Indiana University Athletics
Graham Notebook: No Passing Fancy
9/18/2018 8:37:00 PM | Football
By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Jonathan Crawford was moving so fast he could hear the wind whistling through the ear holes of his helmet.
And Ball State quarterback Riley Neal was in deep trouble.
Now, sometimes Indiana senior safety Crawford gets to quarterbacks the way he got to Florida International's James Morgan, when Crawford jumped a slant route for a pick-6 that gave IU the lead for good in its season-opening win.
But sometimes Crawford gets to quarterbacks the way he got to Neal early in the fourth quarter of Saturday's romp over the Cardinals.
Crawford came free on a safety blitz as Neal rolled right, away from the blitz – but not far enough away, and not rolling fast enough, to escape Crawford.
"I feel like I was moving," Crawford recalled post-game. "I heard the wind flying by. I had to get him.
"Coach (Tom) Allen doesn't give me too many of them so, when I get them, I try to take advantage of them. I had to get him down."
He did. For an 8-yard loss.
Neal, harried by Crawford and teammates all day, finished just 12-of-24 for a meager 115 yards and zero touchdowns against the Hoosiers.
And that is pretty much par for starting quarterbacks versus IU so far this season. Neal, Morgan and Virginia's Bryce Perkins were a combined 35-of-68 (.515) for
311 yards (103.7 per game) as the Hoosiers started 3-0.
And unsurprisingly, given those sort of numbers, Indiana leads all its Big Ten brethren in pass defense through three weeks of play.
But the Hoosiers are about to face the Big Ten's leading passer.
Michigan State junior Brian Lewerke and the No. 24/23 Spartans come calling for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday to open Big Ten play at IU.
Lewerke, a veteran of 19 starts, is completing a robust 69.4 percent of his passes through MSU's 1-1 start (the Spartans are coming off a bye week). His 300.5 passing yards per game lead the league.
"He's an accurate passer," Hoosier head coach Allen said Monday of Lewerke. "… He's athletic enough to beat you with his legs. He's tough enough to run over you. That's kind of always a big challenge with a big quarterback like that, because the rules are such to protect him. He comes barreling at you, runs you over,
instead of sliding sometimes.
"I think he's a tough old guy that loves to play the game. He's kind of my kind of guy playing quarterback, to be honest with you. I have a lot of respect for him, how hard and tough he plays."
Crawford said the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Lewerke reminds him of Neal in terms of both mobility and arm strength.
"He's very similar to Neal, just being able to run and create plays," Crawford said. "I feel like we have to treat it the same."
But Lewerke has an array of proven Big Ten weaponry in his arsenal, too.
Senior tailback L.J. Scott has already led the Spartans in rushing for three straight seasons.
"And they got big receivers," Allen said, "that can be matchup problems."
Such as 6-foot-4 senior Felton Davis (55 catches last season and 8 so far this fall), 6-3 sophomore Cody White (a team-high 14 catches this season) and 6-2,
217-pound junior Darrell Stewart (catches in 15 straight games). And then there is standout 6-6 senior tight end Matt Sokol.
That collectively and literally constitutes a big challenge for IU's secondary.
But Allen feels the biggest key is Lewerke, whose emergence fueled a 10-3 season last fall that concluded with MSU's 42-17 rout of Washington State in the
Holiday Bowl (and the Spartans had 19 starters returning this fall.)
"I think, for them, when he really started figuring things out, playing really well last year, that's when they took off," Allen said. "That's how it is at that position. That position really is about leadership and production. He's really good at doing both. You can just tell they believe in him. I think that's kind of the difference.
"My first year here, when we beat them in overtime (24-21 in 2016, when Allen was IU's defensive coordinator), I don't think they had the kind of quarterback play they probably were looking for. It was early in the season, just like it is now. But they didn't have that established guy."
They do now.
But Lewerke and the Spartan offense faces a challenge Saturday, too.
While Indiana graduated seven starters from the defense that played against MSU in the Spartans' 17-9 win last fall, the current young but talented Hoosier crew
leads the league in allowing just 135.3 yards passing per game.
The Hoosiers also rank second in pass efficiency defense at a 102.5 mark. They are also in the top five in both total defense (17.3 points per game) and total defense (322.7 yards per game).
