Here's a new narrative: IU defense steps up when Hoosiers needed it most
BLOOMINGTON – Saturday could have been an all-too-familiar story for Indiana football.
If Kane Wommack and IU's defense hadn't adjusted against Maryland, it could have been another 30-plus point performance from a Hoosiers offense gone to waste. Saturday could have been a repeat of a game two seasons ago when Indiana lost at Maryland 42-39.
But the halftime message was clear: Make the adjustments and do your part to flip the usual narrative around the program.
“(Coach Tom Allen) had a great message at halftime, said we’ve got to go out here and finish strong,” defensive back Juwan Burgess said. “We’ve been in situations like this. We’ve just got to finish.
“So we did.”
Wommack, IU's first-year defensive coordinator, made the proper adjustments as IU held on for a 34-28 win in College Park to put the Hoosiers (5-2, 2-2) one win away from bowl eligibility.
The first-half numbers are far from flattering for IU's defense — the side of the ball Allen prides himself on most.
The Terrapins ran for 134 yards, complemented by another 105 through the air, in the first 30 minutes of the game.
And with IU starting quarterback Michael Penix leaving the game in the second quarter with an injury, the Hoosiers needed to buckle down.
“The defense grows in confidence because of (Saturday),” Allen said. “You don’t learn that when you’re on the sideline and things are easy. You learn it when you’re on the field and you have to step up and make a play.”
Allen’s football identity is having a defense that creates pressure and takeaways, but IU didn’t have a sack or a turnover in the first half.
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He gave up the keys to his defense this offseason by promoting Wommack to defensive coordinator, but the relationship between the two makes it easy for them to communicate when the defense needs to step up, like it did against Maryland.
“I just told (Wommack) just narrow it down to three things that you really like,” Allen said. “We simplified a little bit, added a couple things we hadn’t planned to use because they were showing certain things, and then adjusted. When you’ve got a system, you believe in your system, you can pull from certain things.”
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While the IU offense struggled to find a groove early in the second half, the defense did its part.
Maryland just scored once in the second half and was held to 146 total yards in the second half, including just 41 on the ground. But still, the Hoosiers struggled to pull away.
That was until Allen’s mantra of created turnovers came to life.
With less than four minutes to go, Maryland was looking to tie or take the lead, but Burgess forced the game-breaking fumble.
“As a safety group, we all said, the game needs to be on our shoulders,” Burgess said. “It’s on us to make that game-changing play. When I touch the field, I’m like, it’s on me. That’s my whole mindset from start to finish.”
After IU's offense produced three points following the fumble recovery, the Hoosiers defense was back on the field less than a minute later in need of one more stop.
And it was the secondary stepping up again, this time Reese Taylor intercepting a pass in Indiana territory.
“I saw two on the (vertical route), so I had to come over and make a play,” Taylor said. “That’s what I did.”
While the fumble and the interception stay on the highlight reel, they come as a result of repeated messages in the spring, fall, weekly practices and as was the case on Saturday, at halftime.
“(Wommack) came out and told us what we had to do,” Taylor said. “We had to trust him.”
Just as the players did, Allen did as well. They trusted Wommack, and Wommack and the defense stepped up.
“We’ve got to work as much as we can, do anything, do all the little things right. We have to lock in for the rest of the season,” Taylor said. “We’ve got to go lock in like we just did and just make plays. Takeaways.”