My two cents: Now Hoosiers need to learn from their success

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Even when you are a four-touchdown favorite, there are still important lessons to be learned in a college football game. That was certainly true Saturday for the Indiana Hoosiers.

Indiana entered its game with Connecticut with its psyche collectively bruised. That 41-point beatdown by Ohio State a week earlier had everyone angry, coaches and players alike. Fans, too. Even Indiana coach Tom Allen, who likes to think he has a pretty good pulse on his team, had no idea how they were going to respond after that disappointing loss.

Well, they didn’t play a perfect game Saturday at Memorial Stadium, but it was pretty darn close. The Hoosiers beat UConn 38-3, completing its nonconference schedule with three wins and getting quality play for all three phases in a much-needed romp.

Responding well? Absolutely.

“That, to me, is encouraging. But like I said, I expected them to,’’ Allen said. “When I was asked last week about how I thought our team would respond, I said, 'well, I can't wait to see.'

"I'm excited about their response because I believed it was going to be the right way. So now we've got to take that momentum and carry it into a tough road game up in East Lansing to take on the Spartans.’’

So know we know how this team can respond to adversity. That’s good to know, but it’s not the most important issue facing the team. Not even close.

How do they respond to success? That’s what I really want to know.

The first time they had to deal with a little success was an epic failure. It was mildly shocking a week ago to hear Indiana tight end Peyton Hendershot talk about how the Hoosiers might have been a little overconfident heading into Ohio State week after beating Eastern Illinois 52-0 to raise their record to 2-0.

And it was even more frustrating to hear other players talk about how they weren’t very sharp during practices that week, either. How can you NOT be perfect every day in preparing for a team like Ohio State? That had me shaking my head, and it had my Twitter and Facebook feeds blowing up with fans wondering the same thing. There was anger there, and an occasional four-letter words or two. Frustrating is an understatement.

So here’s to hoping they approach preparations for Michigan State this week with a different mental edge.

They need to.

They have to.

“It’s just good to bounce back from last week's performance, and thought our guys responded the way I hoped they would and the way I saw them practice all week,’’ Allen said. “I’m really, really proud of our team. We took care of business in our nonconference schedule, and now we’ll get ready to play the rest of our season in-conference play.’’

This Indiana team came into this season with lofty expectations, that they would have a winning record, get to a good bowl game and start to move up the ladder in the Big Ten East. The Ohio State loss sucked a lot of air out of that balloon, but now another chance awaits.

Moving up in the Big Ten East means going on the road and beating a team like Michigan State, who’s 3-1 themselves and has looked pretty good except for a stinker of their own a week ago in an ugly 10-7 loss at home to Arizona State.

Indiana fixed some of its biggest woes on Saturday. They ran the ball well for the first time all season, gaining a season-high 178 yards on the ground, with sophomore Stevie Scott leading the way with 97 yards. (Really wanted that hundred!). They were great on defense, basically pitching a shutout after UConn got a gift three points early in the first quarter after an IU fumble. And they forced a turnover, getting a pick-six from linebacker Cam Jones.

“It was very important for us to run the football better, and continue to improve our defense,’’ Allen said. “We got a pick-six, which are hard to get and fun to get, so I’m really we're excited for Cam (Jones) for that, but the pressure caused that and really defense the only points they gave up were off our first initial fumble and we held them to a field goal.’’

Allen and defensive coordinator Kane Wommack are always preaching getting off the field on third down, and the Hoosiers did a good job of that, allowing only three conversions in 14 tries. Conversely, on offense they were 8-for-10 and had five long scoring drives.

This young team grew up a little bit on Saturday. They need to keep doing it, too.

“They're a young group, but they're a very hungry group and they were upset (with the Ohio State loss), too,’’ Allen said. “They were disappointed and very frustrated by how they performed last week. We challenged them with that.

“I went to both groups individually, the offensive side of the football separately, defensive side of the football separately, and just challenged them about how we're going to play this game, and they responded.’’

Growth in this team will be a step-at-a-time type of thing. That means having great practices every day this week. That means going on the road next Saturday and playing their best in a hostile environment.

That means being confident on Saturday that they can beat a very tough Michigan State team on the road.

Confident, but not overconfident.

Please, not overconfident.

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