Indiana University Athletics
DiPrimio: Fearless IU Soccer Scheduling Continues with No. 8 Notre Dame Next
8/29/2024 11:11:00 AM | Men's Soccer
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Schedule scared?
Todd Yeagley?
Not a chance.
The Indiana men's soccer coach, as former Hoosier head coaches Mike Freitag and Jerry Yeagley did before him, schedules tough early matches the way Joey Chestnut devours hotdogs:
With relentless competitiveness.
Forget lightweight non-conference opponents. Yeagley goes for challenging games, road and home, because they accelerate the learning curve, answer questions that need fast answering and steel the team for what's coming. For the Hoosiers, for this season and all to come, grueling challenges are always coming, and if it results in an occasional loss, they can handle it.
"Scheduling tough, you figure things out early," Yeagley says. "Now, you don't want where it becomes a problem, and guys aren't confident. That's the only concern.
"With this team, I'm very optimistic that we will find ways to win rather than schedule scared."
Case in point – Thursday night's home game against No. 2 Notre Dame at Bill Armstrong Stadium. The Irish edged the Hoosiers in a penalty shootout in last year's NCAA tourney Elite Eight. Coming off a 1-1 season-opening tie against Akron, No. 8-ranked Notre Dame seems primed for another great year.
"We're going against one of the top teams in the region and one that has been really dangerous the last 10 to 12 years," Yeagley says.
"They only lost a couple of key pieces from last year, and they had guys in the wings waiting to go. They've always had good, tough-minded leaders. They're dynamic. There were in the finals for a reason – they have good chemistry, and are talented and tough."
Yes, IU's 2-0, season-opening loss at St. Louis last Friday night was disappointing, but not defining. Enlightenment sometimes requires pain.
"If we want to win more," Yeagley says, "I would schedule easier. If we want to know where we're at, I have to keep doing it."
The Hoosiers' eight national titles, nine runner-up finishes and record 22 College Cup appearances showcase the wisdom of that approach.
"You play tough teams on the road, and you always find things out," Yeagley says. "It's not making drastic decisions based on one performance, either way. You want to be the best prepared you can be as you move through the season. I've always believed that.
Playing a team such as Notre Dame offers a major bounce-back opportunity Yeagley believes the Hoosiers can exploit.
"As far as scheduling, we don't make it easy, but our guys would rather play this game than a game we should win. It gets them excited to bounce back from last week."
Bouncing back requires strong leadership. Senior goalkeeper JT Harms leads the way. Yeagley says Harms "stays steady and composed and doesn't lose his mind" amid adversity. He says midfielder Patrick McDonald is also emerging.
Overall, Yeagley says, there isn't just one dominant leader able to take charge and say, "this is what we have to do."
"I've had teams that haven't had that kind of leadership and still be successful," he says. "It doesn't worry me. Leadership just has to be collective. At times, maybe the staff has to do more."
Yeagley says the Hoosiers trained well in the aftermath of Friday's defeat. Video sessions meant examining why it happened – the quick answer, all phases were uncharacteristically poor – without over-thinking it.
Yeagley and his staff won't. They know they have the talent, skill and experience to win no matter the opponent.
As for the Hoosier team that went to Saint Louis – it was an imposter that needs to disappear forever. Yeagley expects it to.
"It was like, Who was that team?" he says.
Then he reflects on this team's potential.
"Our depth is good," he says. "Our training and sparring are tough. The sparring has been excellent.
"It's a good news, bad news thing because it's tough to get the first group going and get a lot of confidence in own sessions when our second unit is so good. We need a good performance against an outside team to get this group in top gear."
Against Saint Louis, IU only took seven shots and just three cornerkicks. The Hoosiers expect better and will achieve better, Yeagley insists.
"This team is capable of being really dynamic offensively. I'm not worried about that. I know this team is able to create chances in way different ways than we showed the other night."
Yeagley says Harms was a bright spot in the Saint Louis match. Of the Billikens' two goals, one was an own goal by the Hoosiers, the other a goal no one could have stopped. He made two especially important saves to keep IU in the match.
"JT had good composure," Yeagley says. "His distribution was clean, which it typically is. I'll take that performance every day of the week. The own goal was tough. It was a very clean game. We need him to continue to play like that."
IU officials hope for a huge crowd Thursday night. Armstrong Stadium, which seats 6,100, with far more available thanks to standing opportunities (the record of 7,720 was set against UCLA in 2013 in, yes, an early September non-conference game), is one of the nation's most intimidating college soccer venues.
Yeagley credited students and fans for helping the Hoosiers down the stretch last season at Armstrong Stadium and hopes for a repeat against Notre Dame and for the rest of the season.
