Indiana's early season rushing dominance 'starts up front'

Indiana football rushed for 13 touchdowns throughout the entirety of the 2023 season. Through the first four weeks of the Curt Cignetti era in Bloomington, the Hoosiers have already surpassed that mark.

At the conclusion of Saturday's contest, Indiana ranked second in the Big Ten in rushing yards -- trailing only Ohio State. Through the first four weekends of the college football season, Indiana has amassed a conference-leading 18 touchdowns on the ground.

The effectiveness of Indiana's rushing attack has been key to the Hoosiers' impressive start to the season. It was once again a big factor in Indiana's 52-14 win over Charlotte.

The Hoosiers ran for 234 yards against the 49ers, averaging 5.4 yards per carry. Indiana scored six touchdowns on the ground in the blowout win.

While any of the five Hoosiers that scored a rushing touchdown on Saturday might garner most of the spotlight, Cignetti knows that success on the ground starts up front.

"Of course it all starts up front with the offensive line and tight ends," Cignetti said. "We have quality running backs too. The fact that we're balanced, we can run well and that helps the passing game and the running game."

This offseason, Cignetti hit the transfer portal hard. In the running back room alone, there's not a single returner from Tom Allen's final season with the Hoosiers.

Of the four tail backs that get consistent carries, two of them came over from James Madison, one is from Wake Forest, and the other is a North Carolina transfer.

Ahead of his first season in Bloomington, Cignetti assembled a running back room that his both deep and talented.

"It's a blessing," Black said on the depth of the Hoosiers' running back room, "everyone is talented."

Black was one of five running backs that recorded a rushing attempt in Saturday's win. Four of those five tail backs -- Khobie Martin during garbage time was the lone exception -- averaged greater than 5.0 yards per carry versus Charlotte.

No matter who it was carrying the ball for the Hoosiers, they were finding success on the ground, something that has been a consistent theme all season long.

Four running backs have combined for 71% of the Hoosiers' rush attempts so far this season. Three of them have scored at least one touchdown, and two of them each have multi-touchdown performances through the first four weeks of the season.

Indiana's ability to rotate through different tail backs throughout a game has been of huge importance for the Hoosiers to start the year.

"It's definitely been great on our bodies," Black said. "Coach [Cignetti] loves to rotate his running backs and that definitely has an impact on us. It allows us to stay good and fresh."

Another one of the factors at play in Indiana's rushing success no matter the half back, is the play of the Hoosiers' offensive line. Indiana has gotten consistent push at the point of attack week in and week out.

Throughout the early stages of the season, the Hoosiers' offensive line has consistently won the battle in the trenches.

Whether it's been against a group of five team, an FCS team or even a fellow Big Ten foe, Indiana's offensive line has regularly created gaping wholes for Indiana's slew of running backs.

"They've been super tough," Rourke said on the play of Indiana's offensive line. "They've been giving everybody else a lot of problems... I'm looking forward to continuing to lean on them."

An area of the field in which Indiana's running game has been particularly potent is in the red zone, where the Hoosiers have been extremely efficient to start the year.

"We just think score," Black said. "We think that every time we get the ball... when we get down there, the mentality is just to score and then we do what we can do."

So far this season, Indiana's offense has entered the red zone 24 times. The Hoosiers have found the end zone on 20 of those trips to the red zone, with many of those scores coming on the ground.

Indiana's now eclipsed the century mark on the ground every game to start the season.

In four games, the Hoosiers have surpassed 200 rushing yards on three occasions. A lot of that can be attributed to Indiana's ability to break tackles.

"I think Indiana has a deep stable of [running] backs," Charlotte head coach Biff Poggi said. "They're offensive line does a really nice job, but those backs break a lot of tackles. That was something that was very noticeable today, them breaking tackles. I'm not sure that we ever from a back down with first contact."

On Saturday, Cignetti became the first Indiana head coach in the history of the program to improve to 4-0 to begin his first season with the tam.

While Indiana has dominated in each phase of the game, the running game has stood out to begin the 2024 season for the Hoosiers.

With Big Ten play ramping back up next weekend as Indiana welcomes Maryland to town, Black and the Hoosiers are confident they can continue their early season success on the ground.

"We're just going to keep this thing rolling."

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