Author: Seth Tow

The first quarter of Indiana’s season has been riddled with mistakes. They didn’t end up costing the Hoosiers games quite yet, but it wouldn’t be sustainable to keep playing that way as the schedule got tougher. Saturday in Cincinnati it got tougher, and those mistakes finally caught up with IU. This wasn’t a case of a few key moments swinging the Bearcats’ way and deciding the game. The Hoosiers made critical errors in all three phases of the game, and did so in a game where they couldn’t afford to do so. Cincinnati made IU pay with a 45-24 win.…

Going into what proved to be a deciding play in Indiana’s game against Western Kentucky, Jaylin Williams was mad. The defensive back was called for pass interference on the last drive of regulation, as the Hilltoppers attempted to win the game in 47 seconds. The penalty took WKU into long field goal range, and eventually into more makable territory. The kick was missed, sending the game to overtime. Four plays later, Western Kentucky lined up to try another field goal. But Williams was still peeved about the penalty. “I had a PI right before that, so for me, honestly, I…

Myles Jackson is used to relocating and adapting. While growing up in the southeast, Jackson and his family moved 11 times. Most of them came while he was in elementary and middle school — he spent all four high school years at Mill Creek High in Hoschton, Georgia. The family mostly migrated within Georgia, along with multiple moves to South Carolina. That background shaped Jackson’s identity. He had to build new relationships and friendships so often that doing so became second nature. “It forced me to develop my own personality,” Jackson said. “Just allowed me to find myself and figure…

As Tom Allen entered Indiana’s team room for his press conference after IU’s win over Western Kentucky, his expression said it all. While Allen made his way to the podium, he shot the crowd of reporters an unmistakable look. His eyes widened. He smiled. And, basically, he simultaneously exhaled and laughed. It was another one of those games for Indiana football. The type of contest that various iterations of IU teams have gone through for years. Games comprised equally of sloppy mistakes and clutch plays. The games that the Hoosiers somehow, some way hang in long enough to create late…

Indiana’s first two games of the 2022 season have been very different, both in the circumstances around the game and the way the games played out. This week will continue that trend. Indiana hosts Western Kentucky on Saturday at noon at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. IU edged out the Hilltoppers, 33-31, last year at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green. But as Western Kentucky head coach Tyson Helton said to local media this week, last year’s game doesn’t mean that much for this year. “It’s a new season. Both teams have a new team, new guys playing for them,”…

Luke Haggard didn’t want to play left tackle. The IU senior played youth football for only one year before getting to Petaluma (Calif.) High School, where he played defensive end and tight end as a freshman. He moved to left tackle on offense as a sophomore, but the team ran a triple-option offense which didn’t ask as much of a left tackle as other styles do. Haggard didn’t really start learning the craft of the position until he got to Santa Rosa (Calif.) Junior College. And even then, he wasn’t immediately all in. He arrived at Santa Rosa wanting to…

Connor Bazelak is a man of routine. After every drive, regardless of its result, Bazelak immediately gets on the phone to talk about it with offensive coordinator Walt Bell. It doesn’t matter if he missed an open receiver, threw a superb touchdown pass, or if it was all running plays. Bazelak goes right to the phone. It speaks to his consistent personality, something about him which teammates and coaches were quickly drawn to. “Literally, sometimes he’s calling before I’ve even had a chance to breathe for a second,” Bell said Monday. “No matter what — good, bad, wrong, right, indifferent, wide-open…

The Hoosiers knew they needed to play better. That much was evident at halftime on Saturday night. Indiana struggled through the first half against Idaho, leaving points on the table and making far too many mistakes. And the Vandals took a 10-0 lead into the break. The team cut to the chase in the locker room. Tom Allen and his staff told the players they had to execute better, and IU’s veterans spoke up as well. “Our leaders, like (Cam Jones) and Noah Pierre, they got on the whole team about it,” Donaven McCulley said. “We shouldn’t be down like…

Indiana (1-0) is set to take on Idaho (0-1) Saturday at Memorial Stadium at 8 p.m. Idaho was originally an FCS program, before moving up to the FBS by joining the Big West Conference in 1996. The Vandals bounced around several conferences from there, and eventually returned to the FCS in 2018. The Vandals are coming off a 24-17 loss at Washington State, in Jason Eck’s first game as Idaho’s head coach. Eck was previously the offensive coordinator at South Dakota State, where he was named the 2019 America Football Coaches’ Association FCS Coach of the Year. He led the…

Going into IU’s opening night game against Illinois, offensive coordinator Walt Bell knew his team would have to throw the ball — a lot — to win. The Hoosiers knew the Fighting Illini were going to make life difficult for their offensive line. They anticipated Illinois stacking the box — that they would ensure a numbers advantage over the IU blockers. That would both make the run game difficult to jumpstart, and would put Connor Bazelak under frequent duress. And that’s how it played out. Indiana couldn’t get anything going on the ground for most of the game, rushing for just…