Indiana University Athletics
DiPrimio Notes: Indiana’s Mission is Clear – Keep The Bucket
12/8/2020 10:00:00 AM | Football
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Bucket week has arrived, which means nothing is for sure except somebody is going to get rocked.
Yes, Indiana comes into Saturday's game at Memorial Stadium rolling with a 6-1 record and Top-10 status, while Purdue is 2-4 with a four-game losing streak.
The Hoosiers have the Old Oaken Bucket, symbolic of this rivalry, and are in no mood to give it back.
"This is a very special week for our program," Indiana head coach Tom Allen said. "We are playing for a trophy. We know it is going to be a tremendously difficult battle against a very good Purdue team. We know it is going to take our very best."
IU's best is very good.
At No. 8 in the AP poll and No. 9 in the coaches' poll, Indiana is ranked for the seventh-straight week, which matches the program regular-season record set in 1945. It almost certainly will break that mark when the next polls come out on Sunday.
The Hoosiers have been ranked in the Top 10 four times this season. That's one less than the 1967 team, when IU shared the Big Ten title and went to its only Rose Bowl.
All that won't mean anything in a rivalry game renowned for its passion.
The Boilermakers lead the Big Ten in passing at 309 yards a game, and have two standout receivers in David Bell and Rondale Moore. Bell leads the team with 53 catches for 625 yards and eight touchdowns.
"(Purdue coach Jeff Brohm) has a very talented team, some of the best receivers in the country, a lot of weapons, a lot of hungry guys that are going to play really hard for this trophy," Allen said.
"Our guys will have to have a great week of preparation and be very diligent in our pursuit of keeping the Oaken Bucket."
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Quarterback Jack Tuttle knows all about Bucket rivalry. Forget his California roots. His father, Jay, was once a kicker for the Hoosiers, and passed on his view of what really matters.
"My dad is not a big fan of Purdue and neither am I," Tuttle said. "It is a great rivalry game and we are looking forward to this week. We are going to have a great week of practice."
Tuttle is coming off an impressive performance, not so much because of the numbers he produced in the 14-6 victory over No. 16 Wisconsin (13-for-22, 130 yards, 2 touchdowns) as for the tenacity he displayed. He wasn't fazed by the pressure that comes from his first college start or the Badgers' powerful defense or even some jarring hits.
It was exactly what offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan hoped to see.
"I like his toughness," Sheridan said. "That is probably the thing that I like most about him, he played tough. That is a good trait to have and it is one that you need in this conference.
"Jack played tough and made good decisions. I would not say we were not trying to be aggressive, but we were trying to make sure that we did what we needed to do to win the game.
"There were a couple opportunities down field where we could have been better. We need to connect and execute them, but I was proud of Jack and his toughness. We expected Jack to be tough, but you do not know how a player is going to respond until it happens."
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How much fun is linebacker Micah McFadden having these days?
Consider he just earned Walter Camp Foundation National Defensive Player of the Week honors for his nine-tackle, two-sack effort in the Wisconsin victory. He leads IU in tackles (52), tackles for loss (8.5) and sacks (5.0). He also has two interceptions.
"He keeps getting better all the time," Allen said. "His instincts have taken over. He has always had that ability to get to the football. I do not know how much you can coach that. I think it is very God given, just the ability to, once you see something just pull the trigger and go.
"But the thing that improves is the ability for you to be able to do that consistently when you are getting a whole bunch of different stuff. Sometimes you study all of this film and then they do different things that maybe you did not expect them to do on game day, or maybe it is a little bit of a formation change, or whatever, this or that. But that confidence grows.
"He is just playing at an extremely high level of both speed and reactionary, processing of everything mentally. Just that innate ability to burst to the football. He has gotten faster since he has gotten here. He has really bought in to our strength staff and he has physically developed."
McFadden helped the Hoosiers hold Wisconsin to its fewest points against IU since only it got only three in 1992. It was the Badgers' first game without a touchdown since 2015 against Iowa.
Beyond that, McFadden plays on an elite defense that leads the Big Ten in interceptions (17), takeaways (20) and sacks (23). The 17 interceptions rank third in school history behind the 19 achieved in 1998 and 2007.
"It is exciting for us," he said. "As a linebacker, you definitely like to get in the backfield and make plays there, but at the same time, (defensive coordinator Kane Wommack) does a great job of mixing it up on people. They do not know who is coming and what gap and where.
"Once we get that opportunity, we take advantage of it, hit that hole as hard as we can and see if we can make the play."
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Punter Haydon Whitehead is one of 10 semifinalists for the Ray Guy Award, which goes annually to the nation's best punter. He's averages 42.4 yards per punt this season, and 41.2 for his career, which ranks third in program history. He has 25 punts of at least 50 yards, and put 81 punts inside the opponents' 20-yard line.
He also earned Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week honors by landing four of his five punts against Wisconsin inside the 20-yard line, including the 1- and 8-yard lines. None of his punts were returned.
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Receiver Ty Fryfogle is one of 11 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, given annually to the nation's best receiver. He's the first Hoosier semifinalist since James Hardy in 2007.
He has 34 catches for 687 yards and seven touchdowns.
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Quarterback Michael Penix Jr.'s season is over, but his honor-winning ways aren't.
Penix, who tore his ACL in the win over Maryland, is one of 17 semifinalists for the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award.
Others include Notre Dame's Ian Book, Clemson's Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State's Justin Fields.
Because of his season-ending injury, Penix can't win the award. He finished with 1,645 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and four interceptions. He also rushed for 189 yards and four TDs. He has a 10-2 career record as a starter.
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Shutting down Purdue's passing attack, Wommack said, starts with the team concept.
"It is a collective effort when you play a team that is as dynamic as they are in the passing game.
"What their coaching staff does is a phenomenal job in terms of finding ways to get their players the ball in space.
"A big piece of what we do is we got to win some one-on-one matchups and we also have got to do a great job of rallying to the ball and making tackles in space.
"One of the best things their offense does is force you to make plays in space. We've got to be up to the challenge. Our guys have to take it personally and do what they need to do to win this game."
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