Special Night – Fun, Sacrifice, and Oaken Bucket Opportunity
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Zach Horton has sacrificed individual success for Indiana team glory. The veteran tight end is fine with that, embraces that, and could very well reap the rewards.
First, though, comes this priority -- beat rival Purdue (1-10) Saturday night at Memorial Stadium and bring back the Old Oaken Bucket for the first time since 2019.
“I’m out there doing what I’m coached to do, whether it’s me blocking or me getting the ball,” Horton says. “I try to help our team win. If that’s got to be in the run game every time and I have to be off the field for a pass, that’s what we have to do. Roll with it and be there when they need me.”
For much of the season, the team need has left Horton as a blocker, and the 6-foot-4, 252-pounder has excelled. He’s been a catalyst for IU’s strong perimeter blocking has earned praise from FOX and ESPN commentators while springing the Hoosiers loose for a Big Ten-leading 34 rushing touchdowns. They rank fifth in the conference with 1,850 rushing yards.
And yet, it was as a receiving tight end at James Madison last year that Horton generated the most acclaim. He earned All-Sun Belt Conference honors by catching 27 passes for 275 yards and six touchdowns. That included a 116-yard, two-touchdown effort against South Alabama. He had 40 overall catches at James Madison.
This season, Horton has 17 catches for 156 yards and three touchdowns in more of an auxiliary receiving role even as he helps tailbacks Justin Ellison (748 yards, nine touchdowns) and Ty Son Lawton (587, 11 TDs) run to impressive success.
“Seeing them score a touchdown, seeing them run and know you got the block to help that, that’s a great feeling,” Horton says. “It’s fun.”
Saturday’s fun is expected to come amid 20-degree temperatures. Receiver/punt returner Myles Price is fine with that. Thriving in such cold, he says, comes down to this simple truth:
“Just make the play.”
And then … “That’s all you can do. When the ball comes to you, make the play, no matter what the temperature is.”
Price, a Texas Tech transfer with 31 catches for 390 yards and two touchdowns as a Hoosier, says he once played at Iowa State when the temperature was 9 degrees.
“It was real cold,” he says with a smile. “I had a good game.”
As far as returning punts, Price says the cold won’t be a factor. He has returned 21 punts for an average of 12.9 yards (tied for second best in the Big Ten), with a long of 65 yards. That he has yet to return one for a touchdown provides extra motivation for Saturday.
“I’m praying I break one. I’ve been itching all year.”
Price says he’s fully recovered from the big hit against Michigan that knocked him out of the game.
“He got a good shot on me,” he says with a laugh. “It’s football. It comes with it. I’m fine now. The bye week helped a lot. My neck was a little sore.”
The Hoosiers have spent the week working to correct the mistakes that surfaced in last Saturday’s loss at No. 2 Ohio State. Pass protection tops the priority list after allowing five sacks, plus multiple quarterback pressures.
“It’s everybody executing and recognizing that when (the opponent is blitzing), we have to speed things up on our routes,” Price says.
IU also has to regain its scoring edge. It has only scored 18 points in the last six quarters, although that came against the strong defenses of Ohio State and Michigan. It averages a Big Ten-leading 41.3 points for the season.
“We have to get back our offensive rhythm,” Horton says. “When I turned on the (Ohio State) game tape, it was like, this is not the team I know. We left a lot of plays out there. We had a lot of self-inflicted wounds. It was stuff that we did that we know how to fix.”
Fixing it, he says, means better communication and “all of us being on the same page.”
Adds defensive tackle James Carpenter: “We have to turn the page, put that behind us and focus on Purdue.”
Saturday is also Senior Night, providing a regular-season finale chance for graduating players to reflect on their careers in front of the Hoosiers’ fourth sellout of the season. After five years at James Madison, and now a final season at IU, Carpenter knows it will be a special night in his final college home game.
“It will hit me when I get out there with my parents. It could get emotional.”