Going into the season opener against Indiana State, most of the attention will be on the new 3-4 defensive scheme and rightfully so.
The slightly forgotten aspect of the defense has been the secondary, which is not affected as much by the scheme change.
The IU defense was, among many other categories, last in the Big Ten in pass defense, and that is problematic when realizing that IU will be going up against supreme quarterback talents such as Maty Mauk, Christian Hackenberg and Connor Cook.
I wanted to take a look at the defensive secondary unit to know what to look for this Saturday.
The Hoosiers lost defensive leader and the high point of the secondary, Greg Heban, to graduation this past year, but all the starters have had legitimate playing time.
Returning at cornerback are Tim Bennett and Michael Hunter, with Kenny Mullen and Rashard Fant rotating in.
At free safety there will be former four-star recruit and recently healthy sophomore Antonio Allen.
Allen is certainly the star of the secondary from a raw talent standpoint. Rounding out the unit at strong safety is senior Mark Murphy.
When looking at last season’s pass defense, what stands out is the 147.15 quarterback rating that opponents had throughout the season.
This means that not only did opponents throw for a staggering 290 yards per game against IU, they did it efficiently and without much issue.
When comparing pass defenses in the conference, I think Northwestern is the most comparable. Neither team made a bowl game, and both were among the bottom three in pass defense.
The pass defense only had seven interceptions in 415 attempts. Northwestern had 19 interceptions in 445 attempts.
That is saying IU simply did not have the ability to make plays on the ball or maybe the confidence to make them.
To be clear, Northwestern’s pass defense was bad, allowing 255 yards per game. That bad defense allowed 20 completions of more than 25 yards. IU allowed 36.
I understand that it is no secret the IU defense was bad. What needs to be examined is how they will fare this year.
One statistic that is often brought up is Tim Bennett’s 20 pass breakups and 61 tackles.
It is nice knowing the corner can break down and make a tackle, but I notice those numbers and see that Bennett had to make a lot of tackles on the perimeter.
So even though Bennett broke up several passes, he also allowed receivers to catch a lot of balls, too, thus explaining why Bennett had so many tackles.
Yes, there are always other factors, such as he may have been covering the top receiver, which would lead to the ball being thrown there, but I need to see more in his coverage skills to know if he can be a solid Big Ten cornerback.
Another thing to watch is how Mark Murphy plays in coverage. He is primarily known as a run support safety, which is needed, but I am looking forward to seeing his coverage skills against a pass-oriented offense.
Mainly, watch the effect of having Antonio Allen healthy and a year wiser. He is a game-changing talent for IU, and it will be interesting to see how much havoc he can cause in a “tune-up” game against inferior talent.
The one key factor I left unsaid until now is how much different the pass defense will be with a 3-4 defense causing much more pressure on the quarterback.
Quarterbacks will be rushed more and will have much less freedom in this chaotic system.
Lastly, as I said in my last column, I am looking forward to seeing who has that impressive growth from 2013 to this Saturday. Lets tune in and find out.
My prediction: IU wins 42-13.
