Bowl Practices Have Deep Impact for Young Hoosiers

Written by Amanda Pavelka (@amandapavelka3)

It was announced this past Sunday that Indiana would face Tennessee in their first ever Florida bowl game— the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. The Hoosiers will have the nation’s attention to themselves, as they play in January 2nd’s lone prime time college bowl game.

Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of playing on January 2nd is the extra time it gives them to prepare for a tough matchup that awaits them in Jacksonville. That’s a month more to develop the young Hoosier football squad— a month that will make a physical impact on the players, especially young ones, for the bowl game and beyond.

“We're a young football team, to have those extra practices now are going to be huge for us. You basically have a whole set of spring practices in addition to what we'll have afterwards in April, May,” Tom Allen told reporters in Sunday’s bowl announcement press conference.

“In the beginning we'll be emphasizing more of technique, development, fundamentals and trying to -- we'll just be going against each other, and probably the first half of our practices and to be able to just get better. You know, get a lot of guys that are younger, a lot of reps.”

With only a week in between games, priority in the regular season is often given to the first and second string. Indiana has a few more weeks now to help get the young guys prepared to take the call for next man up.

Not only will the extra weeks of practice help develop Indiana’s young depth, it will serve as a necessary recovery period for the players that have gotten banged up this season— Peyton Ramsey being the most crucial key player who could use some rest time. Ramsey is still recovering from hits taken weeks ago in Lincoln, and has battled through bruised ribs and a bruised sternum, heading Hoosier offense to victory of the Old Oaken Bucket in double overtime. 

“Stevie Scott, with the extra week basically of the different variations of bowl opportunities that we had, this being the latest one, optimistic about him, I would say still not a guarantee yet. Obviously it does help that we'll be playing in early January. We'll know more about him, and I'll be able to say more about him probably after we practice a few days later on this week as to where he's at,” Allen said. 

If Scott were to be unavailable, the Hoosiers have a powerful backup in freshman Sampson James, who ultimately carried the Hoosiers to victory over Purdue in West Lafayette. James left the Old Oaken Bucket game prematurely, but Allen says he feels “really good” about both his and Matt Bedford’s return for the bowl game. 

“I just like the way it plans out. We kind of had several different calendars we have been working on and the Gator Bowl is one of them.” Allen said. “When we found out that it was going to be that spot, then we kicked that calendar in place and start rolling. We'll be ready.”

The TaxSlayer Gator Bowl kicks off from TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida on January 2nd, 2020 at 7:00ET. The game will be televised on ESPN.