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(11/28/11 5:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There was no postgame meeting in the middle of the field, no “good game” handshakes in the normal location.Instead, the Purdue players sprinted to the IU sideline to claim the coveted Old Oaken Bucket, while the IU players simply stood — motionless.Chants of “Boiler Up!” rained in from the secluded Purdue seating section as the Boilermakers made their way back across the field. The players walked around yelling, “We’re going bowling!”The Hoosiers remained on the east side of Memorial Stadium — still motionless. They had to watch their most hated rival take what belonged to them only seconds earlier right from their very sideline, inside their own stadium. The memory of last year’s win was gone. The knowledge that the victory sends the Boilermakers to a bowl game was cemented in every player’s mind.Purdue 33, IU 25.That’s how the brutal season ends.“We’re going to be thinking about that for a long time,” sophomore wide receiver Kofi Hughes said. “That’s some good motivation to be thinking about every morning.”Bragging rights aside, this loss isn’t such a bad thing for IU Coach Kevin Wilson and the Hoosiers. If they had beaten Purdue, kept the Bucket and gone 2-10, some of the players might have felt better about the season than they should.With the loss, though, the Hoosiers are reporting to offseason workouts today with the Boilermakers very much on their minds. They’re seeing this season for what it really was — a giant debacle in which they went 1-11 and only beat a Football Championship Subdivision opponent.“It hurt. It hurt,” sophomore running back Stephen Houston said of watching Purdue take the Bucket. “It was never supposed to happen.”It might hurt the players, but they can use that hurt as motivation for next season. A win creates a satisfying warm and fuzzy feeling that IU doesn’t deserve right now. If the Hoosiers are going to progress with Wilson, they can’t afford to feel good about the way anything went in 2011, even players with solid individual numbers, such as Houston.“In my short-term experience here, when a player does reasonably OK, all of a sudden we talk about how well he’s going, and we never get to what we’re capable of being because of the entitlement and the semi-arrogance that an average player gets when he plays pretty good,” Wilson said. “That being said, it’s keeping guys like (Houston) grounded, saying, ‘Hey, if you want to be a great player, you repeat it over and over.’”As bad as the record looks, there might be more positives from this season than the Hoosiers’ 5-7 campaign last year.First, the 2010 Hoosiers played sub-.500 ball with a bunch of upperclassmen who didn’t return. This year’s club featured a remarkable number of freshmen and sophomores who will be in the program for multiple years to come.Second, last year’s team struggled with a coach who had been in charge for multiple years. This year’s Hoosiers had to deal with an entirely new coaching staff that clearly didn’t have everyone’s commitment early on.And finally, while last year’s club seemed to struggle down the stretch, Wilson’s Hoosiers made some noticeable improvements in the final few weeks, especially on offense.True freshman quarterback Tre Roberson, Houston and Hughes are the core of this offense and this program going forward.You couldn’t name three guys with promising futures at this time last year.Everybody loves to say the future is bright, but that can only be true if the players keep buying in to Wilson’s system and continue working hard. Otherwise, seasons like this one could easily happen again.“If you play the same, you get the same results,” Wilson said. “Just because they played as young (guys) doesn’t mean the future is bright. The future is bright if we can keep them channeled, keep them pointed in the right direction.”After having the Bucket ripped from their hands Saturday, the Hoosiers shouldn’t find that too difficult to accomplish.
(11/21/11 2:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I’m not trying to be overly dramatic, but this IU defense is the worst one I’ve ever seen and could quite possibly be one of the worst in school history.OK, so the personnel doesn’t match up well against Big Ten opponents.I get that.But what makes this defense so frustrating to watch is the fact that it seemingly gets worse every week.Saturday’s 55-3 loss at No. 15 Michigan State was just the latest example.Case in point: True freshman safety Mark Murphy, one of the Hoosiers’ top defensive players all season, bit on a fake reverse and gave up a 63-yard touchdown pass. (Hint: When you see a receiver running past you, it’s probably a passing play.) Earlier in the season, Murphy stayed home on several similar plays.When the Spartans actually ran the reverse later in the game, they still scored a touchdown. The defensive backs took terrible angles. The linemen and linebackers missed tackles. And Michigan State did what it wanted when it wanted.The Spartans had 470 yards and six offensive touchdowns, with nearly all of it coming in the first three quarters.Looks like it was a bye week well spent.“Our defense was pretty bad with missed tackles,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. “Not very good play, but credit to Michigan State. They came ready to play, and they’re a good team.”It’s mind-boggling to think a defense this bad could keep getting worse. The only times in which the unit looked decent in conference play were when the Hoosiers played teams with weaker offenses — Ohio State and Penn State.As one of my colleagues said after the game, it’s like the IU defense is in the default “pro” setting on Madden: It makes a play every now and then, but it always gives up huge numbers.Talent, or lack thereof, certainly has something to do with Hoosiers giving up 38 points per game.But the issues run deeper than that. The majority of IU’s defensive mistakes are correctable. Missed tackles and dreadful angles are basic fundamental things.The young guys have been playing for a while now. That’s no longer an excuse. Which brings us to the coaching. Either the defensive coaches aren’t spending enough time on the fundamentals or the players aren’t listening to the coaches. How else can you explain the deteriorating defense we continue to see?“We kind of took a step back (Saturday), but we just have to keep pushing,” defensive tackle Larry Black, Jr. said. “It was a bad day. It’s just part of the game, and this was one of the worst days.”Wilson is going to be here for a long time, and he deserves the chance to build a program. But I can’t help but wonder if he’ll consider making changes on his defensive coaching staff before next season.I love the passion of Co-Defensive Coordinator Mike Ekeler, but I never understood the hiring of Doug Mallory — other than his last name. He coached a struggling defense at New Mexico last year and never really made sense for the co-defensive coordinator position.Going forward, perhaps it would be better to have only one coordinator who could make all the calls. Maybe one voice would be better than two for this defense. That’s not to say all of the blame should go to the coaching staff. The players deserve some of it, too.The simple fact is this Hoosiers’ defense is worse than the one the current coaching staff inherited almost 12 months ago.And that, ladies and gentlemen, is quite a scary thought.— jmalbers@indiana.edu
