Time still of the essence for Lynch

Amid a sea of disappointments and subsequent speculations, IU coach Bill Lynch finally found a lifeboat.  

Casting the buoy is IU Athletics Director Fred Glass, who made it part of his Wednesday agenda to tell the Indiana Daily Student his intentions of retaining Lynch as head coach, at least until the final two years of his contract expire.  

The problem, though, might not be with the actual contract, but in the fact that there is a contract to begin with. After leading IU to its first bowl game in more than a decade, everyone got swooped up in the excitement and Lynch was given the title of head man and an extension by former Athletics Director Rick Greenspan.

It wasn’t Glass’ decision to do so, but he said he is set to make sure contracts mean something at IU again. Lynch has two years remaining, and Glass will simply let those years play out, for better or worse.  

It’s a noble, if not untimely, stance to take.  

But he’s now put himself in a tough situation.

If the team struggles so badly that Glass is forced by his self-proclaimed IU fan personality to look for a new coach, he’ll come off as a hypocrite whose word means nothing to those future coaches.

If he sticks by his conviction, and the team does continue to struggle, he’ll lose fans faster than you can say “Kicks for Keeps."

Glass said he doesn’t want to speculate on what would happen if the team doesn’t improve. He doesn’t want to get into the “what-ifs.”  

Yet he also wanted to make the point that, save a few unfortunate plays, the team could be bowl eligible already. He has a point, as the losses at Michigan and Northwestern were both lost by three points or less, and in both games, IU had complete control of the game at one point.

But what happened to not thinking about the “what-ifs?”

After all, the team has been equally inconclusive in victory. In wins against Eastern Kentucky and Western Michigan, a late-game fumble in their own red zone saved points and, possibly, the game for the Hoosiers.   

From a pure “what-if” standpoint, the Hoosiers could be 2-6 just as easily as they could be 6-2.  

Just speculating on how many games the Hoosiers could have lost isn’t sufficient justification for a fire, but thinking about how many games they could have won isn’t enough to keep a coach, either.

You can point out how close the Hoosiers have been to breaking through, but the simple fact is they haven’t. Good teams don’t make excuses for losing; they put themselves in a position to win.  

To Lynch’s credit, he has done a pretty decent job trying to push that idea. He always preaches that one play doesn’t make a game, and he seems to be trying harder this year to make the team forget losses.  

Eventually, IU needs a coach that won’t have to work on getting past losses as frequently. Whether that turns out to be Lynch or not depends only on time.  

For now, there will be no great flood pouring from the IU Athletics office, wiping out the IU coaching staff, but Lynch has to turn it around.

With the time he is getting, he will be expected to build a consistently successful program.

Losses are his riptide, and if Lynch doesn’t turn it around, he’ll drown out just as countless others have done in Bloomington.