IU football: Where do the Hoosiers go from here?
I still have a hard time believing what I saw on Saturday. Think about how many things have to go a certain way for a team to score 83 points. The Hoosiers have scored only 73 points in their last five Big Ten games — all losses — and 14 of those points game in garbage time.
Just think about that for a minute.
I don’t think I’ll ever see a game like that one for the rest of my life. I couldn’t believe my eyes when Wisconsin was throwing 70-yard bombs in the fourth quarter when it was leading by 56 points.
I know the debate about whether Wisconsin should have run up the score as it did has been out there. I hard ESPN’s Mike and Mike in Morning discuss it today. But that’s really a non-issue. The Badgers had their second and third-string players in the game, so they should be allowed to run whatever play they want.
The bigger issue was that the IU defense couldn’t once stop the Wisconsin offense, which scored on all 12 of its possessions.
One commenter on the IDS website after the game may have said it best when he or she suggested Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema may have put IU coach Bill Lynch out of his misery. That could end up being true because I think this game, unless the Hoosiers win the final two, will be the final straw in Lynch’s firing.
The question that has to be asked now is where do the Hoosiers go from here? Can they really bounce back from an 83-20 loss?
I don’t know about that one. The IU players seemed to quit in the second half on Saturday when the Badgers kept pouring it on. I began to wonder if the Hoosiers wouldn’t have rather gotten on the bus at halftime and save themselves the humiliation.
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Posted by tberry at 12:12 pm on November 15, 2010
Craig Bohl
Here is the type of up and coming winer IU needs to hire a head coach.
He is already competitive with several Big Ten schools and has been and is a winer!!! I can’t imagine that a known, big name coach would ever take on building IU.
http://www.gobison.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=2400&ATCLID=75916
Posted by Husky Tom at 12:14 pm on November 15, 2010
Justin- Thank You Card to coach Bielema wouldn’t be far-fetched. Sadly, if this game were “only” 63-20, people would have dismissed it as “business as usual” for the Hoosiers. Giving up 83 points, however, gets us on the national headlines around the country. What recruit is honestly going to want to play for Indiana, “the school that gave up 83 points”? Since we are now a national, and not just a local joke, Fred Glass simply can no longer afford to ignore the sentiment amongst the fan base. He won’t want to be known as the “AD who tried to his fans that the coach was improving” after a 63 point loss.
For these reasons, I am really, really relieved that Bielema did what he did, by bringing out our failures out into the open where they can’t be hidden or explained away.
Thank you Bret!
Posted by Matt Vincent at 5:30 pm on November 18, 2010
You can hardly hold it against Bielema. He put his second and third string kids in the game to play. As a coach, you can’t tell them not to score. This might be the only time they get to play all year. IU was awful. They quit. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a team so mismatched in my life. I was in Lynch’s corner until that loss. Wow! Glass is going to have to seriously contemplate doing something here.
Posted by Don A. Domenic at 5:33 pm on November 19, 2010
83 points scored by a Big Ten team against another Big Ten team is almost unfathomable and yet it happened and yes, on national TV. The results are devastating to the players who played in the debacle and the coaches who prepared them. As a former football player at IU during the years ‘52,’53,’54, I have some idea of what humiliation all connected to the progralm feel. My first response as a player after returning to the campus would be to get on a bus and go home!!! Perhaps, if the defensive unit did, much of the problem would be resolved. Quitting on a coach and your school in any scenario is unacceptable!!! The Penn State game will go a long way in determining just what kind of “stuff” this team has. I hope with all my heart they redeem themselves, if not please Joe, don’t pile it on!! The Hoosier alums just can’t take another shot to the chin. GO HOOSIERS!!!!!
Posted by Penn State Fan at 2:35 pm on November 20, 2010
So the Hoosiers have bounced back with the Penn State score currently at 24 all. The Indiana team is to be commended for their spirit and spunk. What happened to them last week was heartless on the part of Wisconsin, but Indiana U is showing a lot of heart this week (sorry to say against the Nittany Lions). Congratulations!