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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

sports football

IU football offense can't dwell in the past

Junior quaterback RIcahrd lagow walks off the field at Memorial Stadium on Saturday after throwing an inteception in the 4th quarter, one of five he through in the game. IU lost to Wake Forest 33-29.

The night of IU’s 33-28 loss to Wake Forest, junior quarterback Richard Lagow went to senior receiver Mitchell Paige’s apartment to watch film before the coaches addressed the mistakes the passing attack had made.

The quarterback had just thrown not only his first interception as a Hoosier, but five in 
one night.

He and a handful of receivers turned on a tablet, watched replays of the game and traded thoughts and feelings about drives and miscommunications, something Paige said wasn’t necessarily scheduled but was certainly helpful for his new quarterback.

“He was the one that was like, ‘Alright, we need to figure out what’s going on. We need to learn from this,’” Paige said. “This was before we had talked to any coaches because we wanted to see what we thought the reasons were.”

While Lagow took responsibility for most of the interceptions thrown that night, IU Coach Kevin Wilson and offensive coordinator Kevin Johns both said the coaching staff was to blame.

Regardless of where the blame is placed, the consensus is that the players and coaches are moving forward to their matchup with Michigan State on Saturday — the team’s first Big Ten game of the 
season.

Sophomore wide receiver Nick Westbrook, who recorded 129 yards and two touchdowns against Wake Forest, said the atmosphere around IU’s first practice of the week wasn’t the interceptions.

In fact, the team is focused on forgetting them.

“There wasn’t a huge emphasis on them because those weren’t all his fault obviously,” Westbrook said about Lagow. “He’s focusing on the right read, not thinking, ‘Oh I’m gonna throw a pick.’”

Paige said things aren’t “ticking” the way they expected them to at this point in the season, but Westbrook said a lot of that ticking falls on the receivers’ shoulders. The most important statistic to Westbrook was his dropped pass that ended in a touchdown for the Demon Deacons.

Those plays can’t happen when the Big Ten season begins.

Despite the five interceptions, the Hoosiers are still the best passing offense in the Big Ten. The Spartans are ranked 12th in the conference in passing defense, allowing 226 yards per game through the air.

Normally, a team would favor a matchup like that, but Michigan State, a perennial top-25 team in the nation, carries the tradition of a physical secondary.

“They do a tremendous job of getting hands on receivers,” Johns said about Michigan State’s defensive backs. “They do it every play. They challenge every throw. And we know that. That’s what Michigan State has been for a long time.”

Michigan State is coming off a 30-6 loss to Wisconsin, and the secondary hasn’t allowed over 100 yards to a receiver all season.

But since the Florida International game to start the season, IU has had two 100-yard receiving performances from Westbrook and a 208-yard performance from senior receiver Ricky Jones — the fifth most in a single game in school history.

When playing a physical secondary like Michigan State’s, it’s important that the receivers do not see the defenders as anyone other than typical defensive backs, Westbrook said.

After suffering their first lost, the matchup against Michigan State will be the first block on which Lagow and his receivers build trust and also on which the Hoosiers set the standard for the rest of the season.

“A sign of a good team is a team that plays their best at the end of the year, so we’re still climbing, still trying to get better every single day,” Johns said. “And we are.”

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