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Indiana Hoosiers Preview 2022: Season Prediction, Breakdown, Key Games, Players

Indiana Hoosiers Preview 2022: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Indiana season with what you need to know and keys to the season.


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Indiana Hoosiers Preview
Head Coach: Tom Allen, 6th year at Indiana, 26-32
2021 Preview: Overall: 2-10, Conference: 0-8
Keys To The Season | Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Indiana Top 10 Players | Indiana Schedule & Analysis

Indiana Hoosiers Preview 2022

Just when it seemed like long-suffering Indiana football fans were about to have some real fun …

Cue the sad trombone.

The 2021 team wasn’t as bad as the 2-10 record might have seemed – in a “other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” sort of way, it was a special teams play away from possibly beating Cincinnati – just like the 2020 team wasn’t quite as good in the strangest of seasons than the 6-1 Big Ten record made it seem.

So what went wrong?

Start with the obvious – 1) injuries, and 2) the rest of the Big Ten wasn’t awful in 2021.

Penn State had a historically bad start in 2020, Michigan ended up going 2-4, Michigan State went 2-5, and Wisconsin was basically gutted as the season went on. Even so, give 2020 IU credit – it got the job done when the opportunity was there.

Even with the far, far better Big Ten last year, and the nasty schedule with Cincinnati and a high-octane WKU on it, and even with injuries and things not working quite right, the Hoosiers really were close against Cincinnati, pushed Michigan State, and lost by three to Maryland.

And now Indiana should be able to come up with a season that’s more competitive and far, far stronger. The team might have been gutted by the transfer portal, but it upgraded and strengthened a few spots with new spots, too.

But …

Indiana Hoosiers Preview 2022: Offense

The offense. It needs to do that scoring thing again. The Hoosiers had the worst offense in the Big Ten – averaging 290 yards per game – it had a nightmare of a time with turnovers, it couldn’t run the ball, and the team scored 15 points or fewer in eight of the 12 games.

Head coach Tom Allen will take a more active role in the attack, and a slew of skill parts just got a whole lot more interesting through the transfer portal.

QB Michael Penix getting hurt led to a problem at quarterback with four different options throwing at least 58 passes. Penix is off the Washington, and in comes former Missouri starter Connor Bazelak to compete with Jack Tuttle and Donaven McCulley for the job.

The receiving corps lost Ty Fryfogle and leading receiver tight end Peyton Hendershot. In comes JUCO transfer Cam Camper and North Carolina transfer Emery Simmons to join DJ Matthews, who showed promise early last year before getting hurt.

The running game is getting an overhaul, too. Most of the top backs are gone, but in comes Shaun Shivers from Auburn and Josh Henderson from North Carolina to add a nice tandem to shine if the line play is fine. If freshman Jaylin Lucas is just that good, look out for this group.

It’s not a total redo up front around left tackle Luke Haggard and versatile interior blocker Zach Carpenter, but it’s going to take a little work. Get the running game going, keep defenses from living in the backfield – IU’s front five has to be better at both.

Indiana Hoosiers Preview 2022: Defense

The offense was bad. Again, injuries, inconsistencies, and a lack of anything to rely on – especially at quarterback – were all a part of the problem. The defense was worse. Like the offense, the D has a whole lot of new parts for a group that needs work.

In comes Chad Wilt, a rising star defensive line coach who spent the last few years at Minnesota and now takes over in his first defensive coordinator gig. He inherits a group that was the worst in the Big Ten in scoring defense, couldn’t get to the quarterback, and couldn’t generate turnovers – all of those combined to be part of the problem; more on that in the Keys To The Season section.

Fortunately …

The secondary will be a positive. It struggled throughout last year, but getting back CB Tiawan Mullen – he was hurt for most of 2021 – is a huge plus to go along with Jaylin Williams on the other side. The safeties will be a positive, too, around veteran Devon Matthews. Now they need help from the pass rush.

LB Micah McFadden tried to carry the entire defense by himself, and now he’s off trying to be a New York Giant. Miami transfer Bradley Jennings will try to fill the void, and Cam Jones is a veteran holdover from last year who should be one of the team’s leading tacklers.

Cal transfer JH Tevis adds a whole lot of help to the defensive interior, and UCLA’s Myles Jackson needs to be the answer to the pass rush problems, probably at IU’s Bull position. Throw in 319-pound Ole Miss transfer LeDarrius Cox into the rotation, and the Hoosiers are trying to fix the overall glitch fast.

