UCLA Football Preview: Indiana's Offense Remains a Question Mark Despite Video Game Scoring
Even though Indiana is averaging more than 50 points per game, the individual output of the team's key offensive players leaves much to be desired.
Through two games, the Indiana Hoosiers have averaged 43.5 rushing attempts per game and just 23 pass attempts per game. Now, that is almost certainly a product of last week’s game against Western Illinois being a 77-3 blowout, which should have resulted in a very run-heavy offense even though they still managed to run up a video game score.
Since the score of the Hoosiers’ opening game against Florida International wasn’t quite so lopsided as the Western Illinois score was, one could argue that it might actually give us a better indication of how Curt Cignetti and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan will approach this Saturday’s game than last Saturday’s game.
But, FIU was still a bit of a blow out with IU winning 31-7. Against FIU, Indiana’s offensive attack was nearly tilted quite a bit between passes and rushes. The Hoosiers ran the ball 40 times while they attempted just 25 passes.
Since that was Cignetti’s first game since taking over as Indiana’s head coach, it would also help to look at what Cignetti’s tendencies were last season when he was the head coach at James Madison. In that case, it indicates that Cignetti and Shanahan run an almost perfectly balanced offense. Last year, JMU ran the ball 446 times while they threw it 428 times.
In general, I would suggest that JMU’s stats from last season probably offer a better perspective on the new Indiana offensive attack than either of the Hoosiers’ first two games from this season will. Though those first two games do indicate that Indiana will run the ball much more when they have a significant lead, which shouldn’t be surprising.
While Indiana hasn’t released a depth chart in advance of any game this season, they have listed the starters for both of their previous two games to help us know who to expect to see on the field for the Hoosiers.
So, let’s take a look at the Hoosiers’ offensive personnel.
Quarterback
This may be the easiest to figure out. Redshirt super senior transfer Kurtis Rourke will start at quarterback for Indiana. Rourke joins the Hoosiers after playing his first five seasons at Ohio University in the Mid-American Conference. Through two games, he’s completed 30 of 41 pass attempts (73.1%) for 443 yards and three touchdowns.
Rourke has also carried the ball nine times for 16 net yards. His longest run was against Western Illinois for a ten-yard gain. He’s also run for one touchdown.
Should something happen to Rourke, look for redshirt sophomore Tayven Jackson to take over. Jackson actually started five games for the Hoosiers last season. While he played against FIU, he didn’t throw a pass. That could be because he may have been the holder on PATs and field goals, but without looking at the game film, what he did in that game is unknown.
Last week against Western Illinois, Jackson relieved Rourke and completed all three passes he threw for 104 yards and a touchdown. He also ran twice for 19 yards and a touchdown.
Rushing Game
After starting the first two games of the season, redshirt super senior Ty Son Lawson, who followed Cignetti and Shanahan from James Madison, is likely to get the start at running back. So far this year, Lawson has carried 22 times for 117 yards and three touchdowns. The bulk of his carries came in Week 1 against FIU when he carried 16 times for 74 yards with two TDs.
While Lawson may be the starter, look for super senior Justice Ellison to see plenty of action. The reality is that he may be the more dangerous back of the two. Against FIU, Ellison carried ten times for 68 yards. So, his yards per carry in that game was more than 2 yards per carry more. Then, last week, he carried just nine times for 117 yards with two touchdowns, giving him an average of 13 yards per carry. Even without his longest carry that went for 47 yards, he still averaged 8.75 yards per carry on his other eight carries. So, the defenses Indiana has played so far have had trouble stopping him. So, it should be interesting to see if the Bruins can contain him on the ground.
Indiana’s third running back is redshirt junior Elijah Green, who transferred from North Carolina. Against FIU, he carried five times for 82 yards including a 51-yard long while he carried five times for 31 yards against Western Illinois last week. In other words, without that big 51-yarder, his total yards for the season would be a little more than half of his actual total. I don’t think we will see Green get more than four or five carries this week too.
Passing Game
Four of Indiana’s receivers have started games this season. The two guy who have started both games are junior transfer Elijah Sarratt, who came from James Madison, and super senior Myles Price, who transferred from Texas Tech.
