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Tuesday, March 19
The Indiana Daily Student

sports football

Coleman, Roberts lead IU to 28-10 win against Indiana State

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IU junior quarterback Nate Sudfeld could see the potential in his running back’s eyes.

Before IU’s 28-10 win against Indiana State Saturday, Sudfeld looked at junior running back Tevin Coleman during the pre-game.

After seeing him, Sudfeld said he knew Coleman was about to have a special game on Anthony Thompson Day at Memorial Stadium.

“He had a look in his eye,” Suefeld said. “He was ready to go with the whole Anthony Thompson thing. He wanted to live up to that.”

Sudfeld’s premonition was right.

Coleman recorded a career-high 247 yards and added two touchdowns off 23 carries against the Sycamores (0-1) to lead IU (1-0) to an 18-point victory to start the Hoosiers’ season.

Coleman combined with senior running back D’Angelo Roberts to rush for 376 yards and three touchdowns between 47 carries.

The running back tandem of Coleman and Roberts formed the backbone of a Hoosier offense that recorded 455 of its 566 total yards on the ground.

They paced an IU offense that mostly struggled through the air behind the arm of Sudfeld, who finished with 111 yards through the air off of 11-of-18 passing.

“This is just the beginning,” Coleman said of the rushing performance. “We really have more to work on. We really have more to show.”

The running game was quickly established from the opening whistle.

On IU’s first possession, the Hoosiers combined to run the ball nine times to cover 76 yards.

Coleman capped off the drive with a 13-yard touchdown rush to put the Hoosiers up 7-0 just under eight minutes into the game, which was delayed 50 minutes due to lightning threats.

On IU’s ensuing offensive possession after an Indiana State field goal, the running backs once again got their numbers called. Coleman busted through the middle of the Sycamores’ 3-4 defense for a 73-yard score.

By then, Coleman was well on his way to rushing for more yards (247) than Indiana State’s entire offense combined (170).

Running backs coach Deland McCullough told his backs they were going to put more focus on the run game, but even Roberts was surprised by how often his number was called.

“I didn’t have any idea that we were going to run it that much,” Roberts said.

IU Coach Kevin Wilson applauded his run game but gave credit to Indiana State’s defense for disrupting Sudfeld and IU’s passing game.

He said the Sycamores regularly dropped eight players back into pass coverage which made for a tough day for the passing offense.

Oftentimes on designed pass plays, Sudfeld found himself being forced out of the pocket to scramble for yards on the ground without receiving options open down field.

“We just had a hard time against them,” Wilson said. “They did a nice job defensively ... But the run game was going well enough. We rode that probably a little more.”

Establishing the run game went a long way toward helping IU control time of possession 36:20 to 23:40, which rarely happened last season.

IU’s ability to keep the offense on the field for most of the game gave the Hoosier defense breaks on the sidelines.

IU’s defense—which gave up 35 points to Indiana State last season—held the Sycamores to just 10 points Saturday. Wilson was quick to point out that both scores came off of turnovers, which wasn’t entirely his defense’s fault.

But on a day when one of IU’s most celebrated running backs in program history was being celebrated, the Hoosiers’ rushers took center stage.

“Our coaches tell us either you’re getting your butt kicked or you kicking somebody’s butt,” Roberts said.

Roberts was then asked whether or not he thought his Hoosier backs were the ones doing the butt kicking ?Saturday.

“Absolutely,” he said.

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