Houston-led running game becomes focal point of offense

After struggling to gain yardage on the ground against teams like Ball State and North Texas, the Hoosiers have found a way to rush against Big Ten opponents like Wisconsin, Iowa and Northwestern.

Senior offensive lineman Justin Pagan attributes some of the success to the changing attitude of the team.

“It’s definitely a mindset,” Pagan said. “It’s something we didn’t have at the beginning of the year, but now, we showed that we keep pushing through it. We have that attitude to keep going, and we still have little stuff to fix.”

In Saturday’s 59-38 defeat at the hands of Northwestern, both sophomore running back Stephen Houston and true freshman quarterback Tre Roberson rushed for more than 100 yards, helping IU total 319 on the ground.

Through their first six games, the Hoosiers compiled 713 rushing yards as a team. In the last three games, they have totaled 759 yards on the ground.

At Big Ten Media Days in August, players such as senior wide receiver Damarlo Belcher expected members of the wide receiving corps to be the standouts, not young rushers like Houston or true freshman D’Angelo Roberts.

“I think Duwyce Wilson is going to have a breakout season this year,” Belcher said then. “Kofi’s going to play great, and we even have a couple of young fellas and once camp starts, we’re going to see if they’re going to be able to play.”

There was no mention of Houston, Roberts or anyone else in the IU backfield. At that point, most questions were about who will play quarterback and how the passing game would progress.

Houston was on hardly anyone’s radar.

He transferred from Independence (Kan.) Community College during the summer and has become one of the regulars on IU’s offense in recent weeks. Houston has scored six times this season, more than any one quarterback on IU’s roster has thrown.

“The more he’s played, the better he’s got,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. “Here’s a guy that shows up for us and again, we don’t know anything about him until mid-June, get him in here the first of July and now that’s three or four weeks in a row he keeps
building.”

Injuries have plagued much of IU’s receiving corps, from Belcher to sophomores Hughes and Duwyce Wilson. Belcher was suspended from Saturday’s game for a
violation of team rules, and Duwyce Wilson left the game after suffering what could be a serious knee injury.

Injuries and inconsistent quarterback play have limited IU’s passing attack this season. For example, Duwyce Wilson leads the team in touchdown receptions with three. Northwestern’s Drake Dunsmore had that many touchdown receptions before halftime of Saturday’s game.

In past weeks, Wilson has complimented Houston on his ability to break tackles and run hard. Houston ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns Saturday, adding three receptions for 32 yards.

“He ran through some trash,” Kevin Wilson said. “He got more than what was blocked. I think in some ways we blocked a little bit better, too. Not that he was playing on his own out there, but he definitely took some one and two-yard plays and got six, seven, eight, nine or 10 a few times.”

Houston gave a great deal of credit to the players on IU’s offensive line, as well as the coaches who helped establish his trust in the offense. The line had its best week of practice, Houston said.

The offensive line has undergone many changes this year as a result of injuries.
The Hoosiers lost senior Josh Hager for the season in the opening game, and junior center Will Matte has missed the last two games.

Young players such as redshirt freshman Collin Rahrig, who has played center in Matte’s place, impressed Houston, he said.

“We had a lot of freshmen play today,” Houston said. “I have confidence in whoever plays. Obviously, Coach does, too. He has the trust to start Tre, (true freshman wide receiver) Shane (Wynn) and we have freshmen on our (offensive) line starting, and they all did a tremendous job.”

Shortly after the game ended, the focus turned to Ohio State, the Hoosiers’ next opponent, Houston said. Ohio State has allowed the fourth-fewest rushing yards of any Big Ten team this season.

“We’ll see some different animals as we move forward in the next few weeks defensively with the type of defense and other teams’ ability to play great run defense,”
Wilson said.