Indiana University Athletics
DiPrimio: The Yeagley Way – Coaching to Make a Difference
11/14/2023 1:51:00 PM | Men's Soccer
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON – The numbers are staggering, but Todd Yeagley doesn't coach for numbers.
It's always – always – about people, about making a difference, about sustaining excellence.
Oh, yes.
Winning.
Consider this as IU (12-4-4) prepares to host Lipscomb (10-3-4) in Thursday night's NCAA tourney opener – 37 straight NCAA tourney appearances, eight national titles, nine national runner-up finishes (three in the last six years) and 22 College Cup appearances.
If Indiana wins, it will advance to play at No. 10 seed Wake Forest (11-2-5) on Sunday.
The Hoosiers, despite winning Big Ten regular season and conference tourney titles, despite a 9-1 surge entering NCAA tourney play, did not receive a national seed for the first time in 10 years. They are Big Ten's only representative in the 48-team field.
Is that a motivator?
Absolutely.
"I think there was some disappointment in the room," Yeagley says about Monday's pairing announcement, "but I don't mind that. Guys are a little ticked off. It's like, okay, who wants to get in front of us now, who wants to play us now?"
Coaches find ways to motivate and few do it better than Yeagley, who has won 197 games and a national championship while sustaining IU's unprecedented success.
The NCAA tourney streak started when Yeagley was a teenager watching his father, Jerry, work his magic (544 victories, six national championships). It continued as a Hoosier All-American, as an assistant coach, as the head coach at Wisconsin, and now at IU.
Plenty of programs in plenty of sports have big seasons, but to do it for so long is unmatched in college soccer, and perhaps in college sports.
"That's what I'm most proud of," Yeagley says, "our consistency as a program, as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach.
"It's so hard to keep doing it, and yet, we're still finding it. I never take it for granted. I love every one of them. Winning is a good feeling."
Rising to the November and December challenge seems part of IU's DNA.
"These are the biggest games," senior forward Tommy Mihalic says. "It's being ready for these games. It's where everything happens. It's what we play for at IU and why we come to IU.
"You stay focused. We tell ourselves we're getting into a groove, and it's giving us confidence. The focus is game by game."
Winning the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles in the same season is a Hoosier tradition. They've done it 12 times, four in the last six seasons.
No other conference team comes close.
Yeagley talks about different guys stepping up in different ways, about the Hoosiers' unmatched experience in the biggest games.
They need six victories to claim a ninth national title, and if it might require a run through the ACC's best programs – Virginia, Notre Dame and North Carolina are other possible opponents in future rounds -- few teams are better prepared.
"Why would we not be confident going into any battle?" Yeagley asks. "We've seen everything."
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Even for Indiana soccer, life isn't always sunshine and rainbows. There are painful defeats (think of those recent national title game losses), disappointments and failures.
This season, goal scoring became as complex as a string theory equation.
Still, the Hoosiers keep coming back for more.
"I love seeing a team grow and get better," Yeagley says. "You don't fully reflect on that until the season is complete, but when you're in it, coaching peers or friends will call and say, 'Man, you guys are finding another gear here. I like what you're doing.'
"When you are in the middle of it, you look at everything and are very critical. It's good to have someone from the outside telling you, 'Hey, they are really making their way.' That's a sign of players who very much want to get better. They're competitive in nature. That's what we recruit."
The Hoosiers don't beat themselves. They rank second in the country in fewest yellow cards. They are disciplined where others are not. They are tough minded when others buckle.
IU schedules for postseason success, and if it sometimes comes with early season pain (consider the 3-3-4 start), the reward is worth it.
"We play a tough schedule," Yeagley says. "We're going to find out our deficiencies early. That helps us to make corrections if we need to."
For Yeagley, success brings limited joy in the moment given there's so much left to accomplish.
"It's very rewarding, but it's hard to enjoy the rewards during the season. My mind is on the next game. I have a hard time enjoying it for very long."
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Yeagley divides a season into three segments – regular season, conference tourney, NCAA Tournament.
"The crown jewel is the third, which is the most difficult to do," he says.
In NCAA tourney games, every second, every play matters.
"Everything is on the line," Yeagley says. "You're getting everyone's best."
So often for the Hoosiers, titles come, apathy doesn't.
"Those never get old," Yeagley says. "We love it."
IU's dominating defense was on full display in Sunday's Big Ten tourney final 1-0 win over Penn State, which managed just one first-half shot before getting 11 in the second half. Goalkeeper JT Harms had a couple of spectacular second-half saves to preserve the shutout, his seventh of the season, and Indiana's eighth.
That contrasts the 4-3 semifinal win over Michigan, when the Hoosiers blew a 3-1 halftime lead. That went against Yeagley's 1-0 coaching preference.
"I thought we defended well. We did make some interesting decisions. We have to address that. We have to play cleaner than that."
Are the early season offensive struggles over?
Perhaps, but in soccer, you never know when goalkeeper excellence or bad luck or sport whimsy keeps the ball out of the goal.
Still …
Junior forward Samuel Sarver has found his groove. He had the game-winning goal against Penn State (beating two defenders and then the Big Ten's best goalkeeper) and had assists in the quarterfinal and semifinal matches to earn Big Ten Offensive Player of the Tournament honors. He leads IU in goals (eight), assists (six) and points (22).
Mihalic and Maouloune Goumballe are peaking when it matters most. They combined for three goals in the semifinal win over Michigan, and on six of the team's 12 goals in the previous four games.
IU has scored 11 goals in its last four matches, huge for a team that needed the season's first 12 matches to score that many.
Are we seeing the team Yeagely envisioned, the one that began with a No. 2 national ranking?
"We score in more ways, so yes. You see the restart goals. We're getting scrap goals. We're getting in really good scoring positions.
"There are a lot of things I like about this team. We have guys who have played in [22] advancing games in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. That's a lot of games with pressure. You can't give that to a new player. I lean on them to help the new guys."
Now comes the latest NCAA challenge. These Hoosiers seem steeled for it.
"You want growth potential on your team," Yeagley says. "There are years when you're way deep in the tournament and you're like, 'We've tapped everything out and we're rolling.' This team hasn't tapped everything yet."
We've reached the core of what drives Yeagley, why he's coached for 15 years, why he might coach long enough to match or surpass his father's 31 years. You push; you motivate; you teach; you recruit; you strategize; you love; you believe; and if you have the right people around you, it works.
"I am driven on giving these guys an unbelievable experience and maintaining the culture that I think is unique and special here," he says. "But I'm also very driven on us putting another star on the jersey. I think about it a lot.
"The most controllable is what you do every day, the experiences they have that will shape them and give them relationships for life. That really is the ultimate gift back. That's the big picture."
