IU football's defense focuses on another mobile QB

They’ve seen Michigan’s Robinson, Ohio State’s Pryor and even Towson’s Hart.
This time, the last name is Aplin.

On Saturday at Memorial Stadium, this season’s repeating trend of ambulatory, versatile quarterbacks serving as the center of attention for the IU defense continues — a case that’s becoming more regular in college football.

The Hoosiers (3-2, 0-2) take on Arkansas State (2-4) and quarterback Ryan Aplin at noon Saturday during IU’s Homecoming weekend.

The game marks IU’s fourth and final non-conference tilt of the season.

Aplin, a 6-foot-1 signal caller from Tampa, Fla., is set to start his 16th career game for the Jonesboro, Ark.-based Red Wolves.

The redshirt sophomore guides the team in passing with a 57.4 percent completion percentage that has garnered 10 touchdowns and four interceptions.

Aplin ranks second in the Sun Belt conference in passing yards per game, averaging 262.3 yards.

There’s also a scrambling element to Aplin.He has rushed the ball for 362 yards on 77 attempts.

However, the quarterback has been sacked 15 times this season, losing 177 yards in the process.

“I don’t think he’s necessarily a runner like Pryor or Robinson, but he’s a little shifty, runs around a little bit,” IU senior cornerback Adrian Burks said. “We definitely are prepared for it coming off the last two weeks.”

Still, Aplin’s total offensive yardage per game (296.8) ranks him as the top individual in the Sun Belt conference.

Such offensive output — and an advantage over the defense — has led college programs across the country to try more athletic quarterbacks under center than the traditional drop-and-throw signal callers, IU co-defensive coordinator Brian George said.

“The thing that it changes is that it allows the offense to have hat-for-a-hat blocking when the quarterback is a ball carrier,” George said. “That becomes the challenge more than anything else.”

In the past, the quarterback didn’t require such defensive attention, IU coach Bill Lynch said.

“Traditionally, the quarterback is the one guy you don’t have to account for in the run game,” Lynch said, noting traditional quarterbacks would try to keep a defense honest with play-action plays or a bootleg keeper.

“But over the last several of years when the quarterback run has become a big part of it, you have to be very, very sound with your defense,” Lynch said.

Aplin’s mobility certainly isn’t new for IU.

In the season-opener, Towson quarterback Chris Hart rushed for 123 yards on the IU defense.

Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson then had a field day with the IU defense in the Big Ten conference opener, rushing for 217 yards.

Last week, IU faced Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor, a quarterback with two games this season in which he’s tallied more than 100 yards on the ground.

Pryor, though, beat IU with his arm and only rushed three times for zero yards.
“Most of the quarterbacks we’ve played against are like that,” IU junior linebacker Leon Beckum said. “We just have to keep working on what we’ve been working on.”

Included in that preparation regimen this week for the Hoosiers is not overlooking a non-conference opponent in the middle of conference play.

The first matchup between the schools counts toward a win or a loss in the same way, Burks said.

“We have something to prove again,” Burks said. “Every week is a game, and we have to prepare and have the same responsibilities for every game. We have to work just as hard for the more-known teams.”

Fortunately for the IU defense — ravaged for an average of 523 yards of opponent offense in now two consecutive losses — Arkansas State and Aplin won’t provide a shocking new offense.

“There’s a familiarity,” George said. “The more you work against something, the more comfortable you get with it.”