Last year it was Northwestern’s Zak Kustok and Damien Anderson facing off against Indiana’s Antwaan Randle El and Levron Williams in a rushing rampage.
All four players are gone now and both teams have become more passing oriented as the Wildcats (2-7, 0-5 Big Ten) host the Hoosiers (3-5, 1-3) at 11 a.m. Saturday at Ryan Field.
“Well I hope this year’s game is significantly different than last year,” NU coach Randy Walker said, recalling a 56-21 drubbing in Bloomington. “It was a very dark Saturday. We were not where we needed to be and losing an All-American running back like Damien in the (second) half just made things worse.”
Anderson was lost last year to a dislocated shoulder in a game that saw Indiana take a 42-0 halftime lead. But this year, the Cats will probably enjoy the return of a key offensive weapon.
Quarterback Brett Basanez has been unable to play the past two weeks after breaking his left fibula against Minnesota on Oct. 10.
But during an interview with WGN-AM radio on Wednesday night, Walker said Basanez would get the nod to start.
“He’s not at greater risk playing this week,” Walker said after Wednesday’s practice. “He is, however, not at full speed. But he looked significantly better than last week at practice and he had a great week of practice.”
With Basanez under center, the Cats offense will be very different from the unit led by the mobile Kustok last year.
Basanez’s left leg, which still sore Wednesday after a full practice on Tuesday, will limit his mobility this week against the second-worst rushing defense in the Big Ten.
“We’re going to try to find what Brett can do well,” Walker said. “Obviously we’re not going to run him a lot, but try to keep him in pocket and execute our running game.”
The Hoosiers will also keep their signal caller in the pocket more than last year, when they were led by the elusive Randle El.
Randle El, the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, burned NU for more than 70 yards on the ground and threw for 246.
Not surprisingly, Walker and the Cats aren’t disappointed that Randle El is gone.
“Antwaan was a great player and he did so many things,” Walker said. “But their current quarterback is playing awfully well and he’s throwing the ball very effectively.”
Fifth-year senior Gibran Hamdan is averaging almost 250 yards a game passing. He has transformed the Hoosiers into the second-ranked passing offense in the Big Ten.
Indiana has passed for 2,239 yards in its first eight games, while in 11 games with Randle El at quarterback last year, the team passed for only 1,824. The Hoosiers are on pace for the first 3,000-yard passing season in school history.
“They might be as good of a passing team as we played all year,” Walker said. “If you watch the second half of the Wisconsin game, you see their quarterback sitting back there pitching off a mound picking Wisconsin apart and bringing them back to a big win.
“You think, ‘Wow — we have to play really well on defense.’ Obviously we need to stop the run because I think they will try to establish the ground game against us.”
But the Hoosiers have averaged only 116 rushing yards a game, worst in the Big Ten, with running backs Brian Lewis and Yamar Washington.
“They have run at different times in the year,” Walker said. “Early in the season they ran it a lot, but they’ve fallen behind the last three or four weeks and that may be why the running game has not be significant. The statistics could be distorted.”