(11/18/11 5:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There were days when Stephen Houston wanted to quit.After he failed to qualify academically at Ole Miss out of high school and to gain admission to North Carolina out of junior college, Houston constantly wondered if things would ever go his way.“It’s long. It’s a real long journey,” Houston said. “You have your days when you think that nobody’s going to call. You have your days when you think that you just want to quit school. But you have to have that drive not to give up and do what you gotta do to make it out.”Houston, a 6-foot, 228-pound running back from Ohio, enrolled at Independence Community College in Kansas when he left Ole Miss. It wasn’t necessarily what he had in mind, but it was Houston’s only option.While playing at Independence for coach Steven Carson, Houston ran for more than 1,000 yards and tortured defenses with his downhill running style and surprising speed.But more important than his on-field production, Houston learned what it would take to be successful in the classroom, something that helped him land at IU.“I had to do it on my own,” Houston said. “Grades weren’t given to me. I actually had to take notes. Notes weren’t sent to me.”Carson saw Houston mature off the field, too.“He really buckled down and got his grades up,” Carson said. “He went back and took some classes that he didn’t need to graduate but to get into Indiana. He really made an effort to do that.”Still, it was something of a long shot that Houston would see the field for the Hoosiers this season. He needed an extra class to get into IU, and he didn’t arrive on campus until early July.At the time, it was hard to tell who was taking a bigger gamble.IU was giving a scholarship to a guy that had no other offers and had already been turned away from two other schools because of academics.Houston was coming to a school seemingly stacked at the running back position. With Darius Willis, Nick Turner, Antonio Banks, Matt Perez and D’Angelo Roberts on the roster at the time, Houston looked like the odd man out. Willis, Turner and Banks have since left the team.That didn’t bother Houston. He had been in a similar situation at Independence.“The person in front of me was better than me, and I just learned from him,” Houston said. “That’s what I did when I got here, and that’s what I’m still doing now. I learn something from Perez or D’Angelo that I use in the game.“Waiting through that first year (at Independence), not able to play, made me realize I’m not the best player I thought I was.”Houston played well in the season opener against Ball State but sat out against Virginia. IU Coach Kevin Wilson went with Perez and later Roberts as the starter, and Houston was forced to wait his turn.Something finally clicked for Houston before a road game against North Texas. Running Backs Coach Deland McCullough said Houston started preparing better than the other backs.The next week against Penn State, Houston was the starter.“The thing about Stephen is he’ll take the things we talk about, and after practice, he’ll come talk to me. He’ll come and see me during the day,” said McCullough, who recruited Houston. “He wants to know what he needs to do to get better, and he puts those things in play immediately.”Houston has never looked back. He’s started every Big Ten game and eclipsed 100 yards against both Wisconsin and Northwestern.“He probably gets better as the game goes on. That’s what he did for us,” Carson said. “You finally found out who wanted to tackle a guy in the fourth quarter when you’ve got a good running back running downhill.”A player who wasn’t even supposed to be in the mix has become the Hoosiers’ offensive leader.This is Houston’s team.“He’s just kind of been a good leader to me, keeping me where I need to be,” Roberts said. “He keeps me going. Sometimes it’s not going the best for me, and he keeps me going on the right path.”Maybe this wasn’t such a gamble for either side — maybe IU just believed in Houston as much as Houston believed in IU.“God brought me here,” Houston said. “Coach Wilson gave me a home.”And Houston gave Wilson his running back of the future.Prediction:Michigan State is playing for a spot in the Big Ten Championship game. IU is, well, not.The Hoosiers have played well against one-dimensional offenses, but Michigan State is anything but. Quarterback Kirk Cousins will lead the Spartans to touchdowns early and often, and Tre Roberson will struggle against the best defense he’s seen to date.Michigan State 41, IU 10
(11/11/11 4:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It has certainly been an interesting year for the Big Ten — and that’s not including the scandals.Even though IU has struggled and won’t play in a bowl game, many other conference teams will. But before they get there, two teams must go through Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship game.Who will win each division? Which team will represent the conference in the Rose Bowl? Here are my predictions.LEGENDSNo. 13 Michigan State (7-2, 4-1) has certainly been the class of the division, but the Spartans laid a bit of an egg against No. 19 Nebraska a couple of weeks ago. The Spartans are still the favorite to win a division title — especially since they have IU and Northwestern still on the schedule — but don’t hand it to them just yet.No. 22 Michigan (7-2, 3-2) still has an outside chance, but the Wolverines’ loss to the Spartans means they need Michigan State to lose at least two of its final three games.The Cornhuskers (7-2, 3-2) benefit from their win against the Spartans, but they have a tough remaining schedule that includes No. 12 Penn State, Michigan and Iowa.Iowa (6-3,3-2), a team nobody seems to be talking about, will take the division crown if it wins against Michigan State, Purdue and Nebraska. But that would mean the same team would have to show up each week, and that’s been a problem for the Hawkeyes.Their win against Michigan last week was impressive, but their loss to Minnesota a week earlier was incredibly disappointing. The Hawkeyes will upset Michigan State this weekend, but they’ll lose one of their final two games and the Spartans will end up in Indianapolis next month.CHAMPION: Michigan StateLEADERSSpeaking strictly about football, Penn State has been one of college football’s biggest surprises. The No. 12 Nittany Lions (8-1, 5-0) are the only undefeated team in the Big Ten, though they’ve had average quarterback play all season.Of the teams I’ve seen in person this season, Penn State was by far the least impressive. Yes, it has a good defense. But I don’t think the Nittany Lions have enough offense to win a conference title — especially with games against Nebraska, Ohio State and No. 16 Wisconsin remaining on the schedule.I’m still a little bit shocked Wisconsin (7-2, 3-2) isn’t undefeated. I expected the Badgers to have a chance to play for a national championship and I assumed they would roll through their regular season schedule.Even after losses to Michigan State and Ohio State, the Badgers still have a legitimate chance to win the division. They play Minnesota and Illinois the next two weeks before a showdown against Penn State that could decide who plays in the Big Ten title game.The Buckeyes still have a good chance to win the division, but I don’t see them continuing to win games without a reliable passing game. The Leaders Division will come down to Penn State vs. Wisconsin on Nov. 26.After a couple hiccups, the Badgers will get it together and roll past the Nittany Lions. CHAMPION: WisconsinBIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPMichigan State and Wisconsin played an instant classic the first time they met in 2011, but this one won’t live up to the hype. After falling 37-31 on the game’s final play the first time around, the Badgers will come out angry and take it to the Spartans early.This time, though, they’ll hold the lead and play in the Rose Bowl for the second consecutive year.PREDICTION: Wisconsin 38, Michigan State 20
(11/07/11 4:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If you’ve been doubting Kevin Wilson as IU’s football coach for future seasons, this should give you a small bit of comfort: The Hoosiers showed up on Saturday, and, for the first time in a number of weeks, they improved. They lost 34-20 to Ohio State, but they improved.In the most difficult environment they’ll play in all season, they looked as calm as they ever have. Against a rapidly improving team fresh from a win against almighty Wisconsin, the Hoosiers put together their most complete performance of the year.And at a point in the season when everybody assumed this team had packed it in, the Hoosiers finally played like they had nothing to lose. They had a chance to beat one of the elite college football programs in the fourth quarter, which is impressive, even in a down year for the Buckeyes.Maybe Wilson will be OK here, after all.“Everybody was saying that The Ohio State was just supposed to run away with us,” sophomore running back Stephen Houston said. “We had nothing to lose. We have everything to gain. We just grinded.”It seemed like the large number of guys leaving the program, capped by senior wide receiver Damarlo Belcher’s dismissal last week, was a negative sign for Wilson and IU. But it appears Wilson simply flushed out all the non-believers. Now he has a group of guys who are finally buying in.