There is nothing that I would love to do more than cover Hoosier football for the next three weeks. Unfortunately, I am still a student, and the whole five finals in three days thing is really cramping my style.
I'm sure I can speak for Lee and Matt when I say once this whole finals fiasco is over, we'll pick up the intensity in our coverage and bring you anything and everything IU football. (My last final is Wednesday, and I promise to put up the Big Ten Vs. post i've been hinting at.)
Like the boys from undertherock, the members of the Hoosier football team are also students. They too are pretty busy right now dealing with finals. At the open practice on Friday senior captain Tracy Porter, junior cornerback Christopher Phillips and others didn't practice because they had just gotten out of taking a final. However after practice I had a chance to speak with Porter and coach Bill Lynch about a number of things, including what the teams practices will look like leading up to the bowl game.
Porter in Review:
When asked about the difference in preparing for a Big Ten foe and Oklahoma State, Porter compared this bowl game to how the team prepared for the first game of the year. He compared Oklahoma State's spread offense to IU"s variation of the spread, and said that because the last two games of the season were against spread offenses he thinks the defense should be familiar with the opponents offense.
Porter complimented Oklahoma State running back Dantrell Savage, acknowledging that he led the Big 12 in rushing and said he and the defense would watch film to try to find flaws in his attack.
"We have to go in and continue to watch film on these guys to watch their weaknesses," Porter said. "See what they don't do well so we can capitlize on them."
Finally, Porter talked about the challenge of balancing the fun experience of going to Arizona with mainting the intensity neccesary to win the game. Porter compared the situation to what his teammates are going through right now as student-athletes.
"It's sort of like being an athlete and being a student at the same time, you have to balance your school work as well as practice," Porter said. "We have to balance the time that we have having fun and the time we have practicing."
LYNCH in Review:
Lynch first adressed how the bowl game will help with his recruting, and he acknowledged that while playing 13 certainly helps, he said stability at the head coaching position is one of the keys this year. Lynch said some recruits were in town this weekend and said the big IU-Kentucky game will likely help the football team recruit.
Lynch then went on to talk about the Insight Bowl, saying he expects Demetrius McCray to finally make his return to the field. He did not discuss how he will use him however or how his return will effect the Hoosiers rushing attack in general.
"I think its too early to tell," Lynch said. "We really haven't worked on Oklahoma State yet, everything we've been doing is our base stuff."
Lynch then talked about how after finals week the coaching staff will start to assemble a game plan for the Cowboys, as well as pick up the intensity of the practices.
As for random uniform tidbits, Lynch said the team was going to wear stripes on the helmet, like in the Bucket game, but with the current IU logo on the helmets rather then the block I. IU are the visitors for the game.
Lynch concluded the interview with adressing how the team will balance the reward of playing in a bowl game with trying to win it. He first talked about how the team would practice, saying they would have their hardest workouts the week after finals. He then said they would have four days over for a holiday break, and then fly out to Tempe on the 27th.
"Once you get down there you're relying on the leadership of the team to make it an enjoyable trip," Lynch said. But also be ready to get locked in 48 hours before the game and get in that game mode."
As always, if you want to comment, ask questions, want us to ask a question to any of the Hoosiers, your comments are the best part about this blog, so any and all are welcome.
Once again, my apologies for the limited coverage this week, I promise on Wednesday evening i'll be back into 100% Hoosier football mode. And for those of you who are also students and are overloaded with finals - Good luck, and when in doubt, go with your first instict (or 'C' on multiple choice tests...)
