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Indiana’s X-Factor Game
August 31st, 2011It’s close.
So close we don’t have to go another weekend without college football until December.
As Peter Griffin would say, “I usually only get this excited when they say the title of the movie in the movie.”
In an offseason full of negativity, ranging from Terrelle Pryor needing eight cars to an imprisoned former booster blowing the whistle on Miami, Indiana’s offseason couldn’t have gone any better.
Everything from the commitment of No.1 QB Gunner Kiel to Head Coach Kevin Wilson telling Jack Trudeau to shove it on national radio, this offseason has been full of buzz for the Hoosiers.
And not even huge expectations for wins and losses, just buzz.
Students, fans, and alumni are talking about IU Football, the conversations are booming and the tension is tightening.
Now it’s business time.
Let’s examine Indiana’s X-Factor game. Every team has one on the schedule. It’s that game on the schedule that sticks out, the one that feels like a must win game. It can be a huge road game, a big home game under the lights, or even a trap game.
Win this game, and the season could make a right turn down the yellow brick road. Lose this game, it may take a left off a cliff.
When you look at the schedule it glares at you, like when a guy talks to a girl at Kilroy’s when her boyfriend is standing right there.
This season for IU, that boyfriend giving the death stare is Virginia.
Think about it.
Indiana plays it’s first game in unfamiliar territory at Lucas Oil Stadium against Ball State, then comes home to play the aforementioned University of Virginia Cavaliers.
This is a bit of a tall order.
Most new head coaches, especially in the Big Ten, get to start out playing their first four games as a head coach against the Central Northeastern Ohio State College Screamin’ Geese.
Not Coach Wilson. As he correctly pointed out at Media Days in Chicago, IU’s first two opponents are ones it lost two the last time it played them. (Ball State in 2008 and Virginia in 2009)
Assuming the Hoosiers can go to Indianapolis and take care of business against the Cardinals, it comes back to Bloomington to play the Cavaliers.
This is a huge turning point in the season.
It will be Kevin Wilson’s first home game as IU’s head coach. The previously mentioned buzz that’s been spreading all over campus will finally be witnessed by Hoosier eyes. All the talk of the jacked up offseason workout program, the brand new coaching staff from top college football programs all over the country, and the intenseness of practices will finally be unveiled.
It’s not a noon start time getting buried in the lineup of 400 of other college football games played that day; it’s a night game with a 7pm start time being showcased on Big Ten Network.
Virginia head coach Mike London is in his second year with the Cavaliers, after a 4-8 record in his first season, he managed a very strong recruiting class and seemingly has the team on the right track. His team could turn the corner later in the season; a win against Virginia could have great value towards the end of the season for IU.
If Indiana wins this game, it will get interesting.
Suddenly, IU has gone Carrie on prom night against it’s first two opponents, has a 2-0 start, and staring 4-0 in the face if it can take care of business against South Carolina State and North Texas. Coach Wilson will have knocked off a BCS team in his first home game as head coach, already totaling a third of the BCS wins Bill Lynch had in three years as a head coach. By the way, that BCS opponent beat IU 47-7 in 2009, essentially putting every offensive player for Virginia on the Heisman Watch List.
Imagine if Coach Wilson avenges that loss in his first home game.
Now Indiana sits at 4-0 with Big Ten season starting. It’s first two opponents: back to back home games Penn State and then Illinois, two teams with their own set of question marks.
WARNING: MAJOR HOMER CALL UPCOMING, PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
If IU reaches 4-0, it now sits with it’s first two Big Ten home games against beatable opponents. The Hoosiers have been competitive with the Nittany Lions each of the last two seasons, plus, Penn State is dealing with it’s own quarterback controversy as well as several other questions.
If Indiana finds a way to knock Penn State off, the Indiana University Athletic Ticket Office may explode.
Imagine last year what would have happened if IU had beat Michigan to jump to 4-0 with a sold out crowd. Every couch in Bloomington would have been lit on fire.
