Cell reception isn’t great inside Memorial Stadium, so maybe those fans tweeting from the bleachers missed the news.
Nine IU football players — two of them starters, four of them regulars in the defensive rotation — did not see the field in the Hoosiers’ home opener against Southern Illinois University due to suspension.
Another starter and leader within the secondary, sophomore safety Chase Dutra, was sidelined with an undisclosed injury.
And you can bet their absences showed in IU’s 48-47 escape against the Salukis on Saturday.
Regardless of the competition, IU was never going to be the team to blow out its opponent with key players missing.
There is not enough depth or experience on this roster to warrant that expectation.
The IU defense is young and rusty, with just five upperclassman starters, and it was inevitably going to make mistakes. But the Hoosiers were tested — and survived — with a palpable lack of veteran leadership to support them.
Should we exalt a one-point victory against a team that went 6-6 in FCS play last year? Of course not.
But let’s not throw IU to the wolves — or the Salukis — just yet.
The defense came out markedly better in the second half, and that adjustment speaks volumes.
These athletes aren’t going to quit because they’re young or because they’re trailing a mediocre team at halftime.
And they certainly aren’t going to quit when Twitter does, which is just about every time IU blunders.
Fans are notoriously capricious, and they showed their true colors this weekend.
But as long as IU football isn’t buying into the same mentality, there will be growth, if nothing else because of the return of players such as sophomore Tegray Scales, junior Ralph Green III and junior Darius Latham.
Why didn’t IU get any stops in the first half? Because those playmakers weren’t on the line to get them.
It’s really quite simple.
Aside from that asterisk, this team really wasn’t any different today from the others we’ve encountered in the Kevin Wilson era.
Thanks to the emergence of junior running back Jordan Howard and junior wide receiver Ricky Jones, the Hoosier offense proved once again it can keep up in a shootout, even when they struggle defensively.
And, in a first for a Wilson-led IU team, they can do it with balance, rushing and passing for 246 and 349 yards respectively.
So I’ll leave you, Hoosier Nation, with the same words IU Coach Kevin Wilson left his team before the third quarter: “Take a deep breath.”
You can’t change what happened. So move on to what’s next.
vziege@indiana.edu
