Analysis: Indiana football about to do the improbable

My students in the Sportswriting class I teach at Indiana University were giving me a hard time last week when I was giving the opinion that I believed the Hoosiers would win their final two football games and get bowl eligible.

Their basic thought was simple: What makes you think Indiana will win back-to-back Big Ten road games when the Hoosiers have only won one Big Ten road game in five seasons under Kevin Wilson?

And they had a point. They didn’t tell me this but here’s something to chew on.

*** The last time IU won back-to-back Big Ten road games was 1993.

*** That means head coaches Bill Lynch, Terry Hoeppner, Gerry DiNardo and Cam Cameron all left Indiana without winning back-to-back Big Ten road games.

*** Just 18 players on Indiana’s current roster were even born the last time it happened. Nate Sudfeld is one of them. He was two months old.

So in other words, they had a good point.

But I was coming at it from a different place. The reality is that I just believed that a battle-tested Indiana squad, having played strong games against Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan and Iowa in recent weeks, would be more than ready to face a pair of 2-8 teams in Maryland and Purdue.

And that clearly played out Saturday at Maryland. To call the Maryland situation pathetic would be a gross understatement. That team was ready for the season to end. The body language showed it, the number of players wearing jerseys over their street clothes showed it and the crowd was perhaps the worst I’ve ever seen in a Big Ten road venue. There was no one there. There were a few extra folks there because it was Senior Day but it was pretty sad.

Maryland jumped out to the 21-3 lead but it was as if that as no big deal either. As soon as IU scored 21 in a row to take a 24-21 lead the body language of the Terps looked like a team that knew it was going to lose again. It didn’t take long for the game to get out of hand.

Now the Purdue game will be different because it’s the Bucket and there will be the rivalry aspect and Indiana trying to bring home the Bucket for a third time in a row for the first time since 1946. I get all of that. At the same time, I just think Indiana has the superior team and will find a way to get it done.

I completely expect us to be sitting here this time next week wondering what lower level bowl the Hoosiers will be heading to. I’ve heard maybe Nashville for the Music City Bowl and I’ve heard maybe Yankee Stadium for the bowl up there. This likely won’t be a Florida locale but just getting to a bowl game would be a huge step for this Indiana program.

That is true especially after IU dropped six in a row in the middle of the season. We all know that if Indiana had taken care of business against Rutgers in the fourth quarter or stopped Michigan on that final play of regulation, Indiana would already be bowl eligible and not have the extra stress going into the Bucket game. Yes, all of those things are true. But I think something should also be said that this Indiana team didn’t give up after dropping to 4-6.

As the players have continued to say throughout the losing streak and then once again following the win on Saturday at Maryland: They still have their preseason goals before them and they’re attainable.

Make it to a bowl game.

Now if Indiana can do that, like my students were quick to point out it would require winning back-to-back Big Ten road games.

And that’s what I really believe that Indiana is about to do.