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The Indiana Hoosiers are set to take on Western Kentucky for their third game of the season after starting the year with two straight wins. Both teams met last year when the Hoosiers took a narrow 33-31 victory.

Unfortunately for Tom Allen and Chad Wilt, Western Kentucky brings back one of the nation's best offenses. The Hoosiers know it all starts with their defense and have to re-focus after a poor effort against Idaho.

The Hilltoppers averaged 44.21 points per game in 2021 and are currently averaging 43.50 points per game through their first two contests. In just the first two games of the season, Western Kentucky has outscored their opponents 87 to 44. The Indiana defense has to get ready for a high-powered offense.

Head coach Tom Allen made sure to mention that his team has gotten to know the Western Kentucky offense over the last couple years.

“Our guys understand fully who they're playing,” Allen said. “They've done some things a little bit differently maybe in the run game this year, but at the same time they have their system, they believe in it, and they're going to play it to a high level. It's impressive to watch. There's no doubt. Coach Helton has done a tremendous job.”

Indiana’s defense has kept Indiana in the first two games of the season, but their performance against Idaho made Allen question certain aspects on that side of the ball.

Indiana was down by 10 points heading into halftime against the Vandals and Allen knew his team wasn't in the right head space. In preparation for Western Kentucky, the veteran head coach is looking for his team to stay on top mentally and physically.

“You're playing a team that gave us fits last year, so there's a sense of, hey, those guys on this team last year, they experienced what we did down there and how hard it was. They know that.” Allen said.

“I think that that's where you rely on those guys to really rise up this week and help our guys. The film is pretty obvious that they do some great things, but we also lived it out as well.”

Defensive Coordinator Chad Wilt said the same thing about the team.

“It's a matter of consistency. That's really what your looking for from these guys is consistency. Well, how do you build consistency? Well, focus. We talk about our defense, the DNA is takeaways, tackling, and effort," Wilt said. "But, the pillars of how we play are edge, hunger, and focus…If we can keep those three things edge, hunger, and focus, we'll probably be the consistent unit we need to be.” Wilt said.

When asked about Western Kentucky's offense Wilt mentioned that he would like to play a lot of players on Saturday. Although that could be the case, he wants to make sure that the quality of plays stays the same.

“At the end of the day we arent just trying to play our best 11, we are trying to play our best 22. We'd love to get to a point where we can play about 30 guys on defense," Wilt said.

“We talked about it this morning . . . You go in the game, you're expected to play like a starter…That is the standard, that's what we've got to do and that's the way that you are expected to execute.”

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