Hoosiers Arrive in Jacksonville Ahead of the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
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Image: Sammy Jacobs Hoosier Huddle
Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
The long layoff from Indiana Hoosiers football is nearly finished and IU took their next step in preparation for the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on January 2nd in Jacksonville, FL. The Hoosiers arrived by plane to the Sunshine State on Saturday afternoon and were greeted by typical Florida weather warm weather mixed with rain and an atmosphere of excitement.
“It feels great to me. It is 70 degrees. The sun will come out,” Indiana head coach Tom Allen said as he met with the media in Jacksonville. “I lived here long enough to know that rain is a part of it. That goes away and the sun follows. We are feeling very excited to be here. It is a great opportunity with a great venue here to play in Jacksonville. The city is so excited to have this Gator Bowl and there is so much tradition in this game itself. Seventy-five years, that is pretty awesome to be playing in this game. To be playing a team like Tennessee, with so much tradition and so many great players that have played here, so many great coaches have coached there, so it is a great honor to play them."
The coach is not the only Hoosier excited to be down south as quarterback Peyton Ramsey expressed his feelings as well.
"We are excited to be down here,” Ramsey said, “just looking forward to another week with the guys, being down here, playing an SEC opponent, something that we don't get to do very often. It's an exciting time for our team."
The Hoosiers have not played a game since their season finale victory over Purdue on November 30th and one of the biggest questions heading into Thursday night’s game is how much rust will there be fore a team who has not played in over a month.
The Hoosiers only have seven players who have bowl experience and while the program will be playing in its third bowl in five years, the majority of the team were not part of the 2015 and 2016 teams that played in the Pinstripe and Foster Farms Bowls.
"It is a challenge and it is uncharted territory for a lot of our guys” Allen pointed out.
However what the Hoosiers lack in postseason experience, they make up with it on the coaching staff.
“We have a majority of our coaching staff that has a lot of experience coaching in these games and knowing how to schedule it out. But the team has to respond.”
Allen says he feels “good about what we have done so far. We need to have a great week of preparation here at the bowl site, which can be distracting because there are a lot of distractions. But those are good distractions. We just have to teach our guys how to handle it and be very productive here as a staff so that we can play our best on game day."
Staying sharp will be a key for both teams early in the game, but Indiana quarterback Peyton Ramsey says that the way practice has been scheduled out has kept the Hoosiers sharp and given them a chance to heal up.
“I think it's a good time to kind of develop and stay sharp and go out there with the guys”, Ramsey said, “I'm happy with where we're at. We had enough practices to stay sharp, so it's been a good little month of football."
The Hoosiers take on the Tennessee Volunteers in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Thursday, January 2 at 7pm ET at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville. The game will be televised on ESPN.