Indiana tight end Aaron Steinfeldt, a Bloomington North High School graduate, made his first career start against Michigan, and his quick development proves he belongs in the Big Ten.
A lot has changed with the Indiana offense since the last time we saw the Hoosiers in November 2021. Their QB at the time is now a WR. Their RB room is completely different. Longtime TE and WR stars have moved on. The OL has sustained a major injury. And there's a new OC to top it all off! Many elements are different, but the overall performance sadly isn't radically better. The Film: I went with Indiana's week one game against Illinois because the Fighting Illini are the best defense the Hoosiers have played and the most comparable in quality to the Wolverines. Other options were Idaho (no), WKU (no), Nebraska, and Cincinnati. The Huskers were not fitting due to their defense being a travesty, so it came down to Cincy and Illinois. Those two teams have similar defenses, though Illinois is slightly more similar to Michigan in SP+ rating. That was a primary factor in my decision, although I also was somewhat selfish- Indiana ran 104 plays against Cincy and I didn&
A lot has changed with the Indiana offense since the last time we saw the Hoosiers in November 2021. Their QB at the time is now a WR. Their RB room is completely different. Longtime TE and WR stars have moved on. The OL has sustained a major injury. And there's a new OC to top it all off! Many elements are different, but the overall performance sadly isn't radically better. The Film: I went with Indiana's week one game against Illinois because the Fighting Illini are the best defense the Hoosiers have played and the most comparable in quality to the Wolverines. Other options were Idaho (no), WKU (no), Nebraska, and Cincinnati. The Huskers were not fitting due to their defense being a travesty, so it came down to Cincy and Illinois. Those two teams have similar defenses, though Illinois is slightly more similar to Michigan in SP+ rating. That was a primary factor in my decision, although I also was somewhat selfish- Indiana ran 104 plays against Cincy and I didn&
Previously: Quarterback, Running Backs, Receivers Welcome to Opponent Preview week! Next week is the real preview week of Michigan Football, but this week will be mostly about the opponents, as I've got four more The Enemy pieces lined up, and I believe we should have the conclusion to Opponent Watch as well. If you like reading about Michigan's opponents, this is the week for you. We are now on to the offensive line, which is a little bit longer of a piece because there are more names to talk about. I provide the depth chart below each team, showing the starters and a couple reserves who may see the field or are of note. Ideally, these are the first up at guard or tackle. A quick note about the format: bold refers to a returning starter while italics refers to a starter at another school who has transferred in. For this piece, I lean heavily on PFF grades for the non-conference teams because traditional stats don't exist for OL and I didn't really watch any of
Michigan took a gut punch last weekend in East Lansing, but the season is not yet over and there is a game coming up this weekend (at least, that's what my handlers have told me). That game is slated to be against the Indiana Hoosiers, and their season has not gone as planned, to put it mildly. After last year represented the culmination of the Tom Allen era in Bloomington, a dazzling 6-1 record in the B1G (with the one loss being a one-score defeat in Columbus), reality has come crashing down hard on the Hoosiers this campaign. When IU enters the Big House on Saturday night, they will be fighting for their bowl eligibility life, sitting at 2-6 on the year. Many of the problems plaguing the team are on offense, with the Hoosiers going through QBs like Kleenex, and that's something we will examine in today's post:
The Film: The QB issues severely narrowed our ability to have our choice of Indiana games. Michael Penix Jr. started the season but was injured against