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(09/24/13 4:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When center Collin Rahrig takes the ball at the line of scrimmage, he’s filling big shoes, literally and figuratively.The Hoosiers returned nine offensive starters from last season, with the only voids on offense left by center Will Matte, who graduated from IU last December, and right guard Dan Feeney, who suffered a season-ending Lisfranc injury in mid-August.The 6-foot-2, 292-pound Matte started 45 games at center, which is tied for the most career starts by a Hoosier offensive lineman.He didn’t allow a sack in 972 snaps in 2012 in addition to being a 21-time game captain in his IU career. He was also a member of the 2012 Rimington Trophy Fall Watch List, which is the annual award given to the best center in the country.In Matte’s absence, redshirt junior Rahrig has started at center in every game this season.“He had to get special shoes to fit him. They were pretty wide,” Rahrig said, laughing. Rahrig said it wasn’t only Matte’s large feet that made him stand out, but also how he carried himself.“Will was a competitor. He maybe was undersized just as I am, but he came every day and gave 110 percent,” Rahrig said. “He kind of just threw himself into the life of football.”Rahrig said he has tried to embrace his position and follow what Matte set up for his teammates.“He was a great leader last year, and I’m just kind of trying to take that over,” he said. IU Coach Kevin Wilson said Matte was one of the older players who “kind of bought in and took us hook, line and sinker,” but he said Rahrig is probably more talented. “A little bigger, Collin walked on. He’s got a little bit more range, length, as far as doing things,” Wilson said. “Not a slight of Will Matte, who was one of our better leaders and one of the best since we’ve been around here, but Collin is doing well. He should have a good year for us.”IU’s center said one of the best parts about the Hoosiers’ offensive line is the collective leadership.“We have some other guys who are also leaders on the offensive line,” Rahrig said. “That’s why it’s such a great feeling because it’s not just one guy. It’s all of us kind of at the same time going towards one goal.”He said the group mentality starts in the meeting room.“I sit next to the left guard, and the left tackle is next to him, and on the other side of Coach Frey it’s the other center and the right guard, right tackle,” Rahrig said. “We kind of work together hand-in-hand during practice, and everybody just checks everybody’s role that’s on the line.“We can work as one with our group of five guys, and that’s how you get the run game really working.”He said the offensive line had some newer players last season, so the unit wasn’t as cohesive as it is in 2013. “We didn’t have much time to get that little bit of flow with each other and get the run game going last year,” Rahrig said.He said since IU played a lot of young linemen last season, the line now knows what it’s up against. “I build up self-esteem, and then you kind of know you can play with anybody in this league,” Rahrig said. “I think that since we had a bunch of young guys, it was kind of like you went from high school straight to college and where all these guys are grown men.”IU’s center said many older linemen from the early seasons of the Wilson era left, and then the line “pretty much started from new.” “We’ve got some new guys with a lot of talent and the recruiting just keeps getting better and better so we just keep building,” Rahrig said. “It’s just amazing to see how we can just keep building from there and just progressing as an O-Line.”Rahrig said although there are some younger players who haven’t played as much, IU has “some pretty good depth.”The Hoosiers’ depth will be tested as the offensive line looks to replace Matte and Feeney. “We have some guys stepping up,” Rahrig said. “The show’s going to go on. Any of us could go down, and it’s still going to go on.”He said a couple of years ago it was hectic if players suffered injuries, and he could sense a “different kind of mood throughout the whole team.”“Now I feel like with the loss of Dan, I feel like someone can step up and take that role and do just as good, if not better,” Rahrig said.Despite the loss of Feeney, he said the team’s goal is to have the best offensive line in the Big Ten. “That’s our goal, and we’re gonna try our best to achieve that,” Rahrig said.The Hoosiers’ offensive line has not allowed a sack in three of the four games this season. On average, the unit is averaging one sack in every 38 pass attempts.Rahrig, a walk-on who earned scholarships in 2012 and 2013, had 14 starts in his career before making the full-time transition from guard to center, where he will play a key role in the Hoosiers’ pursuit of having the best offensive line in the conference. “No matter who your best player is, your center is kind of the leader of the line, kind of sets the tone, and that guy’s been good,” Wilson said of Rahrig.Wilson said center is a critical position because Rahrig must put the ball on target to the quarterback so the offense can move quickly and so his teammates can do their jobs.“By the way, there’s a dude about three inches away from you snorting at you that wants to get a hunk of you,” Wilson said. “It’s a very stressful position. He’s done an outstanding job.”Rahrig said he is more locked in to his role at center this season. “Now I’m pointing out where everybody’s at, calling checks, kind of just telling what even the down and the yardage is for the quarterback so they know,” Rahrig said. “They have so much going on, like, if we’re on third down how far we have to go so we don’t throw a seven-yard route when we need to go 10 yards. I think that’s a big help and kind of being more communication for them to improve everyone else around me.“I’ve tried to step up my leadership role then help guide those guys, especially with a guy like Dan Feeney going down, just trying to bring a younger guy up and then work him into our system even better than before.”Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS.
(09/23/13 4:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Missouri Tigers traveled to Bloomington for the lone Big Ten-SEC regular season matchup of the 2013 regular season Saturday night and left Memorial Stadium with a 45-28 victory. The Hoosiers’ defense forced three turnovers and four punts but allowed 623 yards, which is the most yards IU has allowed at Memorial Stadium.Senior safety Greg Heban said the defense didn’t play as well as it needed to against Missouri’s well-balanced offense. “I just think we could’ve been a little more aggressive,” he said. “Besides that, I just think the execution we had — they kind of nickeled and dimed us.”Missouri quarterback James Franklin led the Tigers’ offense, completing 32-of-47 pass attempts for 343 yards and two touchdowns. Six different Missouri receivers recorded a reception against IU. Marcus Lucas and Dorial Green-Beckham both logged more than 100 receiving yards. Heban had two interceptions in the first quarter, and freshman linebacker Marcus Oliver forced a fumble early in the second quarter. “We got the turnovers, but the turnovers were really maybe just stops because it really happened in their end of the field,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. After the Hoosiers tied the game with touchdowns on consecutive drives in the second quarter, Missouri defensive lineman Kony Ealy broke the game open with an interception return for a touchdown. “The guy made a heck of a play, and unfortunate for us and fortunate for them,” sophomore quarterback Nate Sudfeld said. “I wish I had that one back.”It was the first of three interceptions that Sudfeld threw on the night. Sophomore quarterback Tre Roberson also saw action under center Saturday night because Wilson said the Hoosiers needed a spark. “We will keep working both those guys in our game plan. There’s not a quarterback controversy,” he said. “We will just keep playing them and see how it goes. We put Tre in because we felt that we needed a little change of pace.”IU’s quarterbacks were a combined 29-of-53 on their pass attempts for 377 yards. The Hoosiers only ran the ball 26 times for 98 yards. Wilson said the key to the game was Missouri’s balance on offense and employment of a rushing attack that the Hoosiers lacked. “I think our opponent played with some balance on offense, and we didn’t,” he said. “That’s a credit to their defense and not a credit to ours. Their offense was well-executed, and we didn’t.”Missouri ran the ball by committee for 280 yards. Four Missouri players had double-digit carries, but sophomore tailback Russell Hansbrough was the Tigers’ only 100-yard back.Wilson said he appreciated the way that the Hoosiers fought, but IU has to learn to play more efficiently in big games.“We can’t fall behind, give up points and be a one-dimensional team,” he said.Wilson said it is disappointing for the Hoosiers to be 2-2 after a “pretty good non-conference schedule.”“We have an open week,” he said, “which will give us a chance to get some guys healthy, and we will see if we can do some self-evaluation on what we need to do to put our players in better positions and play at a higher level.”Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS.
