Things sure don’t get any easier for an Indiana football team trying to find itself.
The Hoosiers have lost three of their past four games and are 0-3 in Big Ten play. And coming to town Saturday night for a nationally televised game is No. 5 Ohio State.
It will be the fifth ranked team the Hoosiers have faced in seven games this season. And while Indiana has yet to win against any of them, head coach Tom Allen said his team is not losing focus.
“Even when you fall short, you have to keep persevering, fighting, working together, staying together, keep believing, and just stay the course,” Allen said. “That's what we're going to do.”
That doesn’t mean there won’t be any course corrections.
“You have to adjust things, and there's no doubt we're in the process of doing that, to be able to create the outcomes that we want,” Allen said. “You start to mess with too many things, and that affects their confidence and their ability to execute.
“So, yeah, it is a fine line.”
The biggest adjustments are on the offensive side of the ball, where the Hoosiers have struggled in conference play.
“No. 1, our quarterbacks have turned the ball over too much, period,” Indiana offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan said. “That's pretty evident to everybody, so that can't happen. That's led to us losing games. We've turned the football over too much.
“And No. 2, we haven't scored touchdowns in the red zone. And it's really not much more complicated than that.”
Complicating matters for the offense has been an injury to starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. in a loss at Penn State three weeks ago. But until then, Penix had been struggling to find a rhythm. He was completing just 54 percent of his passes and had thrown seven interceptions when he suffered a separated shoulder.
Backup Jack Tuttle hasn’t fared much better. He’s thrown for just 356 yards and has thrown three interceptions and one touchdown in four games.
“I've had three starts now, and every time I look over those games, I learned something different,” Tuttle said. “I go back and try and implement and try and work on what I did wrong in practice.
“I feel like I’ve become a better player. You know losing is not OK, but the one thing I do gain from it is improvement and things to work on.”
The Hoosiers are looking to involve true freshman quarterback Donaven McCulley into the offensive mix more. He saw limited action in last week’s loss to Michigan State but has yet to throw a pass in competition.
“He's making progress every day, and I think the sky's the limit for him,” Sheridan said.
Where the Hoosiers go from here is yet to be seen.
They need to win four of their final six games to qualify for a bowl game.
“The resiliency, the grit, the fight, and the toughness of this team I think has not left us,” Allen said. “That's who we are, that's what this program is all about. We just have to be able to execute in those moments to have those opportunities.”
