Just Go One and Oh!

A good question about the Indiana Hoosiers is what a Hoosier? The answer is a native of Indiana. A better question about the Indiana Hoosiers is how good can this team be? The anwer is of course...not very good at all.

The Hoosiers should come in with a respectable record for Indiana football, but by no means a good record compared to the Badgers. Indiana comes into this season with a lot of question marks, and a big one is the defense.

Coming into the season Indiana will be replacing seven key players from their defense from a year ago. That could be good, but that could be bad if your a Hoosier fan. Las season the Hoosier defense wasn't winning any awards for the defensive abilities. In their meeting with the Badgers in Bloomington the Hoosier defense allowed Wisconsin to gain almost 300 yards on the ground. John Clay put up 134 yards with only 15 carries. For those of you keeping track at home that's a whopping 8.9 yards per carry.

This year it will be the Hoosier defense that needs to improve. A realistic possibility with seven new starters on the defensive side of the football. If Indiana is unable to improve from their numbers from last season they should be expecting a tough day at Camp Randall. On the other hand if the defense vastly improves their offense is potent enough to compete with anybody.

In Bloomington last season the offense was the bright spot for the Hoosiers. The passing offense was particulary bright with quarterback Ben Chappel throwing for over 300 yards, and three of Indiana's 4 touchdowns. The rushing game was another story for Indiana a year ago. The Hoosiers were only able to rack up 63 yards on the ground and their top rusher Bryan Payton only ran for 48 yards. (That's a third of his total last season which was just over 150.)

Unlike the defense, the Hoosier offense returns plenty of fire-power. Quarterback Ben Chappel is back, and joining will be their top three in terms of recieving from last season. While the ground game was by no means powerful for Indiana last year they do return their top rusher Darius Willis. And all of this with only losing one member of the offensive line.

So if Wisconsin keeps Indiana out of the endzone this will be a very easy game. Just as we've stated for the whole season, as long as Wisconsin plays defense, and pounds the football on the ground it should be "easy like Sunday morning."

While the Hoosier offense will put up solid numbers again this year the Badger offense will be the major difference in this game. The defense, or lack there of, will be the weakness Wisconsin exploits in this game. Expect both Montee Ball and John Clay to have solid games on the ground in this one, and Wisconsin will own the time of possession. That keeps the Hoosiers weapons on the sidelines, and puts one more in the win column.

Boynton's Badgers Prediction: Badgers 24 Hoosiers 10