IU to face staunch defense Saturday against Akron

IU coach Bill Lynch knows the Mid-American Conference well. By the time they reach Big Ten play, so will his team.\nFor the second straight week, IU will play a MAC opponent. Last week, they played at Western Michigan, and this Saturday the Akron Zips come to Bloomington.\n“I know they’re going to come in here with confidence and feeling like they can certainly get a win,” Lynch said. “So we’ve got to have a really good week of preparation and get ready for what we think is going to be a good football team on Saturday.”\nWhile the Hoosiers have not played Akron yet, the Zips’ style of play should look familiar.\nOffensively, Akron wide receiver Jabari Arthur is the team’s top receiver – through the first two games of the season, he has 15 of his team’s 34 receptions. Arthur’s production is similar to that of Western Michigan’s standout wide receiver Jamarko Simmons, who had 14 receptions against IU last week.\n“Those of us that have been in the Mid-American Conference know that there’s always good skill in the MAC,” Lynch said. “We saw that last week, and we’re going to see that again this week.”\nDefensively, Akron runs a 3-3-5 formation, which is the same defensive scheme Indiana State’s defense used when they faced IU this year.\n“One of the things that happens in a (3-3-5) is you can come up with a lot of different stunts,” Lynch said. “The basic configuration is the same; it’s really what happens after the snap. It’s a challenge, because there’s so many things they can do out of it.”\nLast week, Akron’s defensive scheme was good enough to hold now-No. 10-ranked Ohio State to 20 points while forcing five Buckeye turnovers. The Zips defensive effort against Ohio State did not go unnoticed by IU.\n“They blitz a lot, they forced a bunch of turnovers against Ohio State, which is what kept them out of the end zone,” said senior captain Josiah Sears. “We can’t have mental mistakes.”\nAlthough Akron’s defense played well last week, the offense struggled to do much of anything. Through their first two games, the Zips have managed only one offensive touchdown. Last week against Ohio State, Akron had a mere 69 yards of total offense. In spite of these numbers, the Hoosiers believe they will have their hands full with Akron.\n“This is not a pushover team,” said junior tackle Greg Brown. “They’ve got good players; it doesn’t matter where you’re from, because every team has good players, so we got to make sure we come to play.”\nThe Hoosiers will enter Memorial Stadium with a 2-0 record for the fourth straight season. None of the previous three saw IU finish with the six wins necessary to qualify for a bowl game. But neither Lynch nor the players seem concerned about what happened in the past, or what may happen in the future. The only thing they seemed concerned about was their immediate future – against Akron.\n“It’s nice to be 2-0,” Sears said. “But we moved off of that Sunday night when we started getting ready for Akron.”