It would have that same chance again, this time sitting 5-0. One win away from bowl eligible, one win away from a perfect 6-0 start, and one win away from the university extending Coach Wilson’s contract thru the 2035 season.
Even better news, that game would be against Illinois. The team every dedicated Hoosier fan flat out hates.
Illinois is predicted to have a big year following a surprise season, but the Fighting Illini lost three major contributors to the NFL Draft in April, including running back Mike Leshoure.
Remember what happened when Illinois went to the Rose Bowl in 2007, then lost running back Rashard Mendenhall to the NFL Draft? THUNK. 5-7 record overall, and that was with quarterback Juice Williams starting his third year in a row.
Quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase played well as a freshman, but the loss of Leshoure and a thin receiving core could spell sophomore slump for the young signal caller.
Needless to say, that would be the biggest game in Indiana University Football history.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: WE HAVE NOW CLEARED THE TURBULENCE OF HOMERISM; IT IS NOW SAFE TO REMOVE YOUR SEATBELTS.
Back on planet Earth, we regroup.
If IU loses to Virginia, 3-1 is still the most formidable record heading into those back to back Big Ten games.
Not a bad start, but that loss will stick out, like the shiner the boyfriend will leave on the dude’s face that talks to his girlfriend at Kilroy’s. Fans will look at that record and see the wins, but will know it’s that one loss that needed to be a win.
Indiana will be moving in the right direction even with a 3-1 record, but the Virginia game is a chance to start the train of momentum. A BCS win under the lights at Memorial Stadium for Coach Wilson and his staff’s first home game will validate the entire buzz it heard in the offseason.
For the next three weeks, Hoosier Nation will be buzzing leading up to that first home game against Penn State. The fan interest will be off the charts.
A 4-0 start. Tough to reach? Yes.
Impossible?
Not even close.
Let’s light this candle.
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The Last Three Years
April 28th, 2011Hard to believe it’s been three weeks since Luther Van Dross capped another season with “One Shining Moment.” This season brought new waves of success for some universities, and disappointment for others. Some are starting new eras (VCU), others are ending them (Tennessee). Though it may not seem like it, Indiana University is ending it’s own era: The last three years.
The last three years have garnered a different reaction from everyone. For students, being stuck in the basement of the Big Ten is all they know. For long time fans, it’s a world apart from what they know.
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The Difference in Coaching
April 28th, 2011It’s taken a while to sink in, but head football coach Kevin Wilson is feeling less like the new coach of IU football, and feeling like the IU coach.
Throughout the 2010 football season, it seemed so obvious that if Bill Lynch were to be let go, Indiana University would be best served hiring a football version of Tom Crean: a fired-up, media-savvy coach who was great with alumni and respected IU’s history.
Football, like basketball, needed building up, and students responded to Crean. Bring in his football counterpart, and the two biggest sports in college athletics are headed towards bright futures at the same time.
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Mental Errors Plague IU
April 26th, 2011On Thursday Coach Tracy Smith shrugged off the fact they were going into the weekend playing a “struggling” Minnesota team. Four straight losses later, three of them to Minnesota, it’s easy to see why.
The rain held off in Bloomington this afternoon as the Red Hawks from Miami University out executed the Hoosiers nearly all day long.
It’s a bit of a head scratcher looking at the stats. IU was only outhit 13 to 11, but the final score still read to 10-3.
Also, for the 1st-3rd innings and 7th-9th innings IU outscored the Red Hawks 4-2; but in the 4th-6th innings IU was outscored 8-0.
IU responded to Miami’s one run lead with three of it’s own in the fourth inning, from there the wheels fell off.
In the 5th inning, Alex Dickerson stood on third and Dylan Swift on first with one out. Michael Basil then struck out, with Micah Johnson flying out in consecutive batters.
In the 6th inning, the Hoosiers looked to respond to Miami’s two run effort with Justin Cuerton’s leadoff single. Brian Lambert, up next with two strikes, went down swinging while Cuerton stole second, who was then tagged out a half second early.
