Column: Hoosiers must overcome setback

Former Olympic gold medalist Bob Richards once said, “It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks.”

IU Coach Kevin Wilson’s Hoosiers suffered a catastrophic setback Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium, losing 62-14 to Wisconsin.

Lost amidst the shuffle of postgame discussion concerning the death of IU’s hope for the Big Ten Conference Championship Game was the chilling fact that the 48-point loss wasn’t the widest margin of defeat for Wilson.

Last season, his team suffered a 52-point drubbing at the hands of both the Badgers and Michigan State Spartans.

Recovering from such a devastating defeat isn’t a paltry task, but it is one the Hoosiers must undertake. The possibility of qualifying for a bowl game is still alive and well.

Senior center Will Matte is cognizant of that prospect and recognizes it must be the Hoosiers’ collective ambition in salvaging the season.

“That’s definitely been a goal of mine,” Matte said. “It’s under two weeks left in the regular season now. I’ve been savoring each day and making sure that I can be at my best each moment.”

While the Hoosiers’ aspiration of playing a 13th game is legitimate, it’s a pipe dream that only the most passionate of fans believe contains any substance.

IU faces a daunting trip to Penn State’s Beaver Stadium and its 106,572 raucous fans, which doesn’t bode well for a Hoosier team required to win its final two games to become bowl eligible.

To put the scenario in perspective, the largest away crowd Wilson’s young team has seen this season was an announced capacity of 47,981 at Illinois’ Memorial Stadium.

Add that with a Penn State rushing defense that ranks 37th nationally, and the Hoosiers’ chances of pulling off the upset fly out of the window.

There is a silver lining for IU’s current predicament.

In my recap column of the Wisconsin game, I said IU had returned to its losing ways of old. I was proven wrong by sophomore quarterback Cameron Coffman Monday.

“Going back and looking at film, there were a bunch of things that were just a little bit off, whether it be a throw being a little too high or a guy running a route one step too far,” Coffman said.  “They’re all very fixable things.”

The compounding of those small mistakes along with the verified and substantiated claim that the Hoosiers were too amped up to play in a game with such decisive stakes was the fatal formula that doomed an IU squad featuring 13 underclassmen in starting positions.

What should be learned from last Saturday’s empirical example is that young teams are often exposed when the lights shine brightest, and, unfortunately, that’s exactly what transpired against Wisconsin.

So, no, this season’s IU squad is not a reincarnation of past teams.

It’s a team that has experienced a gargantuan setback that might, eventually, transform it into a champion.

­— ckillore@indiana.edu