BLOOMINGTON – The idea of Indiana competing for a Big Ten title got a little bit more realistic Saturday.
The first task was knocking off Iowa, and Cameron Coffman threw for 315 yards on 21-of-33 passing and three touchdowns to lead Indiana to a 24-21 win over the Hawkeyes.
Now Indiana has a chance to tie Wisconsin in the Leaders Division when they play host to the Badgers next week.
But, it’s still not good enough for Indiana coach Kevin Wilson.
“Our business right now is we’re a 4-5 football team, we’re 2-3 in the Big Ten and that’s not very good,” Wilson said. “We’re going to keep working hard to get better. That’s not coach-speak, that’s what the kids hear every second that they’re in here.”
Cody Latimer, who had 113 yards on seven receptions for Indiana, caught all three of Coffman’s touchdown passes, including the 31-yard go-ahead score with 10:58 left to give the Hoosiers a 24-21 lead.
“We’re just getting better every single day,” Coffman said. “We just slowly keep getting better and keep getting better and if feels good to see it finally start paying off.”
Iowa’s James Vandenberg was 21 of 34 for 249 yards passing and a touchdown for Iowa (4-5, 2-3).
Damon Bullock ran for 83 yards on 25 carries for the Hawkeyes, who played without running back Mark Weisman.
A 7-yard run by Bullock put the Hawkeyes at the Indiana 24-yard line and Vandenberg threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Kevonte Martin-Manley to give Iowa a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
Things didn’t get any better for Indiana.
Iowa’s Christian Kirksey picked off Indiana’s Nate Sudfeld – who was 10 of 16 for 91 yards passing – on the first play and returned it 18 yards to give Iowa a 14-0 lead in the first.
“We got off to a great start,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said.
Later, Indiana settled for a 45-yard field goal on their next drive to make it 14-3.
Trailing 14-3 in the second quarter, the Hoosiers finally got down to business.
Coffman came in for Sudfeld and threw for first downs on each of the first three plays of 16, 22 and 21 yards.
The Hoosiers eventually scored on a 15-yard pass from Coffman to Latimer with 47 seconds left in the first half, but the Hoosiers still trailed 14-10 at halftime.
The Hoosiers took a 17-14 lead, but the Hawkeyes regained the lead early in the fourth quarter on a Bullock 4-yard touchdown run to give Iowa a 21-17 advantage.
Indiana snapped their 11-game Big Ten losing streak a week ago when they beat Illinois. The last time the Hoosiers won two straight was in 2007. That too included a win over Iowa and also included a win over Minnesota.
A win over Wisconsin would be three straight, a task that hasn’t been accomplished by Indiana since 1993.
“Wisconsin’s awfully good, and we’ll need to play better,” Wilson said. “We needed to play better today than we did last week and I think we did. We have to keep making strides.”
