Blue White Illustrated

Indiana Pregame

Penn State Sports Magazine

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P R E G A M E R E P O R T I N D I A N A @ P E N N S T A T E T I M E 3 : 3 0 P . M . , S E P T . 3 0 | T V B T N INDIANA FACTS COACH Tom Allen (Maranatha Baptist, '92) COACH'S RECORD 2-2, 0-1 Big Ten, in one season at Indiana (Allen also coached the Hoosiers in the Foster Farms Bowl last year after being named to succeed Kevin Wilson on Dec. 1); career record: same 2017 RECORD 2-1, 0-1 Big Ten RECORD VS. PSU The Nittany Lions lead the all-time series, 19-1. MOST RECENT MEETING Trace McSorley threw for 332 yards and the Nittany Lion defense recov- ered five fumbles in a 45-31 vic- tory last November in Bloomington. GOOD NEWS Indiana has faced eight top-10 teams in its past 25 games, and three of those games were de- cided by one score. BAD NEWS After a hot start against Ohio State, a game in which he com- pleted 40 of 65 passes for 410 yards and three touchdowns, senior QB Richard Lagow has cooled off. He was pulled from Indiana's game at Virgina after hitting 3 of 10 passes and since then has alternated with redshirt fresh- man Peyton Ramsey. DID YOU KNOW? Indiana's game vs. Florida Inter- national, scheduled for Sept. 16 in Bloomington, had to be canceled when the Panthers were trapped in Miami due to Hurricane Irma. To fill up their schedule, the Hoosiers hastily scheduled a home game vs. Charleston Southern on Oct. 7, which was originally supposed to be a bye week. B Y   M AT T   H E R B MATT@BLUEWHITEONLINE.COM The plan, at its most fundamental level, is simple. It always is. It's in the execution where things tend to go awry. Indiana's defensive game plan going into its visit to Penn State this weekend will be to take Saquon Barkley out of the game and force the Nittany Lions to use other, riskier ways of generating offense. It's a plan that opponents have been deploying for the bet- ter part of the past two years, so it definitely won't catch anyone by surprise. But it's the best of the available options. "You have to make them beat you with things that are not their strengths," Hoosiers coach Tom Allen said earlier this week. "If they can beat you with the things that are not their strengths, then they're probably just better than you. We've got to put it together, and we are in the process of putting together a great plan for our team in all three phases. Coaches are working as we speak, and that's our responsibility and it's our players' responsibility to execute that scheme with fanatical effort. "Any time you've got a back like [Barkley], you've got to gang tackle that guy. You've got to get as many hats to the ball as you can, and that's a challenge because they are spreading you out, which is the beauty of that style of offense." Last Saturday, Iowa fared better on de- PULLING OUT ALL THE STOPS To upset the Nittany Lions, Indiana must find a way to impede Saquon Barkley The Hoosiers held Barkley to 58 yards rush- ing on 33 car- ries in last year's matchup. Photo by Steve Manuel 1 S E P T E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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