On the last day before his first fall practice as IU head coach, we'll talk a little bit about what Kevin Wilson had to say at Big Ten Media Days. The former offensive coordinator for Northwestern (1999-2001) and Oklahoma (2002-2010) was clearly looking forward to beginning practice, as he has had very little on-field time with the team.
A great deal of his focus was on maintaining a positive attitude and being confident going into the 2011 season, but he did touch a bit on the 5-7 2010 season. Although he said he has hardly watched any tape from last season at all, he has looked at the statistics a little bit.
"Winners do the little things," Wilson said. "For example, last year, we won turnover ratio two of 12 games. The number one factor of winning a game is turnovers, and we only did that twice, so we should have been a 2-10 team...we still won five games with the critical thing against us."
Wilson repeated this statistic at least three times, driving its importance home. He also stated that a big part of the competition for the starting quarterback position will hinge not only on leadership, but on ability to avoid turnovers.
He went on to say that every team needs just a little bit of luck, which IU has struggled to find on the football field. He claimed that 80 percent of being successful comes from attitude, while 10 percent is physical and the remaining 10 percent is the elusive luck for which IU is searching.
Lastly, Wilson spoke also about the running back position, saying that now that the candidates for the job are healthy, he will finally be able to see them practice.
"We are all healthy," Wilson said. "That's exciting. At the same time a lot of those young men in spring, that was the position that was a little bit in flux. That position concerned me more than quarterback. I just couldn't see them. I'm excited for August 8th, to see kids run, as we put pads on through pre-season"
