Hoosiers look for first Big Ten road win

Before the football season began, Terry Hoeppner had a simple request for his team. \n"We challenged (the team) in the spring," Hoeppner said. "We want to play 12. What we do between now and then will determine how realistic that goal becomes."\nHalfway through their schedule with five games down, the Hoosiers will march toward their goal of extending their season to a 12th game, beginning with a trip to Kinnick Stadium to face Iowa Saturday. \nWith four wins in the books, IU has already exceeded last year's 3-8 record. The Hoosiers need only two more victories to become eligible for a bowl, but IU's final six games are against six teams who have all been ranked in the top 25 at some point this season. \n"When you look at the schedule we have, it might be the toughest six games in the country back-to-back," Hoeppner said. \nThe first of the six is representative of the challenges that lies ahead of IU. A team many experts picked to win the Big Ten before the season, Iowa, has stumbled along the way to a 4-2 overall record and a 2-1 conference tally. On Oct. 8, the Hawkeyes regained their footing and dismantled Purdue in West Lafayette, 34-17. \nA traditional Big Ten power in the 80s, Iowa's program wilted in the 90s. In 1999, Iowa had one of its worst seasons on record, a 1-10 campaign that was also the last time the Hoosiers won at Iowa. \nSince then, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz has brought Iowa back to national prominence and a perennial place at the top of preseason polls. \nIU senior linebacker John Pannozzo is well aware of what Iowa's athletes can do. \n"They're a good team from top to bottom," Pannozzo said. "They've got some big linemen and they line up and run it right at you. It will take a physical effort to stop."\nNew to the Big Ten, Hoeppner is perhaps more familiar with Iowa than any other conference foe having played the Hawks three years in a row while he was head coach at Miami University of Ohio. Twice, Hoeppner led his former school into Iowa City, where Iowa has won its past 22 home games. Both were losses. \n"Kinnick was one of the toughest places we ever played," Hoeppner said. "Everything that team does, they do it so well."\nIU has its own road woes to overcome. The Hoosiers haven't won a Big Ten road game since 2001. Out of 13 losses, 10 have been double-digit routs. \nHoeppner said building confidence among his players is one of the ways to get the road jitters out of their systems.\n"You can wish it, you can hope for it, but that confidence is something you build," he said. "It's like putting on the pads. It is something (the players) have to do."\nWhile keeping the big picture in mind, sophomore cornerback Tracy Porter says through the first half of the season the team has been taking its improvement and confidence-building one week at a time. \n"All you can do is focus on things week to week," he said. "After games, the coaches put it on us to fix mistakes that you had last week, whether you win or not. You make those improvements. Then you've got to come out and put that on the field"