DiPrimio: IU Targets Opportunity from Disappointment
11/25/2017 6:06:00 PM | Football
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – What do you say when the breakthrough doesn't come, when rivalry and bowl runs end, and then a season?
What do you do when you're coach Tom Allen, in your first year running the Indiana program, and you face players who have meant so much to you, who have done so much, pushed so hard, and, on a crisp, sun-splashed late November afternoon, fallen so painfully short?
How do you express the emotion, the effort and, yes, love that has gone into these last 12 months? Is there a way to ease the hurt, because everyone in the tiny Ross-Ade Stadium locker room was hurting in the aftermath of Saturday's 31-24 Oaken Bucket loss to Purdue?
IU needed to reach 6-6 to earn bowl eligibility for a third straight season.
It finished 5-7, and if there remains an outside shot at a bowl (only 77 teams currently have at least six wins; there are 82 bowl slots), that's a topic for another day.
The Hoosiers sought history with a fifth straight Bucket win.
History must wait.
So you stand in front of this group one last time in a post-game setting, voice hoarse, brow damp, eyes red and do what you've done from the moment you got the job. You demand that no one blames or finger points, that everyone handles it with class.
And you push the message that has been a constant through all the ups and downs.
LEO
Love Each Other.
"I told them to make sure they do a great job in the classroom, of being pros," Allen said. "Our job is to help them become the men they are supposed to be. That's important to me.
"Make sure the seniors finish well. The young guys have to get their bodies rested and ready to go. We have a very important offseason ahead of us."
There will be no next IU season for seniors such as Richard Lagow, Tegray Scales and Chase Dutra.
You'd better believe it hurts.
"I really wanted another month with the guys on this team," Lagow said. "That's the most disappointing thing."
Everything ends, of course, but the preference was to end on a bowl victory high rather than a rivalry loss.
"It hurts," Dutra said. "I wanted to go to the bowl game. I wanted to win the Bucket again. You want to go out at the highest level possible. To lose to (Purdue), it just hurts. You wish you didn't have these moments."
A pause.
"It's life."
It was a season of near misses, with heart-breaking losses to Michigan in overtime, then at Michigan State and Maryland.
"That's how it's been the last couple of seasons," Dutra said. "We let some get away. You say, 'What if?'"
But it will be better, he added.
"This senior class set a strong foundation. The guys below us know what to expect. They know the expectations. We'll get there."
On Saturday, with so much at stake, in a game that demanded full-throttle execution, the Hoosiers misfired.
That's a shame.
"We weren't ready," Allen said. "That's on me.
"This is disappointing. I expected us to be going to a bowl game. To come up one game short isn't what I wanted.
"There's no question nobody played more top teams than we did. That's a fact. That's part of it. You have to find a way to win enough games and extend your season."
Purdue attacked Lagow nearly non-stop, pressuring and punishing and often leaving him little time to let plays fully develop. Still, he threw 60 passes, completed 32 for 373 yards and three touchdowns.
In 10 games Lagow threw for 1,936 yards, 15 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Next up – a shot at the NFL.
"The next semester I'll be training," he said. "I'll get a shot somewhere and be ready to make the most of it."
IU's defense, which had been so strong the previous two weeks in allowing just 14 total points, faded in the final 35 minutes against a Markell Jones-led rushing onslaught. Jones finished with 217 yards, which is close to what he had entering the game (263).
What went wrong?
"Markel is a great player," Scales said. "He ran well. They have a great offensive line, great coaching."
A first-quarter 7-7 draw offered Hoosier hope. A 14-0 Boiler burst near the end of the second quarter -- including a 22-yard pass off a fake punt -- negated some of it.
Enter Ricky Brookins.
IU's backup tailback delivered a 64-yard run, the longest of his career, to set up the potential for a momentum-shifting touchdown at the Purdue 11-yard line. Brookins added seven more yards on a catch, but that was as far as the drive went.
IU settled for Griffin Oakes' 22-yard.
Momentum was muted, but not gone.
Then came a Lagow-to-Simmie Cobbs Jr. third-quarter TD that wasn't, wiped out by a chop-block penalty. Still, the deficit was just 11. Everything was there for the Hoosiers if they dared take it.
They dared.
They couldn't take.
Now it's on to the future.
"It's time to evaluate," Allen said. "We lose some quality guys. The signing class will be big.
"We need more depth. We've got to roll more guys in, develop more guys, get guys stronger. That's the No. 1 priority.
"(Sunday) we continue that process (with recruiting). From top to bottom evaluate everything we do to make sure we're doing everything possible to play at a high level."
Allen will take the Hoosiers to that level, Lagow said.
"He's the guy for the job. There isn't any doubt about it.
"This year didn't turn out the way we wanted, but you look at the games we lost, it's close. You can see how close it is."
So Purdue (6-6) will earn its first bowl bid since 2012. IU will hope disappointment breeds new opportunity.
