Lions’ ‘D’ awaits Hoosier trickery

Kellen Lewis is gone. The dynamic quarterback was booted by Indiana before the season for violations of team rules.

Ben Chappell might not be nearly the athlete that Lewis was, but the Hoosiers will have some of the most unorthodox formations and plays that Penn State (8-2, 4-2 Big Ten) has seen all season when the teams face off today at Beaver Stadium.

Expect Indiana to break out the pistol – where the quarterback lines up in between the center and tailback and takes a shotgun snap – and the wildcat, where wideout Mitchell Evans takes a direct snap from center.

From there, the Hoosiers (4-6, 1-5) have an assortment of option and misdirection plays that already have confused some of the Big Ten’s best defenses.

“Well, what they’re doing is what we’ve seen a lot of people do now with the really good running quarterback. It’s a version of the old triple option from the shotgun,” Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. “They’re doing a good job with their offense. They’ve had some tough, tough breaks. They have really moved the football most of the time against some pretty good football teams.

“They can move the football … their quarterback is tough. He may not have quite the speed (Ohio State’s Terrelle) Pryor has, but he’s very clever.”

Chappell isn’t much of a threat to take off himself – his longest run is 22 yards and because of sacks he has a negative net rushing total on the year – but he’s mobile enough to buy time and split out wide when Evans takes snaps out of the wildcat.

Indiana coach Bill Lynch and offensive coordinator Matt Canada threw a few new wrinkles into the offense to offset the loss of Lewis. And Chappell has handled things well, as he comes into today’s game second in the Big Ten with 2,377 passing yards.

“Ben has great command of his offense,” Lynch said. “On one side he’s really smart, but on the other, he really works hard. He does the things you want a quarterback to do, like spend extra time in the film room. Ben gets us in the right protection and sometimes that’s an important part. … Ben has also done a very good job of getting the running game where we want it at times. The numbers don’t show it, but sometimes it’s just getting your team out of a bad play. This doesn’t surprise me or anyone else within this program.”

Indiana’s offense has caught plenty of teams off guard this season, as the Hoosiers have jumped out to two-score leads over Michigan, Northwestern and Iowa in Big Ten play.

The trouble for the Hoosiers has been in the second half. They managed to lose all three of those games because opposing defenses have been able to make adjustments as the games went along, and superior talent trumped Indiana’s creativity on offense.

Even still, Penn State is hoping not to have to dig out of an early hole after last week’s disheartening loss to Ohio State.

“You know, 8-2 isn’t a disaster,” Paterno said. “That’s where we are, all right? Now, obviously when you lose to a couple good football teams at home, you don’t score a point in the second half against either one of them, you’ve got some concerns. I’ve got some concerns about that.

“But I still think we have a bunch of kids that want to go out there and do well. For me to go out there and do anything but encourage them, that’s just not my style. I think we’ll go out there, we’ll practice hard and we’ll see how good we are. We may not be good enough for Indiana, but we’ll find out.”

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Indiana will use option and misdirection plays in its bid to pull upset in State College.

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