(09/20/13 2:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Indiana is the only school in the Big Ten to face a team from the Southeastern Conference in football this season. The Missouri Tigers (2-0) will travel to Bloomington to play the Hoosiers at 8 p.m. Saturday. The matchup will be the first meeting of a two-year home-and-home series.Missouri was 5-7 (2-6) in its inaugural season in the SEC in 2012 — five of the team’s losses were against teams ranked in the top 10 in the country at the time of the matchup. Missouri is undefeated this season with wins against Murray State and Toledo. The Tigers’ last game was Sept. 7, giving them two weeks to prepare for IU. Saturday’s matchup has the potential to be a high-scoring affair. Both the Hoosiers and the Tigers are in the top 10 in the FBS in points per game. Missouri is led on offense by senior quarterback James Franklin. IU Coach Kevin Wilson said Franklin is a dual-threat quarterback and the player who makes the Tigers’ offense go. “Most of the time you say dual threat, you’re saying a guy that can run,” Wilson said. “He’s a guy who would rather pass than run.”Wilson said Missouri’s offense is very balanced. The Tigers are averaging 274 passing and 265 rushing yards per game this season. Franklin has completed nearly 67 percent of his pass attempts this season for 530 yards and four touchdowns. “(The) ball’s going to get in space,” Wilson said. “They’re fast at back, several backs playing, including their quarterback who is a run around guy.”Franklin is one of four Missouri players with at least 100 rushing yards this season. The Tigers are averaging nearly six yards per carry and Missouri has eight rushing touchdowns on the season. Even though IU hasn’t faced Missouri since 1992, Wilson is familiar with Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel and the Tigers’ coaching staff. Wilson coached in the Mid-American Conference at Miami (Ohio) from 1990-1998 when Pinkel was the head coach at Toledo.“Shoot, there are coaches on that staff that when I was an assistant in Miami we were recruiting against them, and they were at Toledo,” he said. “Same guys, they’ve been together forever. The players know what they want to practice and coach.”In 2001, Pinkel became Missouri’s head coach, and Wilson joined the University of Oklahoma in the following year, where they once again competed, only this time in the Big 12 Conference. Wilson said Pinkel’s coaching staff has changed some, but the core is the same. “It starts with Coach Pinkel, who is a class act, great coach, proven winner, very, very consistent in what he’s done,” he said. “I know their program is bouncing back from what was a disappointing year by their standards and what he’s created.”Wilson said the Tigers are well-coached and play well in all three phases of the game.“They’re not going to lose the game,” he said. “You have to beat a team like Missouri.”Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS.
(09/16/13 5:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For IU junior wide receiver Cody Latimer, Bowling Green was not just the Hoosiers’ next opponent. The Falcons represented a chance for Latimer to connect with his father Colby, who was a linebacker at Bowling Green in the mid-1980s and passed away in 2005 after nearly a year-long bout with cancer. Fittingly, Colby Latimer would have turned 47-years-old last Monday, when IU began to prepare for its matchup against the Falcons. “It was kinda special,” Latimer said. “I talked to him before the game. I told him to be with me and stay with me, and I’m going to go out and play my best.”On Saturday afternoon, he caught six passes for a career high 137 receiving yards and one touchdown en route to a 42-10 victory. “It was a great win for us,” Latimer said. “The game was more about the team than anything.”Latimer said the Hoosiers knew they would be defended by Bowling Green’s man-press defense.“We thought as a receiving core that we aren’t going to let anyone defend us one-on-one,” he said. “The quarterbacks did a good job of putting the ball where we needed them to, and we did a good job of making plays.”Six players recorded at least one reception against the Falcons and five of them had at least 30 receiving yards in the game. “You don’t ever know who will have a good game or get the ball because we got so many weapons,” Latimer said. “The quarterback does a good job of spreading it around to everybody.”Each game this season, a different player has led IU in receiving. Latimer, a 2012 All-Big Ten second team honoree and member of the Biletnikoff Award Watch List, had a relatively quiet start to the 2013 season. Through the first two weeks of the season, Latimer was IU’s fourth-leading receiver with only five receptions for 73 yards. After the Hoosiers’ loss to Navy, IU Offensive Coordinator Seth Littrell said IU needed to find different ways to get Latimer the ball while also playing within its system.“He’s gonna make plays this season,” Littrell said. “He’s gonna have opportunities to where he’s gonna be the primary guy on certain routes. The last couple weeks haven’t really presented that as much.”On Saturday, it was Latimer’s turn to shine for the Hoosiers, as more than one-third of sophomore quarterback Nate Sudfeld’s 26 pass attempts were intended for the junior wide receiver.“I just let the game come to me,” he said. “I just did what I had to do, and the quarterback threw me the ball, and I made plays.”Sophomore running back Tevin Coleman said Latimer had a lot of energy, which was a good sign for IU’s offense. “I was really happy for Cody because he’s a good guy,” Coleman said. “He’s out there every day busting and just playing hard. He’s a team guy, a team player.”Hughes said Latimer is IU’s beast, and the Hoosiers fed him. “We threw him the ball, and you really can’t contain him. You can’t hold him back,” he said.Hughes said Latimer had a great offseason, and he is a good leader for the Hoosiers.“We said, ‘Hey, let’s go out there and ball for your dad,’” Hughes said. “‘He would probably want you to,’ and that’s what he did.”Latimer credited his week-long preparation and his performance against Bowling Green to his desire to play well against his father’s alma mater. “It gave me a little more juice, just kept me focused and let me know what I had to really do,” he said. “I told him I was going to go out here and put on a show against his team.”Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS.
(09/13/13 3:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Following the first two weeks of the college football season, Indiana (1-1) ranks 11th in the FBS in total offense and fourth in points scored. The Hoosiers’ offense will face its biggest challenge of the season thus far on Saturday when IU plays the Bowling Green State Falcons (2-0) at Memorial Stadium. IU Coach Kevin Wilson said Bowling Green has a good and sound defense. He credits their vision and alignment as reasons for their success. “They back it up with their film, and they back it up with numbers,” he said. “Last year they were top 10 in most defensive stats. Right now they lead the MAC in total defense, and to me that’s reasonably impressive because they’ve played two upper-level offenses.”Bowling Green defeated Tulsa and Kent State, who both won 11 games last season and played in the championship games of their respective conferences.“They’ve played two quality opponents, two teams that are very dynamic on offense,” Wilson said. “They’ve came out playing great defense like they always do.”IU Offensive Coordinator Seth Littrell said the Falcons’ defense is physical and gap-sound. “They’re definitely going to commit to stopping the run, and we got to make some plays out in space,” he said. “We got to do a good job of our fundamentals, coming off the ball and playing a physical football game because that’s what they’re all about and their guys have bought into that system.”Wilson said it is important for IU to avoid turning the ball over on offense. “We’ve had two passing turnovers that have led to potentially 14 points,” he said. “We had a pick six in the first game, we had a pick in the last game that took points off the board. I’m expecting us to bounce back.”IU’s third-year head coach said he sees the game as a great opportunity because he knows Bowling Green will be good. For Bowling Green, a win means at least one more week of remaining undefeated in 2013 and the halfway point to earning bowl eligibility.For IU, a win represents a turnaround game and the next piece of the puzzle as the Hoosiers try to make a bowl game for the first time since 2007.“I know they’re going to come in ready to play,” Wilson said. “For us, we got to show what we’re about and we need to bounce back.”Saturday night will be a battle between IU’s high-powered offense and Bowling Green’s physical defense, and one will have to give way to the other. Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS.
