Offense
Indiana’s 2017 offense was a far cry from the dominant, explosive offenses of the Wilson era. That’s a nicer way to say that it was dreadful. The Hoosiers couldn’t pass or run on good teams and were only decent against bad ones. Mike DeBord will have to do something in 2018 that he’s never done before. He’ll have to coach well.
This offense isn’t without talent. Six starters are back from last year, including four linemen and half of their backfield. Unfortunately, the half of their backfield is not at quarterback, though Richard Lagow wasn’t great last year, so it’s not a huge loss.
In his place will be either Peyton Ramsey or Brandon Dawkins. Ramsey knows the system and wasn’t terrible filling in for Lagow last season, but he’s not particularly good. Dawkins, the former starter at Arizona before Khalil Tate showed up has much more experience. Neither of them seem like a home run pick.
My guess is that Ramsey gets the job. That’s not great for Indiana, but like I said, there’s no great option. Ramsey probably won’t hurt the Hoosiers, even if he doesn’t help them a ton.
The backfield and receiving options have some bright spots
There are far fewer questions at running back. Sophomore Morgan Ellison was great at times last year, and awful at other times (as freshmen tend to be), and should be far more consistent this year. That means fewer stuffs at the line or losses, both of which hurt Ellison last year.
If he is better and can be great 60 percent of the time rather than 30 percent of the time this offense is in good shape. He’s a capable workhorse back, and this offense may need a great running attack to survive.
The receiving core is in a pretty good place. The best player on the team in 2017, Simmie Cobbs Jr, is gone, but Luke Timian and Nick Westbrook lead a young but exciting group. J-Shun Harris, Whop Philyor and Donovan Hale should all see plenty of targets too.
The receiving corps and Morgan Ellison will both help whoever the new quarterback is. The most important place that Indiana will need improvement, however, is up front.
The group wasn’t bad last year, and Coy Cronk, Wes Martin, Brandon Knight, Hunter Littlejohn, Nick Linder and Simon Stepaniak should make for a legitimately good group. There’s going to be a bit of a battle between those last three for the starting center and right guard spots, but whoever wins should be solid.
How much improvement is possible?
It’s fair to expect quite a bit of improvement offensively for Indiana this year. It’s hard to be worse than they were in 2017, and there’s just too much talent for the group to not be at least decent.
All of this may not matter though. Mike DeBord has never coached a good offense without getting lucky with elite talent, whether it was Joshua Dobbs at Tennessee, or Mike Hart and Chad Henne at Michigan. I don’t think this team has elite talent, and I know DeBord can’t create that. If he gets out of the way, Indiana will be dangerous on offense. Not great, but dangerous.
On the other hand, if DeBord does his usual overcoaching, they’ll probably struggle again. This is a crucial season for Indiana, and with a new quarterback, there could be a lot of volatility. That means they need an offensive coordinator that can handle that. DeBord has not proven that he can do that.