Ghosts From Last Year's Gator Bowl Loss Has Fueled the Hoosiers Toward Redemption

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

When the Indiana Hoosiers take the field on Saturday in Tampa at Raymond James Stadium it will be 366 days, a leap year, from suffering the heartbreak that was the 23-22 loss to the Tennessee in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. It was the last in a string of ‘what if’ close losses in bowl games for the Hoosiers, a program that has not brought home a bowl trophy since knocking off Baylor 24-0 in the 1991 Copper Bowl. The last three Hoosier bowl losses (Pinstripe ’15, Foster Farms ’16, Gator ’20) have been by a combined six points and each had their own soul crushing moments. These Hoosiers haven’t forgotten that they did not finish last season.

In case you have forgotten or erased that memory from your brain, the Hoosiers had a 13-point lead with just over five minutes to go, 22-9. Then it all fell apart. Each phase of the game had a chance to put the game away, but failed to do so. Tennessee would score, then recover an onside kick before scoring again as Indiana saw their eight-win season end on an incomplete pass from Peyton Ramsey that fittingly bounced short of Nick Westbrook.

Indiana head coach Tom Allen took a lot of heat for that loss and when things have been out of the Hoosiers’ control in 2020, he has preached ‘earmuffs and blinders’ as well as ‘don’t blink’. However, Allen knows the Hoosiers can learn from the ghosts of the past.

“Today I choose not to forget about things like that.” Allen said. “That's where when you talk about earmuffs and blinders. It doesn't mean we're deaf and blind. You filter, when those things are filters, and there are things from that game that I don't want us to ever forget.” Allen explained. “And just the way you finish out a game, you know, and whatever it is, it's all three phases but all three phases were affected in that game. So, to me, even this week about the way that we're approaching things that's it's those things are, you know, brought up in the right way the right time for the right purpose, to be able to use them as teaching and fuel and reminders about what happens when you don't. When you don't finish, you know, and sometimes those things are, you know, due to the opponent you know sometimes those are self-inflicted things you know so, but to me that's, you know, once again it's that experience is that gross it's that, you know, learning from the past, you know and letting those experiences be, you know, Game Changers for your future and not things that continue to, you know, haunt you from past.”

Indiana defensive coordinator Kane Wommack touched on the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl as well. “I think we used the momentum of the things that we did well, and the urgency to correct the things that we didn't to push us on to where we are this season. We are in position as a team to create momentum with a win, and to have a bowl win in this program and you know you can look at the numbers and look them up yourself in terms of the last time that we won and and what that would mean to this program and its fan base and these alumni, and it's something that we all are very committed to making sure that we get accomplished on Saturday.” Wommack said.

The 2020 Hoosiers have exorcised many demons and ghosts that have haunted the program for decades.

First, it was the top-10 win over then-No. 8 Penn State. After that it was knocking off Michigan for the first time since 1987. The Hoosiers followed that up by disposing of Michigan State at Spartan Stadium for the first time since 2001. The Hoosiers let one get away at Ohio State, but continued their ghost-busting tour when they knocked off then-No. 16 Wisconsin in Madison. It was the Hoosiers first win over the Badgers since 2002 and their first win at Camp Randal since 2001.

The Hoosiers have one more ghost to vanquish in 2020 (well, 2021) and that is the bowl losing streak which sits at five and spans 29 years. This win would ease the pain of Hoosiers past. It would help erase the Simmie Cobbs drop in the end zone that enabled Duke to tie the game on the ensuing kickoff, it would sooth the pain of Griffin Oakes who missed key field goals in the Pinstripe and Foster Farms Bowl and it would redeem the 2019 squad who saw victory snatched away when the offense, defense and special teams could not put the Volunteers away. A win would be cleansing. 366 days and 207 miles removed from a nightmare in Jacksonville, the Hoosiers are looking for redemption in Tampa. Bring your proton packs and don’t cross the streams.