Reeling in reality

Do you think the IU football team is tired of losing? Well, I'm tired of writing about them losing. It is optimism one day and reality the next.\nEvery Monday I write about how this week the hopes of Hoosier fans were hampered by a Big Ten opponent. The results are so despairing that I cannot even make a joke about it, which is what I do best. \nSee -- the joke is... well... the football team itself. What do you get when you lose six straight games in conference? The Indiana Hoosiers. Who has allowed more than 40 points six times in seven losses to their opponents? The Indiana Hoosiers. Knock, knock, false expectations -- who's there? The Indiana Hoosiers.\nIt wasn't one person who gave Saturday's game away to Purdue. It was literally a team effort. Freshman wideout James Hardy fumbled the ball at the IU 35-yard line. Sophomore quarterback Blake Powers threw a screen pass straight into the hands of Purdue defensive end Ray Edwards -- one of three interceptions on the day. Junior wideout Jahkeen Gilmore juggled a near-caught ball, which was intercepted by Purdue's Brent Grover. Senior running back Yamar Washington coughed up the ball to the ground and back into the Boilermakers' hands. And finally, the second quarter ended. \nOf course, Purdue did not do anything new. They did what they have always done to IU and sent the Hoosiers off, into the frozen waste of the winter off-season, on a losing note. Now the coach, the team and the program have been stripped bare by six destructive and consecutive losses.\nThe cream and crimson community was hypnotized by a fresh start, if only to believe, even in the briefest of moments, that there was someone who could restore respect. But now the gig is up and the spell is broken. A weary, war-torn and now wheel-less IU bandwagon is left wondering where all those wins went. \nTerry Hoeppner is a football coach. But since his glorious arrival to the Bloomington campus, he has been described as a savior, a salesman, a motivator and a promoter. Most importantly, he has been described as a winner. \nIn all fairness, it is difficult to ask one man to turn around a program, in one season, that has lavished in the limelight of losing. It is difficult to tell one man to right a ship wronged, heading straight toward an obstacle of icebergs. And yet, we cannot help but feel cheated somehow. If you want to blame anyone, blame the public relations campaign that poured promises into Bloomington at hurricane speeds.\nMeanwhile, it is official. The entire town of Bloomington has been Punk'd. In a season swept up in the publicity of a new coach with new hopes, students sported their support with T-shirts that read, "Coach Hep Got Me!" Ticket sales soared as the Hoosiers aligned themselves two wins away from bowl eligibility, which shortly became two wins too many for IU. \nI'm sick of losing. Isn't anyone else? I was promised a change. I was promised something different. I believed those promises as I watched the Hoosiers all season and traveled to their games. I went to Memorial Stadium. I went to Madison, Wis., Iowa City, Iowa, East Lansing, Mich. and Ann Arbor, Mich., ... and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.