Indiana University Athletics
IU Gets A Lot Out of a Hastily-Arranged Saturday
10/7/2017 10:07:00 PM | Football
By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Sure, it was a hastily-arranged contest against a FCS foe.
But Indiana's host Hoosiers still needed to get plenty out of Saturday's 27-0 romp over Charleston Southern.
And did.
Most obviously, redshirt freshman quarterback Peyton Ramsey shined during his first career start.
Ramsey hit 10 of his first 11 passes and finished 32-of-41 (.780) for 321 yards, two touchdowns. He also ran for a net 54 yards, and picked appropriate spots to run.
And perhaps Ramsey's best play on a day full of positives was alertly pouncing on a fumble after Devonte Williams got drilled in the backfield at the CSU 2.
Ramsey beat everybody – mainly a host of Buccaneer defenders – to the ball in the end zone for the touchdown that made it 17-0 in the second quarter.
"(He's) just a heads-up kid," IU coach Tom Allen said of Ramsey afterward. "That just kind of really defines him."
As a coach's son, having played for his dad at Cincinnati Elder, Ramsey has always exuded a calm confidence. But Saturday had to still be confidence-enhancing.
And be honest here. If you're Indiana, did you want Ramsey making his starting debut Saturday, or next week against Don Brown's Michigan Wolverine defense?
(Thought so.)
That's just one of many reasons it was a coup for IU director of athletics Fred Glass to get the Charleston Southern game scheduled.
Many schools were searching for home games after hurricane-related cancellations and postponements last month. Glass not only secured a home game, replacing the lost date with Florida International, but against a FCS foe that didn't figure to overly tax the Hoosiers the week between a road assignment at Penn State and the Michigan game.
And out of all the positives Indiana could take away from Saturday, none was likely more ultimately valuable than this:
A big W.
Big? Yes, because it is a win that counts exactly the same as any other win when it comes down to, among other things, determining bowl eligibility.
"Every win is a big win," IU coach Tom Allen said succinctly. "You don't take anything for granted."
Saturday's overall context doesn't otherwise matter, either. Some contextual aspects weren't optimal, to be sure. The crowd was a bit sparse, for one thing, understandably.
October 7 was originally the season's bye date, and lots of folks had planned accordingly. It was also fall break, with IU's students and a sizeable chunk of Bloomington's permanent population out of town. The forecast was chancy (and accurate, with something akin to a monsoon arising after halftime). And the opponent wasn't going to bring in many folks.
But none of that carries any long-term importance. And the crowd will be back – next week's Homecoming game with Michigan is already nearing sellout territory.
What does matter is that Indiana gleaned good things on the field.
Indiana wanted a dominant performance and its defense pitched its first shutout since a 10-0 win over Michigan State in 1993.
"The shutout was our No. 1 goal," IU junior defensive tackle Jacob Robinson said post-game. "We had talked a lot this week about dominating."
Robinson helped highlight a series epitomizing that dominance. After Ramsey's first pass following halftime was tipped and intercepted, setting Charleston Southern up at the IU 27, Robinson broke through for a 6-yard sack on first down.
The Buccaneers went backwards 11 yards in three snaps on that series, overall, and out of field goal range.
"Something like that (interception), we take the field, we put out the fire," Allen said.
The Hoosiers also limited CSU to zero passing yards, with only a -2 posted by Purdue as IU concluded its unbeaten 1945 campaign ranking below zero (despite the presence of a talented quarterback in Bob DeMoss, later PU's athletic director.)
And Allen got to play a ton of reserves for a lot of snaps, invaluable for a team needing to build its depth.
"Played a lot of different guys, had a lot of guys out (with injuries)," Allen noted. "So for them to be able to execute against a challenging (triple-option) offense, that was a positive for sure.
"Glad we got a lot of guys on the field … practice reps are important, but they're not the same as game-day reps. Played a whole bunch of guys on both sides of the ball, and I just think that the more they play, the better they're going to get."
Redshirt freshman wideout Taysir Mack seemed a prime example Saturday. After working his way into the wide receiver rotation, Mack has seen increasingly more snaps (and now three straight starts) with injury sidelining erstwhile starter Donavan Hale.
Mack recorded his first two career TD catches Saturday, and his 111 receiving yards marked the first time a freshman eclipsed the 100-yard plateau since Tandon Doss in 2008.
True freshman receiver Ty Fryfogle posted his first career catch. Redshirt junior linebacker Mike McGinnis, who transferred to IU in January, had his first career sack. It was that kind of day for a lot of Hoosiers.
A total of 22 Indiana players recorded at least one tackle, and none had more than four, indicative that a lot of IU defenders played – and that the starters' snaps were limited, which will help them carry fresher legs into next week.
And the Hoosiers who did play seemingly stayed healthy, a welcome development for a squad that entered beset by injuries.
"I think we came out of it clean, injury-wise, which was really huge for us," Allen said. "And we'll get a chance to get some of these guys (who sat out Saturday) back for next week."
Next week a Wolverine awaits, an entirely different animal that the Hoosiers faced Saturday. A couple of near-picks Ramsey threw in the first half against Charleston Southern would simply be picks against Michigan, for example.
