Back to Touch Hep’s Rock

By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Terry Hoeppner's words rang down from his perch in the press box, echoing from the Memorial Stadium speaker system as if emanating from the voice of God:

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!"

Hoeppner was admonishing a "Michigan fan" attired in yellow and blue who had the temerity to approach Hep's Rock with clear intent to touch it.

The Indiana coach's booming words caused the fan to scamper, and Hep's Rock – a sizeable chunk of limestone behind the north end zone forever linked to the coach – thus remained unsullied.

It was all in good fun, filmed for an IU football commercial soon after Hoeppner took the Hoosier helm. That ad and others encapsulated his sense of humor, which informed a cheerful creativity in promoting his program.

Less than three years later, June 23, 2007, another voice was ringing out within sight of that press box.

Anthony Thompson, no stranger to hosannas from on high, was speaking as both an all-time IU football great and as a man of God – a Lighthouse Community Church pastor – while addressing Terry Hoeppner's funeral service at Assembly Hall.

"Play 13!" Thompson exhorted. "Play 13!"

Bill Lynch, who had stepped up as IU head coach when his friend succumbed to a particularly virulent form of brain cancer, remembers the special fervor with which Thompson spoke that phrase.

"Anthony was so passionate as he was saying, 'Play 13!'" Lynch recalled last week. "He kept repeating Hep's line about getting to a bowl game. And you know, when Anthony gets going, he's pretty powerful."

Then when Lynch's 2007 team got going that fall, it concocted one of the most powerfully emotional climaxes to any Indiana football season ever.

It indeed played 13, notching IU's first bowl bid in 14 years, a berth at the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz.

And nobody who was in Memorial Stadium when the Hoosiers clinched that berth by beating arch-rival Purdue will forget how it happened.

Even after 10 years – an anniversary IU's 2007 Insight Bowl team will celebrate today with a reunion as the current Hoosiers host Georgia Southern – the memories are vivid.
Austin Starr sure remembers. Gratefully.

Starr, the man who kicked the dramatic and decisive 49-yard field goal, subsequently spent four years in dental school before doing his surgical residency program at Ohio State. He plans on opening a practice in Bloomington next July.

But IU fans already know Starr can drill it.

"Every time I see the video of that kick," Starr said last week, "or every time somebody comes up to me and mentions that kick, I feel just continually gratified and fortunate to be a part of that moment and part of that team."

It was a good Indiana team.

"We had some great players," Lynch noted. "Tracy Porter, James Hardy, Kellen Lewis, Marcus Thigpen and others -- guys good enough to go play in the pros. But there were a lot of other guys on that team who really just stepped up and handled things, too. They were all determined to go to a bowl game and they did it.

"I want to particularly credit the seniors, the fourth- and fifth-year guys. There are too many names to mention. A lot wouldn't be common names in the history of IU football, in the memory of casual fans. But they were great people who were really good leaders and who held that whole thing together.

"I had so much respect for them. They were recruited by Coach (Gerry) DiNardo and his staff. They lost that staff. The next staff comes in and, less than a year later, a guy they quickly became really attached to gets seriously sick. They could have just given up on the whole thing. Honestly, they could have just said, 'Let's ride it out, get our degrees, and go.' But they didn't."

IU started fast that fall, opening 5-1 (including 2-1 in Big Ten play with wins at Iowa and against Minnesota). But after a 31-28 setback Nov. 10 at Northwestern, the Hoosiers stood 6-5.
And six wins in a 12-game slate was no guarantee for a bowl bid.

So the Purdue finale loomed large, beyond even the usual Old Oaken Bucket context.

A stoked Hoosiers squad surged to a 24-3 lead, but the Boilermakers didn't blink. Purdue, coached by the very capable Joe Tiller and quarterbacked by Curtis Painter, got a key fumble recovery while storming back to forge a tie with 3:39 left in the fourth quarter.

"Purdue was a good football team that got the momentum and came all the way back," Lynch said. "It was one more instance our guys, who had faced more than their share of adversity, could have said, 'Fate is against us. This just isn't going to work out.'

"But again, they rallied, which was typical of that group. We had a resilient bunch. The offensive staff, (coordinated by) Matt Canada, did a great job with calls and the guys executed to get us into field goal range."

IU had to convert crucial third-downs during its final drive. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Lewis kept the ball for three yards on a 3^rd-and-1 to the IU 33. Later, on a huge 3^rd-and-5, he hit redshirt junior All-American wideout Hardy on a crossing pattern to convert.

But for all the progress made, when it came time for the field goal try, Starr's attempt came from distance.

"It was a 49-yard kick, probably right on the edge of where you felt good about it," Lynch said, "but we had a lot of confidence in Austin – another one of our older guys who had been through a lot.

"We got a great snap, great hold, great kick at a big moment."

Starr credits long snapper Tim Bugg, holder Dustin Hass and the entire field goal unit for making his job easy.

Was Starr nervous, with that much on the line?

Nope.

"That whole last drive, I was thinking how great it was going to be once I made it," Starr said. "I don't want that to be perceived as cocky. There is a fine line between cockiness and confidence, but I had every reason to be confident. Tim Bugg was a great long snapper. Dustin Hass was a great holder. Our line had protected us all season.