“We’re working every day,” junior defensive tackle Larry Black Jr. said. “That’s one thing about our team: We’re going to work every day, no matter what our record. We have a great coach, and we’re behind him.”Sophomore wide receiver Kofi Hughes looked like a completely different player against the Buckeyes. Watching him catch eight balls for 147 yards just makes you wonder what kind of player he can become if he keeps playing as hard as he has.A few weeks ago, it looked like Hughes was headed in the opposite direction. He wasn’t producing on the field, he admitted to having poor practices and he answered questions as if he was angry with Wilson.But something has finally clicked for Hughes. He has the potential to be a leader of this offense, and he’s starting to show it.“The interception was my fault,” Hughes said of true freshman quarterback Tre Roberson’s late pick that effectively ended the game. “I ran the wrong route.”Redshirt freshman linebacker Chase Hoobler, who disappeared for a few weeks, was an animal off the edge. He seemed to be the only IU player who wasn’t juked by Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller at some point in the game.Roberson was impressive again. Jamonne Chester and Jay McCants had big third-down catches. Houston, Shane Wynn, Jeff Thomas ... the list goes on.Wilson believes in the players who believe in him. As the weeks go on, both lists are getting longer.“Our team doesn’t get respect,” Wilson said. “If we played up to our capability, we’d be toe to toe in the fourth quarter. That’s what I thought would happen. Watching tape, comparing the way they played and the way we played, if we played up to our capabilities, then we’d win.”The team has looked dead for the last four weeks, especially on defense. Even though they’re now 1-9 with two games to go, the Hoosiers are as alive as ever.The players still make far too many egregious errors and give up too many big plays, but mistakes are going to happen when you’re playing as many young guys as Wilson is.What those young guys are starting to see is that even though it’s late in the season, this is really just the beginning — the beginning of something that has a chance to work. I’ll admit, I had my doubts. But after 10 weeks, the Wilson era is finally underway.— jmalbers@indiana.edu
(11/04/11 3:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I’ve never been a big fan of the option offense.It just seems too boring, especially in an age in which the spread has become the norm.But I’m starting to think running the option wouldn’t be such a bad idea for the current Hoosiers — at least for the final three games of the season, just to see how it works.The personnel on the IU offense almost screams option now that field-stretching wide receivers Damarlo Belcher and Duwyce Wilson are done for the season.True freshman quarterback Tre Roberson is fast and usually makes good decisions with the ball. Running back Stephen Houston could run over even more people with the head of steam he’d gain from rolling out with the quarterback.Multi-purpose guys like Kofi Hughes and Shane Wynn were practically made for the option. And the offensive line — given how small and fast it is — could probably benefit from running the option more often.“Right now, we’re trying to create and find as much offense as we need to help us win games,” Co-Offensive Coordinator Kevin Johns said. “Where (the option) goes as we progress, we’re going to do whatever it takes to win. If that means option, that’s what we’ll do. If that means throw it 70 times, then that’s what we’ll do.“It’s hard to see where it will continue to grow, but right now we’re just trying to win games.” Yes, winning is the most important thing. And to some extent, the Hoosiers’ failure to win games recently can’t be blamed on the offense. The Roberson-led group has looked pretty good.But until IU Coach Kevin Wilson can get better defensive players into the program, the offense is going to have to help the defense. Points matter, but with such a porous defense, time of possession might be even more important.By running the option, IU would more than likely keep the ball for a longer period of time each game. A difference between two-minute and seven-minute touchdown drives could be the difference between giving up 35 points instead of 59.Will an option offense be the best choice for IU going forward? I’m not sure. It certainly isn’t foolproof. All the extra rollouts and rushing attempts mean Roberson will take even more hits, increasing the possibility of injury.“If you do it too much, Tre is 175 pounds, and he won’t be able to take that beating,” Johns said. “We’ve got to be careful.”Plus, IU has a good recent track record of recruiting high-quality wide receivers. If Wilson and the Hoosiers start running the option, they might lose some of their best recruits.Is that worth it? Probably not.But with this season all but over, it’s time to start looking at different options — pun intended — for the future.Given the Hoosiers’ ineptitude on defense, the option offense might not be a bad one to try. Prediction:The Buckeyes got off to a slow start after suspensions to some of their top players, but they are looking more like the Buckeyes of old with each passing week.In a hostile environment against the best defense he’s seen to date, Roberson will likely struggle to find a rhythm. Even if he finds one in the second half, the defense will have already given up too many points to come back from.Ohio State 41, IU 17
(10/31/11 4:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This was supposed to be senior Damarlo Belcher’s team.He was one of few guys with the experience and talent needed to help IU Coach Kevin Wilson succeed in his first season.The problem is Belcher never seemed interested in putting in the work to make it his team. It’s when things have gone bad for the Hoosiers this season that Belcher has come up the smallest.Ever since the season opener against Ball State, Belcher has been virtually invisible. During a few games, it didn’t even look like he cared. It’s hard for a 6-foot-5-inch receiver to blend in with his surroundings, but Belcher has done it well all year.The veteran, who had a productive first three years at IU and vowed to get in the best shape of his life for his senior season, just missed his last Homecoming game due to a suspension.I don’t know for certain, but I’m guessing you have to do something pretty bad to for that to happen. “Just violation of team policy, rules, what’s going on,” Wilson said. “He’s just suspended. We’ll talk about it later. We’ll talk about getting beat first.”He’d rather talk about a 59-38 loss than Belcher’s status, which is probably not a good sign for Belcher going forward.Then again, maybe Wilson is trying to send another one of his many messages. If Belcher isn’t seeing eye to eye with Wilson, he certainly wouldn’t be the first veteran this season. Wilson has played freshmen instead of upperclassmen on a regular basis, and I’m sure that has ticked some players off.But of all the players on the team, Belcher was the one you’d least expect to have his spot jacked by a young guy. Wilson wanted Belcher to succeed. He wanted Belcher to be his star and leader.During a practice last spring, Belcher made an impressive catch near the sideline. He was pushed out of bounds and knocked over a cameraman who was filming nearby, which sent the camera smashing to the ground.Wilson, who was standing in the middle of the field during the play, sprinted (a relative term) to Belcher and jumped into him for a chest bump.“First camera guy you’ve knocked down this spring!” Wilson screamed. “Let’s go!”He wanted to fire Belcher up. He hoped to help him get the most out of Belcher’s talent. So what happened after the game against Ball State?Maybe Belcher just doesn’t have what it takes to be the featured guy in an offense. All of his production in past years came when he was surrounded by talents such as former IU wide receivers Tandon Doss, Terrance Turner and others who demanded defense’s attention.Perhaps Belcher didn’t agree with Wilson’s coaching style and refused to play hard for his new coach. Or maybe he spent too much time dreaming about his possible NFL future rather than being a leader and helping his teammates improve.My guess is it’s some combination, which is disappointing. Belcher could have had a career year playing for an offensive mastermind, which would have helped him with his professional goals.Basically, he could have helped Wilson help him. It looks like Belcher went with a different option, which has led to Wilson being asked questions such as: Do you expect Belcher back next week?“I don’t know,” he said.So that’s where we’re at.This could have been Belcher’s team. Now, we’re not even sure how long he’ll remain a part of it.
