BLOOMINGTON — Indiana's goal was to finish this season in a bowl game.
In the Hoosiers' minds, they still can.
On Saturday, Indiana and Purdue will square off for the 85th Old Oaken Bucket — or in this ever-changing world, what some would dub the first Old Oaken Bucket Bowl.
"This is our bowl game, right here," senior defensive end Jammie Kirlew said Tuesday. "This is our last game, the last time the senior class will play together."
The Hoosiers and Boilermakers have no choice but to accept the fact that they will not be making the postseason.
Indiana (4-7, 1-6) watched those hopes vanish with Saturday's loss at Penn State. The Hoosiers have lost four straight and seven of eight since starting 3-0, leaving them two wins short of becoming bowl-eligible with only one game left.
Purdue (4-7, 3-4) also came up short, despite improving in the second half of the season.
The Boilermakers rallied from a 1-5 start to win three of four, including a rare sweep of Ohio State and Michigan, before Saturday's home loss to Michigan State ended their bowl hopes. Though Purdue's players want to keep the Bucket every bit as much as the Hoosiers want it back in Bloomington, they see this game a little different.
"It's been a great season. A lot of good memories, a lot of ups and downs. I think our football team has made a lot of strides in a good way," Purdue quarterback Joey Elliott said. "The Indiana game is always a big one on our schedule."
The disparity in emotions may have more to do with how this series has gone over the past 12 years.
Purdue holds a 10-2 advantage since 1997. Indiana's only wins during the stretch came in Antwaan Randle El's next-to-last college game in 2001 and in 2007 when Austin Starr made a 49-yard field goal with 30 seconds left to end the Hoosiers' 13-year bowl drought.
The Boilermakers, meanwhile, have scored at least two dozen points in each of the series' past seven games, topping 60 twice since 2004.
But this season's matchup won't come close to matching the emotions of the last two years.
Starr's long kick in 2007 fulfilled Terry Hoeppner's promise to play in a bowl game, five months after the Hoosiers coach died of complications from a brain tumor and set off a jubilant celebration at midfield.
Last year, the Boilermakers said farewell to coach Joe Tiller with a 62-10 win, the largest victory margin in the series since 1892. Tiller celebrated by leading the band.
Indiana wants to make amends after that bleak day in West Lafayette, Ind.
"Yesterday, I heard it (the 62-10 score) maybe seven times," senior running back Bryan Payton said. "I know some of the guys have it on their lockers or pasted in their apartment rooms, so, yes, I know what those numbers mean."
With the game moving back to Bloomington, the Hoosiers want to turn this one into a bowl-like environment.
Fans will likely be clad in crimson-and-cream or old gold-and-black, much like the split seen throughout the bowl season.
"The IU game this year is like a bowl game in a lot of ways," Boilermakers coach Danny Hope said. "It is our last game of the season, and both teams want to finish the season strong with a win over their arch rival and feel good about themselves and the bragging rights and all that stuff is a part of it."
IU athletic director Fred Glass said more than 40,000 tickets have already been sold for Saturday's game and he is expanding the Hoosiers student section from 8,100 to 12,500. Glass said more than 10,000 student tickets have been purchased and he expects the remainder to be sold. If the crowd tops 49,000, it would be larger than the one Indiana played in front of in the 2007 Insight Bowl.
At Indiana, that will have to suffice for now.
"I don't want to call it the biggest game of my life, but it is our bowl game, it is my bowl game," Payton said. "We want to go out on a good note and regardless of how it turns out, I'm going to play my heart out and we want to win this one."
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