You are well aware that Saturday’s New Era Pinstripe Bowl isn’t a marquee college basketball showdown, right? Yes, the Indiana Hoosiers and the Duke Blue Devils are really squaring off on the gridiron in a bowl game for a change, and they’ll have that contest in illustrious Yankee Stadium all the more.
Both schools are widely received to have terrific basketball programs, but exactly how would they fare on the open field? Let’s take a closer look at this oddly compelling matchup coming at you from The Bronx.
Afterwards, read up on more of Saturday’s bowl games on tap with our previews for the Sun Bowl and the Heart of Dallas Bowl.
The Indiana Hoosiers had a rollercoaster of a regular season to clinch the school’s first bowl game since 2007. After a strong 4-0 start, the team lost six-straight games against Big Ten opponents before ending with two-straight victories to qualify for the postseason.
[sc:NCAA240banner ]Not only did head coach Kevin Wilson and his boys finish with back-to-back wins, they did it with a flurry by putting up a whopping total of 101 points.
The Hoosiers’ explosive offense is what got them to where they are now. They scored over 40 points in each of their last three games of the regular season (with one of those contests even against Jim Harbaugh’s resurgent Michigan Wolverines) and averaged 36 points per game this entire campaign in general.
Indiana can deal damage to its opposition both on the ground and through the air, with 25 of their season’s touchdowns via the rush and 24 TDs more coming from the passing game. However, the team’s top running back in Jordan Howard might have to sit Saturday’s game out due to a right knee injury.
Thankfully, the Hoosiers are in good hands with quarterback Nate Sudfeld at the helm. Sudfeld had an equally productive and efficient campaign this year, racking up 3,184 passing yards and 24 touchdowns to just five interceptions.
This offense better be rolling in The Bronx on Saturday, because the team’s defense is quite atrocious. The Hoosiers have given up an average of 37 points per game this season – a slight tick above their own points scored average, and are also allowing a staggering 6.4 yards per play to their opposition.
Sure, Coach K is still the man over at Duke, but Coach Cut has slowly become a campus icon himself by guiding the Blue Devils to its fourth-straight bowl game appearance this year.
Then again, head coach David Cutcliffe would’ve wanted a better finish for his team, who lost four of its last five games heading into Saturday’s match against the Hoosiers. And seeing that Duke hasn’t won a bowl game since 1960, Cutcliffe will go to great lengths for his club to avoid becoming the Buffalo Bills of the college football bowl season.
Behind a read option-first offense, the Blue Devils run the ball just as well and as balanced as the other pistol formation-heavy teams in the nation. Starting quarterback Thomas Sirk actually leads his team in rushing with 648 yards. Meanwhile, backfield workhorse Shaquille Powell isn’t that far behind from Sirk with his 534 rushing yards for the season.
Together, this QB-RB duo will likely confound Indiana’s defense by throwing multiple looks on the ground game. However, scoring points is a different issue. As solid as Sirk has been with his arm and his feet, he only has 21 touchdowns for the Blue Devils this campaign.
And just like the Hoosiers, the Blue Devils don’t really have much of a defense to brag about. Their secondary only came up with nine picks all season, they rank a mere 85th in the country in pass efficiency on defense, and they even surrendered over 30 points in five of their last six games.
Containing Indiana’s prolific offense may be a lost cause, so Duke’s best shot of winning on Saturday will be with great ball control and having the lion’s share of ball possession via the running game indeed.
Writer’s Prediction
The Hoosiers (-2) deny the Blue Devils yet another bowl game victory, 33-28.
