After an offseason filled with high expectations and lofty goals, Indiana football opened its season Saturday with a blowout 34-6 loss to No. 18 Iowa.
With a full crowd for the first time since January 2020, the Hoosiers were caught flat-footed, allowing two touchdowns in the first seven plays.
In a press conference Monday, Indiana head coach Tom Allen said he was disappointed in the team’s performance and its response to live game situations after preparing in practices since January.
“I just think in practice, you can say what it is: You're not live at that point and you're not going to make it live,” Allen said. “There's no way you can go back and ever do that. But until it is, it's really not the same.”
Game action proved to be both a hurdle and a benefit to freshman punter James Evans. Evans, from Auckland, New Zealand, played in his first football game Saturday. Allen said his first three punts weren’t good, but he got better the more he kicked.
“We tried to do everything we could to simulate the game situation, live situation,” Allen said. “The crowd noise and pressure and hitting him with shields and just trying to rough him up a little bit to feel the pressure.”
Evans’ eight punts averaged 42.6 yards, but his last two punts were 58 and 57 yards and his 40-yard third quarter punt was the only one in the second half shorter than his average.
In his first game since Nov. 28, 2020, junior quarterback Michael Penix Jr. didn’t feel like he couldn’t keep up with the pace of the game. Allen said Penix, who is coming back from his second ACL tear in his time at Indiana, wasn’t himself, and there’s still a ways for him to go to be comfortable under center this season.
“We all know the history and you've got to work through that,” Allen said. “That's part of this process to me, but we all know how we have to play this game and he understands that as well. That's something that every day, every game, every rep, everything we do, you continue to gain confidence, and we've got to get to that point.”
Penix said he wants to use practices to improve where he’s uncomfortable, like leaving the pocket, but he needs to run practices at full speed to replicate game situations.
Against Iowa, Penix only rushed once where he slid before reaching Iowa defenders for a one-yard loss.
His third interception came on a play where he had room to run the ball but decided instead to throw to junior running back Davion Ervin-Poindexter, whose back was turned to Penix.
“Initially I thought about running, but I didn’t realize how fast that guy was chasing me,” Penix said. “That was a bad decision outside of the pocket from me. I just have to know when the journey is over and throw the ball away.”
Bad decisions were a common theme in Indiana’s game. The Hoosiers had 70 penalty yards and two of Penix’s interceptions were returned for touchdowns. The defense held 2020 first-team All-Big Ten running back Tyler Goodson to 99 yards, but they allowed a 56-yard rushing touchdown on the first drive of the game.
Senior linebacker Cam Jones said those penalties and mistakes were a large part of Indiana’s downfall Saturday.
"We always say Hoosiers don't beat the Hoosiers, and a lot of times Saturday we did," Jones said.
