Strong ground games propel No. 1 Indiana and No. 5 Oregon to CFP semifinal matchup at Peach Bowl

Now, less than a week after dominating Alabama on the ground, the Hoosiers dynamic duo hopes to replicate that performance against No. 5 Oregon in Friday night's Peach Bowl.

“You see the guys we have up front, they work really hard and they make my job and Kaelon's job really easy,” Hemby said Monday. “We just try to outphysical our opponents. We really want to make it a four-quarter fight to where we kind of impose our will and, at some point in the game, we feel like we could potentially break the defense or make that play that helps us win.”

The surprise, to some, has been just how much the Football Bowl Subdivision's third-highest scoring offense, 41.6 points per game, actually has relied on the running game.

While Mendoza and the passing attack certainly have driven this season's narrative, Indiana's ground game sometimes went unnoticed.

The Hoosiers rush for 220.7 yards per game — 10th nationally and No. 1 among the teams still fighting for a national championship. They've topped the 300-yard mark six times and had two more with more than 200 including the 215 it logged in last week's 38-3 rout over No. 9 Alabama.

It's also a big reason the undefeated Hoosiers have the nation's top third-down conversion percentage at 56.5%. Perhaps more important — Indiana has only one fumble all season.

“It just comes from wanting to be better,” Black said, referring to the backfield's internal motivation. “Being around a great group of guys, a great group of teammates, you just have the want to to be better in your life and also on the football field. And now that we're in this position, we have no choice but to be better.”

Still, Hemby and Black are hardly household names.

Hemby played four seasons at Maryland, averaging 4.9 yards per carry while rushing for 2,347 yards. This year, he's at 5.2 yards and topped the 1,000-yard mark for the first time with an 8-yard game against the Crimson Tide. He earned a third team all-Big Ten selection from the media but not the coaches.

Black was solid, not spectacular, in four seasons at James Madison but blossomed after following coach Curt Cignetti to Bloomington. This season, he has 157 carries, 898 yards and eight TDs — all career bests with the top-seeded Hoosiers (14-0). Yet he was left off the all-conference list.

The two backs already understand the challenge Oregon (13-1) poses. In their first meeting, Indiana ran 27 times for a paltry 111 yards or 3.0 yards per carry, their third-lowest single game average all season. And on tape, they think Oregon looks even better now.

So does linebacker Bryce Boettcher, who acknowledged having some mental mistakes in Round 1 but played a key role in Oregon's 23-0 shutout over No. 4 Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl.

On the other hand, the Ducks recognize how difficult it will be to replicate that effort especially with Indiana's secret weapon — Mendoza's ability to buy time and scramble for first downs — and against an offensive line that has proven to be one of the nation's best.

“They’re smart, fast and physical,” Boettcher said, describing Indiana's linemen. “In the run game, they play physical and they do their job. They don’t have a lot of unblocked hats. I know in the screen game, they get out and they’re elite at kind of retracing and blocking for the receiver in the screen game, which was present in our last game.”

Oregon's offense looks remarkably similar to the Hoosiers.

While the Ducks rank second in scoring among the final four teams, 38.0 points per game, and as Mendoza and Dante Moore continue their presumed competition to be the No. 1 NFL draft pick in April, Oregon enters Friday with the second-best ground game in the remaining field at 206.1 yards with Noah Whittington and Jordon Davison leading the way.

The Hoosiers had the upper hand in the 30-20 victory in October, holding the Ducks to 81 yards rushing, their lowest regular-season total, on 30 carries. Indiana knows the rematch could prove more difficult.

But for two offenses that have thrived through the air with star quarterbacks and a deep stable of prominent receivers, the path to Miami and the Jan. 19 national championship will likely be determined on the ground.

“It's one of those things where we had to keep working toward it to get where we want to be and, obviously, we're still not where we want to be,” Hemby said when asked about the improvement in Indiana's ground game this season. "I don't know if we've changed people's minds, we're not really in the business of trying to do that. Hopefully we did. But at the end of the day if we're winning games, we'll take it however we can.”

AP Sports Writer Anne M. Peterson in Portland, Oregon, also contributed to this report.

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