My Two Cents: How Tennessee Native Matt Bedford Helped Save Indiana's Season

Thrown into the fire at left tackle, 18-year-old freshman Matt Bedford stood tall for Indiana all year and played a huge role in its successful season.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The wheels hit the ground, and for the next week or so, this was now the new home of Indiana football. Welcome to Florida, and a January bowl game filled with tradition and history. 

It's the perfect reward for an eight-win season, this TaxSlayer Gator Bowl game, two things that are rare in IU football history.

It's been a magical year, at least by Indiana standards. The eight wins hadn't happened in 26 years. A national ranking came in early November, ending a streak almost as long. There is a chance now, with a win over Tennessee next Thursday, to win nine games, something that has happened only twice in school history.

It's easy to enjoy all of this now, But it's also easy to flash back to just a couple of months ago, when no one knew if this was a bowl team or not. No one knew how good this team could be, and no one certainly knew what to expect when starting left tackle Coy Cronk was lost for the season in late September.

After quarterback, left tackle might be the most important position on the team. Indiana was forced to hand over the position to a true freshman, and did it with complete blind faith. The season, without question, was on the line.

All Matt Bedford did was sparkle in his debut on the road at Michigan State in a hostile environment, and then help lead the Hoosiers to four straight wins during a stretch that was full of mostly pick 'em games. He played well during a stretch that defined this season for Indiana.

And if he hadn't, it could have been a mess. That's how important the left tackle position is and that's how important it was for a true freshman to step up and play so well. During that five-game stretch, Indiana only allowed six total sacks, and Bedford wasn't responsible for any of them.

That's huge.

"In my position, if you don't do your job, somebody is going to get hurt,'' said the freshman from Cordova, Tenn., who is still only 18 years old. 

Matt Bedford did his job, and did it well against some of the best pass rushers in the Big Ten. And that has a lot to do with why Indiana is in Jacksonville this week preparing for a huge bowl game.

It was also something that wasn't expected from Bedford. 

At least not at the beginning.

Matt Bedford (76) got his first start against all-everything defensive end Kenny Willekes at Michigan State and didn't allow a sack. (Mandatory credit: USA TODAY SPORTS)

Growing from a boy to a man

One of the best things that happened to Indiana in 2019 was that Matt Bedford made it to campus in January instead of June. He arrived from Cordova, a small town east of Memphis, young and unproven.

Indiana was thrilled to have won the recruiting battle for the 3-star recruit, beating out South Carolina and Mississippi State from the SEC in the process. (Tennessee, ironically, wasn't in the recruiting picture.)

But when he got to Bloomington, his coaches knew he was going to be a project.

In January, Bedford only weighed 260 pounds. He had redshirt written all over him, because he was too small. He had a good high school career, but he never really knew HOW to work out. Then David Ballou, Indiana's Director of Athletic Performance, got a hold of him. 

"I came in about 260, and benching nothing. By the end of spring, I was weighing 305 and my strength level was on a different level,'' Bedford said. "I was squatting 605, and benching 450. When I got here, I could barely bench the 225s. 

Barely? "Yeah,'' Bedford said with a laugh. "You got me. I couldn't bench 225.''

But then he went to work.

"You've got to eat well to get big, and eat smart. When I put on that weight, it was all good weight. Coach Ballou and them, they are all tremendous.  From January until the end of spring, I was a completely different person. Lots of steak and mashed potatoes. They make great steaks for us.''

This workout routine was all new to him, but he embraced it.

"We had a weight room back in high school, but it was so small and didn't have a lot in it,'' Bedford said. "I didn't know what I was doing until I got here, but as soon as I jumped in, I loved it. Sure, it's hard work, but I could see the results every day. And we have such a good group of guys that we all push each other a lot anyway, especially in the weight room. We really get after it as a group.''

Once he was bigger and was picking things up quickly, the perspective of Bedford changed. In March and April, head coach Tom Allen and offensive line coach Darren Hiller thought it might be possible to accelerate the timeline on Bedford.

But little did they know then what would happen in the fall.

"We knew then that he was going to play, we just didn't know if it was going to be a four-game thing to save the redshirt, or more,'' Hiller said. "We felt like we were probably going to need him at some point, we just didn't know when. You never do with offensive lineman.

"Injuries are part of the deal there, and you go into a season knowing you're going to need seven or eight guys to play for sure. We figured Matt would be in that group, but it was all about getting him up to speed.''

When fall camp started, he held his own most days, but there was lot flying at him. 

"He did well, but he never really strung together several good days in a row. He was up and down,'' Allen said. "That's not uncommon with a freshman, and we saw a lot of good things from him, just not every day.''

Bedford, an intelligent but soft-spoken kid, felt good about where he was in the playbook during camp, but he still had to have faith in himself that he could play at this level. He's honest in saying he wasn't sure he could some days.

Self-confidence is a delicate thing.

"By August, I felt very confident about what I needed to know about the playbook and everything. It was just more about having confidence in myself to play,'' said Bedford, who turns 19 on Feb. 23. " I have the best teammates next to me, and they've helped me a lot.''

