IU football players said the resilience they showed in Saturday’s victory at Iowa will serve them well going forward.
The eighth-ranked Hoosiers have a bye this week before playing at second-ranked Oregon on October 11. Oregon also has a bye this week.
IU won easily in its first four games this season, outscoring opponents 219-33. But the Iowa game was a dogfight before the Hoosiers emerged victorious on the road, 20-15.
IU trailed with under 10 minutes to play. The game was tied with under two minutes remaining.
"It's a huge gut check moment," center Pat Coogan said. "Now we know, right? We haven't been tested like that. It's week five, and we truly got tested. We truly ran into adversity. We truly had to rally together."
Said receiver Elijah Sarratt, who caught the game-winning touchdown pass, "We haven't been in a lot of those games. So for us to be able to be in that, be trailing and be able to fight back and win is very important because we know there will be times like that in the future."
IU quarterback Fernando Mendoza recalled losing four straight games last season by a total of nine points when he played for Cal.
"I've been in a lot of those heartbreaking losses," Mendoza said. "So it's great to have such resilience and have an offense that's so resilient, that doesn't give up, no matter the situation, and to really just push through to the end."
IU is among four undefeated teams in the Big Ten Conference with Ohio State, Oregon and Maryland.
The Hoosiers were 10.5-point underdogs against Oregon as of Monday afternoon at FanDuel.
“I think we've gotten better every single week,” linebacker Aiden Fisher said. “And obviously, your opponents get tougher. You get challenged a little bit more, and I think that's great.
"I think our team is playing really well together. And, you know, week one, we were not. We were a lot of individuals, just trying to play a scheme together. Now it feels like we're a unit.”