There are a ton of unknowns heading into 2023, but one area with a spotlight on it will be the offensive line. The direction that we take up-front will be a key indicator if IU Football is headed in the right direction or not. We have players who have logged minutes & a new OL Coach with Big Ten experience. If we get pushed around up front by mid-level teams - Maryland, Rutgers, etc.., we will not go bowling in 2023.
2023 Really Comes Down To Improvement In The O-Line
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There is enough talent and saw at the end of the season how much the OL improved to believe it will be better this year. If the OL is better as I expect then the question becomes how good the defense is this season.
We are about to find out if the Blocking problems of the OL over the past several years were the result of poor coaching and poor design scheme, or whether the problem was lack of Player talent and lack of ability to execute.
I agree
I’m really looking for a big jump in both lines of scrimmage this year. IU has finally started to focus on the right areas. Really like both of these position coaches and have high hopes!
I'm interested in seeing how Bedford looks this year after a promising start to his collegiate career. After a down Junior year and last year's injury, expecting him to benefit from Bostad the most this year and see if he can play on Sundays.
Carpenter and Katic - Veterans that should be Mainstays this year and hopefully show progression
Benson, Sales, Smith - Younger guys that need to establish themselves. Will it take two years to really see major improvement of having Coach Bostad?
Longman and Bolticoff - Can either of them crack the starting unit or will they just provide depth?
Who else will provide depth?
Carpenter and Katic - Veterans that should be Mainstays this year and hopefully show progression
Benson, Sales, Smith - Younger guys that need to establish themselves. Will it take two years to really see major improvement of having Coach Bostad?
Longman and Bolticoff - Can either of them crack the starting unit or will they just provide depth?
Who else will provide depth?
I think this year will be the building block of what IU's OL will look like in the future as I know the OL will get better every year with coach Bostad.
As much as I want to believe improvement from the O-line would produce better results from the offense, the defense still has a lot to fix from last year if this team wants to go bowling. There should be more alarm bells about the D considering how statistically awful they were last year. Even though they weren't much worse than the 2021 defense in terms of PPG, the 2021 defense was actually respectable the first half of the year. MSU was held to 13 not including a pick six, PSU was held to 24 (with 0 help from the offense I might add), and Iowa was held to 20 not including the two pick sixes.
Last year, the defense was terrible for 10 of our 12 games. Imo they were solid against IL and they were strong for one half against PU and Michigan. I read the IUFB NBC Sports Betting preview, and while the article contained mostly bottom tier football analysis from a national writer, he did list some eye opening PFF stats from last year's team. The defense ranked 113th nationally in 3 & out generation, 116th in big play rate, and 123rd in net passing yards per attempt. I should note they were 33rd nationally according to PFF in run defense success rate, so it wasn't all bad. But the pass defense was just terrible last year. Idk what happened to the back end of our defense, but the results were simply not even close to where they should be considering nearly every member of the secondary from last year was a multi year starter coming into the season.
Personally, I judge HC's harsher on the results of their team on the side of the ball the HC has a background in. When I look at last year's results, CTA had a veteran defense, he was in his 7th season as Indiana's HC so they were all "his guys" and Indiana still had the worst defense in the conference in terms of PPG and passing yards per game. It just doesn't fill me with a ton of confidence. So while the spotlight will deservingly be on the O-line for the 3rd season in a row, it's important to note the deteriorating results outside of just the O-line position because the O-line was far from the only problem we had last season.
Last year, the defense was terrible for 10 of our 12 games. Imo they were solid against IL and they were strong for one half against PU and Michigan. I read the IUFB NBC Sports Betting preview, and while the article contained mostly bottom tier football analysis from a national writer, he did list some eye opening PFF stats from last year's team. The defense ranked 113th nationally in 3 & out generation, 116th in big play rate, and 123rd in net passing yards per attempt. I should note they were 33rd nationally according to PFF in run defense success rate, so it wasn't all bad. But the pass defense was just terrible last year. Idk what happened to the back end of our defense, but the results were simply not even close to where they should be considering nearly every member of the secondary from last year was a multi year starter coming into the season.
Personally, I judge HC's harsher on the results of their team on the side of the ball the HC has a background in. When I look at last year's results, CTA had a veteran defense, he was in his 7th season as Indiana's HC so they were all "his guys" and Indiana still had the worst defense in the conference in terms of PPG and passing yards per game. It just doesn't fill me with a ton of confidence. So while the spotlight will deservingly be on the O-line for the 3rd season in a row, it's important to note the deteriorating results outside of just the O-line position because the O-line was far from the only problem we had last season.
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Exactly.
Everybody complained about the defense and how bad it was.
But the reason it was so bad is they were ALWAYS on the field because the offense couldn't sustain a drive. It was always 3 and out. No defense can stand up entire game like that.
If the offense, especially the OL, is better the defense will be better also.
GoHoosiers
Everybody complained about the defense and how bad it was.
But the reason it was so bad is they were ALWAYS on the field because the offense couldn't sustain a drive. It was always 3 and out. No defense can stand up entire game like that.
If the offense, especially the OL, is better the defense will be better also.
GoHoosiers
The problem with the defense was that it was always 3 and out on the offensive side. The defense was on the field 80% of the time.
Yes, and the improved speed on the field should increase the big plays when better blocking shows up.
As much as I want to believe that, I think the viewpoint that the only reason the defense struggled as much as they did was because they were on the field too much is naive. Obviously WB's system, especially when the offense is sputtering, will put more stress on the defense.
But stats like forced 3 and out rate, big play rate, and yards per passing attempt take into account how many plays a defense is on the field for, and Indiana finished in the 113 or below nationally (out of 133) in all of these stats. It would be a different story if the totals were higher: yardage, scoring, etc but the efficiency was okay. The numbers show Indiana obviously gave up huge totals, but they were also one of the least efficient defenses in the country last year.
IU averaged an abysmal 26 minutes in time of possession last season(bottom five nationally, but certainly not 80% of the time), that being said, considering WB's offensive system, I can't see IU's time of possession ever going above 30 while he is OC. No matter what the offense is doing in their time on the field, I have a hard time believing an extra four minutes of rest for the defense will fix all of their problems.
Last year we had a poor O-line , and a non mobile QB , which led to a very poor offense . When we finally played the more mobile QB our offense looked much better . I put that on the coaching staff for not adjusting to that problem sooner . Hopefully the line will be improved this year , and hopefully we have a mobile QB in our group . If we do , we may be able to get enough wins to go bowling.
A lot of the defensive issues were injury and the offense going three and out too often tiring out the defense. The defense should have been better but when you have to play untested freshmen in games due to being tired from being on the field too long.