(09/09/13 4:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Redshirt sophomore quarterback Tre Roberson started under center for the second consecutive game, but it was sophomore quarterback Nate Sudfeld who carried the Hoosiers’ offense in IU’s 41-35 loss to Navy on Saturday night.IU started the game with a three-and-out and a turnover on downs on its first two possessions. After the Midshipmen jumped out to an early 14-0 lead, Sudfeld took over on offense. He led IU on a 12-play, 63-yard drive, but threw an interception at Navy’s 3-yard line. “After that,” Sudfeld said, “I felt that I got into a rhythm, and our offense was kind of clicking.”IU scored on five of its next six possessions. The only drive in which the Hoosiers failed to reach the end zone was when Sudfeld took a knee with six seconds left in the first half.For the night, Sudfeld completed 31 of his 42 pass attempts for 363 yards and four touchdowns. While he’s known for his big arm more than his athleticism, the Modesto, Calif., native kept plays alive with his feet.Sudfeld led the team in rushing with 35 yards on six carries. Redshirt senior tight end Ted Bolser said Sudfeld is a fantastic quarterback. “He is going to be one of the best in the business,” Bolser said. “I love him back there.”Navy led 17-0 halfway through the second quarter, but IU climbed back to within one touchdown of the Midshipmen late in the game. “I was proud of the guys’ effort,” he said. “We were in the game the whole time. No one stopped believing the entire game.”With only half the fourth quarter remaining and the Hoosiers down 13 points, Sudfeld ignited a 14-play, 76-yard drive that ended with him throwing a jump ball to Bolser in the back of the end zone. “We knew we still had a chance,” Sudfeld said. “Just scrambled on that one and saw Ted get a little bit open, and I was going to throw him a little alley-oop dunk.”Bolser said Sudfeld trusts him, and his quarterback threw him a great ball.“I wanted to get it high to him and give him a chance,” Sudfeld said. “I knew if we got the ball back we would have a pretty good chance to score.”Sudfeld said IU Coach Kevin Wilson often compares the mindset of IU’s offense to that of professional golfer Tiger Woods when Woods is putting. “Tiger Woods goes to every putt expecting his opponent to make it,” Sudfeld said. “We can’t hope for our defense to make a stop.“We had to score every single drive to give ourselves a chance, and we did a lot of that after that interception, but we still dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, and we weren’t able to finish.”Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS.
(09/06/13 3:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Indiana led Navy 30-21 in the fourth quarter of last year’s matchup between the two schools in Annapolis, Md. The Midshipmen then went on two scoring drives that were more than 70 yards long to take a one-point lead. Cameron Coffman’s interception in the waning minutes of the game allowed Navy to run out the clock for the victory. IU (1-0) will host Navy at 6 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium. It will be the first time the Midshipmen have played in Bloomington since 1986. Saturday’s game will be the fourth time the two schools have played. IU leads the all-time series 2-1. The Hoosiers are coming off a 73-35 win in their season opener against Indiana State last Thursday. IU Coach Kevin Wilson hopes that the extra couple of days of practice allow the Hoosiers to see more of a boost in play. “You make strides from Week 1 to Week 2 and you get two more practice days,” he said. IU will have an advantage against Navy in game experience because Saturday’s game is the Midshipmen’s season opener. Navy was 8-5 in 2012 and lost to Arizona State in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. Navy is one of a handful of teams in the country who run the triple option offense, and the Midshipmen ran the ball on more than 80 percent of their offensive plays in 2012. Last season, Navy ranked sixth in the FBS in rushing yards per game, fourth in rushing first downs, tied for 15th in yards per rush and 32nd in rushing touchdowns. The Midshipmen lost more than 44 percent of their rushing yards from last season. Their biggest loss on offense was running back Gee Gee Greene, who rushed for 877 yards on 120 carries in 2012 and graduated in the spring. Since Navy is a run-first offense and the Midshipmen take a lot of time off the clock with their drives, senior wide receiver Kofi Hughes said that IU won’t get as many possessions as it would against most opponents. “We moved the ball pretty well in that game (last season), but we weren’t getting the points that we needed to and that was kind of the story of the season,” Hughes said. “All these yards but not points to match. Playing Navy, you’re not going to get that many drives, so you have to make the best of them.”Wilson said it’s a different style of game when facing a team that runs the option. He said that IU had 18 possessions going into the fourth quarter against Indiana State, but the Hoosiers only had 10 possessions total last year against Navy. He expects IU to have anywhere between eight and 11 possessions on Saturday. “If you get more than 12, either they’re scoring fast or you’re playing good D and they’ve turned it over,” Wilson said. “It’s a short game. What that does is it minimizes your opportunities so your errors are more exposed and more critical.”Follow football reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS.
