Paddy McAteer’s 60-yard field goal will be the clip everyone remembers from Indiana’s win over Minnesota, and for good reason. It was a program-record kick, the kind of moment that can flip a night in an instant and keep a team breathing when the game looks ready to slip away.
But if Indiana wants that kind of finish to be more than a one-off rescue act, the bye week has to be about more than celebrating the headline play. The Hoosiers left plenty on the field before McAteer bailed them out, and the special teams operation has some real clean-up work to do.
The kicking game was uneven throughout the night. Nico Radicic had a 52-yard field-goal attempt blocked and missed from 31 yards before later connecting from 46 and 34 yards. Indiana also averaged 36.4 yards on five punts, with one of those punts landing inside Minnesota’s 20-yard line.
That mix calls for a full review, not a quick shrug. Field goals aren’t just about the kicker.
Coaches need to look at protection, snap placement, the hold and the kick itself. A block and a miss may both show up in the same column, but they don’t come from the same problem, and they shouldn’t be treated that way.
The best way to clean it up is to recreate the pressure points in practice. Different field positions, different hash marks, and reps that force the unit to operate after time on the sideline all matter. Consistency only comes when every piece of the operation is doing its job at the same time.
Punting needs the same kind of attention. Raw distance is part of the equation, but it’s not the whole story. Placement, hang time and how the kick matches up with coverage all matter, and Indiana has to know whether its punts are giving the coverage team a real chance to limit returns and push opponents back.
The offense has its own part in this, too. Indiana scored on only two of four red-zone trips against Minnesota, and a fourth-quarter drive ended with a fumble at the Minnesota 18. In a close game, that’s the kind of miss that can erase all the good work that came before it.
That’s why ball security and finishing drives have to be part of the bye-week agenda. Once the field shrinks, defenders close faster and passing windows get tighter. Indiana needs clean exchanges, decisive reads and blocking that gives plays enough time to develop.
The staff should also spend time on fourth-down decisions and how they fit with the kicking game. Having a clear plan for different distances and field positions can make those sideline choices sharper when the game starts moving fast.
None of that means Indiana should lose faith in its specialists. Quite the opposite. The goal is to build trust through cleaner, more repeatable execution.
McAteer gave the Hoosiers a moment they’ll remember all season. The challenge now is making sure Indiana doesn’t need another miracle just to finish off a game it should have put away earlier.
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The early stretch also comes with a couple of games that should tell Indiana plenty about where it stands against high-end competition. Arkansas and Kentucky loom as the most demanding nonconference tests, with Arkansas bringing in a talented freshman class and Kentucky offering the kind of interior size that will challenge the Hoosiers right away. If Indiana is going to make the kind of push it wants, those matchups may end up shaping the conversation before Big Ten play really settles in. [Read more 🡒]