As Kevin Wilson took the podium for his Tuesday afternoon press conference, he began to talk about last week’s lackluster performance against Northwestern.

He complimented the Wildcats’ offense and expressed disappointment in his defense’s failure to make Northwestern one-dimensional. He was happier with the offense than he was with the defense, and was happy with the play of Tre Roberson and the running game.

He then admitted that this weekend’s game against Ohio State would provide a challenge for Indiana on both sides of the ball.

Finally, he got to the real news of the day and every set of ears in the room was paying full attention.

“Moving forward, we had a suspension the other day with Damarlo Belcher but that has in fact turned out that it’s going to be a dismissal from the team,” said Wilson. “Not going to go into great detail, there’s no issue other than our seniors and I went through the rules that we wanted back in the preseason and the seniors actually amended and gave me some ideas of things they wanted with things that they want to do, and all the players are aware of that, they signed off on that. We go through that during the year.”

“In our first meeting, and I’ve said this to you guys as well,” he said. “Our seniors are held to the highest standards, whether it be on the field, off the field, performance, practice habits, just doing things right. We don’t have any sacred cows and no individual is above everything. It’s unfortunate that this happened to what I think is a good kid and potentially a good player but he didn’t follow our guidelines and do what he needed to do. That’s kind of it with that.”

Not exactly, Coach.

For a football team with only one win on the season – a win that came at the expense of an FCS opponent, no less – the dismissal of the school’s second all-time leading receiver is going to be a pretty preeminent storyline. There’s no possible way to address the permanent dismissal of Damarlo Belcher – a watershed moment in Wilson’s ephemeral tenure – in 200 words or less.

Wilson found that out immediately, as the first four questions from the media focused on Belcher’s dismissal from the Hoosiers.

Wilson was noticeably uncomfortable with the line of questioning, and though he answered each of the questions, he did it with a distasteful look on his face. Once he had answered the fourth question he made clear that he had no interest in discussing the issue any further.

“…But anyway, let’s get on to Ohio State.”

That was it.

No YouTube-friendly blow-up, no confrontation with a reporter and no sense of disrespect coursing in either direction. Wilson just made clear with his tone and body language that he was ready to move on to Ohio State, and no one in the room felt it wise to push the envelope any further.

Mark it down folks, because that’s likely the last time that the new patriarch of Indiana football will mention perhaps the defining player of the short-lived Bill Lynch era.

At the beginning of the season, Belcher was singled out as the defacto leader of a Hoosier receiving corps that was supposed to be one of – if not the best – in the B1G. The reasoning behind the attention towards Belcher was easily understood, as he was coming off a very productive season for an otherwise disappointing IU team.  He led the league in receptions in 2010 and came into this year needing just 27 catches to reach James Hardy’s school record. It seemed a foregone conclusion he would reach that number easily.

Instead, he finishes his career at Indiana with a whimper – recording only 25 catches, 286 yards and one touchdown (the 25 catches equal his freshman performance, while the 286 yards and one score are the lowest marks of his four year career). Fairly or not, his career will be forever remembered for broken rules and lost opportunities instead of broken records.

In Belcher’s three years and change at Indiana, the Hoosiers failed to record even one signature victory despite plentiful opportunity. Sure, they beat #22 Northwestern on homecoming during his freshman season and he was a big part of the first victory over Purdue in three years, but neither of those games truly meant anything for the program.

After beating Northwestern in 2008, IU failed to win a game the rest of the season and was blown out in the Bucket Game. Even the win over Purdue was surprisingly empty. Purdue was equally dismal last season and it had become apparent that, win or lose, Bill Lynch would not retain his job. It was still a rivalry game, but (besides for the seniors) it was a game that would have little to no bearing on the program once it had concluded.

The missed opportunities were much easier to count, opportunities that were there for the taking, but that the team was either mentally or physically unprepared for.  Back-to-back one-score losses to Michigan, and last year’s 18-13 defeat at the hands of Iowa were most prominent among them. The Iowa game would unfortunately prove to be Belcher’s defining moment in an Indiana uniform, as a Ben Chappell last-play heave hit him squarely in the hands but fell harmlessly to the end zone turf.

Perhaps that memory drove him back to the Hoosiers for his senior year. Perhaps he just wanted a chance to improve his draft stock in what was billed as a wide receiver-friendly offense. Whatever the reason for his return, it proved to be the wrong move for all parties involved, as Belcher failed to produce past the first game of the season against Ball State and the Indiana offense hasn’t been noticeably different without him in the lineup.

Kevin Wilson mentioned that he was the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma when Adrian Peterson, now an All-Pro running back with the Minnesota Vikings, missed class and was benched as a result. That anecdote should quiet the questions about whether Belcher would have been kicked off the team if he had been more productive, but there’s no denying that his level of play this season didn’t make Wilson’s decision any more difficult.

Truth be told, I’m not terribly upset to see Belcher go.

I remember his first career touchdown against Western Kentucky and I remember thinking that Belcher was a funny name (I was a sophomore in high school, sue me). He was my favorite receiver over Tandon Doss, and I liked seeing him succeed. That said, it seemed early this season that he had run his course as a member of this team. He wasn’t putting up the numbers that people had expected of him. Even more disturbing, word from the coaches and his body language on the field suggested that he wasn’t putting in the effort or leadership that people had expected of him either.

It wouldn’t have seemed right to have a malcontent playing out the string – something that Belcher had unfortunately become – break James Hardy’s receiving records while undermining by example everything that Wilson and his staff was trying to build.

I said earlier that Belcher was the embodiment of the Bill Lynch era of Indiana football. His first year was the year after the Hoosiers’ first bowl game since 1993 and in four short seasons, IU football has gone from its strongest position in a decade to what might be its lowest. This current group – through lack of talent, experience and ingrained practice habits – may be the worst IU team since the Lovecchio era, and Belcher has seen the degeneration first-hand.

I believe that (to an extent) Damarlo Belcher is a tragic figure, a victim of lowered standards. He came to a program on the upswing, and while he was a party to its decline, I wouldn’t say he was principally responsible. If Belcher had come in this year as a freshman, or if Wilson had been named coach three years earlier, I think Belcher ends his career here on a much more positive note.

But we don’t live in a hypothetical world. Rather, we live in one that saw Belcher’s work ethic eroded early on by an environment that didn’t demand 100% from him. When finally surrounded by an atmosphere that demanded excellence of him, he was unable to produce it.

He delivered mediocrity, which was unacceptable from a leader.

It’s sad that – well short of the ‘sacred cow’ Kevin Wilson has mentioned – Damarlo Belcher’s greatest contribution to the season may be that of a sacrificial lamb. His continued presence on the team served to constantly undermine his coaching staff, and his release from his scholarship may be the catharsis that this team so desperately needs.

Make no mistake: this group’s issues run much deeper than attitude. They’re inexperienced, occasionally timid and aren’t as talented as their B1G competition. But as Stephen Houston said after Wilson spoke, Belcher’s dismissal definitely got the team’s attention.

“It shows that coach means business,” Houston said. “When he says either you’re going to be with this team or you’re not, he really means it.”

“It’s sad,” added Leon Beckum. “But it is what it is.”

Allow me to be the first to wish Damarlo Belcher the best of fortune in his future endeavors, but also say that is was time for him to go.

It’s sad to say, but the team is better for it.