Offense Working on Tempo as Defense Focuses on Being Physical During Hoosiers' Bowl Practices

Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

The Foster Farms Bowl is just about 48 hours away and the Hoosiers were out on the practice field Sunday ironing out the wrinkles on both sides of the ball in preparation to face the Utah Utes.

On offense, running back Devine Redding says they are focusing on "Tempo, scoring, and creating drives. Just basic things we need to keep moving on." The Hoosiers had major issues finishing off drives in 2016 as they finished 126th nationally in red zone efficiency and 69th on third down conversions.

Utah has struggled this year with teams who run an uptempo offense, so it'd benefit the Hoosiers if the offense could get into rhythm with Richard Lagow at the helm. Lagow stated that the offense is "Just continuing to get back in rhythm because we had that little bit of time off. We’re good, we’re in rhythm, it’s just those little things here and there that you just need to get all the way back and just continuing to smooth that out all the way."

On the other side of the ball the defense is preparing for a very physical battle with the Utes. Starting cornerback Rashard Fant says that their focus is on "

Just being physical. They’re a very physical team. So in order to do that we have to be physical on the practice field and get the speed on and just get moving and do the things that we need to work on individually and also as a team to get ready for them."  Fant will have to hold his own physically as the Utes have four receivers who are 6-foot-2 or taller.

In order to help out the Hoosiers defensive backfield the line will have to get into the Utah backfield and create havoc. Nate Hoff, an important cog on that line says his preparation really hasn't changed as he is prepping with "the usual game plan, watching a lot of film, studying what they do and how we can attack them."

The Hoosiers kickoff against the Utes on Wednesday Dec. 28th at 8:30pm EST on Fox. Keep coming back to HoosierHuddle.com and follow us on Twitter @Hoosier_Huddle or like us on Facebook.