From 0-11 to playoff team? Indiana State football could do just that

Jordan Guskey | IndyStar

Show Caption Hide Caption Indiana State football's Katrell Moss talks team's turnaround The Sycamores are 6-4 and close to the playoffs.

TERRE HAUTE — Music bumps through the Indiana State football locker room now. It never did last year.

The 2017 Sycamores were an 0-11 team. Even though coaches and players didn't feel like they practiced or played like it, that’s what they were. Indiana State couldn’t find a way to win. So with nothing to celebrate and eight losses by at least three touchdowns, the locker room stayed quiet.

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But now the 2018 Sycamores are on the verge of the FCS playoffs and hits by G-Eazy and others sound off all the time. Indiana State earned the No. 24 spot in the latest coaches poll. It’s third in the Missouri Valley Football Conference standings, considered the toughest in the FCS, and 6-4 overall. And a win Saturday against Western Illinois could pad coach Curt Mallory’s team’s resume to the point it clinches a postseason spot.

All this from a team the MVFC preseason poll picked to finish last. A turnaround in Mallory’s second season with the Sycamores no one outside Terre Haute expected.

“You never know exactly how quick it’s going to turn around, but I knew it would,” Mallory said. “How soon and how quick, you never knew, but I knew it would because of the kind of senior leadership that we’ve had. The core group that we had a year ago that came out no matter what the record was, they came out and practiced. I knew we had something special to build around and we certainly have.”

Mallory and his players started to defy expectations in the season opener when they trounced Quincy, 49-0. Then they gave the Louisville Cardinals a scare, finished non-conference play 2-1 and rebounded from a three-game losing streak to go on a four-game winning streak against MVFC teams that had outscored them by a combined 124 points last season.

Outside of a 33-0 loss to Northern Iowa, even Indiana State’s defeats this year have been noteworthy — the other two conference losses were by 3 points each. It’s part of why the Sycamores are the first MVFC team to ever be ranked the season after going winless.

“Our brotherhood is just different,” said redshirt senior linebacker Katrell Moss, a Warren Central grad. “We all love each other and we give everybody confidence to allow them to play good and make their ability from an average player become a good player, from a good player to become great."

Moss leads the defense with redshirt junior linebacker Jonas Griffith, who, like him, has more than 100 tackles for a squad that’s allowing 15.2 fewer points per game than last season.

Offensively, the Sycamores are led by an Iowa Hawkeyes transfer at quarterback, redshirt junior Ryan Boyle. There's also Center Grove product Titus McCoy at running back and redshirt freshman receiver Dante Hendrix. Boyle is a dual threat at quarterback, collecting 604 yards and five touchdowns on the ground and 1,478 yards and 12 touchdowns passing — 640 yards and four scores of which have gone to Hendrix.

McCoy, a sophomore who stepped up when starting running back Ja’Quan Keys suffered a season-ending hip injury seven games in, has rushed for 519 yards and six touchdowns. He’s helped the Sycamores maintain a 251.1-yard per game average on the ground.

“First day back from Thanksgiving break we’re hitting the weights hard,” said McCoy, talking about what gave him the confidence this year would be different. “We’re running. We’re not taking it easy and (Mallory) said, ‘When August comes, we’re going to hit this ground running. We’re going to be a different team.’ And we are.”

The Sycamores have the nation’s 42nd ranked offense and 11th ranked rushing attack. They've turned the ball over only five times compared to 29 last season.

It would have been easy for Mallory and his staff to panic after a winless season that featured FCS’ 102nd-best offense. But they didn’t tinker much with the scheme.

“We’ve been doing the same thing, we’ve just been able to do it better,” Mallory said. “It’s by doing the same thing every day and going to practice every day and working hard. There wasn’t a magic recipe."

Now it’s about delivering Saturday against Western Illinois — a team that has won five straight against Indiana State and shut out the Sycamores, 45-0, last season. Because a six-win improvement for the regular season doesn’t sound as sweet as seven wins and a trip to the playoffs.

“Certainly proud of the turnaround," Mallory said. "But, I don’t think we can be satisfied unless we can finish it the right way.”

Expect a rowdy locker room if they do.

“I almost popped a bottle of champagne on coach Mal last week,” Moss said. “I think this week I might bring sparkling water and pop it on him if we win.”

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Jordan Guskey on Twitter at @JordanGuskey or email him at jguskey@gannett.com.