After playing teams like Eastern Illinois, Connecticut and Rutgers between Ohio State and Michigan State, Indiana will try to build on the momentum it's generated as it attempts to secure the elusive fifth win against Maryland before heading into a more consistent competition level in Big Ten play.
The first half of the season has been a bit of a rollercoaster for the Hoosiers. Not necessarily in terms of their play, but in regard to the level of competition played on a week-by-week basis – jumping from FCS barely-top-100 opponent Eastern Illinois to a likely College Football Playoff-bound Ohio State and then to Connecticut, who had the worst defense in FBS history last season, and ending the first chunk of the season on the road at Michigan State.
Rutgers was another addition to the up-and-down cycle that bled into conference play. But Maryland marks the beginning of a leveling out in the competition Indiana has scheduled for the future, with Nebraska and Northwestern slated before the second bye week and teams like Michigan and Penn State on the other side.
Once the schedule levels out, head coach Tom Allen said Monday, that’s when his message about consistency throughout the non-conference weeks shines through.
“It's so critical to be consistent in your preparation, and that is the message, because that allows you to do the little things right at critical times, and that's how you perform at a high level,” Allen said. “We get into consistent Big Ten play, playing teams where it's going to be four-quarter games and coming down to the final series of the game. It's the consistency in your preparation.”
Maryland, as it has been for some years now, is one of the most significant unknowns on the schedule because of its inconsistency. The Hoosiers have won three of the five matchups with the Terrapins since the series was restarted in 2014 for the first time since the 1930s.
But the last lost was a critical one, as it came during a year when Indiana struggled on the road in 2017 and played difficult opponents, like Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin, in Bloomington. The loss would have been Indiana’s fourth and likely would’ve eventually sent it to a bowl game but ultimately contributed to the failure to “break through,” like Allen had hoped to do in his first season as head coach.
The 2019 team, though, has proven it can play on the road, with a close loss to Michigan State. And Maryland is coming off of a blowout loss to Purdue in week seven.
But, since Indiana’s last winning season in 2007, the fifth win has been hard to come by. That season, under Bill Lynch, Indiana reached 5-1 on Oct. 6, but since that season, the quickest the Hoosiers have reached the fifth win was in 2016, when they went 5-3 by Nov. 5.
With the second chunk of the season – Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska and Northwestern after the first bye – already begun with a win, Indiana has an opportunity to reach bowl eligibility quicker than any of those years.
But, as he has noted since the beginning of the season, Allen said his team is young, which warrants more concentration on consistency in many ways.
“We're still a young enough team that the struggle is the consistency, and the mindset and the way you do the things you need to do,” the head coach said. “We're talking about the consistency of how you prepare to play. What's your pregame rituals? How do you go through this process? We've got a lot of young guys.”
The first inexperienced player Allen noted was new starting right tackle Matt Bedford, as he explained that a player could be thrown into the fire and handle a situation in the short-term but without long-term experience in the Big Ten, might struggle in the later stages of the season.
Other players in similar positions are Demarcus Elliott, Michael Ziemba, Cam Jones, Devon Matthews, Tiawan Mullen and even Mike Penix. There is a slew of other younger players as well, and against a team like Maryland, that can blow the top off a team with big plays, that inexperience can quickly either be exposed or forgotten.
But in terms of building momentum into a favorable few conference games on the schedule, a win against Maryland could be a step in the direction of finishing with a season not seen at Indiana in more than a decade.
“We have a goal here of what we want to accomplish with this program and where we want to take this program, and it's a step-by-step process of getting there,” Allen said. “Next step is – obviously, got one Saturday. Got to flush it and go do it again. It's very critical that we get a second one in conference in a row and try to get a third one. That's just the progression you go through.”
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