(10/28/11 1:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After a practice last spring, new IU Coach Kevin Wilson was asked why freshman linemen Cody Evers and Ralston Evans were getting time with the first team.The short version of his answer: “They haven’t been here long enough to learn how to play soft.”That was our hint. Wilson was going to play for the future, not for right now.That’s not to say he wanted to throw this season away. He just decided it would be easier to teach younger guys his system rather than veterans who already learned the “soft” ways of IU football.Though the Hoosiers have one win in eight tries in Wilson’s first season, we are seeing signs the coach’s strategy is working.On offense, at least. “Working” is probably not the right word to describe the defense, but that’s a topic for another day.The offensive unit that put up 24 points at Iowa last Saturday is likely to be similar to the one we see in the next few seasons. With the exception of senior lineman Andrew McDonald, the Hoosiers had an awful lot of youth on the field.Ladies and gentlemen, meet your 2012 Indiana Hoosiers.Quarterback Tre Roberson — freshman.Linemen Collin Rahrig, Peyton Eckert and Bernard Taylor — freshmen.Wide receiver Cody Latimer —freshman.You get the point.Many of the other offensive contributors, including running back Stephen Houston, wide receivers Kofi Hughes and Duwyce Wilson and tight end Ted Bolser, are only sophomores.Even without former IU 2012 commit nner Kiel, this is the offense of the future.“It’s encouraging because we’re not only playing a lot of young guys, the young guys are making a lot of plays, too,” Co-Offensive Coordinator Rod Smith said. “If those guys keep getting reps, keep going against quality competition and competing and battling like we are, it’s just going to prepare them for what’s ahead.“The good things are coming. They’re coming.”This is an exciting point in the season for the Hoosiers because they finally seem to have some offensive continuity. And that all starts with the quarterback.Unless Roberson gets hurt, I don’t see Ed Wright-Baker or Dusty Kiel getting on the field again this season. Roberson is clearly Wilson’s quarterback going forward.With that in mind, Roberson will have a chance to grow in the final four games and should feel much more comfortable by the time the season ends.If and when Roberson starts the first game next season, he might be in better shape than Gunner Kiel would be. He’ll feel comfortable running the offense, and he’ll have a group of young guys around him that he’s played with for an extended period of time.Roberson looked strong against the Hawkeyes. If he keeps taking steps forward, who knows how good he could be.“We’re bonding together, man. We’re just trying to make some chemistry,” sophomore receiver Jamonne Chester said. “Earlier in the season we had a lot of different starting quarterbacks. We couldn’t get a lot of chemistry. But now, we’re building on that and everything’s starting to click.”Chester isn’t surprised so many freshmen have gotten time so quickly. Wilson said the best players will play back in the spring, and he hasn’t backed away from that statement.“I feel like everybody starts out equal. Whoever wants it more just has to go get it,” Chester said.In other words: The young guys have outworked the veterans.Or maybe they just haven’t learned how to play soft yet.Yep, that’s probably it.Prediction:This was a game many circled on the schedule before the season as a Big Ten game IU could win. Given the fact Northwestern has failed to live up to expectations, you’d think this game is even more winnable.But IU has also disappointed.I don’t think the IU defense is capable of keeping Dan Persa, Jeremy Ebert and the Wildcats in check. The Hoosiers may score a good number of points, but it’s going to be a disappointing Homecoming for the Hoosiers.Northwestern 38, IU 24— jmalbers@indiana.edu
(10/24/11 5:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Coach Kevin Wilson sat at the microphone after his team’s 45-24 loss to Iowa on Saturday, an expression of exhaustion on his face. He looked like a man whose spirit was crushed.While he didn’t answer any questions regarding the decommitment of star recruit quarterback Gunner Kiel — NCAA rules prohibit Wilson from doing so — the football coach appeared to have more on his mind than just a fifth consecutive loss . He had to be thinking about the phone call he received Thursday night from the high school senior who was supposed to help him turn the IU football program around.Kiel was a source of hope, a reason to keep believing things will get better during a season in which everything that’s happened suggests the team is actually getting worse.Now, this hope might be gone before he ever even arrives in Bloomington.Kiel’s decision isn’t stunning by any stretch. The rumors had been rampant for weeks, and many of us were surprised when he chose IU in the first place.But his decision is incredibly sad.It’s sad for an IU fan base that has waited far too long to see a winner.It’s sad for IU Athletics Director Fred Glass, who has worked hard to help Wilson succeed. And it’s sad for Wilson, who has experienced about as bad a first season in Bloomington as he possibly could.The obvious question, and one I’m sure Wilson was asking himself again and again during the flight home from Iowa, is why would Kiel decommit now?The obvious answer is he finally came to his senses and realized he was never going to win at IU. That probably played a role, but I think there might be something more to it.After Kiel waited so long to make his initial decision, there has to be. If he really opened his commitment because of the Hoosiers’ struggles this season, it doesn’t make sense to me. He had to expect they would struggle this year, especially with it being Wilson’s first season in Bloomington.Maybe Kiel heard negative things about Wilson from his brother and current IU quarterback, Dusty Kiel. Maybe he committed to IU thinking other top recruits would follow him, and it didn’t happen.Maybe he just changed his mind. Kids do that, you know.We can speculate all we want, but we may never know the true reason. All Wilson and IU can do now is move forward with the players currently on the roster, as hard as that may be.With Kiel no longer on the way, it looks like freshman Tre Roberson is the quarterback of the future. Judging from what we saw against the Hawkeyes, that might not be such a bad thing.Roberson opened a lot of eyes in his first career start, a game in which he threw for 196 yards and ran for 82 more. He showed incredible poise for such a young player. Roberson made several big third down throws and routinely escaped the pocket for positive yardage instead of taking a sack.He’s not Kiel, but maybe he’s not so bad.“The more he’s played the last two weeks, the better he’s practiced,” Wilson said. “He’s a very calm kid. He really hasn’t hurt us in any communication. He was decent. He’s got a lot of work to do to be a good player.”I remember listening to Wilson speak at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago during the summer.It was just days after Kiel had committed to IU, and Wilson was glowing. He seemed to talk with a certain swagger many of the players said he brought to the team before the season.Some 12 weeks later, a portion of that swagger seems to be gone.Wilson will certainly continue to say everything is fine and that he’s confident his future quarterback is on his roster. There’s nothing else he can do at this point.But that doesn’t mean he isn’t incredibly disappointed.Wilson had his heart ripped out by a certain high school quarterback’s decision. Now he must put back together his heart, and his program, one piece at a time.
