Notes from Big Ten Media Day

I wanted to share just a couple of things from big ten media day interviews. Jeremy Gray was there to interview Fred Glass, Dr. Pat Kraft, Coach Lynch, Ben Chappel, Jammie Kirlew and Will Patterson. Here is a highlight of some of the things discussed with each one.

Coach Lynch- He was very excited to be moving into the brand new coaches offices in a few days. Pretty busy time of the year with fall camp starting next week. He is pretty excited for the players to see the new facilities because they really haven't had a chance to go through them yet. The 22,000 sq ft. academic area along with the 25,000 sq ft. weight room will allow the coaching staff to develop players physically and academically. The juniors and seniors have been through a lot the last few years and he has seen them become very focused and committed this off-season as well as holding each other accountable.

Dr. Pat Kraft- for those of you who don't know he is in charge of most of the marketing now for IU football. He was very excited for the season to get going and believes there will be a 100% difference between the game-day atmosphere next year than years past. The new stadium will definitely change the atmosphere but they are working very hard to make the game an event to look forward to each week. They are going to have things during the game to keep the students into the game and engaged the whole time. He said that he knows Indiana football is moving in the right direction.

Fred Glass- he really enjoyed meeting with all the other A.D.'s from the various universities. They had meetings with all the different bowl representatives and he said that he paid particular attention for the rose bowl representative because he hopes that we will be playing there in a few years.

Kirlew- He talked about how teams will not be able to double team him or Middleton this year unlike the previous years. Him, Patterson, and Chappell actually began the day by hitting the Hyatt's weight room so they could keep up with their workout regime even though they were out of town for media day. He said that it won't be a question of whether him or Middleton can get to the QB it will be a question of who gets there first. He seemed very excited about the DE's, LB's and Safeties for next year.

Chappell- he weighed in at almost 240lbs a few days ago. He said the whole senior class has really developed their leadership skills this off-season. Everybody has been on the same page and he was particularly excited for the offensive line. He knows that they have to prove to everybody that they can play this year but he believes they will surprise a lot of people. They have worked very hard this off-season and the key will be just to keep them all healthy. The last thing he mentioned is that he has a lot of weapons on the offensive end and plans on spreading the ball around to the open guy.

Patterson- "leadership is going to be unbelievable this year". There won't be any excuses of having a young team because the team has a lot of experience and veteran guys. Excited that the DE's, LB's, Safeties and even some of the corners will be hitting people very hard next year.

I am going to be off on vacation from August 1st- August 7th but will be home just in time to blog about fall camp that will be starting next weekend. Kickoff is coming faster than you think and we all need to get pumped and show our support this year for the hoosiers.