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

Past Indiana Football Wins Indicate Future Success

Many writers and football pundits are predicting a last place finish for the IU football team this fall, 2009. A few are predicting no wins in the Big Ten.

I beg to differ.

Sure, Indiana has to contend with the heavies Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State (Michigan State and Minnesota are out of the 2 year rotation), and last year was a resounding 3-9 thud after a seven win bowl season back in 2007. 

But IU's football Hoosiers beat at least one Big Ten squad every year, and they have done that mostly as a losing team.

Last year they beat Northwestern 21-19, yes a slim margin, but they also lost a close one to the Spartans that could have gone the Hooisers' way at home.

Last year they finished 1-7 in the Big 10 but worse yet, 2-2 in non-conference play. Indiana lost to both Mid American Conference foes, Ball State and Central Michigan, the latter by three points.

This team is better than last, I think, as well as many others on both sides of the ball.

Perhaps 2007 is not the best indicator of this year's results, but maybe 2006...

But for a reminder of the bowl season for the Hoosiers, IU lost the first conference game to Illinois in '07 and then went on to beat Iowa, 38-20. Next they whipped the Gophers, 40-20, lost to MIchigan State and Penn St., and Wisconsin, beat a Ball State team in the November slot, slipped to Northwestern but beat Purdue on a field goal. 4-0 in non-conference, 3-5 in the Big 10 earned them a bowl game against Oklahoma State.

I am not saying that this year's IU team will get seven wins like in 2007. They may.

What I am saying is that IU will win against a Big Ten team this year. Because last year's woeful 3-9 team did. They did beat Northwestern, at least, despite losing to Ball State and Central Michigan.

What about 2006? Perhaps that is a better indicator. IU lost to two non-conference teams, Southern Illinois and Connecticut. The SIU ____________? (Fill in the Egyptian dog mascot name). OUCH. The Salukis.

But in the conference, Indiana lost to Wisconsin, then beat Illinois by two points, beat Iowa by three, got creamed by Ohio State, KILLED Michigan State 46-21, then got run over by Minnesota, stifled by Michigan, and then lost by 9 to arch rival Purdue.

They went 3-5 in the conference, but the difference from the following year was that they went 2-2 in non-conference play.

So, what is the thing?

Indiana will win in the Big Ten, at least once, maybe three times, and barring a miracle, four or more which I don't believe has happened since the early 1990s under Bill Mallory.

Terry Hoeppner was the inspirational leader back in 2006, after Cam Cameron and Jerry DiNardo in between.

Coach Terry died in June '07, and his memory and organization made it to the bowl under the interim coach Bill Lynch.

Lynch is still there, now with a combined 10-15 record, not counting the ones he replaced Hoeppner in 2006 for his brain tumor cancer bouts prior to his unfortunate death.

Is IU destined for a few Big Ten victories this fall, 2009?

They have the talent.

Do they have the chutzpah?

I think that they do. And they have the history.

Go Hoosiers.

PapaClinch

PS: See you guys in Charlottesville in October. Win or lose, I always love the Hoosiers.

 

 

 

Yes, they can!

Who wiull they beat?

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

09/26/09	at Michigan	Ann Arbor, Mich.	12:00 p.m. ET
10/03/09	vs. Ohio State	Bloomington, Ind.	7:00 p.m. ET
10/10/09	at Virginia	Charlottesville, Va.	TBA
10/17/09	vs. Illinois (Homecoming)	Bloomington, Ind.	7:00 p.m. ET
10/24/09	at Northwestern	Chicago, Ill.	12:00 p.m. ET
10/31/09	at Iowa	Iowa City, Iowa	TBA
11/07/09	vs. Wisconsin	Bloomington, Ind.	TBA
11/14/09	at Penn State	University Park, Pa.	TBA
11/21/09	vs. Purdue	Bloomington, Ind.	TBA

Can IU lower the boom on the 2nd year Rodriguez Wolves? I saw it last happen in 1987 in B-town.

They have Eastern Kentucky to pound the first game at home, then Akron annd Eastern Michigan...or was that Western M? Anyway, then the brutal Big Ten and Virginia Oct.10.

 

Can the Hoosiers do it in college football this season? A bowl season?

I think so.

We shall see.

Haven't I Blogged Lately?

I wrote a series of 21 questions to bloggers...

I did at least 7 of them, including MeanDovine and Dudski and others, like The Dan.

 

But that was on a blog that was erased.

WHOOPS!

Why would all this erasal curb my enthusiasm?

Blogging is ...not what it should be.

It's like Tutsis in Rwanda trying to believe the Hutus will keep them safe.

Not.

Where are my 3 1/2 years of BLOGGING?

Where are my 3 1/2 years of BLOGGING?

Papa Clinch