Hoosiers look to rebound against the Huskies

The loss is in the past. \nHeading into Saturday's non-conference game against the University of Connecticut, the IU football team is focused on defeating the Huskies and putting the Southern Illinois University loss behind it.\n"Every game is important," freshman running back Demetrius McCray said. "That game is over, so we go into this week looking for a win, looking to play a great game and have a good result."\nIt has been a long week and a half for the Hoosiers. From coach Terry Hoeppner's Sept. 19 announcement that he would undergo a second brain surgery, all the way up to last Saturday's 35-28 loss to Southern Illinois, things have been rough for IU.\nFor interim head coach Bill Lynch and the coaching staff, Saturday's contest with the Huskies gives them a chance to put aside the drama of the last two weeks and focus on winning a football game.\n"I'm ready to get the team back out there and start anew with Connecticut," Lynch said.\nAgainst the Huskies Saturday at Memorial Stadium, the Hoosiers will be looking to put together a consistent offensive effort through four quarters, something that has been missing in IU's last two games.\n"We didn't do enough offensively to keep their (SIU) offense off the field," Lynch said during his weekly press conference. "We didn't score enough points. That sounds very obvious, but there is a lot of truth to that."\nIn Saturday's loss, the Hoosier offense put up 14 points in each half, but that was the only thing the two halves had in common. In the first half, freshman quarterback Kellen Lewis led IU to two early scores. In the second half, the Hoosiers played catch-up with a Southern Illinois offense that scored touchdowns on four straight possessions.\n"When we get a team down like we did against Southern Illinois, we've got to put the pedal to the metal," Sears said. "We can't just say, 'This is easy.' You've got to keep that in mind and keep playing hard every down and not let them come back."\nA week before taking on Ball State University, the IU offense went through a similar drought, mustering only seven points on 77 offensive yards in the first half, falling behind 23-7 at halftime. However, Lewis went on to lead the second-half comeback that erased the 16-point halftime deficit.\n"We've got to get a better tempo in practice," McCray said. "If you practice with a good tempo, you get used to playing like that, working hard every play, not taking plays off. So if we keep it up like that, it will help us in game situations."\nThis weekend, the Hoosiers will face a Connecticut team that is also coming off its first loss of the season, a 24-13 home defeat to Wake Forest.\n"It's a great game leading up to the Big Ten," Lynch said. "We have got to be prepared for a team that is going to come at us."\nWith the Big Ten opener just a week away Sept. 30 against Wisconsin, Sears and the Hoosiers realize how important this week's game against Connecticut is to their season.\n"This is a big one," Sears said. "We have to go into the Big Ten 3-1"