My Two Cents: Just Like That, Tom Allen's Hoosiers in Position for Fantastic Finish
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — It was a cold, windy, brutal day in East Lansing — or November normal as the locals call it — and down 17 points to Michigan State at halftime, it would have easy for Indiana's football team to pack their winter coats and warm gloves and go home.
Quit, in other words.
After all, 2022 had turned into a lost season for the Hoosiers. Lost, Part 2 it would have been called, as the ugly sequel to the really lost 2021 season. It's been a box-office bust, for sure.
But then something weird happened. Indiana responded. A team that couldn't run ran the ball. A team that couldn't make key stops made them. A team that couldn't throw completed two huge passes when it mattered the most.
There was a bit of luck involved too, of course. But if any team has earned the right to catch a break these past two years, it's Indiana. It ended with a 39-31 overtime victory for the Hoosiers, snapping a seven-game losing streak and 63 days of pure misery for coaches, players and fans alike.
I guess, technically, the final stop wasn't the end because what came afterward was equal parts important. The Hoosiers celebrated winning the Old Brass Spittoon on the field, in the locker room and on the euphoric plane ride home. Enjoying a huge Big Ten road win the way the Hoosiers do — with loud singing and a lot of bear huge — was vitally important and thoroughly enjoyed by all involved.
It didn't erase eights weeks of agony — we know that's not possible — but what it did was allow the Hoosiers to hit the re-set button. There is a reason to feel good now, at least temporarily. They won a trophy game — winning back-to-back Spittoon games in East Lansing for the first time in 53 years — and now have their eye on a second trophy, the even-more-important Old Oaken Bucket game against Purdue on Saturday.
"It's such a great feeling to be able to know that these guys stuck together,'' Indiana coach Tom Allen said Monday. "Because you know what, in that environment, on the road, the weather the way it was, being down by the way we were at halftime and then even in the middle third quarter, man, what character and resilience these guys showed. I'm really proud of them.''
He should be. And, frankly, we all should. What we've learned this year is that this team is filled with flaws. But what is not as issue is the level of pride these players take in that name on the front of their jerseys. Even through the seven-game losing streak, they continued to practice hard each week — ''even though that didn't always show up on the field every Saturday,'' Allen said.
But they kept working, and that allowed Saturday to happen. They rushed for 257 yards behind a much-maligned offensive line that had it's best game of the year, by far. They got more special teams magic from freshman Jaylin Lucas — ''and the 10 guys in front of me who made it all happen,'' Lucas said. The won a Big Ten game, their second of the year but first since the opening night win vs. Illinois.
And now it sets the stage to end the season on a high note, something no one ever thought possible. Sure, the Hoosiers are underdogs Saturday against hated Purdue, but if they could find a way to win and finish 5-7 with two trophies on the self, it changes the entire feel of this season.
It really does.
Most importantly, it changes a lot of perceptions, too. And in modern-day college football, that's huge.
The importance of recruiting your own players
In the old days — like two years ago, and a full century before. that — the second the Bucket game was over, Indiana coaches scattered all over the country to start recruiting the next day. That's not the case anymore. The NCAA has deemed that a dead week for high school recruiting now, and for good reason.
Because now there's something more important — spending the week recruiting your own players. Now that kids can transfer without sitting out — and look around for better NIL deals, keeping your roster together might be the most important thing that Indiana coaches do.
Having all the good feels from a win — or maybe two — will make that job much easier.
"I don't know that you could put a value on it that would justifiably explain it,'' Allen said of the importance of late-season wins. "I think we are in a different era, and it's unlike anything I've ever experienced. I never thought it would ever become this, when you first start coaching. Probably even five or six years ago, I never even thought about anything like this.
Everything you do is just trying to find a way to make sure the guys that are on your team understand their role, their value, how we see them developing for their future. And you've got to be constantly selling that. You didn't even think about some of those things in regards to that brefore. You thought about it as a built-in part of what you do, but to have a conversation with guys to try to keep them. Before you're always trying to meet them, map out the next step for them, what's the next few months going to look like when we come back after the season's over.''
Allen made it clear that all that work can't be done in just the week after the season. He said it's important to have those conversations with players all year long. This is a team, and those bonds are strong for many. Despite the losses, many players are completely bought in no matters.