Asked what has prompted such a good start for the youthful defense Crawford replied:
"Really just having the coaches believe in us. A lot of people were saying we were going to be young and maybe inexperienced. The coaches believing in us helps everyone in the back have confidence and (helps) everybody raise the bar of play.
"I feel like confidence is huge, with so many young guys. We're 3-0. Got a couple of games under our belt. I feel the only direction from here is up."
Crawford feels the IU defense also benefits from going against legit dual-threat quarterbacks, teammates Peyton Ramsey and Michael Penix Jr., and big receivers, teammates such as Donavan Hale and Nick Westbrook, every day in practice.
"With bigger guys you really have to get into them," Crawford said. "The size makes a big difference. Even if you have good technique, the size can cause problems.
"Having that type of (dual-threat) QB really changes the game. (But) the fact that we go against it every day, especially during camp, makes it easier to prepare … even in the back end you can have everything perfect, but the quarterback gets out and it causes problems. (Practice) helps us a lot."
And Saturday night, if Lewerke is looking for help on a rollout and hears the wind whistling …
Well, it might not just be the wind.
THREE-FOURTHS COMPLETE
While MSU's Lerwerke leads the league in average passing yards, Indiana sophomore Peyton Ramsey is atop all Big Ten starting quarterbacks in completion percentage at 73.7.
"I think he's very comfortable, because of his confidence," IU offensive coordinator Mike DeBord said of Ramsey's showing so far. "And also, too, his preparation.
His preparation has allowed him to become a very confident player right now.
"He knows our offense very well. I think (quarterbacks coach) Nick Sheridan does a great job with him, and also Mike Penix and the rest of them, preparing them every week for the new looks we see. So I think he's got great confidence now because of the way he prepares."
Ramsay stayed right around his season completion percentage Saturday against Ball State by finishing 20-of-27 through the air. He also ran six times for 43 yards and a TD.
"Peyton Ramsey was our offensive player of the game," Allen announced Monday. "Seventy-four completion percentage, runs very efficiently, offensively distributing the football."
Ten different IU receivers caught passes Saturday.
Ramsey didn't complete a pass in the second half, most of which featured freshman Penix at the Hoosier controls. Ramsey didn't mind.
"I think it does help me stay fresh, No. 1, and No. 2 it helps Mike get experience, which is big-time," Ramsey said. "(Those) non-conference games, get him in there, let him see the defense, kind of have the game slow down for him."
But now it's conference time. And Ramsey knows Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio's defense always constitutes a challenge.
"Very tough," Ramsey said of the Spartan defense. "Physical. They do their standard, up to what they did in the past … they'll come down here (ready off of a bye week), and they've got a lot of guys back, too. They've got a lot of experience … it's going to be a test for us, for sure.
"They are stingy. They're just tough guys. And they're good in the secondary. A couple of good corners. Big, physical up front. A typical Michigan State defense is what I would describe them as. They don't give up a lot of big plays."
HEALTHY HOOSIERS
Ramsey sharing time with Penix has helped lighten the physical load on both and, overall, the Hoosiers are keeping fresh legs on the field.
Indiana has already played 33 defenders this season, for example, and 26 different Hoosiers posted tackles against Ball State.
But while that sort of thing really helps build depth, the Hoosiers depth already seems buoyed by avoidance of injuries compared to last year's injury-plagued campaign.
And that is perhaps at least partly attributable to the January arrival of a new athletic performance staff headed up by David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea.
"Coach Ballou and Dr. Rhea, one of their biggest things is injury prevention," wideout and return specialist J-Shun Harris II, healthy again after three past ACL tears, said Monday. "So we do the little things, like focusing on certain muscles.
"Coach Ballou, when they were at IMG (Academy in Florida), they didn't have many injuries there, either. Obviously, it must be something to the techniques and the work that we're doing that it's helping out. Hopefully we can continue to stay healthy."
Ramsey said that the preseason conditioning techniques in that regard are carrying over into the season.
"I think that is something that has continued, just taking care of our bodies," Ramsey said. "It's something they've encouraged.
"After Thursday practices, we do a whole recovery-soft tissue circuit. I think that's something (helpful). It's been a point of emphasis, for sure. And it has definitely paid off."