But this hastily-arranged Saturday helped Indiana. The Hoosiers not only need make no apology about that, but should relish it.
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Sure, it was a hastily-arranged contest against a FCS foe.
But Indiana's host Hoosiers still needed to get plenty out of Saturday's 27-0 romp over Charleston Southern.
And did.
Most obviously, redshirt freshman quarterback Peyton Ramsey shined during his first career start.
Ramsey hit 10 of his first 11 passes and finished 32-of-41 (.780) for 321 yards, two touchdowns. He also ran for a net 54 yards, and picked appropriate spots to run.
And perhaps Ramsey's best play on a day full of positives was alertly pouncing on a fumble after Devonte Williams got drilled in the backfield at the CSU 2.
Ramsey beat everybody – mainly a host of Buccaneer defenders – to the ball in the end zone for the touchdown that made it 17-0 in the second quarter.
"(He's) just a heads-up kid," IU coach Tom Allen said of Ramsey afterward. "That just kind of really defines him."
As a coach's son, having played for his dad at Cincinnati Elder, Ramsey has always exuded a calm confidence. But Saturday had to still be confidence-enhancing.
And be honest here. If you're Indiana, did you want Ramsey making his starting debut Saturday, or next week against Don Brown's Michigan Wolverine defense?
(Thought so.)
That's just one of many reasons it was a coup for IU director of athletics Fred Glass to get the Charleston Southern game scheduled.
Many schools were searching for home games after hurricane-related cancellations and postponements last month. Glass not only secured a home game, replacing the lost date with Florida International, but against a FCS foe that didn't figure to overly tax the Hoosiers the week between a road assignment at Penn State and the Michigan game.
And out of all the positives Indiana could take away from Saturday, none was likely more ultimately valuable than this:
A big W.
Big? Yes, because it is a win that counts exactly the same as any other win when it comes down to, among other things, determining bowl eligibility.
"Every win is a big win," IU coach Tom Allen said succinctly. "You don't take anything for granted."
Saturday's overall context doesn't otherwise matter, either. Some contextual aspects weren't optimal, to be sure. The crowd was a bit sparse, for one thing, understandably.
October 7 was originally the season's bye date, and lots of folks had planned accordingly. It was also fall break, with IU's students and a sizeable chunk of Bloomington's permanent population out of town. The forecast was chancy (and accurate, with something akin to a monsoon arising after halftime). And the opponent wasn't going to bring in many folks.
But none of that carries any long-term importance. And the crowd will be back – next week's Homecoming game with Michigan is already nearing sellout territory.
What does matter is that Indiana gleaned good things on the field.
Indiana wanted a dominant performance and its defense pitched its first shutout since a 10-0 win over Michigan State in 1993.
"The shutout was our No. 1 goal," IU junior defensive tackle Jacob Robinson said post-game. "We had talked a lot this week about dominating."
Robinson helped highlight a series epitomizing that dominance. After Ramsey's first pass following halftime was tipped and intercepted, setting Charleston Southern up at the IU 27, Robinson broke through for a 6-yard sack on first down.
The Buccaneers went backwards 11 yards in three snaps on that series, overall, and out of field goal range.
"Something like that (interception), we take the field, we put out the fire," Allen said.
The Hoosiers also limited CSU to zero passing yards, with only a -2 posted by Purdue as IU concluded its unbeaten 1945 campaign ranking below zero (despite the presence of a talented quarterback in Bob DeMoss, later PU's athletic director.)
And Allen got to play a ton of reserves for a lot of snaps, invaluable for a team needing to build its depth.
"Played a lot of different guys, had a lot of guys out (with injuries)," Allen noted. "So for them to be able to execute against a challenging (triple-option) offense, that was a positive for sure.
"Glad we got a lot of guys on the field … practice reps are important, but they're not the same as game-day reps. Played a whole bunch of guys on both sides of the ball, and I just think that the more they play, the better they're going to get."
Redshirt freshman wideout Taysir Mack seemed a prime example Saturday. After working his way into the wide receiver rotation, Mack has seen increasingly more snaps (and now three straight starts) with injury sidelining erstwhile starter Donavan Hale.
Mack recorded his first two career TD catches Saturday, and his 111 receiving yards marked the first time a freshman eclipsed the 100-yard plateau since Tandon Doss in 2008.
True freshman receiver Ty Fryfogle posted his first career catch. Redshirt junior linebacker Mike McGinnis, who transferred to IU in January, had his first career sack. It was that kind of day for a lot of Hoosiers.
A total of 22 Indiana players recorded at least one tackle, and none had more than four, indicative that a lot of IU defenders played – and that the starters' snaps were limited, which will help them carry fresher legs into next week.
And the Hoosiers who did play seemingly stayed healthy, a welcome development for a squad that entered beset by injuries.
"I think we came out of it clean, injury-wise, which was really huge for us," Allen said. "And we'll get a chance to get some of these guys (who sat out Saturday) back for next week."
Next week a Wolverine awaits, an entirely different animal that the Hoosiers faced Saturday. A couple of near-picks Ramsey threw in the first half against Charleston Southern would simply be picks against Michigan, for example.
But this hastily-arranged Saturday helped Indiana. The Hoosiers not only need make no apology about that, but should relish it.
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