(10/21/11 3:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I can’t believe I’m saying this, but IU needs Ben Chappell back.Can’t he petition for a sixth year of eligibility? Isn’t there some ballroom dancing class he can take to fill his time?I was critical of Chappell each of the two seasons he spent as the Hoosiers’starter. I made jokes about how slow he was and how he was built more like a lineman than a quarterback. I complained about how long he sometimes held on to the ball and how he threw some untimely interceptions.Well, let this column serve as a sort of apology to him. I’m sorry, Ben. I was wrong.IU fans didn’t realize what they had in Chappell while he was here. He may not have been the quickest of foot, and he was a little chunky, but he was a true quarterback. He spread the ball around, he hit receivers in stride and he helped the Hoosiers score a lot of points.Now, look at the Hoosiers. They can’t decide on a quarterback, and none of the three they’ve played this season are near the quarterback Chappell was. Plus, the Hoosiers score on a passing touchdown about as often as Aaron Rodgers throws a pick.Edward Wright-Baker overthrows his receivers when they’re open and underthrows them when they’re covered. Dusty Kiel makes poor reads at times. Tre Roberson, in the small amount of time we’ve seen him, has been somewhat inaccurate.All three get nervous in the pocket. None of the three is a true leader yet.“It’s completely out of sync, and that’s real,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said of the passing game after his quarterbacks threw for a combined 64 yards against Wisconsin. “How do we fix that?”I don’t know, Coach, but we certainly didn’t hear many questions like that when Chappell was leading this offense. Even though he left in the first half with an injury against Wisconsin last season, Chappell threw for 63 yards and a touchdown.That’s one quarter of production. Wright-Baker and Roberson were less productive in a full 60 minutes.Most of Chappell’s numbers last season came in spite of a pretty mediocre offensive line. He got hit all the time, but he hung in the pocket and made some tough throws.This year’s quarterbacks — at least recently — look like they want to flee the pocket before the ball’s even snapped. That’s how much they trust the big guys up front.“Obviously, it wasn’t good enough last week,” Co-Offensive Coordinator Rod Smith said of the quarterback play. “It was rather embarrassing. ... Our guys have been putting the work in, but they’ve got to put more work in.”That was never a problem with Chappell, either. While Wright-Baker, Kiel and Roberson have to be continually prodded by Wilson to watch film, Chappell didn’t like to leave the film room at all. He was always putting the work in.He knew which receivers were likely to face single coverage against a given opponent, and he found those receivers time and again on Saturdays.Maybe, just maybe, this current IU receiver group isn’t as good as everybody makes it out to be. Maybe Chappell made the wideouts look better than they were.Most importantly, Chappell was the unquestioned leader of the offense. He held his teammates accountable when they missed an assignment or if they weren’t playing hard enough.Who’s the Hoosiers’ leader now? Damarlo Belcher doesn’t look like he wants to be that guy, and his production backs that up. None of the quarterbacks has done anything to demand the attention of his teammates. And Will Matte? He hasn’t looked good in the last few games.The offense is without a leader, and the lack of production reflects that.It turns out the IU offense really doesn’t exist without Chappell. He just didn’t get as much credit as he deserved while he was here.I guess it’s true: You really don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.Sorry, Ben. Hoosier Nation took you for granted. PREDICTIONThe Hawkeyes are beatable, but they’re fundamentally sound and they won’t beat themselves. Given the fact Iowa has relied on the big play the last few weeks and IU has given it up time and again, I think the Hawkeyes will be too much to handle. This one won’t come down to the last play like last year.Iowa 24, IU 13
(10/20/11 4:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>OFFENSIVE MVP: RB STEPHEN HOUSTONHe started slow as the backup to Matt Perez, but Houston has been the Hoosiers’ best offensive weapon in recent weeks. He has 354 yards on 73 carries and two touchdowns on the season, including an impressive 263 yards in three Big Ten games.Houston, a junior college transfer, has become an unexpected offensive leader for a struggling IU squad.Now, if only the Hoosiers could find a passing game to complement Houston’s explosive running attack.DEFENSIVE MVP: S MARK MURPHYThe coaches love him, and it’s easy to understand why. The freshman has filled a variety of roles for the IU defense this season, and he’s been solid in almost every game. Murphy even moved to linebacker in Leon Beckum’s absence, a position he hadn’t played before.Murphy is tied for third on the team with 35 tackles, and he also had an interception return for a touchdown to spark the Hoosiers against North Texas. He hasn’t been perfect by any stretch, but Murphy has definitely shown his potential as a standout safety in the first seven games.OFFENSIVE SLEEPER: WR DUWYCE WILSONHe dealt with a back injury for a few weeks, but Wilson is finally healthy and I expect him to have a big second half. Wilson has only 15 catches for 176 yards and two touchdowns in the first seven games, and most of that production came in two games against Virginia and South Carolina State.As I mentioned in a column earlier this year, Wilson has the talent to be “The Next Big Thing” for IU.He had a couple breakout games early, but he’s been inconsistent of late. Some of that has to do with injury and some of that has to do with lack of production at the quarterback position. But with the receivers struggling as a unit, Wilson needs to be the guy that helps them break out of a midseason slump.DEFENSIVE SLEEPER: S DREW HARDINHardin stepped into the lineup after Jarrell Drane got hurt, and he’s made some strides in recent weeks.Hardin leads the Hoosiers with 27 tackles in Big Ten play, including 21 solo tackles. He still makes too many mistakes, but he’s young and he’s learning.It helps that Hardin has gotten the most playing time against Big Ten competition. By the time IU plays Purdue at the end of the season, Hardin will probably feel like a veteran on the field.
(10/17/11 2:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s hard not to cringe when you see the final score: Wisconsin 59, IU 7.It looks incredibly lopsided, and it hurts to think a Big Ten team could lose to a conference foe by that margin.But Saturday’s result was exactly what we expected. If you’re surprised by it, you probably thought No. 4 Wisconsin would score closer to the 83 points it put on the board last year.The Badgers ran the ball all over the field, pulled out a trick play, threw it occasionally with their new star quarterback and cruised in the second half.They’ll do that to a lot of teams this year. There was nothing the Hoosiers could do about it.“They’re a really solid, complete, good offense,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. “Bottom line, if they get out in space, those two backs (Montee Ball and James White) are pretty good. I don’t know if they have blazingly great speed, but it’s pretty good speed. They run through trash, and they’re always moving forward.”The Badgers beat Big Ten newcomer Nebraska 48-17 just a couple weeks ago. Their offense puts up huge numbers on every opponent on the schedule.The Hoosiers (1-6, 0-3), though, didn’t do much to help their cause. Quarterback Edward Wright-Baker was off on the majority of his throws, two of which resulted in interceptions. The offensive line got pushed around at times, and the quarterbacks didn’t help by constantly moving the pocket.The offense still doesn’t look like anything that even resembles a cohesive unit. It looks like a group of guys that has never played before, and this was the seventh week of the season.The Hoosiers sometimes move the ball, mostly with running back Stephen Houston, but they rarely finish drives. They get in manageable situations, but penalties make them less manageable. They gain some momentum, then turn the ball over.Maybe there’s a lack of trust amongst the offensive players, but offensive inconsistency has been IU’s main issue every single week this season.“I thought this week, one day, our receivers had probably the worst practice I’ve seen since we’ve been here for a group,” Wilson said. “And they backed it up with their play today. When we get the run game going, there’s no passing game. It’d be nice to put it all together.”Exactly.In several games this season, the Hoosiers have relied on the pass to keep them in games. On Saturday, the passing game didn’t exist. The IU quarterbacks threw for a combined — get this — 64 yards. And they were playing from behind all afternoon.“(My) 54 yards is unacceptable,” Wright-Baker said. “You won’t win a game in the Big Ten if you’re not passing well.”If you’re looking for positives, how about Houston? The kid runs hard and brings an energy to the offense that nobody else does.Houston always seems to have the right attitude, no matter how trying the circumstances might be. After he ran for 135 yards and a touchdown against the Badgers, he wasn’t satisfied.“(I played) decent,” he said. “I’m nowhere near where I want to be.”That’s the attitude the Hoosiers need, and that’s the attitude that probably kept them from quitting in the second half. Even as Wisconsin ran for one long touchdown after another, IU kept fighting for its first-year coach.That’s an encouraging sign — one of the few you can take away from another long day in Madison, Wis.
