Defeated by Cats, Hoosiers improve running game

Early this season, the Hoosiers had trouble finding consistency in their running game. Now it seems as if IU has found its solution.\nWhen senior Brian Lewis went down against William & Mary, freshman Courtney Clency stepped in but was unable to be productive. Coach Gerry DiNardo turned to freshmen Chris Taylor and Yamar Washington for the Utah game. Neither made a case to become the feature back.\nGoing into the game against Kentucky, the plan was for Taylor and Washington to split time again. But after Saturday's performance, Washington has taken a big step ahead and has begun to separate himself from the other backs.\nWashington had only four carries for 40 yards going into Saturday's game. But against Kentucky, he rushed 32 times for 163 yards. IU as a team only had 103 yards against William & Mary and 79 total yards against Utah.\nWashington got some help from his offensive line. DiNardo said this was the first time that the offensive line looked like they could block somebody.\nSenior offensive lineman Enoch DeMar said the line got better push off the ball, which put the Kentucky defenders back on their heels. Senior offensive lineman Bobby Brandt said it all had to do with confidence.\n"We made an emphasis all week to get the running game back to where it was a year ago," Brandt said. "It's basically confidence. Last year we knew we were confident we could run the ball every game, but this year we struggled the first two games. And we lost that confidence. Everyone felt that we could get this going back the right way. When you have confidence, a lot things good will happen for you."\nWashington was looked upon Saturday to carry the offense. His 32 rushes accounted for nearly 40 percent of the team's plays from scrimmage. In a pass-heavy attack, DiNardo said it's not out of the question for a running back to carry that many times. Washington said he didn't mind the number of carries.\n"Coach DiNardo conditions the heck out of us, so I wasn't that winded," Washington said. "I was surprised I was doing that well really. We get conditioned like crazy, and I think it paid off."\nThe Hoosiers' game plan for Kentucky was to establish the running game. The rain and the field conditions forced the teams to have strong running games. \nWashington said the team wanted to have the Big Ten power style-game against Kentucky. Freshman fullback John Pannozzo said it was about toughness.\n"Our mentality was to get in the game and pin the ball down their throats," Pannozzo said. "Basically toughness. We wanted to go out there and show that we were the tougher team. It was smash-mouth football."\nBrandt said he was impressed with the way Washington ran the ball. He said he attacked the holes hard and found holes when they weren't always there. DeMar said he can do better with the help of the line.\n"Yamar ran great, and I knew that he could run like that," DeMar said. "We just go to open the holes for him. If the holes aren't there, he can create his own holes, but a running back should only create to a certain extent. There has to be something there. We knew that if we went out there and played hard that he would go out there and run the ball like we needed to."\nDiNardo said he was pleased that the team was able to run the ball better than it had in the previous two games. He said he was glad they were able to achieve what they had worked on in practice all week. The running game helped the rest of the offense run.\n"We certainly ran the ball better than we had, and we certainly were more efficient on first-and ten," DiNardo said. "We had been throwing the deep balls prior to today, but they were more efficient today because we did establish some type of running game."\nDespite Washington's strong performance, DiNardo said he still has a long way to go.\n"He's just a freshman, just a red-shirt freshman," DiNardo said. "He's got some work to do. Let's not put him in the hall-of-fame"