(09/04/13 4:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Sophomore running back Tevin Coleman was a three-star recruit out of high school and the 37th best player at his position in the 2012 national recruiting class, according to Rivals. But the majority of his yards last season were on special teams. Coleman accumulated 566 yards on 24 kick returns, and he had the third-best average kickoff return in the Big Ten. On offense, the Tinley Park, Ill., native rushed for 225 yards on 51 carries, and he was the third-leading rusher for IU in both categories. While Coleman is still the starting kick returner for the Hoosiers, he has also claimed the starting spot at running back. In his first career start at running back Thursday night against Indiana State, Coleman rushed for 169 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries.IU running backs Coach Deland McCullough said that Coleman has improved “big-time” from his freshman to sophomore season. McCullough said that the sophomore was physically “always a good-looking player,” but he has managed to get even stronger, and he has a better understanding of the offense. “Last year he’d be lost at times as far as ‘Ok, what am I doing?’ and it kind of slowed him from playing at the pace he wanted to play at,” McCullough said. “As far as on our running plays, he knows what his read is and what he needs to do, so things just slowed down for him with maturity.”Coleman said that last year he “really didn’t know anything,” but now he knows all of the plays.“That motivates me more to get out there and show what I can do,” he said. “I want to be a 1,000-yard back.”Coleman is looking to become the 15th running back in IU history to surpass 1,000 yards in a season. Levron Williams was the last to accomplish the feat, in 2001.McCullough said the Hoosiers’ current running back situation is better than it was in past years.“A few years ago you had a guy, who if you want to use grades, you might have a guy who’s a B- and another guy who’s a D,” he said. “There was a big discrepancy. It was an obvious situation.”McCullough said IU has some players who are in “that upper-B, lower-A level.”“It’s almost like you have Tevin, who’s an A-, and Stephen, who’s a B, so I think the overall level of what we’ve got going on in there has been real positive,” he said.McCullough said overall Coleman did very well in both the spring and fall camp in terms of being a ball carrier, blocker and receiver. Coleman said he knew he worked harder and he wanted the starting job, which is why the coaches felt that he “should be the guy.”IU has more options than just Coleman at running back, and McCullough said the competition in the backfield has been positive for the Hoosiers. “You know I call these guys being ‘competitively supportive,’” Mccullough said. “They want to see each other do well, but at the same time, these guys want to elevate their game, and I think the ongoing competition between those guys (Coleman and Houston) as well as the other guys (D’Angelo Roberts and Laray Smith) has raised the overall level in the backfield.”Coleman said that despite the competition, the running backs remain close. He said they hang out every day off the field. “They’re my boys,” Coleman said.McCullough said all of the running backs are tight.“We got each other’s backs, we’ll be the first guy to say something if we need to straighten a situation out, and we’ve had to do that and keep each other in line,” he said. “There’s definitely healthy camaraderie in there, and it’s going to be a good thing to see how it plays out this season.” McCullough said it remains to be determined how Coleman and Houston, who led the team with 749 rushing yards last season, will split in 2013. He said the Hoosiers need to get a feel for how the games go.“Both of those guys will play, obviously, as well as some of the other guys helping them support role,” he said. “We don’t come in with a magic number of carries and who’s out there until guys start playing. At this point, Tevin has earned the right to be that first guy going out there, but Stephen knows that he’ll play as well.”Coleman said with IU’s depth in the backfield, “this running game is going to be a lot more explosive.”“(Offesnive Coordinator) Coach (Seth) Littrell said he’s gonna try to get us the ball a lot more, and he wants to get us the ball a lot more cause he’s seen in practice that we can tote that thing, so it’s going to be good,” he said.Littrell said the Hoosiers have more depth at running back than they’ve had in a long time, and that all of the players are pushing each other. “I think our guys are very capable of breaking tackles, making big runs, hitting home run shots, so I feel good about the position,” he said. “I think if they go out and play as a unit — they go out and play as a group, good things can happen.”While IU led the Big Ten in passing offense last season and nearly 60 percent of its plays in 2012 were pass attempts, McCullough said IU’s running game could be pretty good. He said IU’s offensive line has developed, and the backfield is more mature.“We’ve got our ups and downs,” he said, “but it’s been consistently pretty good level play back there that I think is going to transfer over positively on the field.” Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS
(08/30/13 5:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Indiana Hoosiers had a record-breaking offensive outburst in their season-opening victory against Indiana State Thursday night at Memorial Stadium. IU defeated the Sycamores 73-35 under the lights in front of a crowd of 40,278.IU Coach Kevin Wilson said that the Hoosiers’ effort was outstanding. “I thought our defensive effort, we got worked a couple times, but it was significantly better,” he said. “I still think we got to keep bringing the run game along and some things on offense but we’ve got some playmakers there and that’s evident. We’re a young team that’s got a lot of guys back, a lot of good younger players.”Redshirt sophomore quarterback Tre Roberson started the game under center, which officially ended an offseason full of questions about IU’s quarterback competition. He completed four of his seven passes for 75 yards and two touchdowns.Wilson said he wanted one of the other two quarterbacks to start, but the coaching staff as a whole decided to start Roberson. He said that after IU built up a large lead, he decided not to risk Roberson’s health.“It’s open, and that’s what I want,” Roberson said of the quarterback competition. “Cam and Nate are both good players. Them pushing me and us pushing each other is going to make us even better.”Backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld made a strong case for the Hoosiers’ coaching staff to continue using multiple quarterbacks. He completed more than 70 percent of his passes for 219 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.Eight IU receivers caught passes on Thursday, and half of them scored a touchdown. In total, the Hoosiers scored a school record 10 touchdowns. Their performance against ISU will go down in school history as the most points by IU in a half (45), most points at Memorial Stadium and the second-most points in a single game.The Hoosiers accumulated 632 total offensive yards in what was a balanced offensive effort. Fifty-four of IU’s 84 plays were rushing attempts, and the team posted more than 300 yards through the air and on the ground.Sophomore running back Tevin Coleman, who was named the starter last week, ran for 169 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries.Senior wide receiver and punt returner Shane Wynn scored all three times he touched the ball — twice on receptions and one punt return.Wynn was knocked out of the game when ISU’s Carlos Aviles leveled Wynn after he called for a fair catch. After the hit, IU responded with a 69-yard drive led by senior wide receiver Kofi Hughes.“On that drive specifically, you hurt one of our boys,” Hughes said. “And that’s one of my best friends. I took that really personally. I think that’s why I kind of went out there and played mad.”When reflecting on the game, Wilson said it was nice that IU played hard against ISU. “Stats are fair, we got a really good ‘W,’ playing can be so much better,” he said. “This week, it’s not coach speak, but given that we’re off, getting class, having a great Saturday, Sunday, when the Midshipmen come in, it’s going to be a good game.”Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS.
(08/29/13 4:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For the second consecutive season, Indiana State will return to Memorial Stadium tonight for its and IU’s first game of the season.The Hoosiers are 4-0 all time against the Sycamores, but ISU put up a strong fight in Bloomington last season thanks to then-junior running back Shakir Bell’s 223 all-purpose yards. Bell rushed for 192 yards on 24 carries against the Hoosiers in 2012, including a 54-yard scamper in the first quarter to give the Sycamores an early lead, and he caught four passes for 31 yards.The senior from Indianapolis’ Warren Central High School is listed at only 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds, but his sub-4.5 second speed for the 40-yard dash makes him elusive out of the backfield. IU Defensive Coordinator Doug Mallory said ISU’s running game will provide an early test for the Hoosiers’ defense. “He’s a great back. I don’t care what level he’s playing at,” Mallory said. “He’s not big in stature — he’s hard to get a clean shot on. He’s a very physical back for an undersized kid. Elusive and I think he’s got the speed, like you saw last year. “If he gets out in the open, he’s capable of taking it the distance.”In 2012, IU allowed 35.2 points per game, which ranked 104th in the country. After starting the season 2-0, the Hoosiers lost their next five games. Four of those losses were by a combined 10 points, and IU allowed 936 rushing yards in those games.Mallory said the Hoosiers put a strong emphasis on defending the run in the offseason.“Coach Wilson has done a good job servicing us this spring,” he said. “Just giving us a lot of the two-back, one-back run power-type game that we’re going to continue to see throughout the year.“That’s something that if you’re going to be a good defense, you got to be able to defend the run first, so we put a real strong emphasis on that, whether it’s going against scout work or going against our offense. I think it’s going to carry over to this season.”Mallory said he has read reports that Mike Sanford, ISU’s first-year head coach, and his staff are working on getting the ball to Bell out in the open more often.Wilson said Bell is one of the premier players in all of college football, and he could make it to the NFL. “He looks as good or better than guys we play with and have played with,” Wilson said. “A Big Ten level back, and that’s a credit again previously to all their linemen and what they’ve done in the past. “Shakir Bell is a tremendous player. He is basically the Heisman Trophy-type player of that division of football.”Wilson said IU will have better defensive line play this season as well as more depth on defense because of the freshmen that will be “in the mix.” He said Bell and the Sycamores’ offense will be a good challenge for the Hoosiers’ defense. “They’ve always been committed to it,” Wilson said. “Their linemen are used to it, so even though it’s a coaching change, that’s an environment that was used to running the football. Running is more attitude and mindset than scheme, and stopping the run is the same deal.“It’s going to be a great starting point with Indiana State, and whether we can win 3-2 — whatever we can do to get a ‘W,’ we need to get a ‘W.’ “It needs to be a physical style of play to get a ‘W,’ and I expect those guys to come in and play a tremendous game.”Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS.
