback said about the read.

The Hoosiers offense also had a big loss with DJ Matthews tearing his ACL during the game against Western Kentucky. This means that the Hoosiers will need Ty Fryfogle, Peyton Hendershot, and Miles Marshall to step up during the rest of the season.