Though much has been made about the resurgence of perennial Big Ten punching bag, Illinois, and Illini players such as Juice Williams and Rashard Mendenhall top the list of players you know now but didn’t a year ago, another Big Ten school is quietly turning its program around, and another player you’ve heard little of is a big part of that. The Indiana Hoosiers (5-3, 2-3 Big Ten) march into Camp Randall Saturday one win away from locking up their first bowl appearance in 14 years. And though team success in football is always predicated on more than one player, no one individual is more responsible for the Hoosiers’ success than junior wide receiver James Hardy. Hardy comes into the game having scored at least one touchdown in every game this season and is coming off arguably the best game of his career — a 14-catch, 142-yard and two-touchdown game in a 36-31 defeat against Penn State. For those scoring at home, that’s twice as many touchdowns as Wisconsin scored as a team against Penn State. Though Hardy is just beginning to gain national attention, the Fort Wayne, Ind., native has been producing since he first got to Bloomington. Hardy followed up a freshman campaign in which he caught 61 passes for 893 yards and 10 touchdowns by catching 51 balls for 722 yards and 10 more scores his sophomore year, despite missing two games with an injury. So far this year, the junior has already caught 45 balls for 748 yards and 11 touchdowns with four games left to play, not including a probable bowl game. To say Hardy has been productive is quite the understatement, something Indiana head coach Bill Lynch can attest to. “He’s had a tremendous year for us, and I can’t say enough about his growth as a football player and as a team leader,” Lynch said. “He’s been exactly what you’re looking for in a football player.” Indeed, at 6-foot-7, 220 pounds, it should come as no surprise Hardy is the type of receiver coaches drool over. Nor should it come as any surprise that Hardy was a highly touted basketball player in high school and played for Indiana his freshman season, before quitting to focus exclusively on football, a decision Lynch is thankful for now. “He played some Big Ten basketball here, but after last season, he decided that football was his future,” Lynch said. “He’s been very, very good in the weight room, doing all the little things in the offseason. Now he’s totally committed to being a football player.” Part of this commitment is Hardy’s ability to lead by example. No one wants to win the immortalizing sixth game (making Indiana bowl-eligible) more than Hardy, and he wants that desire to rub off on his teammates. “I’ll show them how I’m going to work. You go out there, you have got to stay positive,” Hardy said. “This is a program where it hasn’t happened in 15 years. We can’t let (the Penn State loss) get the best of us. We still have four more games left. There’s no reason to hang our heads.” Another aspect of that leadership is watching film and studying opponents. Hardy knows he’ll match up against one of the better cornerbacks in the country in UW’s Jack Ikegwuonu Saturday, and he plans to be as prepared as possible. “I go in and watch what he does, his tendencies, and what I can expose,” Hardy said. “I look at every corner the same. He’s going to get the breakdown just like everyone else, and I’m just going to go out there and do the best that I can do.” Despite three conference losses, this is certainly a different Indiana team than most people have grown accustomed to, and Hardy’s mentality reflects that. “This is a different team. We expect to win now, and I’d say the couple years before we had the talent, we knew we could compete, but at the same time, we were just hoping to win,” Hardy said. “This is a team that we look at each and every week like, ‘we got this team.’ Michigan State, they just flat out beat us, but as far as Illinois and Penn State, we beat ourselves. “We have to come in with that mind frame, knowing we beat ourselves and no one can actually stop us if we just do the best that we can do and not make the mental mistakes.” Hardy has had mixed results against Wisconsin in the past. He caught seven balls for 157 yards and two touchdowns in his last trip to Camp Randall two years ago, but was held to just one catch for 8 yards against the Badgers in Bloomington last year. If the Hoosiers leave Madison bowl-eligible, Hardy’s performance will need to look a lot like the former.