(08/28/13 4:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fifth-year senior kicker Mitch Ewald plays a position that can make it difficult to earn teammates’ respect.Some kickers fight an uphill battle in order to feel like “one of the guys.”“Sometimes kickers are a little bit standoffish,” he said. “I just think if you mix in with those guys and really try and hang out with them in the locker room and outside of football, they respect you a little bit more. They support you more, they’ve got your back.”As he embarks on his fifth season in the IU football program, Ewald has bridged gap between him and the rest of the team. He is no longer Mitch Ewald, the kicker, in the eyes of his teammates. He’s Mitch Ewald, an IU football player.“At the beginning of practice every day, I run routes with the receivers and catch balls from the quarterbacks,” he said. “(I) just kind of mess around with them to lighten the mood, have a little bit of fun, show off how athletic I really am.“I just do that for fun, try to have a little bit of fun with the guys, try and just really not be a kicker.”Ewald said when he was a freshman, then-long snapper Jeff Sanders and kicker Nick Ford helped teach him what it meant to be an IU football player.“Those guys really took me under their wing and kind of showed me the ropes,” Ewald said. “I learned a lot from them, and they inspired me. I looked up to them and I still do.”Ewald said he learned that the process of getting to know one’s teammates starts by hanging out with them off of the football field.“My freshman year I would hang out with Duwyce Wilson,” Ewald said. “Him and guys like Lawrence Barnett were a couple of my really, really good friends freshman year,” “Hanging out with those guys outside of football, in the locker room, away from the practice field — that’s really how you do it. You just become more comfortable around those guys.”Ewald said it took more than just becoming friends with his teammates. He also had to perform well on the field.In his career, Ewald is 44-for-55 on field goal attempts and 105-for-106 on extra points.“You got to perform on the field to gain their respect as well,” he said. “Once those things come together, it just happens.”He said a lot of the respect he has earned as a player has come from everything “outside of actually kicking,” especially his performance in off-season workouts.“When you’re in the weight room, how hard you’re working in the weight room, what kind of weight you put up, how hard you’re running in the running workouts — that all tells guys how hard you’re working and what kind of athlete you really are,” Ewald said. “When I’m away in practice kicking, nobody sees me but how I warm up, how I stretch, how I lift in the weight room, how I run in the running workouts — stuff like that.”It also doesn’t hurt that he has 12 career tackles, seven of which were solo.“I don’t think that anyone ever expected me to really make a whole bunch of tackles,” he said. “I wasn’t really expecting that either, and that kind of just happened that way in the last couple seasons at least.”Above all else, Ewald said his role as a leader and his on-field success comes from how he carries himself.“I walk around with confidence,” Ewald said. “I’m confident in what I do, but at the same time, I know that I can always get better, and I can always improve.”Ewald’s role as a leader on the IU football team was evident after he was chosen to represent the Hoosiers at the Big Ten Media Days in July in Chicago. He was the only kicker present at the media days.“It’s kind of funny because you’re the smallest guy walking around,” he said. “All these guys probably have no idea who I am, but it’s fun.”Ewald said he was surprised when he was told he was one of the three players chosen to go to Chicago.“We’ve got so many great leaders on this team, older guys and younger guys, that I just figured they’d grab a few offensive guys and a defensive guy,” he said.As Ewald said, with 20 returning starters, IU isn’t short on experienced players. However, few players have as much experience as the Hoosiers’ kicker, who redshirted his freshman season in 2009.With more than four years in the IU football program, Ewald has learned what it looks to pass on those lessons to his teammates.Just as Sanders and Ford mentored him as a freshman, Ewald said he tries to do the same thing with IU’s younger kickers.“I don’t want to overwhelm them,” he said. “I don’t want to put so much pressure on them that they feel they have to act like me or do what I do.”Ewald said he shares what helped him in the past, especially when it comes to work ethic and how to carry oneself.He said other times in practice, he just sits on the field and watches his teammates snap and hold so he builds trust in them.“You can never have enough game experience or on-field experience and trust in your coaches and teammates,” Ewald said. “It builds every single year, so every single year you become more confident and you look forward to having more opportunities.”Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @andywittryids.
(08/27/13 4:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Athletics has made an annual effort since 2009 to improve the IU football experience for fans and players alike. This year, five years since Memorial Stadium was overhauled with the facelift of the north end zone, IU Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Fred Glass announced Monday that he will add more fanfare to the game day experience.The enhancements were broken down into four categories: infrastructure improvements, building awareness for game day, pre-game and in-game.The two physically apparent additions are the prow of the U.S.S. Indiana and the 154.5-foot flagpole constructed near the south end zone. The concourses have been updated with new flat screen televisions. Some improvements were designed for the fans, including improved cell phone connectivity through Verizon, three more t-shirt machine guns and a cannon, “Big Jake,” that will shoot off after IU scores.The effort to build awareness for IU football isn’t limited to gamedays. There will be Thursday flash mob rallies, Friday night spirit patrols and an increased social media presence, which will feature contests for fans.The Hoosier football team’s pre-game walk will now begin at 17th and Woodlawn and will include a stop by the tailgate fields so that fans can more actively interact with players before the games. There will be new cheers, a weekly helmet giveaway and performance awards that could allow fans to get discounts at Kilroy’s and Papa John’s. Daniel Weber and Brice Fox, who produced “This is Indiana,” will make a new football song and video that will premiere at the Penn State game Oct. 5. “We’re trying to keep a kind of a campaign edge, kind of a revolution edge,” Glass said, “and challenge ourselves just like we sort of challenged the things that were here when we got here five years ago.”Glass, who was hired in 2009, said after making the changes to the north end zone and hiring IU Coach Kevin Wilson, this year was more difficult to find ways to make major improvements, but that he thinks fans will find the gameday experience at Memorial Stadium much better.“I think one of the real challenges for anyone who’s involved in a leadership position ... is that you’ve got to keep looking at your role and what’s going on with external eyes,” he said. “That’s real easy when it’s new, and it’s easy when you’re challenging the views of the previous regime, and it’s easy when you’re solving the poblems of the previous regime. It’s harder when you’ve been there long enough to create your own problems and your own things need to be re-evaluated, and so it’s sort of like the revolution.”As part of its evaluation of the Glass “regime,” IU Athletics decided to incorporate the student body. Since the fans are a large part of the gameday experience, the Student Athletic Board met with the Marching Hundred, Redsteppers, Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Association, IUSA, Resident Assistants and Student Orientation Leaders in order to seek advice that accurately represented the IU student population. With eight home games on the IU football slate in 2013, IU Athletics will have many opportunities to showcase the numerous enhancements.Glass said the process has been “highly collaborative” with the football staff, and he said he frequently met with Wilson to discuss the additions. “We really appreciate the work that Mr. Glass, the administration and our student leaders contributed to make Memorial Stadium the place to be on gameday,” Wilson said in a press release. “The commitment from our administration has been awesome and we can’t thank everyone enough. Hoosier Nation, we need you to come out in full force, be loud and let’s win together.”
