Fans need to stick with the Hoosiers

In the game of football, pivotal stretches are where the pretenders are separated from the contenders and where the boys are separated from the men.

IU Coach Kevin Wilson’s program faced such a crossroads during Saturday evening’s 41-39 loss to Ball State. While the end result was demoralizing in nature, the lessons learned are plenty. With the Hoosiers trailing 38-25 at the 4:11 mark of the third quarter, the usual scene ensued. Fans began leaving in droves and the noise emanating from Memorial Stadium grew softer by the second.

Was this the same old IU? A program mired in mediocrity, relegated to the cellar of the Big Ten and really, the Football Bowl Subdivision?

If that’s what Hoosier Nation has swirling around its collective conscious, it’s sadly mistaken.

If the Bill Lynch Hoosiers had been placed in an identical scenario, they would have laid down and lost by four touchdowns, giving legitimate and substantial reason for the fan base to throw proverbial shotgun rounds toward the program. But the 2012 Hoosiers are a different animal altogether.

After losing sophomore quarterback Tre Roberson for the season against
Massachusetts a week ago and with sophomore quarterback Cameron Coffman injured, the Hoosiers turned to true freshman quarterback Nate Sudfeld to lead a comeback effort.

The 6-foot-5-inch, 218-pound Sudfeld led the Hoosiers to two improbable scoring drives, which put the Hoosiers ahead 39-38 with 49 seconds remaining in regulation.

No, that certainly wasn’t Roberson leading the offense. It was, in fact, a raw, inexperienced freshman.

And, in a strange way, Sudfeld’s gutty performance was the shot in the arm the IU program so desperately needed. In fact, Sudfeld is a perfect metaphor for the Hoosiers.

Despite being a largely young, raw group, the Hoosiers fought back against seemingly insurmountable odds.

Wilson saw it and said he knows that it was only the first step in a lengthy process.

“We (coaches) just kind of laid an egg, and that is on me,” Wilson said. “You make calls, and kids have to make plays, but I’m telling you I can look at our kids with a lot of respect.”

The fan base should do the same. Instead of demonizing the players for the heartbreaking loss, applaud them for not quitting. Applaud them for playing with toughness, grit and most of all, heart for 60 minutes.

That performance is unlike anything Hoosier fans have seen in quite some time, regardless of whether the “W” appeared next to the final tally.

And my final piece of advice for Hoosier Nation: Don’t trivialize the team’s performance simply because it came against a team from the Mid-American Conference. That won’t provide the type of positive momentum the program needs to claw its way out of the darkness and into the light.

Instead of allowing Ball State’s game-winning field goal to haunt you in your sleep, remember how close the Hoosiers came to walking out of Memorial Stadium victorious after a game no one would have expected them to win.

­— ckillore@indiana.edu