Glass expects Lynch to coach IU for 'a long, long time'

CHICAGO — The man responsible for deciding the future of Bill Lynch’s tenure as head football coach at IU made one thing absolutely clear Monday: Lynch has his unwavering support.

“I really feel like Bill and his staff have this program going in the right direction,” Glass said. “My sincere expectation is that he’ll be the coach here for a long, long time.”

Glass made the comments in lobby of the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place during this week’s Big Ten Football Media Days, where Lynch later addressed the assembled media during his allotted 15-minute question and answer period and joined the ranks of every other Big Ten coach touting their ever-positive predictions for the coming season.

Lynch then spoke with a smaller group of reporters outside the conference room where he reflected on Glass’ support.

“I think the support he’s given us has been great. I couldn’t ask for more,” said Lynch. “It’s been a really good relationship since he’s got there. He’s shown a great commitment to football.

“I think it shows, and I think our recruiting has gone pretty well.”

A year ago, Lynch led the Hoosiers to one conference win within a 4-8 record with now-senior quarterback Ben Chappell under center — though Lynch said he felt just a dozen or so plays changed the course of their season.

“We were about 12 plays away from playing in a really good bowl game,” Lynch said of last year’s squad. “From a football standpoint it came down to third down and there were a couple of fourth down plays in there. There were a couple of those games where it’s third and four, third and five, if we convert and keep the football, it changes the game.”

This year marks Lynch’s fourth full season as the Hoosiers’ head coach, though he served at the helm for several games in the 2006 season when the late former head coach Terry Hoeppner stepped away from the sidelines to deal with medical issues. Lynch assumed the top job after Hoeppner’s death in June 2007, and has compiled a record of 14-23 in Bloomington.

The success of Lynch’s style of recruiting — going after players with a plan to redshirt them for one season — should start to unfold this season and next, giving Glass some of his enthusiasm for Lynch’s prospects.

“Look at the offensive weaponry we have, and look at the kind of defense he’s putting together,” said Glass of how the roster is starting to unfold.

To be certain, Glass made sure not to pin any particular win count or other public measure of success as a benchmark for the likelihood that Lynch would still be patrolling the sidelines of Memorial Stadium next season or further in the future.

“We’ll look at everything,” Glass said. “We’ll look at progress. We’ll look at wins and losses. I know that wins and losses matter. They matter to me, they matter to Bill Lynch. But I’m not going to differ to a numerical value or a statistic.”