But not all of them. That's where the work comes in.
"Now you have conversations about convincing them to stay, and sometimes it may be pretty blunt conversations,'' Allen said. "There's been a lot of things that built up to this. It's been a hard season and guys get frustrated and everybody wants to win and I want to win as much as anybody. But you just stay true to who you are, and you want guys who want to be here.
"Now they have an opportunity to move around more than ever before. It doesn't change. You want to keep the right guys here. And I want guys, like I said, that have the passion for this program and have the belief that we can do special things here together. But, yeah, you've got to be proactive with it. We talk about it all the time as a staff. It doesn't make us hold guys less accountable, and I don't want to ever change that. But you've also got to make sure they don't assume anything. They need to know how you feel about them. They need to know the plan for them. They need to know exactly how you see them being a part of our future, because I think that's kind of what they want to be. And their families want to know that as well. It definitely adds a whole new dimension to everything we do.''
It's changed college football so much.
"You used to think, hey, when the season finishes, you go out and recruit your class,'' he said. "Now, the season ends and you have to recruit your own players first, which is a whole new thing and it's never going to change. It will be this way from now moving forward.''
Indiana won the Old Oaken Bucket in 2019. (USA TODAY Sports)
Added value to win over Purdue
Beating Michigan State is one thing, but beating Purdue would be another. It is also, without question, the most important game on Indiana's schedule. The Boilermakers are 7-4 and still hoping to win the Big Ten West. Indiana would love to ruin all of that for Purdue, current owners of the Old Oaken Bucket. The two teams didn't play in Indiana's 6-1 season in 2022 because of COVID-19 outbreaks at both schools, and the Hoosiers won in 2019.
"We understand we're playing for a trophy, and a trophy that means a whole lot to this university,'' said Allen, a native Hoosiers who is well-versed in Bucket history. "Every year this game has tremendous value and the stakes are very, very high. It's elevated now because of the season we've had. And for us to continue the momentum we were able to generate last week and have one of the greatest comebacks we've had in our program in a long time — first time winning in back-to-back games in East Lansing in 53 years — that's history that doesn't happen all that often.''
That's for sure. It's also very well that Indiana wins the Spittoon and the Bucket in the same year. It's only happened five times ever, the last in 2016.
"The bottom line is that this is tremendously important game, but you know what? They all are. But it's not just the next game. It does have tremendous value and a lot of things that go into this. Our guys are going to understand that as this week plays itself out.
"Their perseverance and toughness and fight showed up last week, but that one is in the past now. We have to build off of that, and take that momentum into this week. We have to have our best week of preparation, and have our best game collectively on Saturday.''
Saturday will be emotional for the always-emotional Allen, because he's been with this senior class — and a few sixth-year guys — from the beginning. They've all played a lot of football together, good and bad.
"It's a special group, and they've been here a long, long time. We recruited that class that whole (first) year, and just all the effort they've given us really means a lot to me,'' Allen said. "They've been a part of the breakthrough in '19 and '20, and they persevered through a tough year last year and then this year's been challenging as well. So it's a special group of guys that I have a lot of respect for, tremendous love for.
"It's going to be an emotional day, to be honest. But at the same time, we work together, fight together, cry together, laugh together. And I want us to have one awesome finish to this group of guys' time together here at Memorial Stadium.''
Saturday's game starts at 3:30 p.m. ET at Memorial Stadium. It's Thanksgiving weekend, so there won't be many students around. Indiana has been pushing hard to sell tickets, but it's nowhere close to a sellout.
And that's too bad, especially for a rivalry game.
"I just want to have the best crowd we can. I hate it that they don't get to have a chance to do that. I don't have any say-so whatsoever in the scheduling,'' Allen said. "To me, you just want your rivalry game to be a game where everybody's here, all the students are here and everybody is out in full force.''
There are long odds against a second-straight win for Indiana — Purdue is a 10.5-point favorite according to SI Sportsbook — but pulling it off really would change a lot of the perspective of this season. Winning two trophy games takes a lot of the pain away from that seven-game losing streak.
And if it makes the offseason better, then that's a huge plus, too.
