The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful

 New addition to the North End Zone at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.

Good and costly and impressive and beautiful. Check it out. Really. I saw a laot of it via the Big Ten Network and IUHoosiers.com photo gallery.

On the field of play...

New hopes of an experienced defensive line.

New aspirations for a healthier, more experienced offensive line.

New starting QB and many skilled positions on offense and defense.

First ever Thursday night home game for the Indiana Hoosiers.

New traditions, like Indiana student freshmen running out the tunnel. fireworks, the Student Walk greeting the players before the game, a field in the South End Zone for kids and families to play.

5 dollar tickets for all students, from ALL colleges, not just IU at Bloomington. ( A beautiful campus, by the way).

New, new, new and GOOD. And Beautiful. Bello. Bonito.

 

Nevertheless...

this is IU Football, and there was some bad.

But first---some more good!

Ben Chappell (apparently pronounced like church "chapel") threw for a personal record after five starts including last year, 326 yards in 16 of 26 passes, or 18 completions...Not bad.

Good!

But he threw 2 INTs.

Not good.

Three receivers showed great moxy: Belcher, Doss and Turner. Three others caught some key recptions, too. Good!

The Tight Ends did all right, it seems. Except for blocking for the run, it seems.

The four running backs never established North/South running as proclaimed for the last few months in this new fandangled hyped up "Pistol Offense".

Plus, the o-line was supposed to be big, bad (good bad) and experienced, remember?

Not so against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels, a measly FCS (i.e. Div 1-AA ) team who did win their Ohio Valley Conference last year, but is not FBS.

Not in the top 120.

But having watched the whole game, interspersed with Ball State losing to North Texas in Muncie, Indiana, I think that EKU would be better than quite a few of the FBS 120. They have many good players, and stuffed IU's run, which is not Ohio State or Penn State or even Michigan (2009 version, extra hour workers, RRodriguez getting weepy as I type), but IU was supposed to establish a much newly improved rushing game.

New and improved offensive line. Running backs. Tight ends.

Remember? A beautiful way to improve the overall offense?

Good? Better?

Not so.

The surroundings were beautiful.

The crowd was the best for Memorial Stadium since 1997.

I was at that opener. It was a blow out 12 years ago. The new coach then, Cam Cameron, offered a lot of hope.

Time has passed.

At times beautifully, at times well (as in GOOD), at times poorly (meaning BAD).

But IU managed to knock down a prayer EKU pass in the last seconds in their own end zone, and survived by 6.

Whew!

Nick Polk for president. I met him at Assembly Hall in March of 2007 when I took my three year old to see the basketball court. A real gentleman, this Mr. Polk.

Unselfish. Good athlete. Beautiful person.

He was switched to defensive backfield a couple years ago from receiver, just as Ray Fisher was switched this year.

Good athletes, great team players.

Beautiful.

IU lost to FCS Souther Illiinois in 2006, or was it ...Yes, the year before the 2007 bowl season in tribute of late Coach Terry Hoeppner, who died a couple months before that heralded 3-5 Big Ten season.

But this year, IU wins albei by a slim tense margin, but wins.

And that is better than 2006, the last fall that I lived here in Northern Virginia.

In case you didn't know, I was training in California the last two falls.

West Coast.

East Coast.

The great Mid West.

Good, bad and beautiful.

And win or lose, with my Hoosiers, it is all good.

And beautiful. No the most impressive opening game as a tactical vicotory to inferior talent, but they earned the win. Gorgeous surroundings and environment, bad plays to let the FCS Eastern Kentucky team to have a last second chance, but perhaps the Hoosiers can build on this to beat a good MAC Western Michigan team...

Perhaps they can improve and compete and win 6, 7, games.

It could be more beautiful? Or bad. But I will take good.

Any questions?

Bad or otherwise?

PapaClinch