Allen sees the healthiest Hoosier team heading into the meat of the Big Ten season than since he arrived in 2016.
"In the few years I've been here, this is the healthiest we've been going in," Allen said. "I do think it's a variable … we definitely focused on doing things in our preparation that would limit soft tissue injuries. Purchased different mechanisms for that.
"The guys have bought into it. Even part of their diet, as well, some things we try to emphasize, their hydration."
True, IU starting running back Cole Gest was lost for the season to an ACL tear in the opener at Florida International, but otherwise the Hoosier regulars are almost all available heading into the MSU game.
"Injuries can't be prevented completely, of course," Allen said. "But there's no question that we are currently experiencing less than we had a year ago, and that's a good thing.
"The objective is that we are at peak performance at kickoff each week, then also peak performance week eight, week nine, week 10, 11, 12, the bowl game.
That's the objective, that's the goal, that's what we're trying to get to. So far we've seen definitely some positive results of that."
LOOKING TO GO 1-0 THIS WEEK
Indiana had a 9-3 lead with 12:29 to play in East Lansing last fall before MSU tallied a pair of late TDs to prevail.
The Hoosiers feel more depth and better conditioning could help if similar late-game circumstances arise Saturday night.
"Last year, it showed in the fourth quarter with us not having that much depth," Harris acknowledged. "The ones and twos were a little bit tired. The (current) conditioning has helped a lot and hopefully we see when we get into Big Ten play how it all unfolds.
"Of course we have that confidence. We don't go into any game (unsure of ourselves). We know it's going to be a dogfight, for sure, and 60 minutes and beyond.
With it being a tight game last year, we just didn't finish. Now, we've done all the things in the weight room. We've done all these different workouts to finish. Our
conditioning is up."
Allen feels his team has gotten better each of the first three weeks this season, battling heat and rain in addition to opponents, and played well in all three phases of the game Saturday against Ball State.
Asked Monday what further development he was now looking for, Allen replied:
"Win Big Ten games. Period. That's what's next. We got to win Big Ten games. One at a time."
The first chance for that this fall comes Saturday night.
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Jonathan Crawford was moving so fast he could hear the wind whistling through the ear holes of his helmet.
And Ball State quarterback Riley Neal was in deep trouble.
Now, sometimes Indiana senior safety Crawford gets to quarterbacks the way he got to Florida International's James Morgan, when Crawford jumped a slant route for a pick-6 that gave IU the lead for good in its season-opening win.
But sometimes Crawford gets to quarterbacks the way he got to Neal early in the fourth quarter of Saturday's romp over the Cardinals.
Crawford came free on a safety blitz as Neal rolled right, away from the blitz – but not far enough away, and not rolling fast enough, to escape Crawford.
"I feel like I was moving," Crawford recalled post-game. "I heard the wind flying by. I had to get him.
"Coach (Tom) Allen doesn't give me too many of them so, when I get them, I try to take advantage of them. I had to get him down."
He did. For an 8-yard loss.
Neal, harried by Crawford and teammates all day, finished just 12-of-24 for a meager 115 yards and zero touchdowns against the Hoosiers.
And that is pretty much par for starting quarterbacks versus IU so far this season. Neal, Morgan and Virginia's Bryce Perkins were a combined 35-of-68 (.515) for
311 yards (103.7 per game) as the Hoosiers started 3-0.
And unsurprisingly, given those sort of numbers, Indiana leads all its Big Ten brethren in pass defense through three weeks of play.
But the Hoosiers are about to face the Big Ten's leading passer.
Michigan State junior Brian Lewerke and the No. 24/23 Spartans come calling for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday to open Big Ten play at IU.
Lewerke, a veteran of 19 starts, is completing a robust 69.4 percent of his passes through MSU's 1-1 start (the Spartans are coming off a bye week). His 300.5 passing yards per game lead the league.
"He's an accurate passer," Hoosier head coach Allen said Monday of Lewerke. "… He's athletic enough to beat you with his legs. He's tough enough to run over you. That's kind of always a big challenge with a big quarterback like that, because the rules are such to protect him. He comes barreling at you, runs you over,
instead of sliding sometimes.
