Hey Bloomington, your Indiana Hoosiers are looking like the #1 team in college basketball this winter. Remember that in October during college football season, cuz it’s going to be a very long one.
I’m probably way overrating the gridiron Hoosiers, for the sake of my allegiance to the Big Ten conference. They will be to being bad at football what the main character in “Breaking Away” (the only major feature film set/shot on a B1G campus) was to bicycle racing/being an Italophile.
Grazi!
2011 was: a train wreck of all train wrecks. IU took home the dubious honor of being the only BCS conference team not to garner a win over any FBS team. The 1 in their 1-11 record was over a lowly FCS foe in South Carolina State.
New Coach Kevin Wilson began the year by rocking some weird quotes upon the mic at Big Ten media day, including this gem “we’re ready to take this ship and get this thing exploded.”
That he did.
The ship certainly exploded, and sank, and well you need a lot of metaphors for describing how bad they were.
2012 will go smoothly if: the 32 freshmen (redshirt and true combined) grow up in a hurry, and pull off a ton of major upsets. IU was 109th in total defense last year, 118th in rushing and 114th against the pass. But they had balance- they were terrible on offense too, 101st in scoring, 80th in passing, 83rd overall. So they’ll have to make major improvements across the board to even sniff bowl contention.
2012 will be rough if: the defense plays like it did last year- missed assignments, poor tackling, slow pursuit, no pass rush, and no effectiveness in blitzing. Other than all that though, they were fine. Maybe LB David Cooper will help? Also, they have no punter, so that will be an issue as well.
BMOCs: It’s QB Tre Roberson’s team after #1 signal caller Gunner Kiel backed out of his IU commitment. Hoosier fans can commiserate with LSU fans as Kiel backed out on them too; before committing to Notre Dame. RB Stephen Houston is probably the best player on the team, and will be the focus of the offense. DTs are really solid in Adam Replogle and Larry Black Jr., although it’s difficult to praise the D.
Bottom Line: This team should be able to run the ball, it’s their strength. Maybe Roberson can get the ball early and often to WR Cody Latimer. He is named Latimer exactly like the standout character in the classic college football film “The Program” “PLACE AT THE TABLE!!!!!!”
I don’t know, I’m grasping at straws here for anything positive, cuz I don’t have many bright things to say about IU football. 4-8 is the absolute best case scenario, but 2-10 looks pretty likely; I guess that’s an improvement!
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, MSN and Fox Sports
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too