Indiana football using ‘learning experience’ against Ohio State as fuel vs Notre Dame and the ‘hostile environment’ it’s preparing for

When Friday night arrives for the Indiana football program, it’ll be just the second time this season that it has played in an extremely hostile environment. The first? The lone loss it has been dealt, at Ohio State.

IU’s matchup with Notre Dame this week will provide a different type of moment, however. A different type of environment. A different type of pressure. It truly is a win-or-go-home matchup. But, what Indiana will take from its first — and only — true hostile environment, is a ‘learning experience’ that it’ll lean on in a major way.

“That was definitely a big learning experience, a lot of people, not a lot of cheering, a lot of boos,” IU linebacker Aiden Fisher said this week about the loss to Ohio State. “I think the biggest thing we learned is just to be able to keep the main thing the main thing. No fan has an impact between the white lines when it comes to Saturdays. Especially when you’re in a hostile environment, you’ve really just got to block it out. It gets loud. It gets hostile. You’re hearing a lot of different things. The biggest thing is just blocking it out.”

Indiana’s loss to Ohio State was a shock to its system. Up until that point, there was no major adversity the Hoosiers faced in the season. It was not only the first, and only, loss — it was also the first time there was a crack in Indiana’s shield.

Now, it’s the game that everyone is looking back at — for good and bad. The naysayers have their opinions — but, Indiana also has their own.

“It was definitely a disappointing loss. I felt like we didn’t play to our standards in that game. It was also a really important game for us to — a learning opportunity just how to deal and how to win those big games, something that watching and digesting the game afterwards, knowing how well we have to play and we have to minimize our mistakes and be able to handle the environment,” IU quarterback Kurtis Rourke said. “That’s what it will take to win these big games. Even though it was a tough loss, I think it was really important for us to have a game like that, to be tested in knowing what it takes to win games.

“This is obviously a win or go home kind of playoff setup. So we’re going to have to make sure that we come with our best effort and knowing that it’s going to be a hostile environment, and now we know how to handle it.”

That ‘learning opportunity’ comes in many ways. But, Friday offers the opportunity for Indiana to show it did exactly what it said it was going to do — Learn from the film. Learn from its mistakes. And make sure its performance against Ohio State doesn’t happen again.

“We learned that mistakes that we made were definitely magnified in a tight ballgame against a really good team,” IU offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan said. “A lot of those things were under our control and things that from an execution standpoint, we just weren’t — we just didn’t get it done.

“I think our guys learned from that film. The crowd noise did play a little bit of a factor in that, but at the same time, we’re ready to respond and get another chance to play in a big time atmosphere like we will be on Friday and prove that that wasn’t us in some instances where we fell short against Ohio State.”

While IU’s loss to Ohio State was the first time it faced true adversity this year, it wasn’t the first time it had doubters. In fact, despite being named one of the top-12 teams in the country last weekend in the College Football Playoff bracket reveal, there are still doubters. Now more than ever.

But, Indiana football has been faced with that all season long. From day one when it was picked 17th out of 18 teams in the preseason Big Ten poll — to each and every CFP bracket projection over the course of the last two months. The fact is, every national media outlet and every big college football fanbase has doubted IU this entire year. Why? Not just because of ‘the schedule’ — the same schedule that Curt Cignetti and this team had nothing to do with.

But the history. When there are just 12 teams left in the national spotlight, there’s no hiding from the history of your program. For Indiana football, there has been no history. It’s unfortunately the truth of this year’s team. Despite what this group has accomplished, the 9-27 record of the last three years is still fresh on everyones minds. Or, the most losses in college football history.

So, this group has had to block out the noise more than anyone.

“We’ve had that chip all year,” Fisher said. “That regular season is something we’re very prideful of in knowing that we were able to go out and achieve pretty much every goal that we set.”

But before the noise becomes silent on the outside, it has to become silent on the inside.

“Well, changing the culture is a process,” Cignetti stressed. “You’ve got to change the way people think inside and outside the organization, throughout the state, and in Big Ten country, and the country. Then you’ve got to have a blueprint and a plan and you work your plan every day to gain the edge. Then you’ve got to be committed to improvement. You’ve got to have high standards, expectations, and you can never lower your standards. This is the end result of a process, and this is the reward for a job well done.

“But it’s like opening a gate into a different world, right? There’s work to be done, and there’s things out there, there’s goals out there to be accomplished, but you only have that opportunity because you changed the culture, the product, the result, and the expectation level.”

So now once Friday hits, the emotions of a very historic, yet debatable year will come to a head.

This time, unlike its loss to Ohio State, Indiana will be ready for the challenge and ready for the moment. Why? Because that’s what it has been building towards for the last few weeks, yes. But also the last year.

“We’ve got to take everything we learned through the regular season and apply it to this game because it’s a one-and-done kind of thing,” Rourke said.

“I think we’re going to be a lot better the next time we’re in that environment,” added Cignetti.

SEE ALSO: 3 storylines to watch for when Indiana football faces Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff

Make sure to follow Hoosier Illustrated, part of the Full Ride Network, on Twitter @Indiana_FRN, Facebook and YouTube to stay up to date on all of the news, updates and coverage of Indiana University athletics. You can also listen to the Talking’ Bout the Hoosiers podcast on Spotify.

Looking for a place to get more Indiana content? Hoosier Illustrated has partnered with Tom Brady’s company ‘Autograph’ to streamline our coverage, so you can continue to do what you do best – follow IU sports. Use the CODE: Indianafr to get started today. For more info, you can start here.