IU head coach Tom Allen stood at the podium Saturday following the Hoosiers’ 38-31 victory over Nebraska with tears filling his eyes, and his voice cracked with emotion as he spoke to the media.
The often-stoic Allen was full of emotion as he reflected on his team’s achievement after becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since taking over as head coach in 2017.
IU will play the first November night game in Memorial Stadium’s 59-year history on Saturday as the Hoosiers take on the last-place Northwestern Wildcats.
“I want a huge, huge crowd for this football team,” Allen said. “These kids have fought and fought and fought, and I want our fans to come and support this football team. I get it; I understand the frustration of the past, but I don’t care.”
On Saturday, IU will play its first regular season game with six wins for the first time since 2007. Now that the Hoosiers have accomplished their baseline goal of winning six games, the focus for Allen and the team shifts back to weekly improvement.
Last week, as the Hoosiers were hunting for their sixth win, junior quarterback Peyton Ramsey emphasized how the team wasn’t worrying about becoming bowl-eligible. Now that IU has its sixth win in hand, the same mentality remains.
“Now we can just go back to the business of getting better every single week and trying to win our next football game,” Allen said. “We have not had a ton of conversations about bowl games and six wins. We just did not. They knew when we won the game that we were bowl eligible, but that was never the goal to just to get to six.”
IU knows that every game is another opportunity to move up the hierarchy of bowls. To move up another rung on the ladder, the Hoosiers will have to go through Northwestern’s 32nd-ranked defense.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Michael Penix Jr.’s availability is once again in question for IU, and the Hoosiers may need to lean on Ramsey once again.
While Ramsey shined against Nebraska this past weekend, it may be a tall order to expect him to provide the same amount of production. The Wildcats have the 14th-ranked pass defense that has only allowed 180 passing yards per game.
On the other side of the ball, Northwestern’s offense has been in a downward spiral as the Wildcats are currently ranked as the second-worst offense in the country, averaging a measly 266.4 yards per game.
The struggles for Northwestern's offense have been wide spread as junior quarterback Aidan Smith has struggled this season, averaging only 75.5 passing yards per game, the seventh-worst out of eligible quarterbacks in college football.
This favorable matchup for IU’s defense comes at a good time as the Hoosiers 31st-ranked defense has been inconsistent this season.
After a strong showing against Maryland’s 73rd-ranked offense two weeks ago, only allowing only 383 yards, the Hoosiers struggled against Nebraska and allowed 514 yards to the Cornhuskers. This included 18 “chunk plays” of 10 or more yards.
IU is bowl-bound and looking to further bolster its resume as it take it one week at a time.
“I haven’t been here very long,” Allen said. “All I know is what we’re doing right now so come support this football team and help these guys do something special.”
