Indiana faces tough challenge in Rutgers' Carroo

Rutgers comes to Bloomington on Saturday for the Hoosiers’ homecoming weekend. Rutgers is coming off a nail-biting loss to Michigan State while Indiana tries to bounce back from a 29-7 defeat at Penn State.

Indiana fans have had this game circled as a ‘win’ since the schedule came out. At 2-3, the Scarlet Knights look to be about what opposing fans expected in the preseason. That record may be deceiving however, as they put a scare into the then fourth ranked Spartans of Michigan State. Clearly, Rutgers has the talents to win big games.

“Although their record is 2-3, they are a very talented team,” said secondary coach Brandon Shelby. “When you watch film you know it will be a challenge.”

The premiere challenge in this matchup will feature the leader of the IU secondary, Rashard Fant, against future NFL draft pick Leonte Carroo. This will be Carroo’s second game after being suspended earlier in the season. He looks to repeat his performance from last week.

“Carroo is a dominant player, his first week back he had seven catches and three touchdowns,” Shelby said. “He keeps them in games.”

Shelby was critical of Fant’s play to this point in the season.

“His first five games I don’t know if he graded out that well, but he did a great job last week,” Shelby said.

While Fant is the closest thing Indiana has to a veteran in the secondary, the coaching staff believes he still has plenty of room to grow. Shelby stated that Fant will look to build on his performance against Penn State last week.

“His (Fant) first few games I was disappointed in his play, last week he played a full, good game,” Shelby said. “Can he do it again? If he wants to reach his goal he has to do it again and again.”

Part of that building process for Fant includes being more aggressive and overall a more physical corner. Fant believes those are the areas of his game where he can improve the most. Shelby shared a similar sentiment.

“Rashard needs to be a dominant player for us and part of that is attacking more to get interceptions and make plays,” Shelby said.

Everyone in the secondary is excited to meet the challenge. In just three games, Carroo has totaled fourteen receptions, 315 yards and six touchdowns. While Fant is expected to get the majority of snaps against Carroo, fans should expect a mix of players to guard the Edison, New Jersey product. The thought process behind this is that each player in the young Hoosier secondary has a different skillset, so by throwing a combination of looks at Carroo, Indiana can figure the most effective way to minimize his production.

“We’ll probably throw everybody at him, let everybody get a chance,” Fant said. “We are all going to go in there and give it everything we’ve got.”

Carroo, a savvy veteran, has the potential to take advantage of a relatively weak Indiana passing defense. As a likely future NFL player, he is at the stage of his career where IU’s young secondary may not present much of a challenge.

“He’s been doing it for a long time and we have guys like Andre Brown who has been doing this (college football) for a couple months,” Shelby said.

But youth won’t be used as an excuse by anyone on the Indiana football team. The team has been taught preparation all summer long, and Fant has been reinforcing the coaches’ message with the younger players.

“I watched the whole MSU game and half of the Washington State game and told the younger guys to watch the MSU tape,” Fant said. “We want to see where MSU’s corners could’ve maybe done something differently and take what they did do well and use it, because they are great cornerbacks.”

Ultimately, Shelby believes his players know the challenge that awaits them.

“I don’t have to say anything, they can look at the film,” Shelby said. “I was watching the tape and I was in awe because that’s a very good defense at MSU and he (Carroo) was all over the field making great plays.”

The young Indiana secondary will get a test against one of the best players in the Big Ten and a future NFL draft pick. The unit has grown quite a bit as the season has progressed, but Fant says they have put their development in perspective.

“There is a lot of room to get better, we are 4-2 but none of us are satisfied,” Fant said. “We have to get better at our positions, we aren’t happy about 4-2 because we should be 6-0.”

Shelby expects homecoming to be a great game, and emphasized that for the team to improve to 5-2, it has to get Rutgers off the field.

“Their quarterback has the best third down percentage in the league and they are going to score points if we don’t get them off the field,” Shelby said.

After a two game losing streak, a homecoming matchup with Rutgers may be just what the Hoosiers need to get back on track. If they do improve to 5-2, Indiana will be one step closer to going bowling for the first time since 2007.