It’s the fall and football season—and for the second straight year, Indiana will kick off its 126th season on Thursday as IU hosts the Tigers of Towson to Bloomington at 7:30 p.m. This is the first-ever meeting between the two schools and very much a preseason like game for Indiana.
Bill Lynch enters his fourth season as head coach with eight players returning on offense and four on defense.
Offense
This offense is highly touted with many options for 5th year quarterback Ben Chappell. Chappell had a fantastic offseason working out hard and often in the nation’s largest weight room. He has the physique of a big time quarterback and certainly has the smarts. He already graduated from the Kelley School of Business with almost a perfect 4.0 GPA. Though sluggish running the ball, he makes up for it in the air. He has been very accurate throwing the ball in practice and hopefully that continues all year long. The team installed the ‘pistol offense’ last season but it didn’t make much of a difference.
The Hoosiers have arguably the best wide receiving unit in the Big Ten behind Tandon Doss, Terrance Turner, Demarlo Belcher, Dre Muhammad and Duwyce Wilson. Turner, Doss and Belcher combined for 2,175 yards, 184 receptions and 11 touchdowns in 2009. Their combined yardage is the sixth-most for a returning trio nationally, while their 184 receptions
are fifth.
Running back Darius Willis is one of the best tailbacks in the league when at full strength. He averaged nearly 5 yards per carry last season. Willis is one of those players that always seems to have a nagging injury that causes him to miss time. Hopefully he doesn’t miss too much time. True freshman Antonio Banks and Matt Perez have both shined in practice and in the scrimmages. However whether Coach Lynch and staff decides to redshirt those two will be a tough call. Kofi Hughes is another freshman that could get some play at wide receiver despite wearing a cast. The freshman quarterback from Cathedral High School may be the toughest decision.
Defense
Indiana lost Jammie Kirlew and Greg Middleton from last years team. That means inexperience and some undersized players at defensive line. The linebackers must be physical and wrap the opposing team up. We saw plenty of broken tackles and missed assignments last year. As for the D’ line—they will utilize a 3-4 front along with its normal 4-3 this season. Coach Lynch says there aren’t a lot of personnel changes, although. The normal four linemen will usually be out there but one of the defensive ends will stay up in the 3-4. There are many names fans may not be familiar with that will make an impact. Kevin Bush and Darius Johnson are poised and looking strong in addition to Adam and Tyler Replogle.
The secondary is one of the most competitive spots on the team. IU will miss Ray Fisher who graduated and is now playing with the Colts. Richard Council leads a veteran defensive back group along with Mitch Evans and Matt Ernest (both wide receiver turned cornerback). Chris Adkins will miss at least the first six games with surgery last week on his fibula. The secondary, while competitive is the unknown. They could step up, make huge plays and have a tremendous year…or be just more of the same in regards to IU defenses. The defense as a unit must force turnovers and get stops—they gave up way too many points last season.
FINISH
This is the team motto for the year. It is on the back of their team shirts, in attempt to motivate and get results. Indiana had a chance for another bowl game last year. IU lost three of its conference games by a total of seven points. The Hoosiers fell by three in Ann Arbor against Michigan (the refs were no help), by a field goal at home vs. Wisconsin, and lost a 29-28 heartbreaker at Northwestern. Indiana also held a 10-point fourth quarter edge against Iowa in Iowa City before falling short. Win two of those four games, and the Hoosiers are bowling.
Captains
Last season, the team voted each week on the four captains that would represent the team. This season, the team elected Ben Chappell and Tyler Replogle as season captains and the other two captains will fluctuate each week. A tremendous honor, voted on by their peers—both are very smart, mature and will thrive in a leadership position.
Prediction
It’s time for my preseason prediction. Last season I was a bit too excited and thought IU would finish 7-5 (only to finish 4-8). I honestly think this is one of the best teams in recent history, and certainly since Coach Lynch has been at command. They already have next years recruitment complete which is rated the highest in a decade.
As for this year, it’s tough to foresee. Indiana could easily win its first four games and start 7-1 only falling to Ohio State if they played out of their minds. I am skeptical and while I wish it would happen, I need to be more realistic. I do think they will knock off Towson, Western Kentucky and Akron to start 3-0. Michigan then won’t be easy but they are still struggling to return to glory and IU must prey upon that. Arkansas State will be no easy task either, but with a rowdy homecoming crowd, IU can get it done. I think Indiana will start 5-2, and finish 6-6. There is a lot of hype in West Lafayette and with new quarterback Robert Marve. I don’t believe the hype—but I do think a rolling Indiana team could finish the year with a win and go bowling.
Of note
Over the summer, Indiana installed a new scoreboard in the south end zone of Memorial Stadium. IU’s new scoreboard will provide the most cutting-edge video technology of any scoreboard in the country and will be among the nation’s 10 largest college scoreboards. The Big Ten’s second-largest scoreboard will also serve as a new revenue source for IU Athletics, and its integrated video and audio systems are being provided by Daktronics, Inc.
The new scoreboard is a 36-foot high by 91-foot wide high definition video screen featuring state-of-the-art technology with wide-angle visibility and unparalleled image clarity. The new 36 x 91 scoreboard is 325 percent larger than the video screen within the old scoreboard that was installed in 1999. The picture provided has an even higher resolution than the outstanding video scoreboards in Lucas Oil Stadium with which many IU football fans are familiar. All for a mere $2,062,900.
IU gave up 2 stupid plays on defense. Other than that, they did what they were supposed to do and shut Towson down/force turnovers/etc. Auburn gave up 26 points to Arkansas State, and Florida was barely able to move the ball against a team that won one game last year. I think we’ll be fine.
the hoosiers won’t win all their non-conference but i guess there is a small shot of Lynch and company not screwing things up. (haha ya right)
Indiana has the chance to go 7-5. They must defeat a rising Michigan team and topple Illinois. It’s a long-ball but I like what Billy is doing down in Bloomington.
Last year’s hype was the pistol offense and now the 3-4. Will it do anything I just dont see it. Its still the same team. Bill has a great 2011 class locked up including a couple 4-stars