If it does, when it does, it will come from Allen's program cornerstone.
LEO.
Love Each Other.
What do you do when you're coach Tom Allen, in your first year running the Indiana program, and you face players who have meant so much to you, who have done so much, pushed so hard, and, on a crisp, sun-splashed late November afternoon, fallen so painfully short?
How do you express the emotion, the effort and, yes, love that has gone into these last 12 months? Is there a way to ease the hurt, because everyone in the tiny Ross-Ade Stadium locker room was hurting in the aftermath of Saturday's 31-24 Oaken Bucket loss to Purdue?
IU needed to reach 6-6 to earn bowl eligibility for a third straight season.
It finished 5-7, and if there remains an outside shot at a bowl (only 77 teams currently have at least six wins; there are 82 bowl slots), that's a topic for another day.
The Hoosiers sought history with a fifth straight Bucket win.
History must wait.
So you stand in front of this group one last time in a post-game setting, voice hoarse, brow damp, eyes red and do what you've done from the moment you got the job. You demand that no one blames or finger points, that everyone handles it with class.
And you push the message that has been a constant through all the ups and downs.
LEO
Love Each Other.
"I told them to make sure they do a great job in the classroom, of being pros," Allen said. "Our job is to help them become the men they are supposed to be. That's important to me.
"Make sure the seniors finish well. The young guys have to get their bodies rested and ready to go. We have a very important offseason ahead of us."
There will be no next IU season for seniors such as Richard Lagow, Tegray Scales and Chase Dutra.
You'd better believe it hurts.
"I really wanted another month with the guys on this team," Lagow said. "That's the most disappointing thing."
Everything ends, of course, but the preference was to end on a bowl victory high rather than a rivalry loss.
"It hurts," Dutra said. "I wanted to go to the bowl game. I wanted to win the Bucket again. You want to go out at the highest level possible. To lose to (Purdue), it just hurts. You wish you didn't have these moments."
A pause.
"It's life."
It was a season of near misses, with heart-breaking losses to Michigan in overtime, then at Michigan State and Maryland.
"That's how it's been the last couple of seasons," Dutra said. "We let some get away. You say, 'What if?'"
But it will be better, he added.
"This senior class set a strong foundation. The guys below us know what to expect. They know the expectations. We'll get there."
On Saturday, with so much at stake, in a game that demanded full-throttle execution, the Hoosiers misfired.
That's a shame.
"We weren't ready," Allen said. "That's on me.
"This is disappointing. I expected us to be going to a bowl game. To come up one game short isn't what I wanted.
"There's no question nobody played more top teams than we did. That's a fact. That's part of it. You have to find a way to win enough games and extend your season."
Purdue attacked Lagow nearly non-stop, pressuring and punishing and often leaving him little time to let plays fully develop. Still, he threw 60 passes, completed 32 for 373 yards and three touchdowns.
In 10 games Lagow threw for 1,936 yards, 15 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Next up – a shot at the NFL.
"The next semester I'll be training," he said. "I'll get a shot somewhere and be ready to make the most of it."
IU's defense, which had been so strong the previous two weeks in allowing just 14 total points, faded in the final 35 minutes against a Markell Jones-led rushing onslaught. Jones finished with 217 yards, which is close to what he had entering the game (263).
What went wrong?
"Markel is a great player," Scales said. "He ran well. They have a great offensive line, great coaching."
A first-quarter 7-7 draw offered Hoosier hope. A 14-0 Boiler burst near the end of the second quarter -- including a 22-yard pass off a fake punt -- negated some of it.
Enter Ricky Brookins.
IU's backup tailback delivered a 64-yard run, the longest of his career, to set up the potential for a momentum-shifting touchdown at the Purdue 11-yard line. Brookins added seven more yards on a catch, but that was as far as the drive went.
IU settled for Griffin Oakes' 22-yard.
Momentum was muted, but not gone.
Then came a Lagow-to-Simmie Cobbs Jr. third-quarter TD that wasn't, wiped out by a chop-block penalty. Still, the deficit was just 11. Everything was there for the Hoosiers if they dared take it.
They dared.
They couldn't take.
Now it's on to the future.
"It's time to evaluate," Allen said. "We lose some quality guys. The signing class will be big.
"We need more depth. We've got to roll more guys in, develop more guys, get guys stronger. That's the No. 1 priority.
"(Sunday) we continue that process (with recruiting). From top to bottom evaluate everything we do to make sure we're doing everything possible to play at a high level."
Allen will take the Hoosiers to that level, Lagow said.
"He's the guy for the job. There isn't any doubt about it.
"This year didn't turn out the way we wanted, but you look at the games we lost, it's close. You can see how close it is."
So Purdue (6-6) will earn its first bowl bid since 2012. IU will hope disappointment breeds new opportunity.
If it does, when it does, it will come from Allen's program cornerstone.
LEO.
Love Each Other.
Players Mentioned
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