Hoosiers Well Rested, Ready For Another Top-10 Test With Iowa

Indiana and Iowa square off on Saturday at 3:30pm in Bloomington. Image: HeraldTimes Online

Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

On Saturday afternoon the Indiana Hoosiers will face their third top-10 team of the season when the Iowa Hawkeyes head to Bloomington. The last time fans saw their Hoosiers they were worn out mentally and physically after a near miss at Michigan State two weeks ago. However, after a bye week the Hoosiers look well rested and re-focused on the final third of the season.

The Hoosiers split the eight games prior to their bye week and ended the first two-thirds of the season on a four-game slide, but Hoosier offensive lineman Dimitric Camiel said the open week was, "a good time to rest, relax a little bit. Kind of take a little bit off the knees and the body and to self-correct. It was real nice."

After eight straight games and running out of gas in the final five minutes of the loss to Michigan State, IU receiver Simmie Cobbs says IU has their "juice, got our energy back". The Hoosier receiving corps is going to need all the "juice" they can get going up against the Iowa secondary that features Desmond King who has picked off seven passes in 2015.

Indiana coach Kevin Wilson said the Hoosiers spent the last week on "we'd use the word developmental. Sometimes developmental is Greg Gooch who is learning how to play bandit who is playing linebacker. Maybe it's Brandon Knight that you're playing as a freshman. It's not just how you're redshirting guys or guys that aren't playing, it's just some of the second team guys need work.

So we did a fair amount of that last week, did some introductory work for the guys that have played a lot. Tried to take a little hitting off of them. Last night we kind of gassed it back up a little bit and kind of really -- wasn't a very long practice, but we were padded up. We were buzzing around, did a lot of work together. Short version of a preseason or spring ball kind of day. Lot of energy."

Maybe the third time is the charm for the Hoosiers against a top-10 foe, but at the very least the Hoosiers are rested and re-focused and Kevin Wilson likes the energy he has seen surrounding his team.