Hoosiers to face potent Wildcats

To put it in nice terms, the IU defense struggled in the Hoosiers' season-opening 41-38 loss to North Carolina State Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Things won't get much easier for the Hoosiers this Saturday night when they travel to Kentucky to take on the Wildcats and their "Air Raid" offense.\nLast weekend, IU saw Wolfpack freshman quarterback Philip Rivers throw for 401 yards and five touchdowns as he rallied his team back from deficits of 18 and 15 points. This week, Wildcat redshirt-freshman quarterback Jared Lorenzen will have his crack at the Hoosiers.\nAt 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, Lorenzen is the head of an offense that averages 474 yards per game, good enough for a No. 11 national ranking. Lorenzen is third in the NCAA for points (44).\nWildcat coach and offensive specialist Hal Mumme has been pleased with the way Lorenzen has played to this point. In fact, Mumme sees some similarities between Lorenzen and Cleveland Browns quarterback Tim Couch.\n"He's just going to be a great player; we've just got to give him time to grow," Mumme said. "He's very comparable to Couch at this point in his career. He's miles ahead of where I thought he'd be."\nIU defensive tackle sophomore Kris Dielman is aware of how big Lorenzen is, but doesn't think it will be a factor in the game.\n"We're just going to go at it just like any other game," Dielman said. "You can't really let (size) affect anything. Don't hit him up high, hit him down low."\nTo this point, Lorenzen's favorite target has been senior wide receiver Quentin McCord, who has caught seven balls for 187 yards and two touchdowns. On the ground, the Wildcats are just as deadly. Senior fullback Derek Homer and sophomore fullback Artose Pinner bring both size and speed to the backfield. The man the Hoosiers might see the most of is freshman fullback Chad Scott, who, in his first collegiate game, ran for 106 yards on 14 carries.\nIU coach Cam Cameron is concerned how his team will handle the Kentucky (1-1) offense.\n"They create all sorts of matchup problems for you with their offense," Cameron said. \nAt the same time, Cameron knows his defense can handle a talented quarterback since the Hoosiers (0-1) play in the Big Ten.\n"There are a lot of them in this league, so playing against good quarterbacks is nothing new to us," Cameron said. \nDespite the big numbers the Wolfpack was able to post, Mumme still sees the IU defense as a solid unit. In fact, with the new scheme the Hoosiers are using under defensive coordinator James Bell, Mumme might see his freshman quarterback facing new fronts.\n"Indiana's got some good players on defense," Mumme said. "They're young and not experienced as they have been, but they're still good players. They're also learning some new schemes so that can be kind of scary in that they might be able to show us something we haven't seen from them before."\nOn the offensive side of things, there weren't too many problems Saturday for the Hoosiers. Junior quarterback Antwaan Randle El accounted for 321 yards and two touchdowns. Mumme doesn't see a way his defense will be able to handle Randle El.\n"I don't know if anyone ever really contains him," Mumme said. "He's one of those guys who can take a bad play and make it into a touchdown. He scares you every time he touches the football. I don't know if we've ever contained him as much as we've just been able to somehow outscore him the last couple of years."\nEven though the offense seemed to slow down in the second half, Cameron said he remains pleased with his quarterback's play.\n"As I graded 75 plays, he probably graded out high on 70," Cameron said. "But I think he knows that five plays is the difference in the ballgame."\nSenior fullback De'Wayne Hogan said he thinks the offense hurt itself instead of the Wolfpack defense stopping them in the second half.\n"They stopped us a couple of times, but really we stopped ourselves," Hogan said. "We could've driven up and down the field, but we made the mistakes to stop ourselves. They didn't really stop us."\nThe Wildcat defense does have some holes. In a season-opening loss at Louisville, Ky., they surrendered 40 points. Mumme said his team has worked on making tackles to counter the poor performance.\n"We've got to work hard on tackling and that's something we have to get better," Mumme said. "It's something that we will work on in terms of not over-committing to one side or another, because as soon as you do, (Randle El) is quick enough to go the opposite direction on you. It's basically just fundamentals, but you have to be very aware of it when you pass rush."\nIn the end, beyond offensive or defensive numbers, the rivalry between the neighboring states might be a big factor in the outcome of the game. Cameron said his team needs to put the recent loss behind them.\n"It's a great rivalry and I know our fans look forward to it," Cameron said. "We've played extremely well against each other the past two years. The one thing we have to do to be ready to play this game is to put the N.C. State game behind us"