Ohio State football: 7 things to know about Indiana

Here are seven things to know about Indiana prior to the Buckeyes’ visit:

1. Indiana returns seven starters from a team that went 4-8 last season.

That includes three offensive linemen, a pair of receivers and just two players on defense.

While the offensive line was not only one of the worst in the Big Ten but the nation according to FootballOutsiders.com, the receivers — Cam Camper and Addison Coby — were somewhat productive, combining for 64 catches and 806 yards.

Linebacker Aaron Casey also is back after being by far the team’s best defensive player with nine tackles for loss in 2022.

He is one of seven players to be named to a watch preseason list for the Senior Bowl, which is an annual all-star game that kicks off NFL Draft preparations in January.

Linebacker Jacob Mangum-Farrar, defensive linemen LeDarrius Cox, Philip Blidi and Andre Carter and offensive linemen Zach Carpenter and Matthew Bedford also made that list.

2. Indiana wasn’t really good at anything last season.

The defensive line was an exception, ranking 64th in the country in Football Outsiders average line yards (a measurement of how well they handled the point of attack).

That group is almost entirely new this fall, but Allen expressed confidence in it Monday when he met with reporters in Bloomington.

“I think that’s going to be one of the strengths of our defense,” Allen said before calling the new-look secondary the biggest question heading into the Ohio State game.

The offensive line was 127th in the country in average line yards and 91st in sack rate while traditional stats did not look much better.

Indiana ranked 86th or worse in every major statistical category on each side of the ball, including 98th in scoring offense and 119th in scoring defense.

The Hoosiers, who went through multiple quarterbacks because of injuries, were particularly inefficient in the passing game, ranking 122nd.

3. Northwestern is the only team in the Big Ten with fewer returning starters according to Athlon Sports.

Indiana lost more than a dozen players via the transfer portal but brought in nearly two dozen as Allen tries to reverse a ship that appears to be sinking since the 6-2 pandemic campaign in 2020.

Carter, who had 13 tackles for loss at Western Michigan last season, is the most notable addition for the Hoosiers, who figure to have a new-look front seven overall around Casey. Mangum-Farrar (Stanford), Cox (Mississippi) and Blidi (Texas Tech) are also transfers.

4. Not much is expected of the Hoosiers this season.

Phil Steele projects Indiana to finish last in the Big Ten East and ranked the Hoosiers 86th in his preseason power poll.

They are projected No. 71 in the nation, two spots ahead of Rutgers, in SP+ (an advanced metric that combines play-by-play efficiency and other factors) to start the season.

They are the least-experienced team in the conference according to Steele’s evaluation tool, which ranks them 123rd in the country in that regard. (Ohio State is 59th in the country and fifth in the Big Ten.)

5. The Indiana quarterback situation bears some similarity to Ohio State’s.

Allen told reporters in Bloomington last week he had decided how to handle his battle between Taven Jackson and fellow redshirt freshman Brendan Sorsby, but he was not planning to reveal it before the game starts.

“I would say that the process that you go through, especially with two guys who are the same age and both young, both talented, both bring different skillsets to the team,” Allen said. “Very pleased with those guys. I think they’ve just both really improved a lot since they’ve been there.”

At one point, he sounded similar to Ohio State coach Ryan Day in expressing confidence in both options.

“I think the bottom line is that we do feel like we have two guys that are really good players,” Allen said. “Excited about that.”

6. Jaylin Lucas is a player to watch.

The 5-foot-9, 170-pound junior from Louisiana earned All-America honors as a return man last year and was named the Big Ten’s return specialist of the year.

He was also the team’s No. 3 rusher with 286 yards on the ground, averaging 5.5 yards per carry, and figures to see an expanded roll this fall.

7. Ohio State has more wins over Indiana than any other opponent.

The Buckeyes are 78-12-5 in a series that started in 1901.

They have won 28 in a row since losing consecutive games to the Hoosiers in 1987 and ‘88.

Ohio State has 69 wins over Illinois, 65 wins over Northwestern, 62 wins over Wisconsin and 52 wins over Michigan.

SATURDAY’S GAME

Ohio State at Indiana, 3:30 p.m., CBS, 1410