Sheridan said the Offense is “Moving in the Right Direction”

Image: Indiana University Athletics

Written by Matt Smith

Many things needed to be improved leading up to the game against Idaho on Saturday, and the Hoosiers’ offense did look better against the Vandals. One of those reasons is the offensive line that played together during fall camp, played together on Saturday.

Matt Bedford made his return on the offensive line Saturday at guard.

“It was good to get that group back out there together,” offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan said in his press conference on Monday. “I thought Matt did some good things, he has explosiveness, he has power...that group is continuing to get better, stressing the fundamentals. I thought they were steps in the right direction.”

Another thing that Sheridan wants to see improvement on is explosive plays, more specifically throwing the ball deep down the field which was something that Michael Penix did extremely well last season.

Following last week, Sheridan was stressing improving his coaching in order to put Penix in better situations and make him more comfortable. With the play of the special teams and the defense that gave the offense great field position, Sheridan said that gave the offense very easy ways to improve.

As far as making Penix more comfortable, establishing the run game early on in the game helped a lot.

“I thought we ran the ball earlier in the game, threw some easy completions and created a rhythm for Michael,” Sheridan said.

According to Sheridan, there were still areas that the offense needed to improve on, but it was another “step in the right direction.”

One of the things Michael struggles with is his confidence according to head coach Tom Allen. On Saturday, Sheridan wanted Penix to do one thing: play quarterback.

“I thought [Penix] played quarterback,” Sheridan said. “If the pocket causes you to use your legs, you gotta play quarterback. I thought he did that. I thought he ran strong.”

As far as Cincinnati, the Hoosiers need to play clean, execute, and take advantage of the opportunities presented to them against a very well coached team according to Sheridan.

One offensive tool that the Hoosiers could use this weekend in the athletic freshman quarterback Donovan McCulley. However, playing him brings up the question of forgoing his redshirt season.

“With any freshman that you are excited about, I think we would love to play any of the freshmen that you are ready to play in four games, but significant time in those games,” Sheridan said. “You never know how the games are going to go and which games you want them to play in, if  you knew that you were going to need them, you’d be playing them right now.”

The Hoosiers have a big test coming up on Saturday against the Bearcats, and the offense will need to execute well and take a bigger step in order for the Hoosiers to win the game.