IU has scored fewer than 12 points once this season, and that was against the No. 5 scoring defense Penn State.
Against the Big Ten’s third-best defense, Ohio State, and fourth-best defense, Iowa, IU put 27 points on the scoreboard. This is the team’s last chance to defeat a top-25 team at home this season, as Saturday will be Senior Day for the Hoosiers.
“Michigan is playing very, very good football,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. “We’re going to have to find all three phases to contribute against what is a really, really good football team.”
One phase of the game that will require emphasis from the Hoosiers is rushing offense, where Michigan has allowed a conference low 80.6 yards per game, while IU averages 185.8 rushing yards per game.
In games without junior running back Jordan Howard IU averages 121 rushing yards per game, but with Howard the Hoosiers average 161.3 in conference games.
Coming off a game against No. 5 Iowa where he rushed for 174 yards and two touchdowns of 29 and 37 yards, Howard has looked as healthy as he has all season after his ankle injury and reassumes his role of powering through top defenses in the country.
“But we’ve got to find a way to do it,” Wilson said about running the ball. “If you get one-dimensional against a great football team, it’s going to be tough. Last week, our run game was decent against a good Iowa run defense, but our pass game was not quite up to snuff.”
Senior quarterback Nate Sudfeld will not only play the last game of his career at Memorial Stadium, but he will also start against Michigan for the first time — a Jim Harbaugh-coached defense.
The last time Sudfeld played the Wolverines was 2013, when he backed up former Hoosier quarterback Tre Roberson and went 8-of-19 for 122 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
But 2015’s Michigan passing defense is ranked second in the conference. It has intercepted 8 passes and forced a conference-low 46.9 percent completion rate.
Sudfeld struggled against Iowa last week, as he passed for just 180 yards and went 16-of-37 passing. Iowa’s passing defense is ranked just seventh in the conference.
“I thought we beat ourselves,” Sudfeld said about IU’s game against Iowa. “They were a very good defense, very sound. I thought we kind of shot ourselves in the foot too much and didn’t play to the level that we know we can.”
Wilson said the team wants to win every game, but Saturday — Senior Day — he wants to win even more because he has seen the seniors in all four years of their careers and has had to rely on them several times throughout his tenure with the program.
He said former Hoosier receiver Shane Wynn is still around the program as he comes to select games during the season, and Wilson recently received a text message from former IU safety Mark Murphy.
“There’s so much football to play,” Wilson said. “Not all teary-eyed and emotional. Getting to the point where it’s kind of neat now. I know they’re always going to be around, always welcome.”