In the 7th inning, Wes Wilson’s leadoff double was double was followed by three straight retired IU batters.
Coach addressed the mental mistakes after the game, “we have to get refocused on ‘let’s play good baseball, let’s be aggressive, let’s be tough minded’, whereas if I’m grading our performance today we weren’t very tough minded.”
The Hoosiers will now have a few days off to get ready for a very important series in West Lafayette against Purdue, with both bragging rights and the confidence of a young team on the line.
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IU wins with fundamentally sound play
April 20th, 2011Indiana stifled the competition Wednesday at Sembower Field in polished fashion. The Hoosiers did not hit the Morehead State out of the park nor throw a perfect game but played fundamentally sound.
The Hoosiers took a 5-1 contest on a chilly afternoon in Bloomington en route to it’s third straight win and six of seven, not including a postponed game in Iowa City.
Pitcher Drew Leininger rung up 10 strikeouts while allowing only one run in six innings pitched. Pitchers Johnny Hoffman and Matt Dearden brought up the middle relief allowing only two runs by Hoffman. Pitcher Casey Smith closed the game. Read the rest of this entry “
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IU overcomes mental errors, gets victory
April 10th, 2011It’s amazing how quickly the conversation can change. A day beginning with slow, unpolished play ended in excitement. IU players T.C. Knipp and Michael Basil essentially helped the Hoosiers avoid what would have been a head scratching loss to conclude the weekend.
Now, that’s not to take away from the win. The Hoosiers looked lifeless for six and a half innings before storming back with a 6-1 run ending with Basil’s walk off single which scored Knipp after his game tying triple with the bases loaded. IU took two of three from the Buckeyes for the weekend series and opened its Big Ten season on a strong note.
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Why Rivalries are must watch
February 26th, 2011Early this semester, a group of us were watching 127 Hours. Like any regular moviegoer, the plot of the movie was already pretty clear heading in: Hiker gets arm caught in a rock, does everything under the sun to get it out, and finally cuts it off to save his life. Like watching Titanic, everybody knows this ship is headed straight for the bottom of the Atlantic.
But like the clichéd and overused saying goes: It’s not the destination, but the journey.
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Hoosiers, Fans Finally Taste Noteworthy Victory
January 28th, 2011On an episode of Seinfeld, George Constanza realized every decision he ever made was the wrong one.
So he decided he would ignore his instincts and make every decision based on the opposite of what he was thinking. To his surprise, he famously landed a job with the New York Yankees and had a new, beautiful girlfriend.
Thursday night, IU had the same outcome. By ignoring the instinct to go ice cold at the end of the game, and stand up to the higher ranked team, the Hoosiers overcame their biggest demon: beating a ranked team.
It still feels surreal. Some might say it’s a dream come true.
No, Indiana University did not win an NCAA Championship. No, it did not earn a spot in the Final Four.
It beat, believe it or not, a ranked team. Now, teams such as Duke or UConn might brag that they do that week in and week out, but they are not IU. At least, not IU as currently known.
Ironically, the last time the Hoosiers beat a ranked team was February 19th, 2008, against who? Our biggest rival Purdue, of course. Since then, both teams have gone in opposite directions. Purdue ascended to the top of the Big Ten, garnering national attention, while IU faded into the night. Read the rest of this entry “
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All IU Fans Need Is Just A Little . . .
January 11th, 2011
It is unknown who coined the phrase “Patience is a virtue.”
Whoever he or she was must not have been a college sports fan, or if they were, it must have drove their college sports buddies up a wall.
Indiana University’s fan base has been described as several things: passionate, loud, faithful; but one quality is often overlooked: patient.
In this “what have you done for me lately” sports world, that word is rarely heard, especially in the college setting. This is not the pros, where the whole state of Indiana had the Indianapolis Colts’ back heading into the playoffs.
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