(08/21/13 3:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Sophomore starting right guard Dan Feeney will likely miss the entire 2013 seasonafter suffering a lisfranc injury that will require surgery to his foot, IU Coach KevinWilson said Monday.Feeney, an ESPN.com Big Ten All-Freshman Team member in 2012 , started all12 games last season, an IU record for a true freshman offensive lineman. The 6-foot-4, 310-pound lineman did not allow a sack in 935 snaps and finished second on the team with 54 knockdowns, according to the IU media guide.“You know you kind of feelseveral players who could fill the void left by the loss ofFeeney. “(Sophomore) Jake Reed has been playing center and guard, (junior) Bernard Taylor you know of course is starting, (sophomore David) Kaminski’s done very, verywell at camp, (sophomore) Ralston Evans, those guys you can kick in there,” hesaid. “It’s a position where we’re deep enough.”Redshirt freshman Jacob Bailey is listed as the second-string right guard behindFeeney in the IU media guide. Wilson said he is also still trying to figure out his starting quarterback, a decision that will not be made until at least Friday, if not later.He did not specify a date by which he plans to have a decision made.Junior Cameron Coffman, and sophomores Tre Roberson and Nate Sudfeld are competing for the starting position. Wilson said none of the three players have stood out from the other two.“They’re all fighting pretty good, kind of a close call, and they’re all solid players,they’re all teammates, they all got to be better,” he said. Wilson said they’re verysimilar statistically, and he said their peers respect all three of them as leaders.Wilson and Offensive Coordinator Seth Littrell said IU is not going to change itsoffense for one quarterback. “They all have different strengths, but we’re still running the same offense, whether it be movement plays, dropback plays, passes, you name it,” Wilson said. “We’ll just keep rotating them the way we’re doing.”When asked if a twoquarterback system could be an option for the Hoosiers’ offense this season, senior tight end Ted Bolser said for all he knows, “there could be a three-quarterback system.”“We’ve just got to roll with it, whatever he chooses,” he said. “He’s (Wilson) an offensive genius, so we trust him.”Follow Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittryIDS
(08/20/13 10:13pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Coach Kevin Wilson said when he got to IU, no one truly knew the definition of a Hoosier.“I wanted to define a Hoosier from a football perspective,” he said. Wilson created a list of characteristics that he wanted to describe his program. He said IU was going to be accountable and confident. Competitive and demanding. Fearless and honest.In total, he came up with 12 values to put on a billboard, but he said they were “just words on a wall” until the fifth week of the 2011 season.The Hoosiers started Wilson’s first season 1-3. They spent the last week of September preparing for Penn State, the first Big Ten game of the Wilson era. IU lost 16-10 to the Nittany Lions, but the Penn State week marked the inception of a fundamental change in the Hoosier football program. Wilson saw the IU men’s basketball team working with a military group in Memorial Stadium and stopped to watch.“I was intrigued,” he said.Wilson asked the military group if they could work with the football team after the season and they returned the following January. “It’s not physical training, it’s leadership training,” Wilson said, reflecting on the two-day training session.In Wilson’s words, the instructions from the military to the team were to stand in front of the group and lead an exercise.“If they don’t do it right, you’re leading the exercise, so you’re wrong,” he said. “Here’s the exercise, you get them to do it. Line them up, tell them what to do and make sure they accomplish the task.”Wilson said the experience was “pretty cool” because it made the players take ownership of the team. He said he realized it wasn't that IU didn't have leaders, but the program had to develop leaders.“We have to develop leaders like you develop a right tackle, like you develop a quarterback, like you develop a DB," he said.Wilson had his players vote to determine the top 10 leaders on the team, and each of the top leaders would get their own “platoon.” The votes were tallied, but Wilson was unsure of what to name the platoons.After finishing recruiting, Wilson went on a brief vacation to the Bahamas. He said that one morning around 3 a.m., he woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. Wilson said that he’s not a “workaholic,” but since he was wide-awake, he started working.“I’m not sleeping, so I start thinking,” he said. “I got these 10 leaders that I have to come up with names.”Wilson decided that Rattlers, Giants and Cowboys weren’t good enough names. Then he remembered that he had the 12 “What’s a Hoosier?” values. “As a matter of fact, when I looked at my leadership vote, (senior kicker) Mitch Ewald was number 12,” Wilson said. “I said these are my 12 leaders, and let’s choose those 12 values.”He gathered the 12 leaders and had each player pick a teammate to be second-in-command, starting with Ewald. Then the leaders chose their team names from the list of Hoosier football values.Senior safety Greg Heban said that by having eight or nine players under each leader, it breaks up the team’s accountability. He said it's his job to make sure his platoon is doing well and trusting that the other leaders are doing their jobs.“I don’t have to worry about (senior wide receiver) Kofi (Hughes) or Mitch," Heban said. "I trust that their team is doing just as good as ours. It definitely builds the team camaraderie.”The senior safety said that he loves the platoon leadership system. He said it creates a chain of command — from Wilson to the 12 platoon leaders to the rest of the team.“It got to the point where the leaders are running the team,” Heban said. “He wants us to punish them.”He said if a member of his platoon misses class, he texts him and tells him to meet in the weight room at 6 a.m. From there, Heban puts his teammate “through a little work as a little punishment.”“If they keep doing it, the punishments get harder,” he said. “It’s kind of nice for the leaders to step up and take charge.”Despite the positive strides in team leadership, Wilson said that the team can still improve in terms of its on-field leadership. “How do we lead when we play?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m interested in how we go. I think we’ve cleaned up the periphery leadership.“We haven’t quite bridged that, and that’s what I’m interested in seeing as we grow.”Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittry
(07/25/13 1:34am)
IU Coach Kevin Wilson said that because of the physical nature of
playing running back and the pace at which running backs play, most
teams will play with more than one.
(07/25/13 1:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Coach Kevin Wilson played more freshmen than any other coach in the country in 2012 as 16 true freshmen and 16 redshirt freshmen saw action for the Hoosiers last season. Now, IU is on the heels of assembling one of its best recruiting classes in school history. Five four-star prospects headline a 23-player class.“We probably have got the most gifted class showing up as day one freshmen when we show up next Friday,” Wilson said.IU’s third-year coach said after watching the incoming freshmen in camp, they appear to be as gifted as some of the current Hoosiers.The Hoosiers lost two defensive starters — defensive tackles Adam Replogle and Larry Black Jr. — from last year’s squad, which means there will be opportunities for freshmen to play on defense. IU’s incoming freshmen class has six defensive linemen. Indianapolis-based four-star recruits David Kenney and Darius Latham are IU’s top-rated prospects. On the 2013 depth chart, six freshmen are listed as one of the top two players at their positions. Right guard Jacob Bailey, right tackle Dimitric Camiel, defensive tackle Ralphael Green, punter Nick Campos and holder Mitchell Paige are redshirt freshmen contending for a starting role. Middle linebacker T.J. Simmons is the lone true freshman on the depth chart. He was one of the three players in IU’s 2013 signing class to enroll in spring classes and participate in spring practice. “T.J. Simmons is the only one that’s been here, because he graduated early, that we saw lift, run, workout, practice,” Wilson said. “That’s going to be a two-deep impact player at linebacker.”Wilson said the coaching staff didn’t guarantee recruits playing time but given the “pretty good” skill set among the freshmen, he thinks that the Hoosiers will have a lot of competition for playing time. Senior wide receiver Kofi Hughes said Wilson is not afraid of playing freshmen.“If a freshman deserves to play, he’s going to play him. He doesn’t look at them as freshmen, he looks at them like everybody’s equal,” Hughes said. “Those guys are performing great and I think that they’re going to do great.”Wilson described the Hoosiers as a veteran, but a growing team.“We do have guys that are battle tested,” he said. “We have guys that are getting more mature, but I do think we’re a young team growing.”Hughes echoed his coach’s sentiment. “The new recruits, that’s just the icing on the cake,” he said. “Having them at workouts and seeing them hit weight and seeing how strong and technically advanced these guys are for high school kids, it’s making that vibe skyrocket because everyone is looking around like ‘Ok, we got a squad.’”
