LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Primetime schools start the college football season plotting to win the national championship. Wannabes aspire for the Top 25.
At Indiana, the 2022 goal reads like Football 101:
Win six games.
Stop getting manhandled like a tackling dummy in seven of nine Big Ten games, the way the Hoosiers were treated in an altogether dismal 2021.
"We're kind of using that as fuel," IU tight end A.J. Barner said Tuesday at Big Ten media days at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
To earn bowl eligibility and reach any goal the Hoosiers create for 2022, Indiana must win its season opener, a Friday night conference game Sept. 2 against Illinois at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
Last season, a ranked Indiana team opened at Iowa and quickly discovered it was not Top 25-worthy, losing 34-6. The game became more foreshadow than fluke. IU went 2-10, losing its final eight.
"Last year was the opposite," IU head coach Tom Allen said. "(IU was picked) near the top and it didn't work out that way, right?"
Right.
This season, the Hoosiers are at home against a team led by a second-year coach (Bret Bielama) trying to build off a 5-7 season. That's a game Indiana has to win before it returns to Memorial Stadium to play Idaho and Western Kentucky. There is no path to six wins that does not begin with a 3-0 start for the Hoosiers.
The outside world is skeptical. Considering this is a program that lost to Rutgers 38-3 and Purdue 44-7 last season, the skepticism is warranted.
Unlike the Southeastern or Atlantic Coast conferences, the Big Ten does not organize a media poll to predict the complete order of finish for the upcoming season. No need to embarrass any programs.
Sorry, cleveland.com organized a poll. The Hoosiers were picked last in the East Division (behind Rutgers) and they earned fewer poll votes than Illinois and Northwestern, the two bottom feeders in the West Division.
"I get it," Allen said. "We earned it."
Boy, did they.
Indiana's quarterbacks threw four touchdown passes in nine Big Ten games.
Indiana's backs failed to run for 100 yards in five of nine conference games.
Indiana finished next to last in the nation (ahead of Arizona) in turnover margin, with the offense giving away 13 more fumbles and interceptions than the defense took away.
The best thing you can say about the Hoosiers is maybe the forecasts will be as off-base this season as they were a year ago.
After finishing 6-2 and ranked No. 12 in the final 2020 AP poll, IU was picked to finish fourth in the East. They finished last, losing nine Big Ten games by an average margin of 35-10.
This season, the Hoosiers have a new offensive coordinator, Walt Bell, who coordinated the offenses at Florida State and Maryland before an unsuccessful run as the head coach at UMass.
They have a new defensive coordinator, Chad Wilt, a former Minnesota assistant who will be assisted by Allen.
They are likely to have a new quarterback, new running back, new wide receivers, new tight end, new defensive linemen and new linebackers.
If ever a team needed to win the transfer portal, it is Indiana. Allen found players from six SEC programs (Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri), two ACC programs (Miami and North Carolina) and two schools in the Pac-12 (UCLA and California).
There are four names to remember: quarterback Connor Bazelak (Missouri); running backs Shaun Shivers (Auburn) and Josh Henderson (North Carolina) and receiver Emory Simmons (also UNC).
Indiana played enough defense to win six games last season. The Hoosiers return a talented secondary, led by Tiawan Mullen, an all Big Ten cornerback, and Jaylin Williams.
There are solid pieces at linebacker and across the defensive line. Allen can coach defense and he expects former Ballard High School star Jared Casey to contribute at linebacker after his transfer from Kentucky. But when your team ranked last in the league in total offense at less than 290 yards per game and next-to-last in scoring offense, you need several jolts of espresso.
In 2020, Bazelak was voted the top freshman in the SEC. Last season, he threw too many interceptions.
Shivers is a former four-star recruit, who ran for more than 100 twice in parts of four seasons at Auburn.
Henderson was ranked as one of top-40 running back recruits in the prep class of 2019 who found himself buried by two future NFL running backs on the UNC depth chart.
Simmons de-committed from Indiana in high school and then only caught three touchdown passes in three seasons for the Tar Heels.
Indiana will give those four guys opportunities. Those four guys need to give Indiana production.
But the entire team needs to figure it out. The path to six victories is narrow. Win non-league home games with Idaho and Western Kentucky. Topple Purdue and Maryland, who also come to Bloomington. Steal a road game at Nebraska or Rutgers.
But it all begins with winning the opener against Illinois.
That one would not only end IU's nine-game Big Ten losing streak, it would change the vibe inside the fan base.
"I couldn't leave on 2-10," Mullen said. "We can do much better.
"We can show people we can do better. We can show people we can go on the road and win a big game. We can show we can win at home and beat a ranked team.
"It's in our system. It's in our DNA. We're not just doing them. We're competing. We're going to win the games."
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