Indiana struggled to get much going on the ground against Ball State in Week One, as the Cardinals forced Mike Penix to win the game for the Hoosiers.
With a deeper stable of running backs in 2019 than in years past, Tom Allen, Kalen DeBoer and the staff will make an effort to get more running backs involved as the season progresses.
Mike Penix’s success during the first start of his career Saturday against Ball State has driven the narrative surrounding Indiana football for a few days, but what has gone widely disregarded – likely because of his 326 passing yards and the 75-yard pass to Nick Westbrook – is that Penix also led the team in rushing yards, with 67.
There are a couple ways to spin that statistic. One is that Penix did an above-average job of reading the defense on read-options and showed that he is “a pro-style quarterback who can also run,” as he described himself the day he was announced the starter.
But the more accurate way to interpret the stat is that Indiana didn’t run the ball nearly as well as will be needed to compete in the Big Ten in 2019. Between the five ball carriers behind Penix, IU totaled 91 rushing yards.
“It was disappointing,” Allen said after the game Saturday. “They were loading the box. They loaded the box a lot. That’s why we threw the ball as much as we did. We’re going to look at that and figure it out.”
To say that Stevie Scott was the feature back would be understating the parity between the number of carries he received and the number of carries other running backs received. The Hoosier’s No. 1 running back was given the ball 19 times, while Ronnie Walker Jr., Cole Gest and Sampson James all carried the ball once each.
During a season when Indiana finally has strong running back depth, with backs that could each contribute in significant ways, both in the present and the future, that workload ratio was not the plan heading into the season. With the plan to take what the defense gave them, IU threw the ball 40 times with its redshirt freshman quarterback, since Ball State stationed an extra defender inside the box more often than not.
That’s a new concept for Scott, who burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2018, causing most of IU’s opponents to trip over themselves on defense. Ball State was prepared by forcing Penix to win the game.
“A year ago, we go to these first couple games, and I never heard (Scott’s) name mentioned by one opposing coach,” Allen said Monday. “And then going into this game, all the head coach talked about when he was talking about their defense, was talking about stopping Stevie Scott. That's what happens when you have a good season and you're considered a guy that they have to take away.”
Much of it is developing the backs behind Scott to be more well-rounded. Scott has a good balance within his running style but also is a good pass protector. That will be crucial with a freshman at quarterback and was certainly an emphasis Saturday, which led to Walker Jr. being named a co-offensive player of the week for the Hoosiers.
Catching the ball out of the backfield will need to be involved in the skillset of running backs that will see the field in 2019, as DeBoer has shown he wants to throw to his running backs moving forward. Scott had three catches on a handful of targets Saturday.
“Just making that first defender miss really,” Scott said after the Ball State game about how the running backs can improve. “Just getting to that second level, third level. That’s something all the running backs have to work on. Receiving out of the backfield also.”
But to make the first defender miss, there needs to be space to move, and Ball State did a good job of plugging holes and taking away any effort in the run game for Indiana. Walker had a 14-yard run, and Whop Philyor was able to find space on a 22-yard sweep, but any attempt up the middle was upended by the Cardinals.
Certainly a change of pace could counter a loaded box, and, as the Hoosiers proved Saturday, passing the ball over the top of the defense could stretch the field. Based on what Allen said Monday, the strategy moving forward is plugging in the proven playmakers at running back, throwing the ball if nothing is there and then maintaining a rotation in the backfield.
“To me, step No. 1 is finding guys that can be complete running backs, and step No. 2 is doing a great job as a coaching staff and having a good flow with that position,” Allen said.
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