2023 Ultimate College Football Preview-Indiana

Welcome to the Ultimate College Football Preview for 2023. Every team in FBS Football will be covered in this daily blog release. All of your favorite teams from the ACC, AAC, Big 12, Big 10, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, PAC 12, SEC, Sun Belt & even every Independent. Think of these daily college football previews as a cheat sheet going into next year.

2022 Recap:

As you have seen when I do a college football preview I don’t pull punches and keep in 100%. The Hoosiers were god awful last year. Both their offense and defense were ranked over 100 in points per game. The defense allowed 33.9 points per game while the offense only scored 23.2 points per game. The Hoosiers started off hot winning their first 3 games. Then they lost the next seven straight games, five of them by two possessions or more. They beat Michigan State somehow and then lost to Purdue to end the year. I can’t really say too many more positive things about this team, it was ugly and hard to watch.

Head Coach:

Coach Tom Allen has been in Bloomington since 2016 and has been the head coach since 2017. Everyone knows that Indiana is a basketball school and expectations are not high. Allen is 30-40 in his 6 years coaching the Hoosiers. He has two winning seasons, on being the shortened covid year, and has 2 bowl appearance, both losses. His best record was in 2019 when that Hoosier team went 8-5. To put how bad of a program Indiana is historically, they have been playing football for 120 years and have only made 13 bowl games. In only 6 seasons Allen has coached 23 % of bowl appearances. I am harping on how bad the Hoosiers are historically to complement Allen. He is the perfect fit for Indiana. If he continues to have these 8-5 maybe 9-4 years every 3 or 4 seasons that is amazing. If each class can make a bowl game, Indiana’s program is going in the right direction. Baby steps made by Allen could turn this program into an annual mid tier Big 10 team.

Key Players:

While doing a college football preview I usually know the names of 3 or 4 guys even on the really bad teams. I couldn’t name one player coming back for the Hoosiers this year. This is all research. They lost their QB and the man starting this year for them is Sophomore Dexter Williams JR. This will be the Macon, Georgia natives first real playing time. Out of high school he was a 3 star dual threat QB with only one power five offer. Maybe Allen found a diamond in the rough, looking at his highlights this kid can be electric. The second leading running back is back in Senior Josh Henderson. Henderson had 672 yards from scrimmage and 8 touchdowns as a back up. Leading WR from last year Cam Camper is also back after his 46 catch, 569 yard and 2 touchdown junior year. He will lead a very young WR room and will be the best option for Williams to become comfortable early this year in the pass game. Good new for the defense with last years leading tackle, MLB Aaron Casey is back after having 85 tackles, 10.5 TFLs and 2 sacks last year. He is one of a few starters back for the Hoosiers which is probably a good thing because the defense was pretty bad.

2023 Prediction:

The Hoosiers non-conference schedule might be winnable with all home games vs. Indiana State, Louisville and Akron. It the Hoosiers beat Akron then they will go 2-1 in these 3 games, the Akron game is a swing game in their season. The only winnable conference games are Rutgers, Michigan State, Purdue, Illinois and Maryland. They are definitely losing the other 4 games. Of the 5 winnable games left 3 of them are on the road. Sorry Hoosier fans I think the ceiling this year is 5-7 and more likely 3-9 year. Don’t worry Allen will have a good year in a couple recruiting classes but this will be a long year.