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Indiana football: No breakthrough in sight for Hoosiers

By Patrick Mayhorn

EAST LANSING, MI - OCTOBER 21: Running back Morgan Ellison #27 of the Indiana Hoosiers watches the final minutes of a 17-9 loss to the Michigan State Spartans with fellow running backs Devonte Williams #2 and Cole Gest #20 of the Indiana Hoosiers at Spartan Stadium on October 21, 2017 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MI - OCTOBER 21: Running back Morgan Ellison #27 of the Indiana Hoosiers watches the final minutes of a 17-9 loss to the Michigan State Spartans with fellow running backs Devonte Williams #2 and Cole Gest #20 of the Indiana Hoosiers at Spartan Stadium on October 21, 2017 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images) /
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Indiana football is at a crucial crossroads, and needs to build momentum under Tom Allen. Can they take a step forward in 2018 with a young team?

Looking for your favorite team? Find their preview on the 2018 Countdown to Kickoff

There aren’t many jobs in college football that are harder than being the head coach at Indiana. The Hoosiers are in a conference with blue-bloods like Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, and they share a state with another in Notre Dame.

That makes recruiting extremely difficult, good coaches difficult to find, and even harder to hang on to. In 120 years of playing football, Indiana has never once won double-digit games in a season. They’ve only been to 11 bowl games in school history.

The Hoosiers have been feeble forever, and those historical struggles make it even more painful when coaches that show potential don’t work out. It happened with Lee Corso. It happened with Bill Mallory. After making Indiana consistently spooky, it happened to Kevin Wilson.

The Wilson scandal and ultimate firing couldn’t have come at a worse time. Indiana seemed to finally be trending in the right direction. They’d been to back to back bowl games in 2015 and 2016 for the third time in school history, and the first since Mallory.

Then came the trouble. Wilson was accused of forcing injured players to play, and general mistreatment of his team. He was fired, and moved on to Ohio State. In his place stood his former defensive coordinator Tom Allen.

Allen, a defensive expert and Indiana high school football legend was tasked with continuing the growth that started under Wilson. After year one, the returns aren’t very encouraging.

Under Allen, the Hoosiers went 5-7 in 2017, as they just narrowed missed a third straight bowl game. The season saw them take four one-possession losses to Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland and Purdue. That Purdue game, a 31-24 loss, sent their arch-rivals to a bowl game and left Indiana at home.

The season wasn’t all disappointment, however. The Hoosiers were solid out of conference, winning all three games, including an impressive showing against Virginia. The Big Ten schedule killed them, but they weren’t completely overmatched.

They gave Ohio State a fight in the first half, and made the Buckeyes work hard for a road win. As I mentioned, they very nearly beat Michigan, Michigan State and Maryland in consecutive weeks. They beat up on Big Ten bottom feeders Illinois and Rutgers.

Those encouraging signs of potential need to become the norm in Bloomington this season. If that happens, it’ll start with the offense, and depend heavily on it all year.

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