Indiana looks to keep momentum after Mizzou upset
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana has knocked on the door of big wins in the Kevin Wilson era before. This time, the Hoosiers finally did something with it.
Indiana's upset of No. 18 Missouri on the road Saturday included all the plays necessary to finish out a close game against a quality opponent. The Hoosiers had been 1-7 in games decided by four points or less under Wilson.
"We've been competing," Wilson said. "We need to be competitive winners."
They were competitive winners on Saturday, and for many of the players it was their first taste of victory in a close game.
"They're (the players) the guys that have been doing a lot of things right for a long time," Wilson said. "These kids have made a phenomenal amount of commitment, and I was just very, very happy for the seniors and for those guys to get a little positive."
If getting over the hump of finishing off a quality opponent was the first step, handling success and finding a way to do it consistently is the second.
Wilson was quick to discredit one victory as being success.
"All success is one week, so if that's your definition of success so be it," Wilson said. "We haven't accomplished anything yet. We had one good week. It's a football season, not a football week."
For a program that had not beaten a top 20 team since 2006 (No. 15 Iowa) and had not beaten one on the road since 1987 (No. 9 Ohio State), a top 20 win on the road over an SEC team is success, at least on some level. And, for a coach who is 2-8 following a win in his career at Indiana, handling that success is undoubtedly a concern for the Hoosiers.
Indiana will look to get back-to-back wins for the first time since 2012 when Maryland visits on Saturday. Maryland is 3-1, with their lone defeat coming in a three-point loss to West Virginia. Indiana is 2-0 against the Terrapins, but the programs haven't played since 1935.
In order to buck their trend of struggling after a win, Indiana will need to show the aggressiveness and poise on defense they brought against Missouri. After just four tackles for loss and being unable to get a game-clinching stop in their defeat against Bowling Green, Indiana's defense recorded 11 tackles for loss, including two sacks in their win over the Tigers.
Highlighting the defensive performance was freshman linebacker Tegray Scales, who earned Big Ten co-Freshman of the week honors after recording five tackles, one sack and one quarterback hurry.
For Wilson, the key to getting his players to handle success and find consistency is nothing magical, just a matter of the next practice, next game, next play.
"Go back now to what we do, how we do it. . If you like that feeling, remember all the things that it took to get it," Wilson said. "We had to let go of the Bowling Green game, we got to let go of Missouri, and now it's onto Maryland. We have a lot of things to learn on, a lot of things to build on, and now we have to move full tilt to play Maryland at 1:30 on Saturday."