(10/14/11 3:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Nobody has forgotten what happened at Camp Randall Stadium last year.Not me, not the IU players, not the IU fan base. Not even the new IU coaching staff — though they don’t want to talk about the game because they weren’t at IU for the Massacre in Madison.“I’m sure they’re all aware of it, but that was last year. This is this year,” IU Co-Defensive Coordinator Mike Ekeler said.That’s a nice way of saying “That wasn’t my fault!” And it may not have been. But still, it’s hard to ignore an 83-20 loss. You can’t just pretend it never happened.Eighty-three points is not something that slips your mind.Unless, of course, No. 4 Wisconsin puts an even bigger number on the Hoosiers on Saturday.It’s a real possibility. As crazy as it sounds, the Badgers are better than they were a year ago and the Hoosiers are — gulp — worse. Could it really be more lopsided than 83-20 this time around?Wisconsin Coach Bret Bielema, who was criticized by some for running up the score last year, has an even better reason to do so this time around.Bielema’s team has a realistic chance of playing for a national championship this season. If the Badgers have any hope of overtaking Oklahoma, LSU or Alabama, they’re going to have to blow out everybody in conference play.And if you remember correctly, Bielema tried to let off the gas last year. He was playing his third-stringers for much of the second half, and the Hoosiers still couldn’t stop them. What was he supposed to do, run his kicker out there at quarterback?“That’s a lot of points, and it raises eyebrows,” Bielema said at his weekly press conference. “I had my, literally, my fifth-string quarterback in there and he scores on a naked, so the stars were kind of aligned for us that day.”No, Coach, stars were not aligned for you that day — Hoosiers were. They lined up and let your scrubs run around, through and past them all afternoon.No pride. No backbone. No resistance.That needs to change with IU Coach Kevin Wilson now on the sideline. The Hoosiers have no chance to win this game, but it’s still a critical week for Wilson.This is the week we learn what he’s made of as a coach. This is the week we learn if the players are willing to fight for him. This is the week — and I don’t mean to exaggerate — that we learn if Wilson has a chance to be successful here.“You can’t be scared of anything and say you’ve got no chance,” Wilson said. “We’re not going to go there and shelter anything back. We’re going to go right at them.”It’s easy to go into a game with that mentality, but what happens after you get punched in the mouth a time or two in the first quarter? What happens if it’s quickly 21-0, and the Hoosiers are struggling? Will they still go right at them? Will they still not be scared?We know what to expect out of the Badgers on Saturday. They’re going to try to run the Hoosiers out of the stadium as quickly as possible. They’re going to try to score 100 points. The question is, then, do Wilson’s Hoosiers have the guts to stop them?PredictionThe Badgers are a 38-point favorite against IU on Saturday, and I don’t blame the oddsmakers in the least. This one could get ugly. I think the Hoosiers will play with some pride in the second half, though, and keep Wisconsin under 83 points.Wisconsin 55, IU 10
(10/10/11 2:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I thought I was having flashbacks. Maybe I was dreaming. What I was seeing on the field couldn’t possibly be happening.IU recovered a fumble on Illinois’s 3-yard line and proceeded to call three consecutive running plays and settle for a field goal.The Hoosiers tried two consecutive screen passes to the same receiver on the same side of the field.IU’s longest play from scrimmage — a 48-yard pass from Dusty Kiel to running back Stephen Houston — came on about a two-yard throw and a 46-yard run.Surely that man on the sideline wasn’t Kevin Wilson, a coach known for his offensive expertise. The play calls looked so familiar I could have sworn it was a former coach who made them. It had to be.But it wasn’t. It was, indeed, Wilson. The guy who was too aggressive in the first two weeks of the season all of a sudden seemed to know only one play – a zone read. The guy who came to IU saying “Win Today” instead called the game as if his motto was “Don’t Lose Today.” I’m not saying the result on Saturday — a 41-20 Illinois win — would have been all that different if Wilson would have been more aggressive early. It likely wouldn’t have been. But what in the world has happened to Wilson?In the season opener against Ball State, he elected to go for it on fourth down instead of kicking a field goal to cut the lead to 24-20. A week later against Virginia, he accepted a delay of game penalty and called for a fake field goal.Now, it’s considered aggressive when Wilson calls a passing play that’s not a screen.The players wouldn’t throw their coach under the bus after the game, but I got the feeling they wanted to see a more aggressive offense, too.I don’t know if Wilson doesn’t have faith in Dusty Kiel at quarterback or if he doesn’t believe his offensive line can protect long enough. But in both Big Ten games, Wilson has refused to go down field until it’s too late.When the Hoosiers (1-5, 0-2) do go deep, they usually have success. They’ve had plenty of fourth-quarter touchdowns. But why not air it out in the first half when your team’s still in the game?“We have to stay patient, stay with the run,” Wilson said. “When you’re a one-dimensional team, even if you’re really, really, really good, you are going to struggle in pass (protection.) When you’re playing young guys who are not as good as you want, you’re going to struggle more.”I was somewhat critical of Wilson when he was overly aggressive in the first couple weeks, but I understood it. He wanted to establish his identity as a coach and let everyone know he is willing to do whatever it takes to win.But I can’t comprehend some of his recent decisions. If you’re going to go down, at least go down swinging.I know he doesn’t have a ton to work with — Kiel struggled to complete anything against Illinois, and the offensive line isn’t good — but he needs to find a balance between his old aggressive tendencies and his new conservative ones.—jmalbers@indiana.edu
(10/07/11 4:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I feel for Mike Ekeler and Doug Mallory.I certainly wouldn’t want to be a co-defensive coordinator for IU this week. If Ekeler and Mallory are doing their homework on Illinois, they probably haven’t slept a wink all week. There’s that much work to do.Yes, the Hoosier defense looked pretty good against Penn State last week. Shoot, the Hoosiers held Penn State to 16 points. That doesn’t happen every day.But Illinois is an entirely different challenge. Penn State had Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin. Illinois has Nathan Scheelhaase. Comparing McGloin to Scheelhaase is like comparing Rex Grossman to Aaron Rodgers.On paper, this is a terrible matchup. With the pass rush the Hoosiers have been getting, Scheelhaase will have plenty of time to sit in the pocket and find A.J. Jenkins down the field. It could get ugly in a hurry.“I feel like he’s a lot more efficient as a quarterback compared to Penn State,” sophomore cornerback Greg Heban said. “He’s definitely got the athletic ability to threaten us with the pass and run. He’s a great quarterback.”Which is why the Hoosiers should take that paper and burn it. Let Scheelhaase and the Illini expect to see the defense they’ve seen on tape and then surprise them with something completely different.Bring all of the linebackers up to the line on some plays. Blitz a safety here and there. Drop a defensive end into coverage. It doesn’t matter what the Hoosiers do as long as they show Scheelhaase something they haven’t shown anybody else.That’s the only way they can compete. Ekeler and Mallory can share their expertise with the players. They can coach them up all they want, but that only goes so far. Ultimately, the players have to go out there and play (genius, right?), and these players don’t stack up well against the Illinois offense.“We’re going to probably throw in some new wrinkles and blitzes and packages, but that’s nothing new,” senior linebacker Jeff Thomas said. “We constantly battle with our own mental mistakes and our own errors. If we play our own defense, and come into our own and find our identity, then we don’t need to bring anything else in.”This defense doesn’t have an identity because it isn’t great in any one area. The Hoosiers are much better at stopping the run than they are the pass, but I wouldn’t exactly call the unit a run-stopping defense. It isn’t there yet, and I doubt it’s going to find an identity on Saturday.If Ekeler and Mallory throw the same defense at Illinois that they did against Penn State, the Hoosiers won’t win. Even if they do mix it up and show some confusing packages, the Illini might still dominate on offense. It might even be worse because of the potential for the big play — including in the running game.“You would get concerned with which coverages, blitzes, looks you can do, because the threat of the quarterback run is one more animal to defend on the field and kind of limits us there,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said.But that’s a risk IU must be willing to take.Against this opponent and this quarterback, there’s no other option.PREDICTIONScheelhaase and the Illini are certainly the darlings of the Big Ten — and maybe even the country — this year. This matchup simply doesn’t favor the Hoosiers, and it could be their first blowout loss of the season.IU will hang in for a bit, but the Illini will ultimately be too much. Watch for the Scheelhaase to Jenkins combination all afternoon.Illinois 34, IU 17
(10/05/11 2:25am)
Football columnist Justin Albers grades IU's performance against Penn State.
