Handling failure hasn’t been as much of a problem, senior quarterback Nate Sudfeld said.
The good plays are what Sudfeld and Wilson say the team needs to move on from. It’s the motto: play the next play. So when IU leads a Big Ten opponent 52-27, like it did Saturday against Rutgers, it is expected to play the next play and forget about that success.
“It’s a good opportunity for us to learn from, and we’re real excited to be able to get this taste out of our mouths,” Sudfeld said.
What Wilson said he does not like people thinking, though, is that the loss came down to a lack of maturity.
“This team has shown it’s a mature team because we came back three games early,” Wilson said. “We’ve shown we can close games out. So to say we’re not a mature team, I don’t think we’d have had the success we had early.”
His primary example was when Rutgers had scored 25 points to tie IU 52-52. The Scarlet Knights were in position to take the lead, but the Hoosiers blocked the kick to ensure the score was still knotted up. That was proof the team was still playing hard, he said.
The actual problem in Wilson’s eyes was that IU was unable to handle the game’s momentum, which he takes partial blame for.
His biggest regret came with the game tied with about five minutes remaining. IU had a fourth down with four yards to go at it’s own 31-yard line. He decided to punt, because that is what makes sense in that situation. But now he looks back at what his head coach at Oklahoma, Bob Stoops, would have done.
“I saw Coach Stoops do that several times where a piece of paper says punt, he’s like, ‘man, I’m not stopping them,’” he said. “You gotta get the first down.”
The team said it will have to balance recovering from a dramatic loss with learning from what happened in the fourth quarter.
Junior receiver Mitchell Paige said it’s difficult because IU did many good things in the first three quarters. He thinks they will focus on the fourth quarter so that doesn’t happen again.
“The first three quarters is what we’re supposed to do, what we’re used to doing, that’s our standard of playing football, especially on offense,” he said.
Now, the Hoosiers need to prepare for No. 7 Michigan State after three straight losses.
Sophomore linebacker Marcus Oliver said the loss was frustrating because it was something they can control. Now they can only control what comes next.
“Coach Inge has been saying don’t let them beat you twice,” Oliver said. “‘Don’t let them beat you this week because we’re so down about last week.’”
