A season ago, the Indiana football team found itself doing something it hadn’t done in 25 years – playing in a bowl game in January.
What would ensue would be a loss to Tennessee in the Gator Bowl to wrap up an 8-5 season that featured plenty of promise and heightened expectations heading into the 2020 season.
And, as great as it was, Indiana’s coaches are not living in the past. Instead, they have made it very clear that it is time for the program to take another step, and that begins on Saturday when 8th ranked Penn State invades Memorial Stadium at 3:30 p.m. in the season opener.
For head coach Tom Allen, Saturday is an opportunity to get a signature win against one of the elite programs in the Big Ten. He is 0-3 against Penn State, and a season ago, the Hoosiers fell to the likes of Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State. Indiana has not beaten Penn State since 2013 and the Hoosiers have not knocked off a top 10 opponent since Oct. 10, 1987, when they went into Columbus and upended ninth ranked Ohio State 31-10.
Allen is quite aware of those statistics. After all, it was Allen who wrote the numbers 50, 26, and 10 on a board when he was first hired and asked his team what the figures meant.
“It’s been 50 years since we won the Big Ten, 26 years since we’ve won a bowl game, and 10 years since we had a winning season. We’re going to accomplish all three of these. If you don’t think we’ll accomplish these, you can leave,” Allen said at the time.
This week, Allen has maintained that same belief, telling the media one of the goals for his program is to beat a Top 25 team.
“We have goals and beating those top 25 teams is something we haven’t been able to do a lot as a team and that is a goal. Playing a team like Penn State gives us that opportunity. Being close is no longer acceptable, we now have to finish them. Take care of things the right way, and a lot of variables go into a game,” Allen said.
Looking back on last season’s 34-27 loss at Penn State, Allen spent some time this week discussing the fourth quarter and how the Nittany Lions were able to put together a nine-minute drive to escape with a win.
“We didn’t finish, and that’s the bottom line,” Allen said. “We’re not going to blink, we are going to fight you for 60 minutes, we are going to love each other and we are going to play with tremendous effort on defense, execution on offense and discipline on special teams. That has been a focus for us."
First-year offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan echoed those sentiments.
“Our guys have confidence in themselves, they believe we have a good team and can compete against anyone in our league. Every week is a big week, every week is important. We don’t look at our schedule and tick off the wins. Every week is a battle," Sheridan said. "We have to prepare well, play well, coach well and that’s the challenge of our conference. That’s why you come to Indiana, that’s why you come to play in the Big Ten, for those opportunities. We don’t spend a whole of time talking to the players about what has or has not happened in the past. We try to apply pressure to things we have control over."
The application of pressure begins Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
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