(05/27/13 11:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>INDIANAPOLIS — Entering the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500, Brazilian IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan had 14 wins, 11 poles and a 2004 IndyCar Series title to his name.Yet, there was a void in his career résumé left from his unsuccessful pursuits of an Indy 500 victory after 11 starts at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.Before Sunday, Kanaan had five top-five Indy 500 finishes and had led a sizeable number of laps in eight Indy 500s, but he had never captured the elusive title in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”All of that changed Sunday.After a restart on lap 197 following Graham Rahal’s crash on the back straightaway, Kanaan stole the lead from Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay in Turn 1. Seconds later, three-time Indy 500 champion and Kanaan’s former teammate, Dario Franchitti, lost control of his No. 10 Target car. Franchitti drove high on the track and crashed into the wall, which brought out the yellow caution flag for the remaining three laps. Kanaan, the fan-favorite at IMS, took the checkered flag.On a race day in which the drivers set numerous records relating to speed and passing at the front of the pack, including the number of lead changes (68, which doubled the 2012 record of 34), the winning average speed (187.433 mph) and the number of lap leaders (14), Kanaan crossed the finish line with the caution flag waving above the track.Sunday’s 21 caution-flag laps tied the record for the fewest in Indy 500 history and the drivers raced without incident for a record 133 consecutive laps from lap No. 61 to lap No. 193, when Hunter-Reay held the lead heading into the caution. Kanaan celebrated his victory by accepting the winner’s wreath, drinking 2-percent milk out of a glass bottle in the winner’s circle, kissing the yard of bricks with his KV Racing Technology team and, most importantly for him, crossing his name off the list of “the best drivers to never win the Indy 500.”“I’m glad I put myself out of that group and put myself in the other group,” he said. “I’m glad I’m on the other side and I can put my big nose on that trophy.”Franchitti said he felt a little better seeing who was leading after he crashed into the wall in Turn 1 and praised Kanaan for earning his spot on the Borg-Warner Trophy.“It cheered me up a bit,” he said. “Great, just phenomenal that Tony won. We were never in contention, but I’m just so happy he won. He’s a very, very deserving winner.”The two former Andretti-Green Racing teammates traded waves when Kanaan passed Franchitti’s wreckage as they both knew that Kanaan would soon join an elite group of drivers to win the biggest race in IndyCar.“When he saw I was in the lead, he was shaking his head, like waving at me,” Kanaan said. “It was special, very special.”Just as he shared his soon-to-be victory with Franchitti for that brief moment, Kanaan celebrated his win with the fans at the IMS.“I got a little bit of luck today,” Kanaan said. “It’s for the fans. It’s for my dad that’s not here. But mainly for all of you guys.”There is mutual love between Kanaan and his fans in Indianapolis. The loudest cheers of the day were for the Brazilian driver.“I was looking at the stands, and it was unbelievable,” Kanaan said. “I’m speechless.”Kanaan said his large IndyCar fan base became apparent after a crash in 2008 when the fans at IMS celebrated him with thunderous applause when he climbed out of his car.“Ever since then it kept growing and growing,” he said. “Every year that went by that I didn’t win, we kept growing the fan base. More people felt sorry. More people felt that I deserved to win.”Kanaan said he didn’t have enough pockets for all of the things that his fans gave him to bring him luck.“I probably have to bring a truck with me behind the car,” he said when considering how he could possibly bring all of his good luck charms with him to IMS.Kanaan said he began to realize his change in fortune at IMS when he was following the pace car on the 199th lap.“I started to check everything in my car,” he said. “Do we have enough fuel, have four wheels? You kind of go crazy.”After 12 tries, Kanaan captured his first Indy 500 title.“We were known for not winning. Now we’re known for winning,” Kanaan said. “This is it. I made it.”Kanaan said he has dreamed of winning the Indy 500 for his entire life but, as he has gotten older, he wanted to win more for his fans than for himself.“If you can bring some joy to them, and I think the best thing was try to put an exciting race for them,” he said. “I believed that this win was more for the people out there than for me.”Kanaan said as he began to accept that he might never have the chance to win at IMS, the fans are what made racing in the Indy 500 so special for him.“From day one, it catches me by surprise, I can’t walk out there,” he said. “The parade, everywhere, it’s just unbelievable. I think wins are important, trophies are really nice, but what I’m going to take forever, it’s definitely this.”
(05/22/13 11:11pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Hours before winning the Indianapolis 500 Pole Saturday, Ed Carpenter said that anything can happen at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.In Carpenter’s case, “anything” meant being the only driver from a single-car team to qualify for the “fast nine,” beating Team Penske and Andretti Autosport for the pole position. Canadian driver James Hinchcliffe, an Andretti Autosport driver who qualified ninth, Carpenter said. “You’re fighting over the smallest amounts of time and the smallest bits of speed,” he said. “The series is so competitive and even taking just two seconds to have a break and enjoy it, you’re probably going to get passed by someone else. When you come here to the speedway, everybody starts at zero and everything that we’ve learned in the first four races pretty much goes out the window.” Hinchcliffe said that while he thinks it’s great to see Andretti Autosport cars on top of the speed charts, he’s not resting too comfortably. “We’re not sleeping too well at night because this is Indy and anything can happen,” he said. Last Sunday, referred to as Bump Day at IMS, showed the truth of the sentiment that truly anything can happen en route to determining the Indy 500 champion. For Katherine Legge, a last minute entry as the driver of the No. 81 Angie’s List car, “anything” meant racing at the IMS for the first time in 2013, and despite missing out on eight days of practice that other drivers had, qualifying for the 2013 edition of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing as the final driver in the field of 33. “Would it be great to have a week’s preparation?” she asked before her qualifying attempt. “Yes. But I know by the end of the day, we will have this beat, so I’m not worried.”At 9:04 a.m. May 19, she completed her first lap at IMS in nearly one year. She said that she drove fewer than 20 total practice laps before attempting to qualify. Between Wednesday and Thursday of last week alone, the rest of the field accumulated 4,392 laps.“I’m not going to lie, I was freaking out this morning,” Legge said.At 12:56 p.m., she had qualified for the Indy 500 for the second consecutive year. The British driver was filled with emotion after her qualifying run.“I haven’t slept in like three days, so I’m going to sleep tonight, which is good,” she said. “It’s been a long day, but it’s been a great day and a great opportunity. So just happy now, relieved to be in the field.”When one door of opportunity opened, another closed. Michel Jourdain Jr., who qualified for the Indy 500 in 1996 and 2012, did not feel comfortable driving the No. 17 Office Depot car and did not officially attempt to qualify on Bump Day. “We know, for sure, that there is something wrong with the car,” he said. “Something bent, broken, loose, bending. Something is broken in the middle of the car we have not seen.”In practice, Jourdain Jr. attempted to use the set-up of his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammates James Jakes and Graham Rahal in order to correct for the mysterious flaw in the car. Despite averaging 220.461 mph in his qualifying attempt on Pole Day, Jourdain Jr. said that his car was undriveable on Sunday no matter which driver’s set-up was implemented or who was driving the car. “Then we put Graham in the car,” he said. “It was impossible for him to make a difference; he just couldn’t drive it. He got to 204 and said, ‘I can’t go any faster.’” With Bump Day in the rear-view mirror, Legge will try to make the most of the remaining practice sessions because anything can happen on Sunday and by starting in the 33rd position, she can only improve.“You know, stranger things have happened,” she said. “I’m not under any illusions that we’re likely to win, but stranger things have happened, and I have a really good race car. It’s going to be about being smart. It’s going to be about getting through the field.”
