This team's strength was its defense and, to be fair, that defense held on for a while, before buckling under the weight of injuries and an offense that simply cannot score.ĭopirak: Totally true. They could do that because they had an offense-minded head coach. When they finally just went to Roberson (who co-offensive coordinator Rod Smith once compared to Woody Dantzler) halfway through the season, they just scrapped the entire offense, started running a bunch of spread diamond option stuff and at least lost games 53-30. Wilson was an offensive coach with an offensive staff. Osterman: I wonder if that's more just a nod to the direction football was headed. And for as much of a mess as that team had at quarterback with Edward Wright-Baker and Dusty Kiel fighting until they gave way to then-freshman Tre Roberson, that group as a whole did a better job of moving the ball and scoring points. This team certainly faced better versions of Penn State, Ohio State and Iowa than this team did and that group lost to Ball State and North Texas. They went 1-11, but five of those losses came by eight points or fewer. Stretching the metaphor a bit, Tom Allen's task is more like picking that program up after it gets dumped and getting it back on its feet.ĭopirak: All of that being said - and it is indeed a lot different - one thing I had to be reminded of was that 2011 team was more competitive than I remembered in my mind's eye.
#My talking tom 2 is weird how to#
I've said for years Kevin Wilson taught IU how to behave like a grown-up Power Five program. Tom Allen has to pick up the pieces of a good team built from a solid foundation that still managed to crumble. What Kevin Wilson was dealing with then was an entire culture around a football program - not just players or stuff that revolved around players, like recruiting and conditioning, but every single thing - he saw as unfit for purpose. I don't really have any time whatsoever for the "2020 was a mirage" argument when a) IU went to the Gator Bowl the season before and b) that was the Hoosiers' third bowl in five years.
Now, Tom Allen has undeniably taken what Kevin Wilson built and made it even better. So basically, the two coaches IU has hired since 1973 (if we remove that one weird Sam Wyche year) that didn't struggle enormously in their first season did so in part because they inherited the program from someone who had, and had managed to build it up to something. I think Dustin makes an interesting point about Wilson, Mallory and Corso all going winless in the Big Ten in their first season.
Jokes aside, the two seasons really don't bear much resemblance to one another, beyond the records. Which is, in retrospect, what we could have called IU's famously steep press box back then. Osterman: "Depths of despair" has big 'Princess Bride' energy. Bill Lynch's last teams were somewhat competitive, but most of the best players on those teams moved on before Wilson arrived. He got to Indiana and saw everything from the talent level to the facilities (though they were improving at the time) and realized he had a long way to go. But Wilson was coming out of Oklahoma just a couple years after helping Sam Bradford win a Heisman Trophy and the Sooners set all kinds of offensive records. It should be noted that three of the last four times Indiana failed to win a Big Ten game in a whole season, the Hoosiers were bringing in a new coach, and I imagine Lee Corso and Bill Mallory could relate to some extent. IndyStar colleges editor Matthew Glenesk: When someone says "2011 Indiana football season," what's the first thing (printable) that comes to mind?ĭopirak: Kevin Wilson coming to grips with what he signed himself up for, which, from the infamous incident at McNutt, was a fascinating process to watch. What matters is where the Hoosiers go from here. ► Insider: Yes, this is rock bottom for IU. Time to start a new conversation about IU football. ► Doyel: That Rutgers loss changes things. But a 38-3 loss later, and here we are. So let's dive in. We were going to do this last week because surely it would be a moot point after IU beat Rutgers. Our Insiders Zach Osterman and Dustin Dopirak were both on the beat back then, so we wanted to get them together and relive just how bad it was and see if that lousy season can put this season's nosedive into perspective. Those depths of despair haven't been seen in Bloomington since 2011, Kevin Wilson's first year in charge. IU football is staring a winless Big Ten season right in the face. Watch Video: Insider video: Trying to make sense of IU's debacle vs.
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