"We need them to help us."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Schedule scared?
Todd Yeagley?
Not a chance.
The Indiana men's soccer coach, as former Hoosier head coaches Mike Freitag and Jerry Yeagley did before him, schedules tough early matches the way Joey Chestnut devours hotdogs:
With relentless competitiveness.
Forget lightweight non-conference opponents. Yeagley goes for challenging games, road and home, because they accelerate the learning curve, answer questions that need fast answering and steel the team for what's coming. For the Hoosiers, for this season and all to come, grueling challenges are always coming, and if it results in an occasional loss, they can handle it.
"Scheduling tough, you figure things out early," Yeagley says. "Now, you don't want where it becomes a problem, and guys aren't confident. That's the only concern.
"With this team, I'm very optimistic that we will find ways to win rather than schedule scared."
Case in point – Thursday night's home game against No. 2 Notre Dame at Bill Armstrong Stadium. The Irish edged the Hoosiers in a penalty shootout in last year's NCAA tourney Elite Eight. Coming off a 1-1 season-opening tie against Akron, No. 8-ranked Notre Dame seems primed for another great year.
"We're going against one of the top teams in the region and one that has been really dangerous the last 10 to 12 years," Yeagley says.
"They only lost a couple of key pieces from last year, and they had guys in the wings waiting to go. They've always had good, tough-minded leaders. They're dynamic. There were in the finals for a reason – they have good chemistry, and are talented and tough."
Yes, IU's 2-0, season-opening loss at St. Louis last Friday night was disappointing, but not defining. Enlightenment sometimes requires pain.
"If we want to win more," Yeagley says, "I would schedule easier. If we want to know where we're at, I have to keep doing it."
The Hoosiers' eight national titles, nine runner-up finishes and record 22 College Cup appearances showcase the wisdom of that approach.
"You play tough teams on the road, and you always find things out," Yeagley says. "It's not making drastic decisions based on one performance, either way. You want to be the best prepared you can be as you move through the season. I've always believed that.
Playing a team such as Notre Dame offers a major bounce-back opportunity Yeagley believes the Hoosiers can exploit.
"As far as scheduling, we don't make it easy, but our guys would rather play this game than a game we should win. It gets them excited to bounce back from last week."
Bouncing back requires strong leadership. Senior goalkeeper JT Harms leads the way. Yeagley says Harms "stays steady and composed and doesn't lose his mind" amid adversity. He says midfielder Patrick McDonald is also emerging.
Overall, Yeagley says, there isn't just one dominant leader able to take charge and say, "this is what we have to do."
"I've had teams that haven't had that kind of leadership and still be successful," he says. "It doesn't worry me. Leadership just has to be collective. At times, maybe the staff has to do more."
Yeagley says the Hoosiers trained well in the aftermath of Friday's defeat. Video sessions meant examining why it happened – the quick answer, all phases were uncharacteristically poor – without over-thinking it.
Yeagley and his staff won't. They know they have the talent, skill and experience to win no matter the opponent.
As for the Hoosier team that went to Saint Louis – it was an imposter that needs to disappear forever. Yeagley expects it to.
"It was like, Who was that team?" he says.
Then he reflects on this team's potential.
"Our depth is good," he says. "Our training and sparring are tough. The sparring has been excellent.
"It's a good news, bad news thing because it's tough to get the first group going and get a lot of confidence in own sessions when our second unit is so good. We need a good performance against an outside team to get this group in top gear."
Against Saint Louis, IU only took seven shots and just three cornerkicks. The Hoosiers expect better and will achieve better, Yeagley insists.
"This team is capable of being really dynamic offensively. I'm not worried about that. I know this team is able to create chances in way different ways than we showed the other night."
Yeagley says Harms was a bright spot in the Saint Louis match. Of the Billikens' two goals, one was an own goal by the Hoosiers, the other a goal no one could have stopped. He made two especially important saves to keep IU in the match.
"JT had good composure," Yeagley says. "His distribution was clean, which it typically is. I'll take that performance every day of the week. The own goal was tough. It was a very clean game. We need him to continue to play like that."
IU officials hope for a huge crowd Thursday night. Armstrong Stadium, which seats 6,100, with far more available thanks to standing opportunities (the record of 7,720 was set against UCLA in 2013 in, yes, an early September non-conference game), is one of the nation's most intimidating college soccer venues.
Yeagley credited students and fans for helping the Hoosiers down the stretch last season at Armstrong Stadium and hopes for a repeat against Notre Dame and for the rest of the season.
"We need them to help us."
Players Mentioned
Goalkeeper
/ Men's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Men's SoccerThursday, August 13
Thursday, August 13
Wednesday, August 12
Wednesday, August 12