Indiana football: Previewing Louisville’s offense

With Indiana football set to take on Louisville on Saturday, we thought it’d be worth looking into how Louisville’s offense will work under first year head coach Jeff Brohm, formerly of Purdue.

From the quarterback to the line, here’s how the Cardinals work:

Quarterback

Former Purdue and Cal signal caller Jack Plummer runs the Louisville offense thanks in large part to his overall experience in college football and familiarity with Brohm’s system. Behind him is Purdue transfer Brady Allen, who followed the coach to Louisville this past offseason.

In two games (Georgia Tech, Murray State) Plummer has completed 64.2% of his passes for 494 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions. He threw for three touchdowns against Georgia Tech and one against Murray State with one interception in the first game and two in the latter. He had career highs at Cal in 2022 with 3,095 yards, 21 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.

Pressure

Against Georgia Tech in its first year under Brent Key and FCS Murray State, Plummer has been pressured on just 27.1% of his dropbacks. When pressured, his completion percentage drops to 36.4% and he’s tossed one of his three interceptions against pressure.

With its revamped defensive line led by Andre Carter, Indiana will look to keep Plummer under pressure throughout Saturday’s game.

Concept

Plummer has excelled in play-action behind the great rushing attack, which could spell trouble for Indiana’s defense. He has a completion percentage of 66.7% on play-action concepts and has tossed three of his four passing touchdowns after faking a handoff.

Depth

Plummer is excellent on short passes, completing 71.4% of his attempts within ten yards of the line of scrimmage. He struggles over the intermediate area of the field between ten and twenty yards beyond the LOS, completing just 25% of his passes there.

Deep passing has some wrinkles to it. Plummer will push the ball downfield (mind you against inferior defenses) as 20.8% of his attempts are over 20 yards beyond the LOS. However, that’s where all three of his interceptions were thrown. He’s completed 45.5% of his attempts downfield.

Running Backs

Louisville’s rushing attack has been excellent in two weeks, picking up 585 yards on 71 attempts, good for a team average of 8.2 yards per attempt.

Jawhar Jordan leads the way with 231 yards on 14 attempts for an incredible 16.5 yards per attempt on the ground for two weeks. Others include Isaac Guerendo (90 yards) and Keyjuan Brown (65 yards).

Louisville’s attack doesn’t limit itself to one half or portion of the Cardinals’ offensive line but Indiana will need to keep the edges contained if it wants to have a chance at stopping the run on Saturday.

Wide Receivers

As expected, Georgia State transfer Jamari Thrash leads the Cardinals in receiving yards with 170. Speedster Kevin Coleman is second with 98. Those two have four of Louisville’s passing touchdowns, Thrash hauling in three to himself.

Louisville’s running backs are fully capable of catching passes out of the backfield as well, so Indiana will need to be mindful.

Indiana’s secondary will have to be mindful of Coleman’s speed in the deep areas of the field, he’s caught two receptions for 70 total yards when 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

Offensive Line

Louisville’s offensive line has been solid against its first two opponents, allowing just 12 total pressures and a single hit on the quarterback. Renato Brown has excelled as a run blocker at right guard through two weeks and is worth keeping in mind.

Summary

Indiana will have to limit Louisville’s rushing attack to have a chance on Saturday, something it has been built to do to prepare for the Big Ten. If Jordan and the RBs are allowed to run for first downs Brohm will feel comfortable letting Plummer air the ball out to beat the Hoosiers deep.