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“Win with Wilson” has been the Indiana Hoosiers’ mantra since hiring Kevin Wilson in 2011. It rolls off the tongue nicely, but unfortunately, it has been one of the very few things to roll smoothly for the Hoosiers recently. Indiana won a mere four games last year, their saving grace being a toss up between upsetting the SEC East Champion Missouri Tigers on the road — which was bizarre — or defeating the arch-rival Purdue Boilermakers for the second consecutive season. What is especially disappointing about last season’s 4-8 record is that it happened with some legitimate talent on both sides of the ball. Very little, if any, of that talent returns to the Hoosiers in 2015.
On offense, the Hoosiers find themselves void of any veteran leadership at most of the skill positions. Running backs D’Angelo Roberts and Tevin Coleman are gone, as well as slot receiver Shane Wynn. Receiver J’Shun Harris was set to be the next offensive threat, but he sustained an ACL injury and will be out for the season. Alex Rodriguez, Devine Redding, Ricky Jones and Simmie Cobbs headline the plethora of young backs and receivers who could potentially emerge as playmakers, but their lack of experience will definitely play a factor in their on-field production.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Wilson may have a quarterback controversy on his hands. Senior Nate Sudfeld is back from injury and has shown some ability to be a decent pocket passer. However, there still remain some accuracy issues with him. Sophomore Zander Diamont is more of an option quarterback that has decent speed on the edge, but Indiana lacks the athletes to spread an up-tempo offense. I don’t see the Hoosiers scoring a lot of points this fall.
The defensive unit will be what wins games for Indiana in 2015. Defensive back Mark Murphy graduated, but the unit returns defensive tackles Darius Latham and Nick Mangieri, along with linebacker Tegray Scales. Latham especially showed tremendous athletic ability in the spring game when he intercepted a screen pass with one hand. Scales is a sure tackler who has the ability to disrupt plays at the line of scrimmage.
Indiana’s non-conference schedule is somewhat doable. It hosts Southern Illinois, Florida International and Western Kentucky before going on the road to Wake Forest. Then it opens Big Ten play at home against Ohio State. It’s not the most ideal situation for the Hoosiers, and it doesn’t get any easier. All of their conference road games will be a challenge, as they face Penn State, Michigan State, Maryland and Purdue away from the friendly confines of Bloomington.
My overall forecast for Indiana doesn’t look good. I have them finishing last in the Big Ten East at 0-8, with a 3-9 overall record. The defense will shine every now and then, but the lack of offensive support will prove costly time and again for the Hoosiers in 2015.
Brooks Hooley is a Junior Big Ten Football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @brookshooley.
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