“I think as a Big Ten team, you need to be at seven home games,” Wilson said.
But with the new Big Ten format, the East and West divisions will switch, each year, between hosting five and four conference home games. That means that some years IU will have to travel for five different Big Ten road tests, a daunting task.
So IU would have to schedule three home nonconference games to reach the seven home game standard that Wilson craves. These days, scheduling home games costs money. Wilson said to schedule a home-and-home series, it usually costs from $300,000 to $500,000.
To schedule an only-home series, the price has reached the range of $800,000 to $1.2 million.
He mentioned, for example, that IU will only have six home games in 2017 because it was unable to persuade Virginia to travel to Bloomington that year.
Wilson said during nonconference weeks, one can usually expect the Big Ten to win 12 to 14 games as a conference. One more Big Ten game means one more week of knocking each other off.
“It’s going to lead to a lot more .500-type years for a lot of people,” Wilson said. “As coaches, we are like, ‘make sure you get some manageable nonconference — we are going to beat ourselves up a bit more.’”
Besides the amount of home games, Wilson does like the matchups that are being scheduled. He likes that IU has made home-and-home deals with Wake Forest, Connecticut, Virginia and, most recently, a three-game deal with Louisville.
“That’s the nice thing about Cincinnati, Louisville. You are going to have some away games where you think you’d have a great fan base at,” Wilson said.
Still no update on Patrick’s status
The academic status of transfer wide receiver Camion Patrick is still up in the air. Wilson was told last Friday that the decision should be made by Thursday.
Patrick has still been working with the team, though. Wilson said he is currently No. 2 or No. 3 on the depth chart due to a lack of consistency.
When he practices hard, Wilson considers him a good player. He mentioned he scored a few touchdowns during a recent scrimmage. But he worries about Patrick not working as hard when the ball is not coming his way.
The most consistent Hoosier
Wilson was asked Monday which player has been the most consistent.
“Dan Feeney,” he said. “Not even close.”
He mentioned how hard Tevin Coleman worked every day and said Feeney is just as good, in terms of hard work. He described him as talented and just smart enough — he doesn’t overthink things like some smart people might.
“He even puts his socks on good,” Wilson joked.
Wilson added Feeney would likely be earning every major honor if he were at a higher profile program.
Oakes takes lead at kicker
Going into the preseason, Wilson thought that the kicker position would be a “50-50” battle between sophomores Griffin Oakes and Aaron Del Grosso. Del Grosso has since pulled his groin and has been limited in practice.
Oakes has not wasted the opportunity and has looked good in camp. Wilson said he made a 60-yard field goal one day and hit the crossbar on a 57-yarder, even though he scooped up some turf on the kick.
IU also added another kicker in Calob Meinzer from Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis. He has yet to miss a kick since joining the team.
