RPO helps keep Indiana football’s offensive engine running

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana does a lot of things well offensively, but if you had to peel back the onion to figure out why it works so well, the Hoosiers’ run-pass option game is a good place to start.

RPO, as it is commonly known, is an integral part of modern offensive football. Few teams do this as well as Indiana.

Quarterback Kurtis Rourke’s mastery of the RPO is great. The experienced signaller is adept at concealing his intention until the last second. He also camouflages his throws very well. One example was a 7-yard touchdown catch by Myles Price on Saturday against Nebraska.

Right after Omar Cooper Jr. made a 36-yard catch to put Indiana in the red zone, Rourke rolled slightly to his right and could have let him run. But the better option was Price, who was open with a blocker on the sideline. Rourke tossed it to him and Price used the block to get to paydirt.

This was not the first and probably not the last productive play of its kind. Indiana’s opponents notice this in the film and begin trying to counter the RPO.

That’s fine by the Hoosiers because it just creates holes for Indiana’s running backs committee that eat up yardage.

Indiana rushed for 215 yards against a Nebraska defense that had averaged just 84.2 yards receiving in its last six games.

The threat of the RPO ensures that everything works like clockwork. Complementary football at its peak.

“When a team decides to fill the box, we throw RPOs behind it. When they try to stop the RPO, we get big runs like we did today,” Indiana wide receiver Miles Cross said after the Hoosiers’ 56-7 win on Saturday. “We had a lot of big runs today that crashed. It plays off each other. I feel like the RPOs and ball handoff complement each other really well. It throws the defense off balance.”

The running backs deeply value the latitude they have given the threat of RPO. The offensive line also does its job by opening up the holes, but there is plenty of space behind those holes once the backs break through.

Justice Ellison’s 31-yard touchdown run with 1:09 remaining in the first half is a perfect example. He took the handoff to Rourke’s right and ran parallel to the offensive line to his left. Left guard Drew Evans and center Mike Katic opened a big hole. Ellison did a great job of watching it when he made an abrupt cut.

Once he closed the gap, there was only one Cornhusker defender left to beat. Ellison turned it around and strolled toward the end zone. Nebraska’s other defenders were beaten at the line or deployed elsewhere.

“The box count was probably in our favor, which tells me they probably overstated the RPOs. We passed the ball and gained yards,” Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said.

Ellison wasn’t sure what approach the Nebraska defense would take to combat Indiana’s offense, but he was pleased that the complementary attack that Indiana does so well worked as intended.

“We knew if they were going to pull the ball and I had to sell my fakes so we could pull those safeties down to us and get those back-end throws, or vice versa if they wanted to play two high safeties and be able to be to force us to hit them with the ball. We executed where we needed to,” said Ellison, who rushed for 105 yards and two touchdowns.

Fellow defensive lineman Ty Son Lawton, who ran for 64 yards and a 1-yard touchdown, was more confident about what the Cornhuskers would throw at the Hoosiers. His belief that the RPO would break it was rewarded.

“We knew Nebraska valued free safety and strong safety. We knew RPO would help hold them back (in coverage). You see, it was kind of like that because me and Justice had some good runs. I feel like they help us tremendously offensively,” Lawton said.

Indiana’s RPO championship gave the Hoosiers a 7-0 record. No defense has yet been able to stop Indiana’s complementary approach.

Since it was announced Sunday morning that Rourke is out indefinitely with his throwing hand injury, Tayven Jackson will take control of the Hoosiers for at least the next game. Jackson played well in Rourke’s absence on Saturday, but one of the things he needs to do is make sure Indiana’s RPO game stays sharp.