Wilson Wants More Belief, Trust

By: Sam Beishuizen | Twitter
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Kevin Wilson likely won't be confused for "Dr. Phil" McGraw any time soon, but the Hoosiers' head coach joked that their synopsis of IU's emotional state probably wouldn't be all that different.

Wilson believes he has a winning football team. He's sure of it. He's said it time and time again this year.

His challenge is convincing his players to believe it all while recognizing the difference between competing with winning teams and beating winning teams.

"You're playing really good football with really good teams," Wilson said Monday. "If you're not getting the results you want, as good as you may have been doing, I'm telling you, you have to find a little bit more."

Indiana (4-4, 0-4) is wrapping up its bye week and beginning to shift focus toward next week's matchup with No. 10 Iowa at Memorial Stadium. The game against the Hawkeyes is the first of back-to-back home games—the second being against Michigan—before heading on the road to play Maryland and Purdue to close out the season.

As Wilson sees it, there's three reasons why teams struggle like Indiana has the last four weeks—1) a lack of talent, 2) a lack of self-confidence, and/or 3) a lack of trust in the coaches and system.

Wilson doesn't doubt his talent. He blamed the mental side of Indiana's game.

"Really good teams have a belief system," Wilson said. "They cut it loose. They trust each other. My experience is either you're not good enough or you don't believe in yourself or you don't believe in me as a coach. It's one of the three. I think our talent is better, so it comes back to that belief system. Do you believe in what's going on?"

Part of belief is recognizing the problem, Wilson said. Indiana spent its bye week doing a mix of light work and internal evaluation to clean up some of the Hoosiers' problem areas that have led to poor fourth quarter performances in recent games.

"We can justify excuses or not, play calls or not, referees, elements, match-ups, freshmen—all those are just excuses," Wilson said. "At the end of the day, you're not far off, but we've got to keep coming and find more, because it's just not good enough yet."

The Hoosiers have proven good enough to challenge even the best Big Ten teams like undefeated and seventh-ranked Michigan State last week and No. 1 Ohio State a couple of weeks before that. Wilson figures games like that should help build the confidence he needs in his players and coaches to get a breakthrough win.

Wilson, always fond of golf analogies, compared the mental state of his team to a golfer trying to win his first major. A golfer may struggle to win that first big tournament because he hasn't felt the pressure before, but it only becomes easier after getting past the first victory.

"Like Rory McIlroy at the Master's a few years ago, or Dustin Johnson at the U.S. Open, you have to be good enough to get into those positions (to try to win)," Wilson said. "It's one thing to get beat, but it takes something to get into those positions. Now where do you go from there?"

Wilson said he's not trying to sugarcoat any problems. He's only trying to keep confidence up while staying as honest as possible with his players.

There's no quit in Indiana, Wilson said. There's problems that need to be addressed, but that's what the bye week is for.

Wilson just hopes by next Saturday, things are cleaned up.

"Good teams get better," Wilson said. "If we're a good team, we keep getting better."

Related Videos