Between those two, Sarratt seems to be the bigger threat, but that may be because of last week’s game against an inferior opponent where he broke one free for 71 yards. Overall, he has eight receptions so far for 149 yards and that touchdown.
Price’s stats have been more modest. He also has eight catches, but his yardage total is just 67 yards. The big difference is that his longest reception was just 17 yards and that he hasn’t scored yet this year.
Now, for some reason, redshirt sophomore Omar Cooper, Jr. did not start last week against Western Illinois. Despite that, he still managed to have four receptions for 131 yards including a 69-yard touchdown from Tayven Jackson. When you add in his three catches for 45 yards against FIU, Cooper actually becomes Indiana’s leading receiver.
In Cooper’s place, Cignetti started senior transfer Miles Cross, which is a bit peculiar because Cross only had one reception against FIU the week before and he didn’t have any against Western Illinois when he started last week, but that doesn’t mean that Cross won’t get the start again. So, we’ll see which one gets the start this week, but if I had to guess, I would probably expect to see Cooper the first time the Hoosiers take the field on offense.
The only other player with more than one receptions this season is starting tight end Zach Horton. Horton is another of the James Madison Hoosiers who followed Cignetti to his new job. So far this season, he’s made three receptions for 36 yards and a touchdown. All three of his receptions came against FIU. He hasn’t demonstrated that he’s a big play threat so far either. His longest reception was only 14 yards.
Offensive Line
Overall, the offensive line for Indiana has quite a bit of experience. All five starters on the Indiana line started both games the Hoosiers have played this year. So, this will be their third game together as a unit.
Redshirt sophomore Carter Smith will start at left tackle after starting all twelve games for the Hoosiers last season. In 2022, he played in two games and redshirted that year.
Redshirt sophomore Drew Evans transferred to Indiana after spending his true freshman season at Wisconsin. Last year, he didn’t play at all for the Hoosiers. So, the FIU game two weeks ago was his first collegiate start. He’s the least experienced offensive line starter.
In contrast, redshirt super senior Mike Katic, who will start at center, is the dean of the Indiana offensive line. He’s made 39 career starts, though 27 of those came at left guard.
Over at right guard, Trey Weddig will get his third start as a Hoosier. He transferred to Indiana this season after spending four seasons at Wisconsin. He played in 35 games while at Wisconsin and he started eight of those games.
Finally, Bray Lynch will start at right tackle. The redshirt sophomore appeared in nine games during his first two years in the program. Assuming he starts Saturday, it will be just his third career start.
Analysis
For a team which seems to prefer to run the ball, Indiana’s offensive line seems pretty inexperienced. Two of the five guys had never started a game until two weeks ago.
Ultimately, I think the Bruin defense will really determine just how well the Hoosiers’ offense fares. As long as UCLA can control the line of scrimmage, I expect the Bruin defense to have their way with Indiana. Then, it will be up to the UCLA offense to put points on the board and force the the Hoosiers to rely on the passing game to play catch-up.
Now, that’s a big if, given how UCLA’s offense sputtered out of the gate against Hawai’i.
Despite that, I think it’s very possible that this scenario could happen.
Indiana has put up video game numbers on the scoreboard each of the past two weeks against clearly inferior opponents. I don’t see the Hoosiers being able to rely on their running game against a strong Bruin rush defense and I don’t think there’s nearly enough data to indicate that Indiana has a strong passing attack yet.
Let’s hope the Bruins don’t provide Indiana’s future opponents with the data that says that Indiana’s offense is that good in Cignetti’s first year with the Hoosiers.
Go Bruins!!!
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"Rourke joins the Hoosiers after playing his first five seasons at Ohio University in the Mid-American Conference."
Forgive my ignorance, how is it possible for a college player to play six seasons?
I also understand they're running back is in his 7th season. Do those include multiple red-shirt seasons?
UCLA is a 3 point underdog at home. Home games usually give the home team a 2-3 point advantage so we are really almost a one touchdown underdog. Hopefully the bye week was fruitful in getting some of the offensive misfires corrected--both the players and coaches.