"I think he's a tough old guy that loves to play the game. He's kind of my kind of guy playing quarterback, to be honest with you. I have a lot of respect for him, how hard and tough he plays."
Crawford said the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Lewerke reminds him of Neal in terms of both mobility and arm strength.
"He's very similar to Neal, just being able to run and create plays," Crawford said. "I feel like we have to treat it the same."
But Lewerke has an array of proven Big Ten weaponry in his arsenal, too.
Senior tailback L.J. Scott has already led the Spartans in rushing for three straight seasons.
"And they got big receivers," Allen said, "that can be matchup problems."
Such as 6-foot-4 senior Felton Davis (55 catches last season and 8 so far this fall), 6-3 sophomore Cody White (a team-high 14 catches this season) and 6-2,
217-pound junior Darrell Stewart (catches in 15 straight games). And then there is standout 6-6 senior tight end Matt Sokol.
That collectively and literally constitutes a big challenge for IU's secondary.
But Allen feels the biggest key is Lewerke, whose emergence fueled a 10-3 season last fall that concluded with MSU's 42-17 rout of Washington State in the
Holiday Bowl (and the Spartans had 19 starters returning this fall.)
"I think, for them, when he really started figuring things out, playing really well last year, that's when they took off," Allen said. "That's how it is at that position. That position really is about leadership and production. He's really good at doing both. You can just tell they believe in him. I think that's kind of the difference.
"My first year here, when we beat them in overtime (24-21 in 2016, when Allen was IU's defensive coordinator), I don't think they had the kind of quarterback play they probably were looking for. It was early in the season, just like it is now. But they didn't have that established guy."
They do now.
But Lewerke and the Spartan offense faces a challenge Saturday, too.
While Indiana graduated seven starters from the defense that played against MSU in the Spartans' 17-9 win last fall, the current young but talented Hoosier crew
leads the league in allowing just 135.3 yards passing per game.
The Hoosiers also rank second in pass efficiency defense at a 102.5 mark. They are also in the top five in both total defense (17.3 points per game) and total defense (322.7 yards per game).
Asked what has prompted such a good start for the youthful defense Crawford replied:
"Really just having the coaches believe in us. A lot of people were saying we were going to be young and maybe inexperienced. The coaches believing in us helps everyone in the back have confidence and (helps) everybody raise the bar of play.
"I feel like confidence is huge, with so many young guys. We're 3-0. Got a couple of games under our belt. I feel the only direction from here is up."
Crawford feels the IU defense also benefits from going against legit dual-threat quarterbacks, teammates Peyton Ramsey and Michael Penix Jr., and big receivers, teammates such as Donavan Hale and Nick Westbrook, every day in practice.
"With bigger guys you really have to get into them," Crawford said. "The size makes a big difference. Even if you have good technique, the size can cause problems.
"Having that type of (dual-threat) QB really changes the game. (But) the fact that we go against it every day, especially during camp, makes it easier to prepare … even in the back end you can have everything perfect, but the quarterback gets out and it causes problems. (Practice) helps us a lot."
And Saturday night, if Lewerke is looking for help on a rollout and hears the wind whistling …
Well, it might not just be the wind.
THREE-FOURTHS COMPLETE
While MSU's Lerwerke leads the league in average passing yards, Indiana sophomore Peyton Ramsey is atop all Big Ten starting quarterbacks in completion percentage at 73.7.
"I think he's very comfortable, because of his confidence," IU offensive coordinator Mike DeBord said of Ramsey's showing so far. "And also, too, his preparation.
His preparation has allowed him to become a very confident player right now.
"He knows our offense very well. I think (quarterbacks coach) Nick Sheridan does a great job with him, and also Mike Penix and the rest of them, preparing them every week for the new looks we see. So I think he's got great confidence now because of the way he prepares."
Ramsay stayed right around his season completion percentage Saturday against Ball State by finishing 20-of-27 through the air. He also ran six times for 43 yards and a TD.
"Peyton Ramsey was our offensive player of the game," Allen announced Monday. "Seventy-four completion percentage, runs very efficiently, offensively distributing the football."
Ten different IU receivers caught passes Saturday.
