Analysis: Plenty of blame to go around in most recent debacle

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

IU football is what it is.

                                                   W      L      T

Phil Dickens        1958-1964     20     41     2     31.7%

John Pont            1965-1972     31     51     1     37.3%

Lee Corso            1973-1982     41     68     2     36.9%

Sam Wyche               1983          3        8     0     27.3%

Bill Mallory           1984-1996     69     77     3      46.3%

Cam Cameron     1997-2001     18     37     0      32.7%

Gerry DiNardo      2002-2004      8     27     0      22.9%

Terry Hoeppner    2005-2006      9     14     0       39.1%

Bill Lynch              2007-2010     19    30     0      38.8%

 

    TOTALS                                218   353    8       37.7%

 

Since 1958 not a single IU coach has had a career winning record.  Only 2 - Mallory and CKW had or have a winning record against PUke.  The last winning football coach we had was Bo McMillin (1934-1947) with 63 wins, 48 losses and 11 ties.

 

DENIAL:  We can't be this bad every year can we?

 

ANGER:  Damn it!  How can we blow a 27 point lead and allow 28 unanswered points?  Damn it #2!  How could we not be prepared for the Syracuse zone?

 

BARGAINING:  Please God, I don't care if we never win another football game just let us hang another NCAA championship banner in Assembly Hall before I die.

 

DEPRESSION:  Losing to PUke.

 

ACCEPTANCE:  It's Indiana football.

 

I'm sure I'm old enough to be the father of the majority of the BTB posters and old enough to be the grandfather of a few more of you.  IU football has been bad for almost my entire life [1968 Rose Bowl and a few other scattered bowls the exception].  Sometimes you just have to have a little humor to take away some of the sting.

[JSHoosier]

Exactly. Critical thinking requires recognizing both the positive and the negatives. To be completely positive, or completely negative is always going to be annoying. We had 30 minutes of decent football Saturday, followed by about 10 minutes of great football, followed by 20 minutes of absolute crap. That meant for about 40 minutes there was something positive going on. Too bad some people never have anything to say until the SHTF moments.

The team was good for part of the day, but the part that was absolute crap was embarrassing even by the already low standards of IU football.  Even for us a 25 point lead against Rutgers should be safe.

[HoosierReb01]

The team was good for part of the day, but the part that was absolute crap was embarrassing even by the already low standards of IU football.  Even for us a 25 point lead against Rutgers should be safe.

Oh, I agree. I already only vaguely remember that great ten minutes of football. The next 20 just cut any enjoyment I got out of it.

[JSHoosier]

Oh, I agree. I already only vaguely remember that great ten minutes of football. The next 20 just cut any enjoyment I got out of it.

A buttfumble, ala Mark Sanchez, is about the only thing that could make those 20 minutes more embarrassing.

[johnsoniu]

3 days. Still pissed as hell

[Naturalhoosier]

3 days. Still pissed as hell

I was backing away from the cliff until I had a conversation with a coworker at lunch. :(

[MartintheMopMan]

Oh yeah. Griffen had that kickoff that bounced off the pylon and went out of bounds.

 

I was incorrect previously when I said he deserved no blame.

 

Still, I'd rather have him punt it than Toth. Granted, I'd rather have Jordan Howard punt it with a busted ankle than Toth.

[MartintheMopMan]

3 days. Still pissed as hell

 

I was backing away from the cliff until I had a conversation with a coworker at lunch. :(

 

Really? I'm surprised to hear fans care this much about our football program, it's a sign we must have really been doing good things to have such lofty expectations. I think the loss brings to light serious problems in the culture of our team, coaching staff, and fans. But, I also don't see us ever properly addressing these problems. CKW will end up OC at PSU and we'll find some other coach to help us be the historically worst team in the FBS. It's all a self-perpetuating cycle where I can't picture anyone involved stepping out and breaking it.

[Hovadipo]

Oh yeah. Griffen had that kickoff that bounced off the pylon and went out of bounds.

I was incorrect previously when I said he deserved no blame.

Still, I'd rather have him punt it than Toth. Granted, I'd rather have Jordan Howard punt it with a busted ankle than Toth.

I did some quick research after that and couldn't find anywhere that said hitting the pylon is a flag. I couldn't really find anything concrete otherwise but the stuff I read considered the pylon behind the goal line, thus hitting it would mean a touchback and not an illegal kick out of bounds.

Someone feel free to prove me otherwise here.

[MartintheMopMan]

I did some quick research after that and couldn't find anywhere that said hitting the pylon is a flag. I couldn't really find anything concrete otherwise but the stuff I read considered the pylon behind the goal line, thus hitting it would mean a touchback and not an illegal kick out of bounds.

Someone feel free to prove me otherwise here.

Since you already did the research, is it still an illegal kick out of bounds if it goes out of the side of the end zone? It should be treated like that. 

