With the 2019 college football season officially in the books, it’s time to look back on how the Big Ten did in bowl games.
As we go through all the bowls, in no particular order, we will focus on two main things:
1. How did the bowl performance end the 2019 season? Was it a fitting end or a poor performance, etc.
2. What impact, if any, will it have on the 2020 season.
2020 Gator Bowl: Indiana vs Tennessee
The matchup
Indiana came into the game as an underdog. The Hoosiers were a solid team, but facing an improving Tennessee team that had better recruits, better skill athletes, and ended the season on a five-game winning streak. Indiana, meanwhile, did not beat a single team of note during the season, but also avoided bad losses. It was a huge opportunity for the Hoosiers, but they couldn’t take advantage.
What went right
Indiana punched well above its weight class for almost the entirety of this game. The Hoosiers had a brilliant offensive strategy, got precisely the quarterback play it needed, and had the defense hang with Tennessee’s talent all game long. Tom Allen and his team very clearly brought a perfect game plan, which they managed to execute almost to perfection. The longer the game went, the clearer it was that Indiana was the better-coached and better team. But the Hoosiers let Tennessee stick around.
What went wrong
There’s a lot I can point to throughout the game about this, but I’m only going to focus on the mistakes towards the end. In a terrible minute-long span, Indiana played horrible defense, wasn’t at all prepared for an onside kick, and then played terrible defense again. In the blink of an eye, a 13-point lead turned into a one-point deficit.
Indiana fans and the program should be all over Tom Allen for not being prepared for that onside kick. He coached an incredible game and season, but he couldn’t do the little things that were absolutely needed. This tweet sums it up better than I could:
Tom Allen might be great at the football stuff than 99% of people don’t understand, but he appears to be bad at stuff that 99% of people do understand, like basic timeout usage and when to be prepared for an onside kick. 🤷♂️
— MattT (@MattThompson87) January 3, 2020