Rod Carey Won't Make Major Changes to Indiana Offense, Wants to Focus on 'What Works'

Indiana football offensive coordinator Rod Carey spoke to media on Wednesday for the first time since being promoted to the role following the dismissal of Walt Bell. Carey stressed that he won't change the Hoosiers' whole system, as that's too hard to do midseason. However, he wants to focus the offense on running what the players do best.

Daniel Olinger | Oct 4, 2023

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Indiana Hoosiers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind — Indiana's offense is in a brutal spot, averaging only 15.75 points per game against FBS opponents this season.

Following a 44-17 loss to Maryland and heading into a bye week, coach Tom Allen felt it was time for a change. He fired offensive coordinator Walt Bell on Sunday and promoted Rod Carey to that role.

"In four FBS games, we've only scored three touchdowns in meaningful minutes," Allen said when introducing Carey. "Just not good enough."

Carey has been around the block in the college football world. He was the head coach at Northern Illinois from 2013-18 and at Temple from 2019-21, before joining Tom Allen's staff in 2022 as a quality control coach. He stepped in as the interim offensive line coach last season after Darren Hiller was fired, and is in a similar spot now, filling in as offensive coordinator midseason after Bell's dismissal.

Despite the lack of offensive production so far and a difficult schedule ahead, Carey's press conference didn't have the feel of a morbid situation. Sure, the new offensive coordinator said multiple times that the unit has to improve and score more points, that part is understood. But from joking with Indiana staffers and reporters, to his emphasis that the offense has shown enough flashes to get one excited, Carey seemed comfortable in his first time speaking about his new job.

"The crazy thing is, they see the flashes, and they have good confidence," Carey said when describing the players on IU's offense. "There isn't a lot of '[Win] one for the Gipper' speeches that you got to do here. They want to be good, and they have a lot of energy to do that. I think that's my job just to get in there and prod that along."

Carey said he wouldn't get into potential schematic or personnel tweaks on Wednesday. He also takes over for Bell as Indiana's quarterbacks coach, but declined to share insight into the starting quarterback situation. Tayven Jackson has started the last three games, but he was replaced by Brendan Sorsby late in the Maryland game.

For what it's worth, there probably will be very few systematic changes made under Carey due to the nature in which he became the offensive coordinator. He can build off and an improve upon what Bell left behind, but he can't just scrap an offensive philosophy mid-season and install a new offense.

"The setup is the setup, the offense is the offense," Carey said. "And so what you're trying to do is get us to run those plays better, and maybe do it with a different little flare here. That's about all you can do. I'm excited about it, and I think the guys are to, [having been] with the offense the last two days and with the offensive staff. We've had flashes, so we need to make those flashes more permanent light-on."

Rod Carey, on taking over at this point: "Yeah, it's not ideal, right?"

Carey says there isn't much Indiana can do at this point in the year to change the overall scheme, but instead needs to focus on making the flashes of good offense more consistent. #iufb
— Mason Williams (@mvsonwilliams) October 4, 2023

Many took issue with the play calling of Bell, as well as his comment in September that he viewed Indiana identity as a run-first offense. This was said despite the Hoosiers ranking near the bottom of FBS in advanced metrics that measure rushing efficiency, and averaging a brutal 3.2 yards per carry as a team.

Too often, Indiana called designed quarterback runs for Jackson, or carries up the gut for the team's smallest player, Jaylin Lucas. Neither worked consistently.

That's where Carey comes in. He might not have wholesale adjustments or new play concepts to introduce, but he was adamant about one thing overall — he's going to have Indiana's offense stick to what it does best.

"I have a real easy philosophy on offense," Carey said. "You ask me, 'What do you like running on offense?' and I say, 'What works.'"

"That's really all it is, what works. Misdirection, running, throwing, controlling the ball, controlling the game — I believe that offenses control the game. Defenses [can] play really well and an offense can control the game. Doesn't always go like that for everybody all the time, but Coach Allen and I talked a lot about this ... That's the belief, that if we can control the game, you obviously have to score points, but you got to control the game."

While no aspect of the 2023 Indiana offense has been great, the passing attack has certainly been more potent than the ground game. The Hoosiers are 70th in expected points added (EPA) per play on plays where they drop back to pass, and 127th in designed runs, according to CFB-Graphs.

If that trend continues, expect Carey to lean toward a more pass-heavy offense.

Part of Bell's run-first approach this season included several different option plays, both of the triple option and speed option variety. Neither worked that well in any game this season, most notably when Jackson lost 11 yards on 4th and 1 against Maryland.

There's no way to be certain what Carey believes about each of his players. But if he thinks they're struggling to make the correct reads in the triple option, it won't be called very much in the new Indiana offense.

"Reads necessarily aren't going to change," Carey said. "But maybe we're going to do more of the ones that they read better, and less of the ones that they don't read as well."

There's a lot of guesses one could make as to what Indiana's new offense will look like under Carey based on his Wednesday answers. But truth be told, no one will know for sure until it's actually seen on the field, when the Hoosiers travel to Ann Arbor on Saturday, Oct. 14 for their next game.

From the quarterback situation, to adjustments Carey may or may not make, Indiana moves forward with plenty of unknown. But as Carey put bluntly, he's focused on running what works.

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