Ramsey didn't complete a pass in the second half, most of which featured freshman Penix at the Hoosier controls. Ramsey didn't mind.
"I think it does help me stay fresh, No. 1, and No. 2 it helps Mike get experience, which is big-time," Ramsey said. "(Those) non-conference games, get him in there, let him see the defense, kind of have the game slow down for him."
But now it's conference time. And Ramsey knows Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio's defense always constitutes a challenge.
"Very tough," Ramsey said of the Spartan defense. "Physical. They do their standard, up to what they did in the past … they'll come down here (ready off of a bye week), and they've got a lot of guys back, too. They've got a lot of experience … it's going to be a test for us, for sure.
"They are stingy. They're just tough guys. And they're good in the secondary. A couple of good corners. Big, physical up front. A typical Michigan State defense is what I would describe them as. They don't give up a lot of big plays."
HEALTHY HOOSIERS
Ramsey sharing time with Penix has helped lighten the physical load on both and, overall, the Hoosiers are keeping fresh legs on the field.
Indiana has already played 33 defenders this season, for example, and 26 different Hoosiers posted tackles against Ball State.
But while that sort of thing really helps build depth, the Hoosiers depth already seems buoyed by avoidance of injuries compared to last year's injury-plagued campaign.
And that is perhaps at least partly attributable to the January arrival of a new athletic performance staff headed up by David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea.
"Coach Ballou and Dr. Rhea, one of their biggest things is injury prevention," wideout and return specialist J-Shun Harris II, healthy again after three past ACL tears, said Monday. "So we do the little things, like focusing on certain muscles.
"Coach Ballou, when they were at IMG (Academy in Florida), they didn't have many injuries there, either. Obviously, it must be something to the techniques and the work that we're doing that it's helping out. Hopefully we can continue to stay healthy."
Ramsey said that the preseason conditioning techniques in that regard are carrying over into the season.
"I think that is something that has continued, just taking care of our bodies," Ramsey said. "It's something they've encouraged.
"After Thursday practices, we do a whole recovery-soft tissue circuit. I think that's something (helpful). It's been a point of emphasis, for sure. And it has definitely paid off."
Allen sees the healthiest Hoosier team heading into the meat of the Big Ten season than since he arrived in 2016.
"In the few years I've been here, this is the healthiest we've been going in," Allen said. "I do think it's a variable … we definitely focused on doing things in our preparation that would limit soft tissue injuries. Purchased different mechanisms for that.
"The guys have bought into it. Even part of their diet, as well, some things we try to emphasize, their hydration."
True, IU starting running back Cole Gest was lost for the season to an ACL tear in the opener at Florida International, but otherwise the Hoosier regulars are almost all available heading into the MSU game.
"Injuries can't be prevented completely, of course," Allen said. "But there's no question that we are currently experiencing less than we had a year ago, and that's a good thing.
"The objective is that we are at peak performance at kickoff each week, then also peak performance week eight, week nine, week 10, 11, 12, the bowl game.
That's the objective, that's the goal, that's what we're trying to get to. So far we've seen definitely some positive results of that."
LOOKING TO GO 1-0 THIS WEEK
Indiana had a 9-3 lead with 12:29 to play in East Lansing last fall before MSU tallied a pair of late TDs to prevail.
The Hoosiers feel more depth and better conditioning could help if similar late-game circumstances arise Saturday night.
"Last year, it showed in the fourth quarter with us not having that much depth," Harris acknowledged. "The ones and twos were a little bit tired. The (current) conditioning has helped a lot and hopefully we see when we get into Big Ten play how it all unfolds.
"Of course we have that confidence. We don't go into any game (unsure of ourselves). We know it's going to be a dogfight, for sure, and 60 minutes and beyond.
With it being a tight game last year, we just didn't finish. Now, we've done all the things in the weight room. We've done all these different workouts to finish. Our
conditioning is up."
Allen feels his team has gotten better each of the first three weeks this season, battling heat and rain in addition to opponents, and played well in all three phases of the game Saturday against Ball State.
Asked Monday what further development he was now looking for, Allen replied:
"Win Big Ten games. Period. That's what's next. We got to win Big Ten games. One at a time."
The first chance for that this fall comes Saturday night.
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