Football team not calling it quits

Talk of the football team qualifying for its first bowl game since 1993 started during offseason conditioning. \nBy the start of spring practice in March, the Hoosiers were a confident team. In the summer months before the season, some people in the program were confident the Hoosiers would play in the postseason.\nAfter a few early season setbacks, the bowl talk returned when IU defeated then-No. 22 Minnesota Oct. 21, improving its record to 3-4. Three weeks after the program's biggest win in four years, postseason hopes are permanently gone.\nWhen IU fell 42-35 last weekend at Illinois, the Hoosiers record dropped to 3-6 overall and 2-4 in the Big Ten. A team must win six games and finish with a record above .500 to qualify for the postseason. With two games remaining, IU has no chance of reaching either plateau. The Hoosiers are also guaranteed their sixth consecutive losing season.\nThere were signs of disappointment and frustration in the locker room after the loss to Illinois, but the Hoosiers don't plan to approach this week differently. Coach Cam Cameron said he expects his team to play hard Saturday against Wisconsin and next weekend at No. 9 Purdue, even though one of IU's major goals is unobtainable.\n"With the character we have on this team and the pride in the way that we approach things, you don't want to take all of that and throw it away the last week or two of the season," Cameron said.\nSome of the character Cameron is talking about is directed toward the senior class. No member of IU's graduating class has played for a winning team or a squad that has won more than four games in a season.\n"Most guys are looking at the last couple weeks of playing football again," Cameron said. "I think they realize they want to make the most of it." \nSenior safety Johnny Anderson, who was selected to play in the Hula Bowl Jan. 20, leads IU with 75 tackles this season. Anderson said he is approaching the end of his collegiate career differently from some other players on losing teams.\n"I'm excited because I have three bowl games left," he said. "I'm going to take the Wisconsin game and turn it into a bowl game for me. Purdue will be a bowl game. And the Hula Bowl will be a bowl game. I turned out better than most teams. I'm going to make the most out of each one of those." \nSenior wide receiver and co-captain Versie Gaddis is in his fifth season with the program. IU has a disappointing 16-35 record since Gaddis arrived in 1996. Rather than feel sorry for himself and the team, Gaddis is taking a approach similar to Anderson's when mentally preparing for his final two games in an IU uniform.\n"If you say right now, 'Well we're not going to a bowl game and what's the use of going out and practicing hard,' then you're acting like a quitter and you're acting like a loser," Gaddis said. "We worked hard all summer to do our best the entire season no matter what the outcome is. Things don't always happen the way you want, but you just can't drop everything when things go wrong"