Ready to Rock

The entire week, the IU football team has had a consistent theme -- uncertainty. \nEarly in the week, players and coaches didn't even know if there would be a contest this Saturday. Now that Nicholls State University's visit is official, the Hoosiers face new unknowns; most notably, what they can expect from the disaster-affected Division 1-AA program when the Colonels visit Bloomington at 4 p.m. Saturday.\n"It's kind of like our first game again, because we haven't really seen what they can do," said sophomore quarterback Blake Powers. "There's no tape from this season to look at, so that's a challenge. Even when we didn't know if they were coming, we maintained focus and prepared ourselves for another game."\nNicholls State will come to Bloomington on the heels of its athletic department's cancellation of all athletic activities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The school, located in Thibodaux, La., resumed classes Thursday, as the football program attempted to work out its transportation problems. (It was originally set to fly out of New Orleans.) In fact, IU arranged a charter plane to pick up the Colonels in Baton Rouge to get them to Indiana.\nIn the end, the lack of a plane might have been only one of the program's problems. Having shipped their uniforms to Nike for monogramming, the Colonels considered potentially borrowing jerseys for the weekend. \nDespite all this, IU head coach Terry Hoeppner stressed the importance of playing the game for both teams. \n"Obviously we want to play," he said, "but just for the mental health of their players and everyone involved, they need to play the game." \nFor the Hoosiers, the weekend provides an opportunity to jump to 2-0 and improve on last week's 20-13 effort at Central Michigan. \nSurprising highlights peppered IU's first performance under its new head coach Sept. 2. \nFreshman wideout James Hardy provided an offensive spark for the Hoosiers, and senior middle linebacker John Pannozzo, a converted fullback, won Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week in his first defensive start. Pannozzo said he was as shocked as anyone when he received the honor. \n"I was really surprised by (the player of the week award)," he said. "I felt like I made a lot of mistakes and have a lot of room to improve. We all do."\nHoeppner, who was responsible for Pannozzo's switch, was excited with his linebacker's performance. \n"Talk about a stamp of approval on that move to linebacker," he said. "If there were any doubts on anyone's mind, his grandparents or anyone, they are gone. He can play linebacker."\nWhile the players look to continue their on-field improvement, for Hoeppner, the weekend provides his first opportunity to run onto the field at the newly-designated "Rock" with an IU team behind him.\n"I am really looking forward to it," Hoeppner said. "Everything involved with leading up to the kickoff: the pre-game, the walk. It adds another element of the unknown, being my first experience here. Once we get on the field, though, then it's a game again. I will be relieved"