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2008 Indiana Hoosiers

Written June 16, 2008 by Jason Lowry

There is still a couple months till the NCAA Football season gets underway, but Jason Lowry is ready to make his 2008 Indiana Hoosiers football predictions. The Hoosiers are coming off a pretty solid season, as they found there way into the Insight Bowl against Oklahoma State. Though they were unable to win the game, first year head coach Bill Lynch let Indiana to a 7-6 overall record and a 3-5 record in the Big 10. So though the Hoosier weren’t great in conference play they did do a good job taking care of business in their non-conference schedule. The Hoosier will be looking for another winning season, as they return 14 returning starters from a year ago. Before we go making predictions on how we see this team finishing up, lets take a look at what the Hoosiers will be bringing to both sides of the ball in the upcoming season.

Offense:
The offense returns 6 starters to a unit that put up 31.7 points a game last year, but that could take a big change if junior quarterback Kellen Lewis is not allowed to return to the team. He was suspended by Lynch during spring practice, but there were talks that he could earn his way back on the team. From what we hear the Hoosiers are going to be running a hurry up offense this season in hopes to screw up opposing defenses. The team will be without star wide receiver James Hardy who left early for the NFL. It will be up to returning juniors Andrew Means and Ray Fisher to take over the load this season. The team returns senior running back Marcus Thigpen, but he wasn’t even the leading rusher last year, as Lewis finished with a little more than 150 yards more on the ground than Thigpen. The offensive line as 7 players and 5 spots to fill, and you can almost count in juniors Rodger Saffold at left tackle and Pete Saxon at left guard.

Defense:
The defense returns 7 starters and will need to improve if the team wants to improve on its record a year ago. The front seven should be the strength of this unit, and it all starts with defensive end Greg Middleton, who had an amazing sophomore season last year, as he led the nation with 16 sacks. Middleton could very well be an All-American by the time he hangs it up at Indiana. Juniors Jammie Kirlew at defensive end and defensive tackle Greg Brown will join Middleton on the front four. At linebacker look for junior Will Patterson to be the main stopping force for this team, as he was 2nd in tackles last year with 104. If the team is weak anywhere on this side of the ball, its at corner back where the team could struggle as they will be counting on an unproven senior Christopher Phillips and a talented freshman in Donnell Jones. The team should be just fine at the two safety spots, as they return hard hitting strong safety Austin Thomas and the athletic Nick Polk at free safety.

Prediction: 9th in the Big 10
While this team could easily be better than 9th in this conference, we feel they are the 9th best team. They get lucky and avoid games against Ohio State and Michigan, and have another easy non-conference schedule. We might of put them closer to 7th in the conference had returning starting quarterback Lewis not got in trouble this spring. Without Lewis this team could finish last in league. We really think Lewis will be with the team, so don’t panic just yet.

If you are looking to get a head start on the upcoming NCAA football season, be sure to head over to BetUS.com and get account up and going today. Also be sure to keep checking back as professional handicapper Jason Lowry will continue to make his team-by-team and conference previews. As always feel free to leave any comments in our comment box.

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