Tom Allen Says Zach Carpenter Has Been Indiana's Best Offensive Lineman
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — During his weekly Wednesday appearance on the Inside Indiana Football show, coach Tom Allen was asked by play-by-play broadcaster Don Fischer which IU offensive lineman has stood out the most through the first three weeks of the season.
Immediately, Allen responded that his team's center has led the way.
"Zach Carpenter has played the best of the group," Allen said. "[It's him] when you go through and you grade and evaluate the individual performances."
Interestingly enough, Carpenter is only graded as the fourth best player on the Indiana offensive line by Pro Football Focus (PFF) amongst the five who have played at least 100 snaps in the 2023 season. PFF has graded Kahlil Benson, Mike Katic and Carter Smith as having played better than Carpenter thus far.
With a 70.7, Carpenter does hold the second best run-blocking grade of any player on the team to have played at least 100 snaps on the offensive line in 2023. However, his PFF grade of 54.5 in pass protection is the second-worst, ahead of only fellow interior veteran Katic.
The Indiana offensive line was a huge talking point during the 2023 offseason.
The position group performed so poorly in 2022 that former offensive line coach Darren Hiller was fired midseason. After Rod Carey filled the role in the interim, coach Bob Bostad was hired away from Wisconsin to be the new leader for the Indiana offensive line, and so far, it's paid off. The Indiana quarterbacks have only been sacked two times in three games.
A lot of that is due to quarterbacks Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby being far more elusive than Connor Bazelak ever was. However, credit still has to be given to the five men in the trenches for the Hoosiers. They faced premier pass rushers in J.T. Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer and Ashton Gillotte, and more than held their own in keeping their quarterback upright.
But, as Allen noted both after the Louisville game and on Wednesday, the run-blocking needs to improve. The team faltered on a fourth-and-goal with the game on the line last Saturday, as the right side of the offensive line was completely caved in by the Louisville front. It was undoubtedly a very questionable play call, and a hard one for Indiana's blockers to execute, but still, they didn't do their job on that play.
IU averaged a dismal 2.1 yards per carry in the Week 3 matchup, tallying only 58 yards on 27 carries. That average was also sunk by a 13-yard loss for Jackson, who was forced to fall on a bad snap from Carpenter.
But coaches are coaches. Even if PFF disagrees, the men in charge of the Indiana football team likely know who the team's best offensive linemen are. If Allen says that they grade Carpenter the best, than that probably means he is the best. They're the only ones who get to see him in practice every day.
Carpenter and the Indiana offensive line get another chance to show their improvement here in the 2023 season when Akron comes to Bloomington for a Saturday night showdown.
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- FREEMAN'S ONSIDE KICK: It's a play that will largely go forgotten because it occurred in a loss, but Chris Freeman's onside kick and Louis Moore's recovery against Louisville was perfectly executed and ignited an Indiana comeback Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium. Here's what went into the preparation, execution and what followed. CLICK HERE
