At stake: pride

This year’s 84th annual battle for the Old Oaken Bucket won’t feature any bowl-bound teams.

Instead, pride will be the only thing at stake for IU (3-8, 1-6), something that is just fine with IU coach Bill Lynch.

“Any time you have a rivalry game like this the last week of the season, no matter what has gone on before it, it’s a big football game,” the second-year coach said during his weekly press conference.

Lynch added that the meeting at noon Saturday will cap off the careers of 17 seniors, athletes Lynch said he admired, “particularly the fifth-year senior guys who have been through so much.”

IU could potentially bring nine fifth-year seniors to its sideline.

The nine came to Bloomington under the tutelage of then-IU coach Gerry DiNardo.
In their first year, DiNardo’s last, the nine watched IU slump through a 3-8 season and saw the then-seniors’ careers end with a 63-24 pummeling at the hands of the Boilermakers.

Starting the clock on their eligibility the following season, the group was part of the many that became enthralled and energized by that year’s new coach, Terry Hoeppner.

In two years under Coach Hep, the Hoosiers went 9-14 and lost both Bucket Games to their rivals. But fans say Hep’s influence on the program isn’t tangible in records or statistics.

It’s something self-professed Hoosier super-fan Brad Snyder, a 1987 IU alumnus, said was “magic.”

“He just goaded you into unbiased enthusiasm,” Snyder said.

With Hoeppner came resurgence in fan support and the creation of a passion and excitement around the program.

But just as the tide of IU football seemed to be turning, the nine were part of Hoeppner’s funeral procession in what was one of the darkest days in program history, after the coach lost his battle with cancer.

Hoeppner’s death brought a sense of duty to honor him with a bowl-berth, and a leader in Lynch who would take them there.

And it was all the more fitting that one of the nine, who had now been through so much, sealed that berth last season with a game-winning kick in the Old Oaken Bucket game.

“This season, this game, is for Coach Hep,” said then-junior Austin Starr after his 49-yard field goal beat the Boilermakers and sent IU to its first bowl game in 14 years.
“I don’t know where the party’s at,” he added on that cool November night. “It’s probably all over campus, but I’m probably not going to sleep tonight.”

A sleepless night and a year later, the nine will square off with their rivals one last time. This year’s game carries no post-season implications, just the final punctuation on a turbulent ride.

“They’ve been through three head football coaches, different guys on the staff, certainly what they went through with Coach Hoeppner,” Lynch said Tuesday. “But they’re also part of a football team that went to the first bowl game in 14 years. Obviously, this year hasn’t gone the way they had hoped, but we have a chance to do something about that on Saturday.”