"I had made a string of kicks heading into the Purdue game, and made my first one that night, but then had a miss, so I wanted redemption. I couldn't wait to be in that situation at the end, couldn't wait to make the kick, and that's honestly what I was thinking. I was just looking forward to it. I just knew it was going to happen."

And Starr knew the kick was good as soon as his foot struck it.

"Somebody over at Ohio State looked at the video on YouTube and said, 'You looked terrified,' " Starr said with a laugh. "And they said, 'Then when you kicked it, it was like you stared the ball down and moved your body to kind of 'will' it through.'

"But it wasn't that way at all. I was confident approaching the kick, then I was just waiting for it to go through the uprights. After you kick a ball, once you've kicked enough of them, you know when you've hit a good ball. I knew right when I hit it that it was good."

Starr made a point to note that one play does not a win make. And that the Hoosiers had key contributors galore that day.

Austin Thomas had a game-high 12 tackles from his safety spot. Defensive end Greg Middleton had 2.5 sacks. Thigpen rushed for 140 yards on just 19 carries (7.4). Lewis threw for 216 yards and a TD and ran for two TDs. The Hoosiers finished with a 435-359 advantage in total yards.

And while Lynch said he was "just along for the ride" with a group determined to make a bowl, Starr would have none of that notion.

"Before the season started, Coach Lynch stepped up and became our leader in no uncertain terms," Starr said. "Not many coaches, not many human beings, could step into a situation as difficult as that one and do what he did."

And there was another coach Starr felt had a lot to do with that clinching win.

"I believe Coach Hoeppner was absolutely there for that game," Starr said. "I don't want to sound corny, but I felt his presence, and he might well have helped push that ball through those uprights.

"Sometimes, it's hard for us to accept and understand how and why things happen. Some things are out of our control, outside of our knowledge. But I just think that was supposed to happen. That script was written long before it actually happened."

Jane Hoeppner Hunckler, Terry's widow, expressed her verdict this week: "It couldn't have been scripted any better."

Starr said he's looking forward to seeing her this weekend.

"Whenever I see Jane Hoeppner, it just reminds and reaffirms how much that whole season was for Coach Hep," Starr said. "I could talk all day about how amazing Jane is as a person, how supportive she was and is. That season and that game were a testament for the whole Hoeppner family."

Jane appreciates how that 2007 team, wearing helmets adorned with stickers bearing the words "Don't Quit" and the number "13," testified to that on and off the field.

"There was such a bittersweetness about all of it, but it gave people purpose," she said. "That's one of the good things about sports, which can reflect life with all the ups and downs. Those things can translate to how you act in life. They can make you a stronger, better person."

She has had to remain strong through tragedy more than once. She lost a daughter, Allison, when a semi failed to stop and caused a fatal traffic accident last year. But she has not wavered from what she told ESPN's Tom Rinaldi back in 2007:

"The way I'm going to carry on the (Coach Hep) legacy is I will not quit, in what I'm about, in my connection with this team, my connection with this university, my connection with this community.

"I have 105 kids (on the team) who are a part of my life. How fortunate can you be? I count them all as blessings. Every one."

Many of them are expected to attend Saturday's anniversary celebration.

Lynch can't attend. He's in his second successful stint coaching DePauw's Tigers (off to a 2-0 start and set for Saturday's game with Wooster). But Jane will be thinking of Lynch, who she said "was the perfect person for that time, for that situation" back in 2007.

And she also thinks IU might just have the perfect guy in charge now.

Jane watched how Tom Allen, dressed in a suit, was leaping up to high-five the student section prior to this season's opener against Ohio State and it reminded her of her late former husband.

"The similarity is not lost on me," she said. "That sort of genuine enthusiasm is so important. I am very optimistic about the future of Indiana football under Coach Allen."

Allen told the assembled media Monday that he'd brought guest speakers in to ensure his current squad is fully aware of Hoeppner's legacy, of how Hoeppner began laying a foundation for success through pre-game traditions such as "The Walk" and helping plan the North End Zone Complex.

Jane appreciates that her late husband is still appreciated. "IU has been so good to us," she said, "to keep us part of the tradition."

Before Indiana's players take the field today, they will still walk The Walk from Assembly Hall to Memorial Stadium.

And after they put on their gear and are ready for kickoff, they'll emerge from the North End Zone weight room to:

Touch Hep's Rock.

INDIANA'S STARTING 2007 LINEUP FOR THE INSIGHT BOWL AGAINST OKLAHOMA STATE
Offense: Kellen Lewis (QB), Marcus Thigpen (RB), James Hardy (WR), Andrew Means (WR), Ray Fisher (WR), Rodger Saffold (LT), Pete Saxon (LG), Ben Wyss (C), John Sandberg (RG), Charlie Emerson (RT), Nick Sexton (TE).
Defense: Jammie Kirlew (LE), Greg Middleton (RE), Joe Kremer (DT), Greg Brown (DT), Adam McClurg (LB), Will Patterson (LB), Justin Carrington (LB), Tracy Porter (CB), Leslie Majors (CB), Austin Thomas (S), Nick Polk (S).

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