Editor’s Note: Each week during the season, the FTB Staff will release its scouting report on Penn State’s upcoming opponent. Normally, these blogs will be posted at 11 a.m. EST Thursday and Friday…but we’re a little premature this week. Hey, happens to the best of us.
Despite Tom Allen’s undeniable enthusiasm (see above) coaching defense at Indiana isn’t always the most pleasant experience. Even last season, the Hoosiers’ winningest campaign since 1993, Indiana ended a pedestrian 9th among Big Ten teams in Scoring Defense (24.4 Pts/Gm), Total Defense (352.2 Yds/Gm), and Sacks (25). No Indiana player on this side of the ball made any All-Big Ten teams last season.
To Allen’s credit – and to a lesser degree DC Kane Wommack’s credit, although Allen’s thumbprint is on everything the Hoosiers do defensively – he squeezes all the juice out of players who are juuust a few inches too short or juuust a few pounds too light to play on bigger stages than the community theater that is Memorial Stadium.