Hoosiers Look to Rally After Player-Led Meeting Sends a Clear Message

Jacob Robinson (91) was one of the seniors who spoke to the team Monday morning Image: Sammy Jacobs Hoosier Huddle

Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

The Indiana Hoosiers football team held a player-led meeting on Monday morning prior to practice just a few days after their 42-16 loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes. Seniors Wes Martin and Jacob Robinson led the way asking Allen after the game Saturday if they can speak to the team, but opened it to all the seniors. Their message was clear, the season isn’t over and we’ve reached a turning point.

“This is the kind of the point of the season, and every season has a point” Robinson said Tuesday, “you can either continue to rise and keep getting better or you can stay the same. We addressed that and just how this is the point of the season where we need to stick together, trust what we do and trust what the coaches are having us do and just continue to work really hard.”

Wes Martin is the elder statesman on the offensive line spoke as well.“My biggest message to the guys”, Martin said, “was just ‘staying the course and if everyone across the board in the whole program does their job the best they can, then we’ll be successful. We just have to focus on the things that we can control and just do those things the best we can and you’ll see good results when that happens.’”

Senior safety Jonathan Crawford spoke too on Monday, his message was simple. IU needs to “stay positive and understand that the season is not over. Lot of football left and I feel like we can finish the season strong.”

Indiana head coach Tom Allen praised the leadership of his team and called it “a great team meeting this morning. Players came to me and wanted to meet. We were all in there together, coaches included. They wanted to speak. A bunch of seniors got up and spoke and did a great job of just being leaders, saying what needed to be said in the right way, from the heart. Just really challenging our guys to respond the right way.”

Allen said that the goal of the meeting was to “challenge our guys to react.” The Hoosiers are young, they’re the 19th youngest team in the country and have 77 underclassmen out of 116 players on the roster.

“We got a lot of new guys, young guys, that haven't been through the grind of a Big Ten season. We've had no bye week yet. It's week after week after week. It can be draining on you physically and emotionally, mentally. I think they needed to remind the guys that it's part of the process. You have to own things on film when you get challenged by coaches, you have to own your play, your practice habits, everything that you do, and it's the little things, focus on those little things.”

He hopes that the message from the seniors sinks in and IU can point to this moment as a turning point of the 2018 season. The Hoosiers are currently 4-3 (1-3) and face Penn State on Saturday in Bloomington before shipping out to Minnesota to face the Gophers on a short week. The open week is November 3rd and precedes the final quarter of the season where Indiana faces Maryland at home and a trip to the Big House before hosting Purdue in the Old Oaken Bucket Game.