Keys To The Season | Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Indiana Top 10 Players | Indiana Schedule & Analysis

Indiana Hoosiers: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats NEXT

Indiana Hoosiers: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats

Indiana Hoosiers: Key To The 2022 Offense

Score touchdowns. Duh.

It seems like a basic concept, but Indiana didn’t score enough. It came up with 24 touchdowns on the season – it scored 28 in the eight game 2020 campaign. How rough was it?

The Hoosiers scored eight touchdowns in the blowout win over Idaho, and it put up four in the shootout loss to Maryland. Throw in the three against both Cincinnati and in the win over WKU, and 18 of the 24 touchdowns came in four games.

There were a mere six touchdowns scored in the other eight games.

Indiana Hoosiers: Key To The 2022 Defense

Take the ball away and party like it’s 2020.

Two years ago the Hoosiers cranked up 20 touchdowns in the seven regular season games with eight in the first three games. Last year they came up with nine takeaways – total.

There wasn’t a pass rush – just 17 sacks on the season – and the third down stops weren’t there. With the offense that was stumbling along, and with the lack of overall defensive production, more turnovers would’ve meant everything.

There was just one takeaway in the final six games.

Indiana Hoosiers: Key Player To The 2022 Season

DT JH Tevis, Sr.
Go ahead and put the pressure on any Hoosier player you want and it might be right. Everything, though, starts with the lines.

The defensive front has to hold up better in the interior, and the 6-4, 281-pound Cal transfer has to be all-around tackle who can do everything.

He’s not big enough to be an anchor, but he’s got the quickness to be disruptive – he came up with three sacks and 8.5 tackles for loss for the Bears.

He needs at least that many this year.

Indiana Hoosiers: Key Transfer

LB Bradley Jennings, Sr.
Auburn RB Shaun Shivers is going to be a big deal. North Carolina WR Emery Simmons needs to be a huge deal. Missouri QB Connor Bazelak could be the most massive deal if he wins the job over Jack Tuttle.

Trying to find a linebacker who can step in for Micah McFadden, though, could be the toughest deal of all.

Jennings is a smallish 6-1, 222-pound transfer from Miami who made 68 tackles in his career theres, but it took him a season to get over an injury, came back to start 11 games last year, and now he needs to be a star for the Hoosier linebacking corps.

Indiana Key Game To The 2022 Season

Illinois, Sept. 2
The Hoosiers have to get off to a big start to put the ugliness of 2021 in the rearview mirror. They start the season at home against Illinois and follow it up with Idaho, so beat the Illini, match last seasons win total by the end of September 10th.

There aren’t a ton of winnable games on the slate – or games IU will be favored in. There can’t be any giveaways at home.

Indiana Hoosiers: 2021 Fun Stats

– Sacks: Opponents 29 for 169 yards – Indiana 17 for 126 yards
– 3rd Quarter Scoring: Opponents 109 – Indiana 30
– Red Zone Scores: Opponents 50-of-55 (91%) – Indiana 27-of-35 (77%)

O, D Breakdown | Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Indiana Top 10 Players | Indiana Schedule & Analysis

Indiana Hoosiers Season Prediction, What Will Happen NEXT

Indiana Hoosiers Season Prediction, What Will Happen

Indiana will be better.

It’s not going to win the Big Ten East, and it’s going to take a whole lot of big breaks to get bowling, but it’s going to be stronger, sharper, and it’s actually going to start scoring again.

But with this program, the wins come when the schedule is light.

Out of the 42 wins over the last eight seasons, 36 of them came against FCS teams or reams that finished with losing records – and two of the wins came against WKU, who’s on the slate this year.

In other words, it’s more than likely that Indiana will have issues if the slate is full of a lot of good teams.

Set The Indiana Hoosiers Regular Season Win Total At … 5

Idaho should be a win, and the home game against WKU is a must. The Rutgers game is on the road, and so are the dates with Nebraska and Cincinnati.

Can the Hoosiers beat a Penn State or Michigan in Memorial Stadium? How about Purdue, Maryland, and Illinois?

There will be at least four wins, and if there’s even a little more offensive production, there should be five with a right-performance-right-day performance in the mix somewhere.

Getting that sixth will likely come down to the season finale against Purdue.

Offense, Defense Breakdown | Keys To The Season
Indiana Top 10 Players | Indiana Schedule & Analysis

2022 College Football Schedules: All 131 Teams

Story originally appeared on College Football News