Keys to a Hoosier Victory on Homecoming

Written by Andrew Walker

Indiana football will try their hand against the no. 4 Michigan Wolverines at noon on Saturday. After dropping their last two games, the Hoosiers are frankly in a more expected position. Losing their last two to no. 24 Cincinnati and Nebraska, Indiana’s found themselves in an interesting spot. With some clear objectives that Indiana needs to take care of, they find themselves staring down the barrel of a team which will show no mercy. Today, we’ll take a look at a few keys to perhaps winning this game.

Michigan hasn’t looked dominant in their past two games. Keep it that way.

Understandably, the no. 4 ranked Michigan Wolverines are going to be 5-0 at this point in the season. In their last two games, however, they haven’t quite looked like the team that blew out Hawaii and Connecticut by 46 and 59 points, respectively. Taulia Tagovailoa is the only good quarterback the Michigan defense has faced so far. He came up with a strong 269 yard, two TD day in Maryland’s loss. Connor Bazelak needs to have a grand awakening if the Hoosiers are going to make anything happen. Tagovailoa showed that the more you can make Michigan’s secondary open up, the better chance you’ll have.

Indiana’s ground game has to be better.

It’s no secret that transfer RB Shaun Shivers hasn’t been too flashy this season so far. Indiana’s rushing numbers aren’t great. Shivers has only been able to rush for 345 yards on the ground through five games. If Bazelak is going to continue a trend of inaccurate QB play, the ground game has to step up and keep the defense guessing.

Indiana has to be the team that reminds Michigan what a turnover is.

To this point, Michigan has only given the ball up twice. Indiana’s brand of defensive football has and should continue to be ‘see ball, get ball.’ Indiana will have to be active in the turnover department for there to be a chance at victory. When the Hoosiers suit up this Saturday, their defensive objectives should be stopping the run, and getting the ball out. That’s it.