Geoffrey Miller

It's after midnight here in the Memorial Stadium press box, where the ambient temperature is roughly that of Tom Crean's body temperature before he takes off the suit jacket during a game. Thanks to print media deadlines -- those are so 1990 -- I feel like there's some more tidbits (i.e. "flair" for you Office Space fans) after Thursday night's IU rout of Towson 51-17 that we need to explore.

Here we go.

  • If you weren't in Memorial for the Hoosier introductions (and if you're a student reading this and decided against shilling out $5 to get in, shame on you) then you missed one of the better introduction videos I've seen. It was obviously based on the 1990s Chicago Bulls intro video, but it looked great on the beau-ti-ful new scoreboard. The IU basketball intro video doesn't touch it in terms of quality.

  • Oh, you also missed a relatively exciting game to end the drought of college football. The last time IU hung more than 50 points on a team? Try the start of the 2007 season against Indiana State, a 55-7 final.

  • 35,242 people showed up for Thursday night's titanic struggle. That's not a terrible crowd for a no-name opponent on a school night when the Colts are playing just up the road.

  • How about Ted freakin' Bolser? I'll admit, he was far from my radar this preseason with the likes of Max Dedmond trotting around the practice field. He was IU's second-best receiver Thursday night, racking up 68 yards on four receptions and a TD. And boy, you had to love his honesty in his post-game quotes (that made my game wrap). Said Bolser: "After the first touchdown I didn't even know what to do," Bolser said. "I had a couple guys tell me to throw my hands up, a couple more tell me to jump in the stands. I had the jitters, that is for sure."

  • Darius Willis now has 7 TD's in an IU uniform. 3 of them have been 45 yards or more.

  • IU baseball coach Tracy Smith might be taking some credit for the football team's success. Cornerback Matt Ernest (who had the 56-yard interception for a touchdown) pitched for the Hoosiers in the spring, as did cornerback Greg Heban. Heban had three tackles.

  • IU athletics unveiled the new quarry derrick with horns on top in front of the student section tonight. I Twitter'ed that it sounded like a Kia Sophia car horn, and that something deeper and meaner is needed. But at what point does it get all-too-similar to that horn that blows in West Lafayette?

  • Were you surprised that Towson left their greatest (and seemingly only) weapon in for the duration of tonight's game? I'm talking about quarterback Chris Hart. The guy was a one-man wrecking ball on IU's offense for two plays Thursday night, running for and throwing for their two touchdowns. Said Towson coach Rob Ambrose: "I am thrilled with the way that Chris played, minus the three turnovers that really hurt us. If he can learn to manage the game, he's going to lead us to a lot of wins."

  • After the game, Lynch made an interesting comment about Hart. It sounds like the IU coaches weren't clear on who would take snaps for Towson.Said Lynch: "We didn't know who was going to be their quarterback. We didn't know what to prepare for. He's a transfer, so we kind of learned on the run."

  • Ambrose, a second-year guy at Towson, also came away impressed with IU's offensive weapons: "I don't know how good Indiana is, but I know this -- they're going to score more than 30 points a game in the Big Ten this year." Words are only words, but if IU gets close to that, they'll have a decent year.

  • Lynch is certainly spinning this year's awkward schedule -- a Thursday game followed by an off week -- into a positive thing. Said Lynch: "I really like the idea that we have 16 days until we play the next game. I tried to turn that into a positive from the time we knew what the schedule was. We'll come in tomorrow and we'll watch some tape. A lot of the young kids will get a chance to watch themselves as well. We'll take the weekend off and then we can really get back to work and try to correct the things we need to before we start preparing for Western Kentucky."

  • Also: read these from my two favorite IDS football writers. Connor O'Gara wrote about Ben Chappell's and Darius Willis' evenings on the fair old pitch and Justin Albers went Magic School Bus style and opined that Thursday night showed what lessons the Hoosiers have to learn. Them boys are studs, beating me to our narrow deadline and all.

Miller's Ultimatum: This was a good night for the Hoosier football team. They're 1-0. The offense showed its power, even without Tandon Doss not in the lineup. Sure, the defense broke down a few times. You'll have that in a season-opener.

Do the Hoosiers have things to work on? Certainly. But, as Lynch said, they've got 16 days to do it. Until next time...

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