IU captures Old Oaken Bucket

Coming off of its two worst defeats of the season and having its bowl hopes terminated in the process, IU rebounded with a 56-36 victory on senior day against Purdue on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

With the victory, IU brought the Old Oaken Bucket back to Bloomington for the first time since 2010.

“This is the best moment of my life,” said IU redshirt senior kicker Mitch Ewald while celebrating with his teammates in the locker room.

“To beat these guys and have it be our last game here at home with this senior class is unbelievable,” Ewald said.

IU’s (5-7, 3-5) matchup against Purdue (1-11, 0-8) was the send-off game for 21 Hoosier seniors.

Ewald, who kicked the game-tying and game-winning field goals in West Lafayette in IU’s last Bucket game victory in 2010, said this season’s win against Purdue feels a little bit better.

“It’s a memory that we’ll never forget, to go out this way and for Coach (Kevin) Wilson,” he said. “I keep going back to this senior class, just the friends, the relationships we’ve established, and that will last forever.”

Wilson said he told the seniors they had to have a mindset that allowed them to finish the way they wanted.

“My thought was, ‘You have a long time to reminisce and remember, but you have one last chance to play this week,’” he said. “As we always say, we want to get one day better. We made a big deal about this being our best week. Our emphasis was for this week to have our best preparation, our best meetings and to go out there and play our best.”

Despite Purdue scoring more points against IU than it had against any other opponent all season, the Hoosiers recorded a school-record 692 total yards of offense and rewrote the school’s record book in the process.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Tre Roberson made his first start since Nov. 2 and produced 427 yards of total offense, including a team-high 154 rushing yards on 21 carries. Roberson’s six touchdown passes tied Bob Hoernschemeyer’s 70-year-old single-game record for IU quarterbacks.

“Six touchdowns — y’all know how good that is,” junior wide receiver Shane Wynn said.

Wilson said all of IU’s quarterbacks are capable of playing well, but he thought the Hoosiers needed to take advantage of Roberson’s ability to play in space against Purdue.

“I think tomorrow he is going to be very sore,” Wilson said. “Over the long run right now, I don’t think Roberson’s body can hold up if he plays that kind of game every week.”

Despite starting running back Tevin Coleman being sidelined for the third consecutive game, IU had three players rush for at least 100 yards for the first time in program history. Senior Stephen Houston rushed 17 times for 120 yards and two touchdowns.

Junior D’Angelo Roberts had 113 yards on 14 carries.

“It feels good. Two years in a row we lost when I felt that we should have won,” Houston said. “(It was an) unfortunate turn of events, but we won and brought it back.”