(10/03/11 2:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Coach Kevin Wilson needs to make a decision quickly.He’s seen what two of his quarterbacks can do. Now, it’s time for Wilson to pick one of them and stick with him for the rest of the season.If it’s sophomore Dusty Kiel, fine. If it’s four-time starter Edward Wright-Baker, great. And even if Wilson wants to go with freshman Tre Roberson, that’s OK, too.For goodness’ sake, just put your faith in one of them and help him develop during the course of the season — not during the course of a game.I know Wright-Baker missed Saturday’s game for what Wilson called a sprained ankle, but Wilson can’t keep switching the way he has during the first five games.It simply won’t work.Kiel, who made his first career start against Penn State, looked the way Wright-Baker did in the season opener against Ball State — average. It takes time for a quarterback to develop, no matter who he is.Wilson is only hurting his team by playing both and naming neither the starter.“He didn’t hurt us,” Wilson said of Kiel. “At the same time, like Ed, they’re both young, they’re both battling. We probably would have played them both (if Wright-Baker wasn’t hurt). Maybe. I don’t know.”And how exactly did that go for Penn State, Coach?The IU defense was a lot better — as Co-Defensive Coordinator Mike Ekeler promised it would be — but most of Penn State’s offensive struggles in its 16-10 win could be attributed to bad quarterback play. Penn State’s Rob Bolden threw it at the feet of his receivers on a regular basis, and Bolden’s teammate Matt McGloin — with the exception of one throw — wasn’t much better.One drive Bolden, next drive McGloin. Two drives McGloin, one drive Bolden.It doesn’t work for Penn State, and it won’t work for IU.If Wilson doesn’t name a starter now, both quarterbacks will continue to feel the pressure that comes with having to constantly look over your shoulder at the other guy. Kiel and Wright-Baker aren’t good enough to play well with half of their focus on the field and half of it on the guy holding the clipboard.If it were my choice, Wright-Baker would be the guy going forward. He’s sometimes erratic, and he doesn’t always see the field that well, but his arm is much stronger, and he’s more talented than Kiel.During the final drive against Penn State, for example, Kiel needed to target the sideline so the Hoosiers could stop the clock with no timeouts remaining. He instead went over the middle every time and had to try to heave one to the end zone during the final play as a result.I would guess he didn’t throw outside more because his arm isn’t strong enough to get it there on a rope. Wright-Baker’s is.But I don’t care who Wilson chooses. If he wants to play Kiel or Roberson for the final seven games, I’d support the decision.What really matters is having the confidence to pick one guy and keep running him out there week after week. This team isn’t going anywhere this season, anyway. At most, it’ll win one or two more games.So why not develop one quarterback and watch him improve with time? If nothing else, that quarterback could push Gunner Kiel next year.I asked wide receiver Damarlo Belcher if he’d like to see Wilson stick with one quarterback or the other, and he wouldn’t give an opinion.“Both of those guys are playing well,” Belcher said. “Pretty soon, we’ll have a permanent quarterback.”I sure hope so. If not, the offense is going to continue to be as stagnant as it was Saturday.
