Hoosiers Head East in Search of Second Straight Win

Written By: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

After losing four out of five games and dropping to 3-4, IU fans knew the Hoosiers needed to win at least two of the next three games to have any shot of making their second straight bowl game for the first time since 1990-1991. The first part of that tough task is complete after IU ran over the Maryland Terrapins for a critical 42-36 victory last Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Penn State is now ranked in the top 25 and IU will most likely be an underdog on November 12. That leaves this Saturday’s contest against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights as a crucial game in IU’s quest for six wins. The 2-6 Scarlet Knights are winless in the Big Ten but they are coming off of a bye week and the last game they played was their best performance to date. Despite the poor record, Rutgers has beaten IU both times they’ve played since joining the conference and Indiana knows they can’t afford to overlook anyone.

“Going on the road is hard. Winning Big Ten games is hard. We had some things Saturday that if we don’t fix and take out of our football will haunt us. It will be a strong challenge,” Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson said on Monday. “Looking forward to a good week and seeing if we can get better and keep moving forward.”

IU had one of the best rushing performances in the program’s history against the Terrapins and they’ll be looking for continued success this Saturday. Dan Feeney looked the best he has since a five week absence due to a concussion and the attack used creativity, excellent playcalling and superb execution to pound their way to 414 yards on the ground. Three different Hoosiers: Devine Redding, Tyler Natee and Zander Diamont, each gained at least 100 rushing yards against the Terrapins. 

“The offensive line has been playing their tails off, and we changed our mindset,” IU running back Devine Redding told the media on Monday. “We were ready to come back and get the ball rolling again.”

The Hoosiers saw that a new package, one with backup quarterback Zander Diamont and bruising tailback (and former high school quarterback) Tyler Natee, could be a good matchup against Maryland’s defense. They were right and the package was used often and accounted for three of IU’s rushing touchdowns. Kevin Wilson isn’t sure how successful the package can be moving forward but he believes they’ll continue to find ways to use their unique personnel.

“Some of those weeks our base stuff we didn’t run block it very well and we didn’t get a run game going, so it was just trying to jump start the run game. That doesn’t really change our offense…we’ve always played the personnel. You always play to personnel and that’s a unique group. The credit was the blocking, the credit was the kids executed.”

Rutgers has given up an average of 5.68 yards per carry to their opponents this season. Recently, they gave up 4.6 yards per carry to Minnesota (243 rushing yards total), 5.3 yards to Illinois (228 total) and 8.6 yards per rush to Michigan (481 total). In short, the Hoosiers will look to continue their success on the ground with a second straight dominant run performance. 

On the other side of the ball, IU’s defense will be facing a new quarterback as the Scarlet Knights have switched to redshirt sophomore Giovanni Rescigno in lieu of Chris Laviano. Rescigno has ran the ball 24 times for 105 yards and he has thrown for 340 yards. Saturday will be just his second career start.

“I think Rescigno throws the ball really well,” IU defensive coordinator Tom Allen said Monday. “That gives them a dimension that they really need to have. It forces you, as a defense, to not gang up and sell out to stop the run. He gives them the ability to hit the big play, but he has also shown the ability to run the ball.”

IU is limiting opponents to only 395 yards per game, a whopping 114.5 yards per game improvement over 2015. They’ll need to be wary of the running back tandem of Justin Goodwin and Robert Martin and the receiving duo of Andre Patton and Jawaun Harris. Robert Martin is expected to return for Saturday’s game after missing the Minnesota contest with an injury. He’s the team’s leading rusher and he’s averaging 5.3 yards per carry while Goodwin is averaging 4.5. The Hoosiers will be looking to tackle better than they did in the first half of the game against Maryland and they’ll be looking to take advantage of a Rutgers team that has lost ten fumbles on the season.

Kevin Wilson is 100% correct when he says that winning on the road is hard. He’s also correct in his assertion that winning Big Ten games is hard. Rutgers is playing better than they were a month ago and they will be the fresher of the two teams after enjoying a bye week last Saturday. All that being said, the Indiana Hoosiers are favored to win and they will have the more balanced and complete team on the field this Saturday in Piscataway. It will not be easy and this is certainly no “gimme game” but if the Hoosiers are to accomplish the goal of returning to a bowl game for the second straight season, this is a game they simply must win.