[Hovadipo]

Since you already did the research, is it still an illegal kick out of bounds if it goes out of the side of the end zone? It should be treated like that.

I already knew that one, and it is not illegal for the ball to go out of bounds in the endzone. I'm pretty certain they got that flag wrong.

[johnsoniu]

The ruling on the field was that the ball hit inbounds just before it hit the pylon. I never saw a good replay of it and Wilson never challenged it. But then again I find myself doubting Wilson too often these days.

[johnsoniu]

Really? I'm surprised to hear fans care this much about our football program, it's a sign we must have really been doing good things to have such lofty expectations.

 My expectations for this program are not anywhere close to lofty. But your sarcasm is duly noted.

[MartintheMopMan]

 My expectations for this program are not anywhere close to lofty. But your sarcasm is duly noted.

No sarcasm at all. Expecting IU football to win Big Ten games and be in a bowl is certainly lofty when compared with our history. We have been to 9 bowls in 120 years and won 6 Big Ten games in CKW's tenure. So, expecting a bowl season when 92.5% of our seasons have not been bowl seasons and expecting a Big Ten win when 81% of our Big Ten games have been losses (or 70% over our entire history) is pretty lofty.

[MartintheMopMan]

I already knew that one, and it is not illegal for the ball to go out of bounds in the endzone. I'm pretty certain they got that flag wrong.

Thanks. I thought that was the case, but worried there may be a difference between NFL and CFB and didn't want to look stupid.

[akhosrof]

Really? I'm surprised to hear fans care this much about our football program, it's a sign we must have really been doing good things to have such lofty expectations. I think the loss brings to light serious problems in the culture of our team, coaching staff, and fans. But, I also don't see us ever properly addressing these problems. CKW will end up OC at PSU and we'll find some other coach to help us be the historically worst team in the FBS. It's all a self-perpetuating cycle where I can't picture anyone involved stepping out and breaking it.

$$$ talks. Bring in a winner like Bo Pelini and he'll get this program to 7-8 wins a year very quickly. Of course, paying Pelini and his level of assistants is going to come at a cost IU has never paid for football. In the B1G East the cost of even 6-8 wins, with no potential of anything more, is going to be enormous. Otherwise, we will hire a MAC coach and it will be a crapshoot whether we will get any better. And if we do get better, that coaching prospect will leave for a better job in three years. Think CKW as a top coordinator took this job with the intention of being here long-term? He probably planned on getting us to 7-8 wins and coaching in Texas or an SEC school by now.

High school recruits are fickle. Recruiting is all momentum and excitement. This program had a lot of momentum after a 4-0 start and the OSU game. The loss to Rutgers hurts so much because we had a real chance to build positive momentum.

Creating excitement on the recruiting trail is hard in your fifth year as a coach with no more than four wins to show. Five years in we shouldn't have a defense full of under class-men and being fed the same excuse of being inexperienced.

Our recruiting classes are lagging behind even Rutgers and UMD, and pretty much on par with Purdue. We have a poor presence instate and in Ohio, and a pretty poor recruiting strategy of trying to make inroads on a picked over Chicago-area. The recruits are not going to get any better after five years of losing.

If CKW cannot get to six wins and win a bowl game, we have to make a change or risk setting back the program another two years because of poor recruiting.

[MartintheMopMan]

$$$ talks. Bring in a winner like Bo Pelini and he'll get this program to 7-8 wins a year very quickly. Of course, paying Pelini and his level of assistants is going to come at a cost IU has never paid for football. In the B1G East the cost of even 6-8 wins, with no potential of anything more, is going to be enormous. Otherwise, we will hire a MAC coach and it will be a crapshoot whether we will get any better. And if we do get better, that coaching prospect will leave for a better job in three years. Think CKW as a top coordinator took this job with the intention of being here long-term? He probably planned on getting us to 7-8 wins and coaching in Texas or an SEC school by now.

High school recruits are fickle. Recruiting is all momentum and excitement. This program had a lot of momentum after a 4-0 start and the OSU game. The loss to Rutgers hurts so much because we had a real chance to build positive momentum.

Creating excitement on the recruiting trail is hard in your fifth year as a coach with no more than four wins to show. Five years in we shouldn't have a defense full of under class-men and being fed the same excuse of being inexperienced.

Our recruiting classes are lagging behind even Rutgers and UMD, and pretty much on par with Purdue. We have a poor presence instate and in Ohio, and a pretty poor recruiting strategy of trying to make inroads on a picked over Chicago-area. The recruits are not going to get any better after five years of losing.

If CKW cannot get to six wins and win a bowl game, we have to make a change or risk setting back the program another two years because of poor recruiting.

I agree with your assessment. But the institutional unwillingness to pay top dollar for a coach is one of the perpetuators of the cycle. This pressure also comes from alums who would whine if we had a football coach make more than a basketball coach because "we aren't good anyway" and "we're a basketball school".