Fixing the Indiana Run Game

Written By: Nate Comp (@NathanComp1)

Much was left to be desired from the Indiana run game in the 2020 season.

An inability to dominate the line of scrimmage in run blocking led the Hoosier stable of running backs to average just 3.1 yards per carry. The Hoosiers did not combine for over 1,000 yards rushing. At its worst, it was actually harming the team – Indiana rushed for negative yardage in the narrow defeat at Ohio State. The schemes were predictable, too. Stevie Scott carried 156 times, while no other running back handled it more than 32 times.

Some of this was by design. COVID protocols forced Tom Allen and his staff to opt for simplistic run schemes as a cautionary measure in case any running back was deemed ineligible at the last minute.

“I know one thing, just being transparent…with the COVID situation and having limited spring ball, summer camp and everything, it was all compressed, chopped and cut up,” started Allen. “We had so many guys out, in and out, even on the line of scrimmage, so we were more vanilla in some ways in that regard.”

So, Allen and his staff simplified it down to the bones. Numerous times Stevie Scott lined up in the wildcat – with no threat of him throwing the ball at all – just to simplify things. It showed its effectiveness at times, but certainly is not a long term fix.

You can also add in that it was offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan’s first year calling plays. There’s only so much a year under Kalen DeBoer can do to help when you’re now on your own calling plays without an offseason to help install your personal flare.

Nonetheless, the staff is determined to not allow these “vanilla” play calls and poor run performances to repeat in 2021.

Of course, that’ll be easier said than done.

Just this week, news broke that both running backs coach Mike Hart and Stevie Scott will be leaving the program. Hart spent the last four years with the Hoosiers before accepting the same position at his alma mater, Michigan. Scott opted to forego his senior season and enter into the NFL Draft on Friday. Both will be significant shoes to fill but cannot slow down Indiana if they want to improve the run game and ease the burden of duplicating the past season’s overall success.

“We will go back and watch everything. We will watch every single clip together as a staff. To me it is just being more multiple, even schematically,” said Allen. “I am not going to be too specific about what that is going to look like. I just see us expanding ourselves schematically and doing more things in the run game, being more multiple in the run game, and being able to have multiple types of abilities to attack certain points on the line of scrimmage and how we set those up.”

Sampson James, David Ellis, and Tim Baldwin Jr will become the stalwarts of the rushing attack next season. The trio combined for 70 carries and 298 yards this year. It is yet to be named who will replace Hart to lead this group.

No matter who is getting the carries or who is coaching them, it will be at the top of the priority list to change the narrative in 2021.

“We are going to have an extensive study of that this offseason, and that is going to be huge for our offensive staff and for our program, to run the football better,” concluded Allen.