Hoosiers hope 3rd time’s the charm

Elusive and a curse.\nFollowing last Saturday’s 36-31 loss to Penn State, those were the only words sophomore quarterback Kellen Lewis and junior wide receiver James Hardy could muster to describe the Hoosiers’ second failed attempt to get their sixth win this season.\n“It hasn’t happened here in 15 years, and it’s sort of like it’s a curse,” Hardy said following the loss. “It’s going to be a lot harder than what we expected, what everybody else expected. That’s why it hasn’t happened in so long.”\nEach of the last two years, the Hoosiers have had the opportunity to become bowl eligible, and each time they have found it a difficult task. \nAfter winning a fifth game – a 46-21 blowout over Michigan State on Oct. 28, 2006 – with three games to play last year, the Hoosiers dropped each contest to end the season.\nNow, IU coach Bill Lynch's team faces a similar situation. Only four games remain on the Hoosiers’ schedule, and two of them are on the road. While winning a Big Ten road game is never easy, IU will face an even tougher test Saturday, playing at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wis.\nSophomore defensive lineman Greg Middleton turned around Hardy’s post-game comments, saying the Hoosiers have had a couple of tough losses in a row and the team will win this weekend.\n“It’s about winning,” Middleton said. “Then it won’t be like that anymore. We just have to focus in and get the win.”\nBut that win won’t come easy.\nPlaying at Wisconsin’s homecoming, the Hoosiers will play in front of roughly 80,000 people, and Lynch said he expects the crowd to be a factor. The Hoosiers prepared this week for a rabid crowd by literally cranking up the noise levels at practice.\nOn Thursday, loud music blared from the speakers at Memorial Stadium in order to give Lewis some practice playing with silent cadence – a strategy the team used at Iowa and Michigan State.\nAt both of their Big Ten road games this year, a 38-20 win over Iowa and a 52-27 loss at Michigan State, the Hoosiers have faced sold-out crowds that stayed loud throughout the game.\n“We try to turn it into a positive,” Lynch said. “Iowa, we were ready from the opening kickoff and really took control of the game from the start. Michigan State was the exact opposite. We never really get our feet underneath us.”\nAfter fumbling the ball four times last weekend, the Hoosiers hope practicing for the noise will help limit their turnovers. In their five wins this year, the Hoosiers are plus seven in the turnover margin, whereas they are minus four in their three losses.\nAs he’s preached all year long, Lynch said the Hoosiers can’t turn the ball over.\nThough Lynch has told the media all year that his team is not looking ahead, an IU loss this weekend will put the team in the same position they were last year – three games to play, and only needing one win to become bowl eligible for the first time in 14 years.\nThe difference between this year and years past, said sophomore wide receiver Andrew Means, is that this Hoosier team expects to win every game rather than hoping to win a game.\n“The last couple of years, in the locker room people were like ‘We’re going to lose this game, lose that one, win this one,’” Means said. “We’re a new team. Three years ago, this team would have been done and packing up their stuff saying the season’s over.”