The IU offense needed a change.
What was the bedrock of the program had become a unit that could not be relied on to win games.
They were falling short of the standard previous offenses set, and they knew it.
That all changed with a players-only meeting during the week leading up to playing Maryland after losing four of the last five games.
“It was all playing hard,” senior wide receiver Mitchell Paige said. “The message that we set as players this week had nothing to do with coaches, it was just us we’re going to play harder no matter what. We had kind of gotten away from the things that we do as an offense that are at the core of who we are as players.”
Their meeting worked wonders as IU’s offense exploded for 42 points in a victory over Maryland.
The offense played with energy from the start of the game, something that had been lacking the previous few weeks. The Hoosiers took the first quarter by storm, scoring two touchdowns and rushing for 125 yards.
While IU may have supplemented their offense with the Tyler Natee and Zander Diamont package, it all started up front with a renewed hard-nosed mentality from the offensive linemen.
“It’s all the offensive line,” Diamont said. “We called them out last week. We didn’t think they were playing up to their standard, and they stepped it up big time.”
The offensive line acknowledged their poor play in the week’s meeting. They knew that they weren’t living up to the standard of the previous IU offensive lines.
“We just discussed obvious flaws,” senior guard Dan Feeney said. “We just weren’t doing what we do best. We weren’t bringing the mentality that we need to, kind of that old school mentality. So we definitely cleaned that up.”
The problems had been obvious in the past few games with the offense struggling to put together drives. The lack of the running game was the biggest culprit.
It remerged from its slump tonight.
The Hoosiers had an astounding 414 yards on the ground, dwarfing their rushing total from the last three losses combined.
Getting the running game going helped settle down junior quarterback Richard Lagow who had struggled the past few weeks without a consistent running game.
Lagow wasn’t asked to do too much against Maryland, but he looked significantly more comfortable than he did against Northwestern. The junior college transfer finished an efficient 16 of 25 for 207 yards passing.
“Again, getting some run game and playing in rhythm as an offense helped him play in rhythm,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. “The quarterback always looks good when the surrounding parts are good. Today the surrounding parts were good ... We moved chains. We were on schedule. We weren’t playing uphill. It allowed him to be collective and make plays.”
That was certainly the case against Maryland.
IU’s offense is back. They always had this potential in them — it was just about executing and putting together four quarters of peak performance.
“It feels to get back to playing how we play just physically and mentally going and straining,” Paige said. “Because we had gotten away from that as players, but we’re back on that.”
It was always going to be hard for this offense to live up to previous iterations, but against Maryland, the Hoosiers were finally able to.
Now it’s all about backing that up on a week-to-week basis.
