For Indiana, This Is More Than One Extra Game
12/21/2015 10:13:00 AM | Football
By: Sam Beishuizen | Twitter
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Somewhere, the late Terry Hoeppner may be smiling.
Because Indiana football is playing 13.
"This right here, this is why we came here," senior guard Jason Spriggs said. "To be a bowl team. To help Indiana win a bowl. That's what we all came here to do. It's surreal."
Surreal is an accurate enough word to describe the Hoosiers' 2015 season, a year in which they finished 6-6 in the regular season to earn an invitation to play in the Pinstripe Bowl against the Duke Blue Devils at Yankee Stadium in New York.
With its back against the wall, Indiana won its last two games on the road against Maryland and Purdue in back-to-back weeks to reach the six-win mark and bowl eligibility for the first time since 2007. The season showed tangible evidence of head coach Kevin Wilson making progress in his fifth season in Bloomington.
Now, back to Hoeppner.
The beloved former Indiana head coach used to have a saying: "Play 13." He didn't like to call it a 12-game season because that meant cutting it one game too short. Hoeppner himself never made it to a bowl game at Indiana after passing away in June 2007 after battling brain cancer. That next season, Hoeppner's Hoosiers rallied to go 7-5 in the regular season, advancing to what was the Hoosiers' most-recent bowl…
Until this season.
And man, did they have to earn it.
A perfect 4-0 non-conference start got derailed with a 0-6 stretch midway through the season.
But the bittersweet part about the losing streak was Wilson was, admittedly, not that upset about it.
Week after week, Indiana was coming up frustratingly short against some of the best teams in the Big Ten.
There was the 34-27 loss to the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes where the Hoosiers had a chance to tie or win on a final pass to the end zone before the ball was batted down.
Big Ten Champion Michigan State needed a fourth-quarter rally to put Indiana away on the road three weeks later.
Then there was the 7-point loss to Iowa.
Then double-overtime to Michigan.
Wilson was unhappy with the results. But the play? He said he couldn't expect much more.
He only questioned when—if—his Hoosiers were ever going to make the next step. Internally, Indiana felt like a bowl team. But what they feel in the locker room doesn't mean anything compared to what they show on the field.
So when Indiana defeated Purdue 54-36 to win the Old Oaken Bucket and punch their ticket to the postseason, Wilson danced and the Hoosiers celebrated.
They made the step.
"Those guys are different," Wilson said minutes after beating Purdue. "They had a chance to give in. Chances to listen. Chances to doubt. And the way they kept battling against those teams just gave me some confidence."
They've added another hurdle now. The Hoosiers have one more step to make, a bonus step.
Maybe even call it the 13th step.
Because Indiana did what it set out to do. Wilson's senior class—the first one he fully committed to come to Bloomington—reached the bowl game they dreamt about playing in over at Ashton
Residence Hall as freshmen the summer before 2012.
But Wilson isn't content with just playing 13. He wants more than that.
He wants to win the 13th game.
"The greatest bowl experience is victory," Wilson said.
Hard to disagree.
#####
Indiana (6-6) will face Duke (7-5) in the 2015 New Era Pinstripe Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 26. The game will be held at Yankee Stadium with a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ABC. Student tickets for the Pinstripe Bowl are just $10 and can be purchased by clicking here. Tickets for the general public can be purchased by clicking here.
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Somewhere, the late Terry Hoeppner may be smiling.
Because Indiana football is playing 13.
"This right here, this is why we came here," senior guard Jason Spriggs said. "To be a bowl team. To help Indiana win a bowl. That's what we all came here to do. It's surreal."
Surreal is an accurate enough word to describe the Hoosiers' 2015 season, a year in which they finished 6-6 in the regular season to earn an invitation to play in the Pinstripe Bowl against the Duke Blue Devils at Yankee Stadium in New York.
With its back against the wall, Indiana won its last two games on the road against Maryland and Purdue in back-to-back weeks to reach the six-win mark and bowl eligibility for the first time since 2007. The season showed tangible evidence of head coach Kevin Wilson making progress in his fifth season in Bloomington.
Now, back to Hoeppner.
The beloved former Indiana head coach used to have a saying: "Play 13." He didn't like to call it a 12-game season because that meant cutting it one game too short. Hoeppner himself never made it to a bowl game at Indiana after passing away in June 2007 after battling brain cancer. That next season, Hoeppner's Hoosiers rallied to go 7-5 in the regular season, advancing to what was the Hoosiers' most-recent bowl…
Until this season.
And man, did they have to earn it.
A perfect 4-0 non-conference start got derailed with a 0-6 stretch midway through the season.
But the bittersweet part about the losing streak was Wilson was, admittedly, not that upset about it.
Week after week, Indiana was coming up frustratingly short against some of the best teams in the Big Ten.
There was the 34-27 loss to the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes where the Hoosiers had a chance to tie or win on a final pass to the end zone before the ball was batted down.
Big Ten Champion Michigan State needed a fourth-quarter rally to put Indiana away on the road three weeks later.
Then there was the 7-point loss to Iowa.
Then double-overtime to Michigan.
Wilson was unhappy with the results. But the play? He said he couldn't expect much more.
He only questioned when—if—his Hoosiers were ever going to make the next step. Internally, Indiana felt like a bowl team. But what they feel in the locker room doesn't mean anything compared to what they show on the field.
So when Indiana defeated Purdue 54-36 to win the Old Oaken Bucket and punch their ticket to the postseason, Wilson danced and the Hoosiers celebrated.
They made the step.
"Those guys are different," Wilson said minutes after beating Purdue. "They had a chance to give in. Chances to listen. Chances to doubt. And the way they kept battling against those teams just gave me some confidence."
They've added another hurdle now. The Hoosiers have one more step to make, a bonus step.
Maybe even call it the 13th step.
Because Indiana did what it set out to do. Wilson's senior class—the first one he fully committed to come to Bloomington—reached the bowl game they dreamt about playing in over at Ashton
Residence Hall as freshmen the summer before 2012.
But Wilson isn't content with just playing 13. He wants more than that.
He wants to win the 13th game.
"The greatest bowl experience is victory," Wilson said.
Hard to disagree.
#####
Indiana (6-6) will face Duke (7-5) in the 2015 New Era Pinstripe Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 26. The game will be held at Yankee Stadium with a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ABC. Student tickets for the Pinstripe Bowl are just $10 and can be purchased by clicking here. Tickets for the general public can be purchased by clicking here.
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