Indiana Football Week 8 Stock Report: Who’s trending up? Who’s trending down?

Indiana football continues to struggle in nearly every facet of the program following its 52-7 loss to No. 2 Michigan on Saturday.

Indiana, now sitting at 2-4, heads into its homecoming matchup with Rutgers, a team that has been a pleasant surprise this year at 5-2.

So, after week seven of the season for Indiana, who is trending up? Who’s trending down? We take a look at some players and position groups here.

TRENDING UP

Lanell Carr: There weren’t many bright spots on Saturday against Michigan, but edge rusher Lanell Carr was one of them. Carr was fantastic to start, having two sacks on the first two defensive possessions for Indiana. He finished with four tackles, two sacks and two tackles for loss.

Carr has shown flashes of potential this season, but now it’s about bringing it consistently.

“His ability, that edge rush talent that he has, you saw that early in the game to generate some sacks,” Indiana football defensive coordinator Matt Guerrieri said this week. ” … bring that consistency. Bring it every single day, bring it every game. Then it’s our job is to put him in places to be successful.”

On the year, Carr has 15 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, one pass breakup and one quarterback hurry.

The 6-foot-2 and 240-pound edge is seventh on the team in tackles, third in tackles for loss and tied for the team lead in sacks. It’s also already a career high in sacks.

Josh Henderson: The talented running back for Indiana has missed the last few games with a lower leg injury, but that could all be changing this week.

On Monday, Indiana head coach Tom Allen said that Josh Henderson would be returning to practice this week. That’s a terrific sign for an ailing offense that is struggling to protect the quarterback snaps make explosive plays.

“He’ll provide a lot,” Indiana football offensive coordinator Rod Cary told reporters this week. “Josh is a good football player and played a lot of football around here. His protection, his running, ability to catch the ball. I’m excited to get him back.”

Henderson has 91 rushing yards on a 4.1 yard per carry average and two touchdowns. He also has 88 receiving yards as well through three games.

Henderson is the ideal all-around back for Indiana and his ability to be effective as a three-tool running back is something that could be a spark to the offense if he returns this weekend.

TRENDING DOWN

Quarterback Room: After we thought the quarterback position was solved … after week two … Indiana is now back to square one.

Following back-to-back losses and two games when both Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby saw action, this week ushers in a new quarterback battle. Going into the Michigan game last weekend, the plan internally was to play both and see who stood out.

Unfortunately, neither quarterback played well. Jackson was 7-of-13 for 52 yards and two interceptions and one lost fumble. Sorsby was 6-of-14 for 44 yards and one lost fumble.

Now, it’s time to name a starter for the rest of the season … in week eight.

“We’ll make a decision (this week), and just bottom line is, as you go through and you look at the changes we wanted to make on offense — obviously made a major change a week ago with our staff — and just want to be able to do a great job of moving us down the field, scoring points. And that continues to be the goal,” Allen said on Monday. “Obviously did some good things. Both of them did good things on Saturday. Both of them made some mistakes. But it’s about protecting the football. It’s about running the offense and being able to be effective with that.

Offense: It was week one for Rod Carey as the offensive coordinator and while there was significant progress through two drives, it was all downhill after that.

MOST TO PROVE

Tom Allen: What more is there to say at this point. This season is on the verge of disaster … it it’s not there already. After some promise to start the season, Indiana barely escaped Akron at home and has been outscored 96-24 in the past two games. But it goes way beyond the last two games.

In the last 21 Big Ten games, Indiana is 2-19 with an average loss of 23.9 points.

In the last 30 games, Indiana is just 8-22.

Things need to change and Tom Allen needs to figure out some way to get something positive out of the remaining part of the 2023 season. If not, there need to be very important discussions this offseason about the state of the program, and more importantly, the future.

SEE ALSO: It’s week eight and Indiana football is back to square one with its QB competition