Ohio State vs. Indiana: Alter grad back for Hoosiers; other storylines to watch Saturday

On the down side, the Buckeyes are still getting questions about it because they have had had a harder-than-expected time at the line of scrimmage since their week off at midseason.

“You just got to keep bringing it every week and then at the end of the year, you’ll look back on the body work and then you can start identifying the things you’ve done well,” head coach Ryan Day said.

This week, the Buckeyes get a chance to win another game and try to get better in the process Saturday when Indiana comes to down.

Here are five things to know about the game:

1. Alter grad Connor Bazelak will be back at the controls of the Indiana offense.

A junior who transferred from Missouri, Bazelak started Indiana’s first eight games but was out last week because he was “beat up pretty good” according to head coach Tom Allen.

“So there’s multiple things and just wasn’t able to, I believe, play at the level he needed to play at to be what we needed him to be, so that was the reason for him not being there,” Allen said.

The 2020 SEC Co-Freshman of the Year threw for almost 5,000 yards at Missouri, and he is third in the Big Ten in passing yards (2,099) this season.

2. Indiana should present a different type of challenge than Ohio State has faced recently.

In contrast to the run-oriented Northwestern team the Buckeyes beat last week, the Hoosiers are a pass-first, up-tempo team — at least when Bazelak is healthy.

Three different quarterbacks saw action last week, including Dexter Williams II. The freshman from Georgia threw a pair of interceptions but also brought a run threat to the position, and Allen did not rule out his having a role moving forward.

“You try to maximize your entire roster, so I think that Dexter showed me that he’s earned a right to be able to be out there,” Allen said. “So that will definitely be a part of the moving forward equation, yes.”

3. Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said he does not expect the offense to change much no matter who is at quarterback.

“One guy may run around a little bit more, but I think your preparation is the same unless unless there’s really a drastic change in what they do from one quarterback the next,” Knowles said. “You try to keep it as similar as possible between the two different guys.”

Safety Ronnie Hickman said communication will be key if the Hoosiers try to play fast.

“It’s not overly complicated but they do what they do well and we just got to be on our cues,” he said.

4. Ohio State could try to get more running backs into the game.

With TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams both missing games this season, Dallan Hayden and Chip Trayanum know they need to be ready at a moment’s notice.

Hayden is a true freshman who looked good early in the season but has not played much lately.

Trayanum is a transfer from Arizona State, where he played running back. He moved to linebacker upon coming to Ohio State but switched sides of the ball about a month ago with depth dwindling.

“I thought they had decent weeks of practice, so we’re going to try and play some depth at running back this week,” Day said.

5. It could be another bad weather game.

Ohio’s Indian Summer appears to be over with temperatures expected to drop from the 60s to the 30s and a possibility of some snow Saturday.

Ohio State and Indiana both like to throw the ball, but another chance to fine-tune the running game might not be bad for the Buckeyes after having a harder-than-expected time at Northwestern.

Indiana is 129th in the country in running the ball and 83rd in stopping the run, but the latter is one of the Hoosiers’ higher ranks on the stat sheet.

Indiana might try to juice up it running game with more touches for North Carolina transfer Josh Henderson, who is second on the team with 286 rushing yards and third in receiving yards with 232.

“I think Josh to me has turned out to be a very complete back,” Allen said. “I felt like that was one of his strengths going into the season — his ability to do multiple things well — and that’s continued to be true. I think his running ability is also something that’s continued to impress.

“So yeah, a guy like that, obviously got to have a chance to get him the football more so he can help this football team be successful.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Indiana at Ohio State, Noon, Fox, 1410