Indiana offensive coordinator Kevin Johns met with the media on Tuesday to review last Saturday’s loss to Wake Forest and preview the upcoming game against Michigan State.
Here are three takeaways from his comments.
Strong defensive track record for MSU
The Hoosiers’ Saturday opponent has been awfully stout on defense in recent years.
According to FootballOutsiders.com’s S&P+ defensive rankings – a college football rating system that uses play-by-play data to evaluate concepts including efficiency, explosiveness, finishing drives, field position and turnovers – Michigan State has ranked in the top 25 at the end of every single season since 2012.
Most recently, they ranked 12th nationally in 2015 and check in at 21st in the current season’s rankings.
S&P+ is adjusted for strength of schedule, so even though the Spartans are allowing 23.7 points per game (52nd nationally,) the rankings allow some leeway for giving up 28 points at Notre Dame and 30 points to No. 6 Wisconsin.
Johns explained the Hoosiers are well aware of the task confronting his offensive unit on Saturday.
“They’re going to present a lot of challenges,” Johns said. “They’ve been good on defense for a long time.
“It’s a lot like Wake Forest where they will challenge every run, challenge every throw on the perimeter. Their defensive backs will get their hands on you. They’re a great pressure team.
“They pride themselves on playing great defense, so for us it will be an 11 man operation.
“Up front they’re stout. Their linebackers are fast. They’re physical…it will be a total 11 man challenge.”
High ceiling for Nick Westbrook
Nick Westbrook wasn’t even a starter to begin this season.
He was slotted to play behind junior Simmie Cobbs Jr., who projected to be one of Indiana’s top receiving targets in 2016.
With Cobbs out indefinitely with a broken ankle, however, Westbrook has stepped up and filled in nicely. The sophomore’s four receiving touchdowns are more than the rest of the team combined (three tied for one touchdown each,) and his 332 receiving yards also lead the squad.
Johns noted as well as Westbrook has played, room for improvement remains.
“He’s done a good job of making some big time plays for us and some long receiving yardage, but I think if you ask Nick, he is nowhere where he can be or wants to be,” Johns said. “He’s still got a lot of growth to do and work to do.
“But he’s done a good job when the opportunity presents itself.”
Finishing drives continues to pose an issue
According to FootballStudyHall.com, Indiana’s offense has performed just fine in the categories of big plays and efficiency.
The Hoosiers rank 22nd nationally in the IsoPPP explosiveness category (1.42,) and 31st in the country in success rate (46.8 percent,) which measure efficiency.
That makes it all the more frustrating for the program when they somehow leave points on the board.
Indiana is averaging just 4.0 points per trip inside the opponent's 40-yard line this season, again per FootballStudyHall.com, which ranks all the way down at No. 110 nationally.
Churning out both big plays and efficient possessions can put a team in great position to score an awful lot of points. You still have to actually finish the drives, though, for those efforts to count.
When asked about what specifically Indiana is struggling with when it comes to punctuating their possessions with a score, Johns was brief.
“Unfortunately I’d say it’s a lot like our first couple of games where it’s self inflicted wounds once we get close to scoring,” he said. “That’s still an issue we need to clean up.”
