Column: ‘Next man up’ not working for IU

Next man up?

Not with this IU team.

IU coach Bill Lynch said he preaches that motto to his team. And yet, after senior quarterback Ben Chappell left the game against then-No. 7 Wisconsin last weekend, everything changed.

The Badgers would outscore the Hoosiers 66-10 from that point forward en route to an 83-20 win. That score still looks ridiculous, doesn’t it?

“You felt it throughout the whole sideline when he went out,” IU coach Bill Lynch said. “It affected us. You can’t let that happen in the course of a football game because those things are going to happen.

“We all have to be mentally tough enough that if one guy goes down, the next guy can step up.”

Next man up?

That’s an insult to Jim Caldwell and the Indianapolis Colts, who continue to win with the most unlikely players.

That’s even an insult to Danny Hope and the Purdue Boilermakers, who remain competitive after losing their best two offensive players, quarterback Robert Marve and wide receiver Keith Smith.

Think for a second about how bad the Hoosiers have been in conference play.
They have zero wins in six tries. Again, zero wins. Only two Big Ten teams since 2004 have had winless conference seasons.

On a given day, a bad team can beat a good team; a good team can beat a great team.

We see it all the time. Some clubs play really well one week and terrible the next. Sometimes the bounces favor one team over the other.

But to have no conference wins at this point in the season — when schools like Minnesota and Purdue do — is simply unacceptable.

And that goes back to the “next man up” philosophy this team claims to have.
Edward Wright-Baker certainly didn’t look prepared to be on the field when he fumbled on his first series after taking over for Chappell.

“I’ve been preparing like a backup for the last two years, and I never got to play,” Wright-Baker said. “I didn’t really think I was going to play in the Wisconsin game.”

The defensive substitutions sure didn’t look prepared to stop the Badgers without middle linebacker Tyler Replogle, their leader.

When players like Chappell and Replogle go out, other players have to be able to step in and keep the team competitive.

When players aren’t ready to do that, it reflects back on the individuals responsible for making sure those players are prepared — the coaches.

When Smith, who was expected to be the Big Ten’s leading receiver this year, went out in the Boilermakers’ game against Western Illinois, the team responded by winning three of its next four games.

When Marve, who was looked at as the quarterback of the future when he transferred from the University of Miami (Fla.), tore his ACL against Northwestern, the team responded by winning the game.

Even Purdue, without its best two offensive players, has two conference wins.
But when Wright-Baker and others came into the game for the Hoosiers against Wisconsin, things got out of control in a hurry.

“Guys go out all the time. It’s football. It’s a physical sport,” senior wide receiver Terrance Turner said. “Whenever a guy goes down, you’re able to put another guy in who’s ready, who’s not scared to make plays.”

The guys Turner seems to be describing play their home games in West Lafayette. Nothing we saw last Saturday would make us believe the guys in white were ready and weren’t scared to make plays.

Next man up?

That’s doesn’t seem to be an accurate slogan for this team. When IU’s leaders go down, all bets are off.

PREDICTION
Even with a 4-6 record and a four-game losing streak, the Hoosiers shouldn’t have a hard time getting up for this game.

After all, they get to play Penn State — a team they’ve never beaten — in a beautiful NFL stadium.

With that said, though, this is still a tall task for IU. Joe Paterno figures to have his young team ready to play in a venue close to home.

I expect the Hoosiers to compete, but they won’t have quite enough to handle a Penn State team that continues to improve as the season progresses.

PREDICTION:
Penn State 27, IU 21


E-mail: jmalbers@indiana.edu