Reacting to the Darren Hiller news

IU's offensive line coach is out. Now what?

Indiana showed Saturday during its 31-10 loss to Michigan that data and analytics only go so far in interpreting college football. By all statistical accounts, Michigan was going to not only beat Indiana badly but also cover the 22.5 spread because, analytically, Michigan is one of the top programs in the country and Indiana is one of the worst. This is still true, but on one day, for one half, the Hoosiers made some folks doubt the analytics. Then the analytics reared its head in the second half.

There are plenty of topics to discuss from the Michigan game, but I’m going to stick with one that actually occurred Sunday morning.

Darren Hiller is Out

Perhaps bigger news than the outcome of the game this weekend was the firing of offensive line coach Darren Hiller. While it was a surprise that Tom Allen let go of a staffer midseason, it seemed like a possibility after the postgame press conference Saturday.

Dustin Dopirak @DustinDopirak

Allen told us in May that he'd had some one-on-one conversations with Hiller about what he wanted to see different up front and that he felt like he'd seen response. I asked him if he still felt that way. "Not this week and not last week."

If you read last week’s BSB, you understand the regression of Indiana’s offensive line since Tom Allen took over the program. I highly recommend you read that edition before continuing with this one! Note, in particular, how Indiana’s offensive line construction led to this season.

[CrimsonCast Emergency Pod - OL Coaching Change (feat. Taylor Lehman)]

While Indiana’s gameplan was effective against Michigan early, it necessitated short passing with quick releases to avoid pressure the offensive line would surely allow (Connor Bazelak has been pressured on 34.6% of his dropbacks despite spending less time (2.96 seconds) in the pocket than any other Big Ten quarterback). But once Michigan began to focus attention on those short passes, Indiana could do very little — it averages just 91 rushing yards per game, 124th in the nation. 

When Indiana needed to lean on its pass protection later in the game, it couldn’t. The Hoosiers recorded yet another well-below-average PFF grade in pass blocking, and in true pass sets — eliminating screens, play action, rollouts, etc. — Indiana scored extremely poorly, as it has all season.

As noted earlier, the Michigan game alone nor the 2022 season are directly responsible for Hiller’s firing, but, most likely, the construction of an offensive line that performs as the numbers above show and has no answers when depth is required. These are now expectations at Indiana.

[READ: The State of Indiana’s Offensive Line before Michigan]

Rod Carey is a great option to turn to in the middle of a season. As the head coach for Northern Illinois (2012-2018), he coached two top-20 pass-blocking offensive lines and a top-30 one. During his time as head coach, his lines never dropped out of the top-50 in pass or run blocking, according to PFF. 

But that’s not the Big Ten, and he won’t transform the Indiana offensive line this season into much more than what we’ve come to expect from it. The individual development just isn’t there, and that is why this problem in the Indiana program won’t be solved overnight. 

In the spirit of considering the next offensive line coach, whether it be Carey or someone else, I’d like to consider a recent question. Reader David Underwood asked in the comments section of the last BSB the following question: “How much difference would it make to spend a big salary to get someone new as O-Line coach who could attract good recruits?”

I responded: “It would make the development of the current young OL guys on the roster more of a promise! But Hiller hasn't done a terrible job of recruiting in recent classes actually. There's just not much optimism that he can develop them. Throwing money at a new OL coach could increase those chances, but even he would need to recruit guys and develop them, which just takes time. Maybe a new OL coach could attract transfers that he could quickly develop in ways IU hasn't in recent seasons, but that would take a pretty damn good OL coach.”

Not many teams in the Big Ten hit the transfer portal for starting offensive linemen in 2022, but Minnesota has found a way to make it work so far. Minnesota offensive line coach Brian Callahan has been with the Gophers as offensive line coach for five years now and has been one of the more consistent coaches at the position within the conference. It would take quite the hire to replicate what Callahan has done at Minnesota. 

While hitting the transfer portal for offensive linemen must be in the future for Indiana, this is all to point to the young, promising offensive linemen currently on the roster at Indiana — such as Josh Sales, Kahlil Benson, DJ Moore, Luke Wiginton, Bray Lynch, Cam Knight, and Carter Smith. Finding a coach who can develop those linemen with high upside is likely the quickest way to fix the current offensive line. 

The good news is that it can be done. It might just take some time.

On the next BSB, I will discuss more about the Michigan game and looking ahead to Maryland — topics like Jaylin Lucas and replacing Cam Jones.