(05/19/13 11:39pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>INDIANAPOLIS — Two-thirds of the 33 drivers who attempted to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 on Saturday at Pole Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are from foreign countries, yet it was Indy’s own Ed Carpenter who claimed pole position.The 32-year-old Butler University graduate founded his own single-car team, Ed Carpenter Racing, sponsored by Fuzzy’s Premium Vodka in 2012. On Pole Day Saturday, Ed Carpenter Racing toppled two of IndyCar’s historic powers: Penske Racing and Andretti Autosport. Team Penske, comprised of three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Rookie of the Year candidate AJ Allmendinger, dominated the Saturday morning practice sessions. Power, whose car caught fire in his last race at the Sao Paulo Indy 300 on May 5, drove around the two and a half mile track at 229.808 mph during the open practice, which was the fastest speed of the morning. Allmendinger posted the second fastest speed of the morning at 229.086 mph. Castroneves was sixth in the standings with a speed of 227.978 mph. Rain showers swept into the Indianapolis area Saturday after practice and delayed qualifications more than two hours until 1:30 p.m. When Pole Day finally commenced, all drivers drove four consecutive laps. The 24 drivers with the fastest average speeds qualified for the Indy 500.Then the top nine qualifiers, referred to as the Fast Nine, competed in the same manner to determine the order of the first three rows of starting positions for the Indy 500. In the first stage of qualifications, five Andretti Autosports drivers, three Team Penske drivers, and Carpenter, all of whom drive Chevrolets, placed in the top nine to advance to the second segment and fight for the pole. Power’s four-lap average was 228.844, the fastest time in the first segment. Castroneves and Allmendinger finished fourth and seventh, respectively. Andretti Autosport’s five-headed monster, comprised of 2012 IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, Rookie of the Year candidate Carlos Muñoz, Marco Andretti, E.J. Viso and James Hinchcliffe claimed the majority of the Fast Nine positions. And then there was Carpenter, who was in the middle of the first segment in fifth place. Andretti’s position in the shootout was one spot before Carpenter and he took control of first place with an average speed of 228.261 mph. Carpenter came out at a blistering pace of 229.347 mph on his first lap and also topped Andretti’s average speed in his second and third laps. In front of his home crowd, Carpenter sealed the deal at 227.955 mph in his final lap. With Muñoz’s shootout attempt less than half a mile per hour slower then that of Carpenter, it was Power’s pole to lose. Carpenter, who said that his earliest memory of the Indy 500 was watching the 1991 Pole Day from Turn Two, said he knew he was going to win the pole as he watched Power from pit row. “I kind of knew on the first lap that it was going to happen to be honest, after seeing what Helio and A.J. had done,” he said. “I figured he would fall off too much to maintain the average that we had.”Carpenter said that after he saw Allmendinger and Castroneves gradually lose speed each lap, he expected the same from Power. Despite breaking 229 mph on his first lap of the shootout, the Australian Power lost nearly two miles per hour over the course of his next three laps and finished in sixth place with an average speed of 228.087 mph.Despite his parents and sister being in South Bend, Ind., for his sister’s graduation from the University of Notre Dame, Carpenter’s new family members — the IndyCar fans from Indianapolis and the state of Indiana — lined the home stretch of the track to cheer for their hometown driver.“I’ve lived here since I was eight years old, went to school at Butler University and probably will never leave,” Carpenter said. “It gives you confidence knowing that people are behind you and I’ve got a great family, a lot of them are here.”While Carpenter was thrilled to win the pole, he kept his victory in perspective of what lies ahead Sunday. “It’s definitely a landmark day but I don’t want to get overly focused on this because we have a lot of work to do yet,” he said. “I want to make sure that we keep focus because I hope this is part one of a really magical month. We’re here for race day.”
(05/13/13 12:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>No. 41 Indiana’s NCAA Tournament run was short-lived as No. 19 Vanderbilt (16-11) bounced IU out of the first round with a 4-0 victory in Clemson, S.C. Friday.With the loss, the Hoosiers end the year with an 18-10 record, which marks the most wins for the IU women’s tennis program since the 2007-08 season.While the Hoosiers failed to earn a point, the match was much closer than the score would indicate. IU was competitive in all three doubles matches and three of the singles matches went to three sets.The No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 singles matches were unfinished. IU was leading or tied in all three matches.Senior Leslie Hureau, who is ranked No. 115, led No. 63 Lauren Mira 6-4, 5-6 in the No. 1 position. Sophomore Katie Klyczek, who is ranked No. 114, was tied with Courtney Colton 6-4, 4-6, 1-1 in the No. 2 spot. In the No. 3 match, sophomore Alecia Kauss led Marie Casares 7-5, 3-6, 3-0 when Vanderbilt won its fourth point.In both the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches, the Hoosiers trailed 5-4. Vanderbilt’s Ashleigh Antal and Casares defeated Kauss and sophomore Shannon Murdy 8-4 in the No. 2 match. Georgina Sellyn and Frances Altick topped junior Sophie Garre and Klyczek 8-4 in the No. 3 position to win the doubles point for the Commodores.The No. 1 doubles match went unfinished, with the Hoosiers trailing 6-4.In singles, No. 95 Sellyn bested sophomore Carolyn Chupa 6-1, 6-1 in the No. 3 match to give the Commodores a 2-0 lead.In the No. 5 position, Antal took the first set against Garre 6-2. Garre won the second set by the same margin, but Antal won the match with another 6-2 victory in the third set.Altick sealed the victory for Vanderbilt in the No. 6 singles match. She defeated senior Jithmie Jayawickrema 7-6 (7-2) in a first set tiebreaker and followed it up by winning the second set 6-3.After defeating Indiana on Friday, Vanderbilt faced the No. 13 Clemson in the second round. Clemson bested the Commodores 4-2 to advance to the Round of 16 in Champaign, Ill.The top three finishers in the regular season Big Ten standings — Michigan, Nebraska, and Northwestern — also advanced to the Sweet 16.—Andy Wittry