Indiana State Coach Mike Sanford is in his first season with the Sycamores and his first test as head coach will be on the road against the Indiana Hoosiers. Sanford was an assistant head coach at Utah State last season and he was previously the head coach at UNLV from 2005-09, where he had a 16-43 record.
IU Coach Kevin Wilson said it's always difficult for a first-year coach in a season opener.
"You don't know what you got," he said. "New staff, you're not sure what you got because no matter what they've done, it's always independent of what you've got coming in."
Even though the Hoosiers faced ISU in last season's opener, Wilson said that every team is different with a new head coach.
"It's one of the hardest games to prepare for," he said. "You're looking at the special teams guy came from here, the offensive line coordinator came from here...it's like you're looking at 12 teams. I mean that's painful for me."
When taking inventory of ISU's coaching staff, the coaches come from across the nation. Associate Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator Brian Cabral spent the past 24 years at the University of Colorado. Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach Brian Sheppard previously held those same titles at Willamette College.
The staff includes seven other first-year coaches who come to Indiana State from UNLV, Utah State, Evangel University, Kansas and Southeastern Louisiana. Aaron Archie, the Sycamores' new linebackers coach, graduated from ISU this year.
Wilson said that he often watched film of players that he had never heard of in preparation for IU's game against ISU.
"Who's this number 52?" he asked rhetorically. "Shoot, he plays at some school halfway across the country."
Redshirt sophomore cornerback Michael Hunter said that the players watched a lot of film to find out ISU's tendencies but he said it was kind of difficult due to Sanford being in his first season.
"They [IU's coaches] were watching a lot of film on a lot of teams because they [Indiana State] have coaches from a lot of schools," he said. "We've watched probably all of his past for the past 20 years to be honest so it's crazy."
Hunter said that the preparation for ISU was different from most games because of the Sycamores' new coaching staff.
"It's a lot of stuff they can do," he said. "We really have no clue what they're gonna do so we just have to watch film and go out there and play football."
Wilson said that IU has to be ready for everything. He said that since the game plan is kind of a mystery, the Hoosiers have to concentrate better on themselves and make sure that they're ready.
"We need to be ready for unbalanced formations," he said. "This week our defense put in blitzes and didn't tell the offense they were doing it because the offense had to adjust. Last night we did a couple formations the defense hadn't seen cause all of a sudden you're gonna have to line up and adjust"
