Indiana May 1 Power Rating: 74.76 (#50)
Returning Starters: 15 (6 offense, 9 defense)
Key Losses: RB Devine Redding, WR Ricky Jones, WR Mitchell Paige, OG Dan Feeney and LB Marcus Oliver
2017 Recruiting Class Rank: #60
2016 Season Recap: Coming off their first bowl appearance since 2007, expectations weren’t that high for Indiana in 2016 as their season win total was only 4.5 at South Point. The Hoosiers got off to a 2-0 start with wins over FIU and Ball St. After a bye, Indiana out-gained Wake Forest 611-352 but lost 33-28 thanks to 5 TO’s (Wake had none). The Hoosiers rebounded to pull an outright upset over Michigan State in OT and then covered against Ohio State in a straight up loss for the 6th consecutive season. Indiana would lose to both Nebraska and Northwestern in small underdog roles and a bowl bid started to come into question. They rebounded to beat both Maryland and Rutgers and then 5 TO’s vs Penn State cost them in the end. The Hoosiers covered easily in a loss at Michigan but were nearly upset as 3-TD favorites vs rival Purdue. After the regular season, they fired head coach Kevin Wilson due to “philosophical differences” with the athletic director and then hired defensive coordinator Tom Allen. The Hoosiers would cover in a 26-24 loss to Utah.
Offense Per Game Rank
Scoring 25.8 88
Rushing 152.2 92
Passing 273.8 28
Total 426.0 56
Defense Per Game Rank
Scoring 27.2 57
Rushing 160.4 53
Passing 219.7 53
Total 380.1 45
Indiana (SU: 6-7, ATS: 6-7, O/U: 4-9)
|
Date
|
Opponent
|
W/L
|
Line
|
Score
|
Total
|
9/1
|
at FIU
|
W
|
-10.5
|
34-13
|
u64
|
9/10
|
Ball St
|
L
|
-16.5
|
30-20
|
u63
|
9/24
|
Wake Forest
|
L
|
-7.5
|
28-33
|
o47
|
10/1
|
Michigan St OT
|
W
|
+6
|
24-21
|
u52
|
10/8
|
at Ohio St
|
W
|
+28
|
17-38
|
u60
|
10/15
|
Nebraska
|
L
|
+3.5
|
22-27
|
u58
|
10/22
|
at Northwestern
|
L
|
+3
|
14-24
|
u53.5
|
10/29
|
Maryland
|
W
|
-3.5
|
42-36
|
o55
|
11/5
|
at Rutgers
|
L
|
-13.5
|
33-27
|
o58
|
11/12
|
Penn St
|
L
|
+7
|
31-45
|
o59.5
|
11/19
|
at Michigan
|
W
|
+25
|
10-20
|
u51
|
11/26
|
Purdue
|
L
|
-21.5
|
26-24
|
u66
|
12/28
|
† Utah
|
W
|
+6
|
24-26
|
u54.5
|
2017 Outlook: New head coach Tom Allen inherits an Indiana team that returns 15 starters including six on offense. Richard Lagow is back at QB after throwing for 3,362 yards and 19 TD’s, but he will need to improve in the accuracy department after completing only 57.8% of his passes along with 17 interceptions. One of the biggest question marks on the team is at RB where Indiana has to replace Devine Redding who ran for 1,122 yards. Look for them to use a RB-by-committee approach.
The Hoosiers should be set at WR as they return Nick Westbrook who led the team with 995 yards last year and they get back Simmie Cobbs who had 1,035 receiving yards in 2015, but missed last year do to injury. The OL does lose a 4-year starter in All-Big Ten guard Dan Feeney but bring back left tackle Coy Cronk.
Allen got the head coaching job because of the vast improvements they made on defense a year ago as they allowed 130 yards per game and nearly 11 points per game less than what they did in 2015. This year’s unit returns nine starters led by All-Big Ten LB Tegray Scales who has 126 tackles and led the nation in tackles for loss with 23.5. Also CB Rashard Fant is back after who is the active leader in the NCAA with 44 career pass breakups. The Hoosiers do lose a leader in LB Marcus Oliver who had 96 tackles and 15.5 tackles for loss.
On special teams, the Hoosiers return both kicker Griffin Oakes (16 of 26 FG’s in 2016) and punter Joseph Gedeon who averaged 40.3 yards per punt last year. Oakes was the Big Ten kicker of the year in 2015 (made 24 of 29) but really struggled last year.
Projected Starting Line-up
Offense:
QB #21 Richard Lagow 6-6 240 Sr
RB #24 Mike Majette 5-11 208 Jr
WR #1 Simmie Cobbs 6-4 220 Jr
WR #15 Nick Westbrook 6-3 210 Jr
WR #82 Luke Timian 6-0 195 Jr
TE #80 Ian Thomas 6-5 250 Sr
LT #54 Coy Cronk 6-5 295 So
LG #76 Wes Martin 6-3 310 Jr
C #68 Hunter Littlejohn 6-3 300 So
RG #72 Simon Stepaniak 6-4 305 So
RT #62 Brandon Knight 6-5 300 Jr
Defense:
DE #49 Greg Gooch 6-2 255 Sr
DT #74 Nate Hoff 6-2 310 Sr
DT #91 Jacob Robinson 6-4 285 Jr
DE #47 Robert McCray III 6-2 270 Sr
WLB #17 Chris Covington 6-2 235 Sr
MLB #8 Tegray Scales 6-0 230 Sr
Husky #42 Marcelino Ball 6-0 212 So
CB #16 Rashard Fant 5-10 175 Sr
SS #9 Jonathan Crawford 6-2 200 Jr
FS #19 Tony Fields 5-11 205 Sr
CB #14 Andre Brown 6-0 195 So
Top 5 Incoming Recruits:
3-star DB Juwan Burgess 6-1 185
3-star DB Bryant Fitzgerald 6-0 200
3-star RB Morgan Ellison 6-1 227
3-star DT Juan Harris 6-3 370
3-star OT Caleb Jones 6-8 370
2017 Schedule With Early Projected Lines
Date
|
Opponent
|
Line
|
8/31
|
Ohio St
|
+18
|
9/9
|
at Virginia
|
-1
|
9/16
|
FIU
|
-20
|
9/23
|
Georgia Southern
|
-18
|
9/30
|
at Penn St
|
+21
|
10/7
|
Bye
|
|
10/14
|
Michigan
|
+10
|
10/21
|
at Michigan St
|
+5
|
10/28
|
at Maryland
|
-3
|
11/4
|
Wisconsin
|
+11
|
11/11
|
at Illinois
|
-7
|
11/18
|
Rutgers
|
-16
|
11/25
|
at Purdue
|
-8
|
Schedule Analysis: The season starts off with a bang on a Thursday night as the Hoosiers host Top 5 Ohio State and former head coach Kevin Wilson (now Ohio St’s offensive coordinator). The Hoosiers do have three winnable non-conference games with a road trip to Virginia being a toss-up game. The Big Ten slate continues with the best teams in the conference as the Hoosiers travel to Penn State and then after a bye they host Michigan. Indiana will be a double-digit underdog in both. Then Indiana has back-to-back road games at Michigan State and at Maryland before hosting West division favorite Wisconsin (Indiana will be a dog in at least 2 of those 3 games). The Hoosiers finally get a break at the end of their schedule as they play at Illinois, host Rutgers and then face in-state rival Purdue on the road. Indiana will be favored in all three of those games. Overall, I have the Hoosiers favored in seven games this season, but three of those are by a TD or less. Therefore, I’d set their season win total around 6.