Game Day Primer: Indiana Hoosiers vs. Charleston Southern
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Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)
What: Indiana Hoosiers (2-2) vs. Charleston Southern Buccaneers (2-2)
When: Saturday, October 7 at 3:30 pm
Where: Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, IN
How to Watch: The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network. Fans can also listen to the game on the IU Radio Network with the legendary Don Fischer on the call.
What’s at Stake: If Indiana is to reach a bowl game for the third straight season, this is a game they have to win. That is first and foremost. After the outcome, the biggest things IU will need to accomplish are establishing an offensive identity and rhythm, building a bit of confidence before facing Michigan next Saturday and hopefully avoiding any more costly injuries to an already battered squad.
A Few Things to Look For
Peyton Ramsey at the Helm – Earlier this week, Tom Allen announced that redshirt freshman Peyton Ramsey would be starting at quarterback and the quarterback rotation we saw in the first four games was over. The job was Ramsey’s and would be unless he gets injured. This change brings about several interesting questions that we will start to get answers to on Saturday against the Buccaneers: How will the offense be restructured around Ramsey’s mobility? Which players will see their roles shift as a result of this change? How will Mike DeBord choose to use Ramsey’s legs? It’s very important that Ramsey has a solid performance on Saturday to build confidence in himself and the confidence of his teammates in this new offense before they go into a massive test against Don Brown and the Michigan Wolverines. I wouldn’t expect things to be clicking on all cylinders this Saturday and I wouldn’t expect DeBord to unveil every new wrinkle but this will be our first look at things and what we see unfold will be very interesting.
Clean it Up – The first quarter of Saturday’s game was marred by turnovers and special teams miscues. IU dug themselves a massive hole that they were simply unable to dig out of. Repeating those mistakes against any competent opponent will likely result in another loss. The Hoosiers need to be more disciplined in special teams coverage and the four turnovers they had is simply unacceptable and must be cleaned up. Doing it one week could be considered a fluke and a bad outing. Having it happen two weeks in a row means it is beginning to become a trend. The Hoosiers must avoid the latter and play a clean game on Saturday afternoon.
Defensive Focus – IU will be the physically superior side on Saturday and I would expect the Hoosiers to be ahead by a large margin for the bulk of the second half. In short, I think it is fair to expect a similar contest to what occurred against Georgia Southern. One thing I know the coaches would love to see change from that outing is for IU’s defense to be dominant for the whole contest as opposed to having a few lapses which result in big plays for the opposition. Georgia Southern was able to haul in a few long passes due to busted coverages, something that has occurred on a handful occasions thus far in 2017 to the Hoosiers otherwise very good defense. Tom Allen is always searching for improvement and that’s one area that could be improved upon Saturday.
Hoosier Huddle will have extensive pre and post-game coverage of this and every other game of the 2017 season!