Kane Wommack’s 4-2-5 Defense Prepping For Explosive Ole Miss Attack

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle) 

Indiana defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has one last hurrah with the Hoosiers in the Outback Bowl against Ole Miss before he heads to South Alabama as the Jaguars new coach. In his final game with the Hoosiers Wommack will be tasked with slowing down a Rebel offense that ranks third in the SEC scoring 40.7 points per game and is run by one of the best offensive minds in the game in Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin.

The Hoosiers run a 4-2-5 defense that was brought to Bloomington by Tom Allen. It’s a defense that is designed to slow down the spread passing game.

“I do think structurally there's some things that that we do that, you know that we can take advantage of when I'm seeing on film to this point” Wommack said on Tuesday afternoon. The Hoosiers are allowing just 19.4 points per game this season, which is fourth best in the Big Ten and taking the ball away from their opponents at a break-neck pace as IU led the Big Ten with 20 takeaways.

Pressure and confusing opposing quarterbacks is key to a successful. 4-2-5 scheme and the Hoosiers have been outstanding at both. They led the Big Ten with 23 sacks in seven games and made every quarterback they have played look lost at times.

“We're a hungry defense,” Wommack added “and we're a got a group of guys that really believe in one another, and believe in their abilities to make plays both individually and collectively. I think the way we're structured defensively, out of the our four to five system and certainly some of the things that we're doing coverage wise on the back end we've talked about these things quite a bit, coupled with the way in which we're finding the ability to pressure the quarterback and, you know, if you can do those things no matter what you call yourself 4-3, 3-4, 4-2-5 whatever right you're going to be successful.”

While Wommack is confident in his defense, there are still aspects of the Ole Miss offense that Indiana needs to be ready for.

“Well I think they've got a number offensive weapons.” Wommack explained. “Their tempo, I think what Coach (Lane)Kiffin and Coach (Jeff) Lebby do offensively is cutting edge. I think they're ahead of the game right now in terms of offensive. You know firepower and they're explosive, they're dedicated to it which I think is a big part of creating explosives on offense is they're just simply dedicated to it and the way they, they go about things completely and they push the ball downfield think, you know, kind of very explosive quarterback, I think, you know, there's times where you got to be able to find some, some ways to create some confusion for him. But at the same time. Boy, when he gets going, he's, he's pretty good and he's got a lot of weapons around him, that they can utilize I think they do a great job of finding ways to get their playmakers the ball, and they got a number of them.”

This Indiana defense is not going to be scared off by anyone and the Rebels will be without Bilitkenoff Award finalist Elijah Moore as well as tight end Kenny Yeboah who had 524 yards and six touchdowns receiving this year. However, this game will be on the defense’s ability to keep pace with their takeaways, sound tackling and limiting the explosive plays Ole Miss will try anything to get.