(09/30/11 4:03am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s hard to be an IU football fan right now.I get it.You thought this year was going to be different. New coach, new attitude, fresh slate.And what you’ve seen so far isn’t different at all. It’s exactly what you’ve watched for years, if not worse.After the Hoosiers lost at North Texas last weekend, many of you probably moved on. You’ll get up on Saturday morning to tailgate, and then you’ll take the party elsewhere.No one will blame you if you do. It’s the same IU football team, after all. Right?All that being said, it’s too early to give up on IU Coach Kevin Wilson and his team. It’s been four games — four very lousy games, yes, but four games.It’s too early to say Wilson won’t turn this program around. It’s too early to say the players are quitting on Wilson because Kevin Bush left the team. It’s way too early to give up.“There’s just no quick fixes,” IU Athletics Director Fred Glass said. “I’m probably more disappointed than anyone else. I wish the results were better, but I still very much believe in what he’s doing. We have to give it some time.”I know what you’re thinking, because I’m thinking it, too: “North freaking Texas? You have to be kidding me.”It’s a tough one to swallow for both the fans and the coaches. But Wilson’s staff isn’t making excuses. Many of the assistants showed up to media availability this week wearing angry scowls. Mike Ekeler was one of them.“That was an embarrassment,” the co-defensive coordinator said of the North Texas loss. “We play ‘us’ every week, and ‘us’ kicked our ass. We didn’t come to play. That’s on me. I take that very personal. I’m embarrassed that that tape’s out there. We had guys out there playing like they were scared, scared to go up there and put their face on somebody.“There is no depth chart at this point. We’re not going to watch that. We’re going to fix it. That’s why we were brought here, and that’s not the standard we’re going to set. ... We’ve got a saying: ‘Put that shit on film,’ and we put a lot of shit on film the other night.”Ekeler has to be as sick as anybody by the Hoosiers’ 1-3 start. His defenses were so good at Nebraska he said he could have “ate eight hot dogs and smoked two packs of Marlboros on game day.”Now he’s watching the players give more than 350 yards of offense to North Texas — in the first two quarters.I know what he said was obvious, but it’s the passion that makes me think this coaching staff can still turn it around. After the recorders went off earlier this week, Ekeler didn’t want to leave. He stood in the team room and repeated, “I promise you we will get this fixed.”For many of you, that probably isn’t good enough. You want to see results, and you want to see them now.I’ve seen the reaction around town. In Mother Bear’s on Third Street, for example, one of Wilson’s “Win Today” posters has been scribbled on in permanent marker: “Which day are we winning?”I’ve seen the way the student section has been filled to the top at the start of both home games, only to be reduced to a tiny blob by the fourth quarter. By the end of the win against South Carolina State, only a small handful of students remained.I’m not trying to criticize you for your reaction. All of it is fair. You expect better out of a Big Ten football program, which has instead has been an easy target for jokes lately.But let’s not run Wilson out of town yet. Give him more time, and stick with this team for a little bit longer. The Hoosiers deserve at least that much.PREDICTIONWhere do the Hoosiers go from here? After a loss to North Texas last week, it’s easy to expect IU to get run off their own field Saturday.But I think the Hoosiers will be competitive for much of the afternoon. In the end, poor quarterback play will keep the Hoosiers from the upset.Penn State 28, IU 17
(09/30/11 2:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU football coach Kevin Wilson wasted little time acknowledging the addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten. During his introductory press conference in December, Wilson had every right to focus on himself and his new program. And to some extent, he did.But when a question about his former Big 12 rival came up, a more serious expression crawled across his face and his tone changed.“We could play them in the Big Ten Championship,” the former Oklahoma offensive coordinator said, rather matter-of-factly.It didn’t matter to Wilson that his Hoosiers and the Cornhuskers were placed in separate divisions. He had been part of the Big Ten for all of 10 minutes, and he still recognized the impact a powerhouse school like Nebraska could have on the conference — and on his program.So, while IU and Nebraska won’t meet during Wilson’s first year in Bloomington and Nebraska’s first year in the conference, the Cornhuskers mean something to the Hoosiers.They represent a goal — a goal for Wilson, a goal for the players and a goal for the fans.“I think it’s great,” senior wide receiver Damarlo Belcher said. “It added more competition to the Big Ten. I would like to play them. I hope to play them. But we won’t see them until we go to the championship. So we’ll see later on.”I’m sure Wilson would be thrilled to see Nebraska coach Bo Pelini standing on the opposing sideline. For a coach that experienced so much success with the Sooners, it would bring back memories of playing the Cornhuskers in the Big 12 Championship.It would mean he turned the IU program into a winner, something he said he hopes to do. Plus, he doesn’t like Nebraska very much.“He doesn’t talk too much about them,” Belcher said, a smile creeping to his face. “There are a couple of coaches from Nebraska on the team, and he’s cool with them, but he don’t talk about Nebraska too much.”It’s good Wilson doesn’t like the Cornhuskers. His feelings come from the fact that his Oklahoma teams created a bitter rivalry with Nebraska — and a rivalry means each team wins a fair amount against the other.Wilson can use Nebraska as motivation for his current and future players. It’s a perfect example of a program that wins by doing things the right way.“When Kevin talks about a football season, he talks about 14 games,” said IU Athletics Director Fred Glass. “Twelve regular-season games, the Big Ten Championship game and a bowl game. For some, that may seem to strain his credibility, given where we are, but I think that’s how you have to envision yourself. You are what you aspire to be. We don’t aspire to be competitive, we don’t aspire to be respectable — we aspire to be champions. That’s a great mindset that Kevin’s brought, and it’s certainly the mindset that Nebraska has.”The addition of Nebraska is good for the Big Ten. It adds revenue. It creates a conference title game. It evens the number of teams at 12, and it adds competition to an already competitive league.But the addition is also good for IU — even if it doesn’t look that way on the surface.Now, the Hoosiers have an additional goal to strive for at the end of the regular season. The preseason pep talks and press conferences no longer have to focus solely on making it to the Rose Bowl. Now, there’s something more, something that could actually help a school like IU make it to Pasadena — the Big Ten Championship game.Thanks, Nebraska.
(09/26/11 4:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It must be the white helmets.That’s the best explanation I can offer you for what I saw Saturday night.It was one of the oddest football games I’ve ever seen, and while IU came back (as it did against Virginia) and almost won at the end, it was another embarrassing loss — this time, 24-21 to North Texas.Senior wide receiver Damarlo Belcher didn’t travel because of an undisclosed injury. Sophomores Kofi Hughes and Duwyce Wilson played sparingly in the first half. The IU offense couldn’t move the ball against one of the worst defenses in the country.Seriously?The 24 points IU gave up didn’t surprise me all that much. We’ve kind of come to expect that from the IU defense.However, Hoosier quarterback Edward Wright-Baker and the offense have looked good at times this season. But when lined up against the Mean Green, a team that gave up an average of more than 500 yards of total offense coming into the game, they couldn’t score a point until Dusty Kiel entered the game.Even then, Kiel didn’t look all that impressive. He benefitted from two wide open receivers — one because a North Texas defender was tying his shoe during the play.Yes, really.“I don’t think they understand how to prepare,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. “We kind of had a really bad Tuesday practice defensively as a team. That was evident there in the first half again.”Now, for the obvious question: Is this the worst loss in IU football history?Personally, I don’t think so. I was there for the 83-20 shellacking at Wisconsin last year, and I don’t think losses come in an uglier package than that one.But this game is definitely up there. The Hoosiers (1-3) played with little enthusiasm and did few things right until the fourth quarter. With this game basically scheduled as a Big Ten tune up, that’s incredibly disappointing.The Hoosiers have now been away from Memorial Stadium twice, and both times they looked lifeless. Where’s that swagger the players say Wilson brought with him? Does it only exist when the team is in Bloomington?Wright-Baker took some positive steps forward in recent weeks, but he looked very bad against North Texas. He again missed often on deep balls, again failed to feel pressure from behind and again made some poor reads.To his credit, Kiel looked like a leader when he took over in the fourth. After he hit wide receiver Cody Latimer on a touchdown pass, he was seen motivating his offensive teammates on the sideline. It was good to see.Then came the unbelievable shoe-tying play. Yeah, Hughes was wide open, but Kiel had to hit him for a score. Kiel accounted for two more touchdowns in a matter of minutes than Wright-Baker did in three quarters.After it finally looked like Wright-Baker was the starting quarterback, there appears to be another quarterback controversy. But Wilson said there isn’t.“We just thought we needed a spark,” Wilson said. “We had played three quarters and hadn’t gotten in the end zone. I don’t think either one of them still work hard enough. I don’t think they study enough. We’re still a work in progress with those guys.”If I had to guess, I’d say Kiel is the starter for the conference opener against Penn State next week. If nothing else, it keeps Gunner happy and committed for next season.As for this season, it’s hard to say. If what we saw on Saturday continues, it’s going to be a long season.Maybe IU should drop the white helmets.That’s the only way I can explain this one.