BLOOMINGTON – Dameon Willis Jr. expected growing pains.

During fall camp, the IU redshirt senior linebacker analyzed the state of the Hoosiers' pass rush. He accepted the reality youth left it susceptible to more errors and less likely to cause as much havoc on opposing quarterbacks as it did a year ago. The defensive line was without Greg Gooch and Robert McCray III, the linebacker corps without Tegray Scales and Chris Covington and secondary without Rashard Fant and Chase Dutra.

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But even with all that, with those responsible for 22.5 of the 36 sacks IU recorded in 2017 gone, Willis had faith. He was confident his coaches could instill confidence in him and his teammates through the early-season struggles. And youth meant a group of Hoosiers on defense who would be that much more eager to affect the game.

“If a guy is giving you his all, you can fix the little things,” Willis said. “If the effort is there I can work with that. I think all of us prepared ourselves for the errors that we may have, but look toward the upside of how guys would be able to bounce back.”

The defense exhibits a calm confidence now, Willis believes, that wasn’t there when IU beat Florida International. Its pass rush has yet to reach defensive line coach Mark Hagen’s goal of at least four sacks each game and IU's tied for eighth in the Big Ten for total sacks, but back-to-back contests with three sacks after just one each against FIU and Virginia shows tangible progress.

A quarterback hurry from redshirt senior defensive lineman Nile Sykes against Michigan State also led to an interception.

“I always tell our guys that pass rush is want-to and technique,” Hoosiers coach Tom Allen said. “It just takes tremendous grit and toughness. You’ve got to rush, and rush, and rush, and rush, and sometimes you get there and most of the time you don’t. But you’ve got to keep rushing. You’ve got to keep going.”

Hagen said the run-pass option slant Florida International had to its offense and Virginia’s dual-threat quarterback played a part in why the sack numbers were lacking during the first two weeks of the season. But that doesn't mean IU can't point to missed opportunities, opportunities players more often seized against Ball State and Michigan State.

“I think FIU was definitely a measuring stick just to see where we were,” Willis said. “We had a lot of guys play their first game in a Hoosier uniform that day. So I think it was a lot of jitters and a lot of things that they probably were second-guessing.”

Sykes has noticed an increased calmness — especially the past two weeks.

“As time goes on we’re just going to play better together, create more chemistry as the season goes along and I think that’s how it should be,” Sykes said. “Early on we may start slow but as the season goes on week-to-week we should see significant improvements within the defense and I think that’s what we were doing.”

Rutgers is tied for fourth in the Big Ten in sacks allowed with six through four games. Hagen thought what helped IU against MSU — that wasn't present earlier in the season — was how the interior of the Hoosiers line stepped up and didn't put all the onus to disrupt the passing game on their edge counterparts.

"It’s never maybe as good as you want as a coach, but I think our guys are coming on and getting better," Hagen said. "I’d say a key for us defensively is when we can get Nile and Allen (Stallings IV) on the field at the same time and getting those other guys to understand that those can’t just be the only two that we have rushing the quarterback.”

Allen expects improvements to come, in part, because of the film that’ll build up on each opponent each week. IU didn’t know who FIU’s quarterback would be until the Panthers’ first possession and faced a much different Virginia offense than it played in 2017.

Even though it’s unclear who Rutgers might start at quarterback Saturday and there are some differences between the two options, Allen doesn’t see his opponent’s game plan changing much either way. It makes preparation easier than it would have been otherwise.

“Those first couple games you’re really guessing on what they did in the past,” Allen said. “Most of (the film) is from the previous season and that often changes. And then once you get into game three, four, five and beyond it all becomes pretty much what they’re doing this year and what you see out of the current team.”

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Jordan Guskey on Twitter at @JordanGuskey or email him at jguskey@gannett.com.

INDIANA AT RUTGERS

Kickoff: Noon, Saturday, Piscataway, N.J.

TV/Radio: BTN/WFNI-1070 AM, 107.5 FM.