Bedford got a small taste of action in Indiana's first three games, but then, when Cronk went down in the Connecticut game on Sept. 21, it was his time. 

Next man up.

"When Coy went down, they were all like, 'You're up, dog,' '' Bedford said. "They basically surrounded me and said, "We got you, dog.'

"It was definitely something to get used to in the beginning, You have to grow up quick and understand that everything is going to be hard. You have to work, you have to have good study habits. Every single week, you learn so much. Every game, I would see things I had never seen before, and I had to learn on the fly. I'm very grateful to have such good teammates and such good coaches, because they were great in helping me through it.''

Hiller has been happy with Bedford's rapid growth.

"He's much more comfortable understanding things, but every week, it was a new challenge for him,'' Hiller said. "And not having anything to use for recall, he's really just learning as he goes. So many of the guys who have been through things for two, three, four, five years, they've seen all that in practice, or in film. He doesn't have that.''

When Coy Cronk (54) was lost for the season, he became a mentor to freshman Matt Bedford. (Mandatory credit: USA TODAY SPORTS)

Leaning on a mentor in Cronk

Losing Cronk was a huge deal for the Hoosiers, because the senior captain is a locker room favorite. He was considered a mid-round NFL draft pick in the preseason, and just like that, a gruesome ankle injury ended his season. When he was carted off in the Connecticut game, there were players with tears in their eyes.

Cronk, though, was all making sure Bedford stepped up. "Even right then, at that moment, he was telling me, 'You got this. You're ready,'' Bedford said. "He's always been there for me.''

Cronk was back at practice a few weeks later, "Coach Cronk'' now, according to Allen. Even in a cast and on a scooter, he was at practice and games being an extra pair of eyes for Bedford.

And that meant the world to Bedford.

"Coy has meant so much to me. It's one of those things that reassured you about being in the right place here at Indiana,'' Bedford said. "By the time I got here, almost from the first day, I knew I was in the right spot, but with what's gone on between Coy and me, that really brought it home that this is where I belong. I love it at Indiana.

"I mean, look at the situation, He's a senior and gets hurt and his season is over. He didn't have to help me, but he's been there every minute. That says a lot about him, because he has helped me so much. "He's always saying, 'Ask me anything you need.'

"Having that veteran eye on the field helped a lot. He would see things on the field and we'd talk. He's always been there.''

It doesn't surprise anyone around Indiana's program that Cronk embraced that mentor role. 

"When we talk about LEO around here, love each other, Coy epitomizes that,'' Allen said. "Whatever it takes for this team to be better, to have success, that's what he'll do. And that's what he's done with Matt.''

Cronk has been hard at work at rehabbing his surgically repaired ankle. He graduated last week and said he still hasn't made a decision on his NFL plans. He only played in four games this season, so he can redshirt and return to Indiana for another year if he'd like. He still has time to decide.

Bedford has had to do some rehabbing of his own, too. He injured an ankle in the Michigan game on Nov. 23 and missed the victory over Purdue. He is expected to return for the bowl game. 

Indiana's Matt Bedford injured an ankle against Michigan and missed IU's final regular season game at Purdue. (Mandatory credit: USA TODAY SPORTS)

Tight group makes a difference

Indiana's offensive line group is special. They all get along great, and they've all covered for each other this year, rotating spots often as they've dealt with injuries. Of the five starters, only Harry Crider and Caleb Jones played all 12 games. The three seniors, Cronk, Simon Stepaniak and Hunter Littlejohn, all have missed time.

No matter. The group has been one of the highlights of this 8-4 season, keeping quarterbacks Peyton Ramsey and Michael Penix Jr. clean most of the year.

"We're all on the same page and we work great as a group,'' Bedford said. "We understand each other's jobs and assignments, and we work together. We're a family, and we're together. It's an excellent room, our O-Line room.

And this is just a start for Bedford. The consensus opinion is that he's going to be a star at Indiana.

"He's just scratching the surface as to how good he's going to be. He's still so young,'' Hiller said. "The  freshman mistakes that he's made, just like any guy who hasn't been in the fire, he's great at correcting them. He's done a nice job. 

"The fundamentals and technique are still the biggest. I give out grades every week on assignment, technique and finish, and his assignment grades were always very good. His technique, not as much, and that led to some issues with finishing, but he's worked hard on that.''

That's the learning process, and it's always magnified with linemen.

"That's the thing about freshmen when they get thrown into the fire like that,'' Hiller said. "They'll learn a lot one week, but then they'll have a whole new set of issues thrown at him the next week,'' Hiller said. "It's really about learning on the fly, snap after snap, and he's done a very good job with that.

"I give him a lot of credit for that. He's worked very hard to put us in  position to help us. I can say that now, but I'm not sure I could have said that in August. He was here in the spring, and that was huge. The 15 practices were invaluable to him and just being here from January to August before camp started, well, he's just a completely different kid physically.''