Other fans feel for us

After the game I was browsing around the scout.com and rivals.com message boards and saw many fans from other schools feeling bad for us. I'm not here to make excuses because the officials had nothing to do with the 4th quarter play but it is nice to see other people who felt like Iowa was getting way too many calls. Here are a few comments that I saw from other fans who were on our side.

PSU fan here: I have never posted on another teams board but my heart goes out to you guys.....you clearly got shafted. I have never seen a game with worst calls. What is replay for if it is not used to make the correct call. Keep your heads up.....the majority of the nation saw what really happened and sees what is going on

UCONN Fan who saw parts of the game and crucial calls go against you. Those replay officials should be fired along with the game officials

Hey guys. Just want to say you guys played good and had Iowa on the run. I think the better team is not winning at the moment. Good job on the defense/turn overs
Writing this game up to the refs. Thanks zebras!

I agree that Iowa got some calls that I think should have gone the other way...and I'm an Iowa fan. There was turf dust from his foot on the recalled TD that resulted in a missed field goal (but the missed field goal is on your kicker). I also thought the helmet to helmet call was a bad one....

Now I'm not here to make excuses because the refs had nothing to do with how we played in the 4th quarter. We had plenty of opportunities to capitalize in which we just didn't do. It is nice however that I am not the only crazy person who felt like the refs were giving Iowa way too many breaks.

Hoosiers Collapse 2 Straight Weeks

Another rough Saturday for the hoosier faithful. The Hoosiers played an incredible 3 quarters before completely collapsing to the Hawkeyes. Personally, I think the hoosiers should've won by 2-3 scores. I couldn't believe some of the calls by the officials. I think they screwed up the first three challenges and missed some blatantly obvious calls. Donnell Jones getting called for his hit on the sideline which looked completely clean to me. Ben Chappell throws an INT when Matt Earnest got smacked when he was running his route. The defense played a hell of a 3rd quarter getting 4 INT's. A complete 4th quarter meltdown then occurred. Personally I think it must be very difficult to line up and play each down knowing that whatever happens you could be getting a horrible call against you. It still doesn't explain the 4th quarter meltdown but through the first 3 quarters it didn't seem like the officials wanted to hoosiers to win. The offense made some great plays early on and so did the defense. It was nice to see Coach Lynch fired up on the sidelines when things went our way and went the other way. I will post more tomorrow when the final stats come out.

Crazy Things Happen on Halloween

Crazy things seem to always happen around Halloween. Sometimes you just can't explain why they do. Like for example, upsets in college football. Here is a list of upsets that happened last year around Halloween.

2008:
West Virginia 35- (25) UCONN- 13
Northwestern 24- (17) Minnesota- 17
Cincinnatti- 24- (23) South Florida- 10
(7) Texas Tech- 39- (1) Texas- 33
Georgia Tech- 31 - (15) Florida State- 28
Arkansas- 30 - (18) Tulsa- 23
Cal- 26 - (24) Oregon- 16

Could Indiana get its name on the list this year against Iowa? Don't rule them out because sometimes crazy things happen around Halloween.

Injury Update

The final injury report has been released for tomorrow's game. On the good side, both Donnell Jones and Will Patterson are expected to play. They were both injured during the victory against Illinois. In the three games Jones has been out injured (Eastern Kentucky, Western Michigan, Northwestern) IU’s opponents have thrown for 285.3 yards/game, compared to 223.4 yards/game in the five games he has played.

A handful of players are also out for the hoosiers. This list includes Darius Johnson (shoulder), Zach Davis-Walker (foot), Jarrod Smith (back) and Chris Adkins (elbow). In addition, safeties Jerimy Finch (hamstring) and Jarrell Drane (thigh) are both listed as doubtful.

Matt Perez having huge senior year

One of our best performing commits of the 2010 class has been Maine South running back Matt Perez. On the season Perez has 1,491 yards rushing on 125 carries (11.9 yards a carry) with 22 touchdowns. He also has 237 yards receiving on 13 catches (18.2 yards a reception). He has returned two punts for touchdowns. The first went for 75 yards and the second one went for 65 yards. Defensively he has 30 tackles, six tackles for loss and six sacks. I recently talked to somebody that has seen him play multiple times and this is what he had to say about Matt:


"Strong, physical runner with decent speed. He should be a good addition. I’ve been impressed both times and I think he enjoys the contact and tends to break a lot of tackles. The area of potential concern would be the level of competition he plays. Maine South is a great high school program and tends to beat up on teams. Between the great blocking, solid receivers and great QB’s, it’s hard for teams to match up. Besides the playoffs and a couple of other games in the season most are blowouts. In the Big 10 he won’t have that advantage. His strength and physical style will come in handy at Indiana though. Also coming from the Maine South program you know he gets good coaching so probably a smart player who can fit in quickly."

A Shake-up at CB?

Some interesting things going on at hoosier practices this week. First has to do with Donnell Jones. He has been hurt the past couple of weeks but here is what Palcic had to say about it. “I am hoping he is going to be able to play,” said Palcic, who is also the team’s secondary coach. “He hasn’t really tackled anybody yet so we’re going to see how he goes Saturday." That could be an encouraging sign for the secondary.

Lynch said that the CB spot opposite of Ray Fisher will be an open competition. Listed as the starter this week is Adrian Burks with Richard Council backing him up. Another surprising note is that Nick Polk has been seeing some time at the CB spot as well this week. Lynch said it was not decided who would start, and may not be until Friday. He said he wanted to watch film of practice and see how Jones felt.

2 Hoosiers Leave Program

This rumor has been swirling around for a few days. A writer on rivals.com did confirm that DE Kyle Kozak has left the program and is pretty sure LB Ian Reeves has left the program as well. Kozak was pretty touted coming out of Hargrave Prep School last year but just didn't seem to rise as quickly through the depth chart as some have thought. Ian Reeves only offer out of high school was IU but his high school tape is very impressive. He's a hard hitter and has some good speed as well. Both the LB and DE position are ones that we will need help with next year due to many people graduating at both positions.

Lynch to remain coach through contract

Fred Glass has given Coach Lynch another vote of confidence confirming he will be our head coach for the final two years of his contract. Glass re-affirm his "contracts must mean something" position. He then talked about how the game against Northwestern should not be blamed on the coaching staff. By re-affirming Lynch as the coach it should help recruiting slightly because players will know that the coach who is recruiting them will still be at the university, granted this one is only guaranteed 2 more years. Hopefully it also prevents current commits to de-commit and go elsewhere. I understand why Glass did it but I think if the hoosiers flop the rest of the year then a coaching change needs to be made. He is pushing himself into a corner and if the hoosiers don't perform the rest of the year the move will back fire on him. This still doesn't rule out anything for the position coaches. Hopefully we can upset one of our next three opponents and beat Purdue to finish the year 6-6 and possibly become bowl eligible.
What are your thoughts?

Andre Kates Selected to play in JUCO All-American Game

Congratulations to 2010 hoosier commit Andre Kates on being selected to play in the 2009 JUCO All-American game. The game will be held in Arizona on December 12th. Last year the top 85 JUCO players were invited to take part in this 5 day event. I will update later on with more info if it arises.

Getting to know the Hawkeyes

Next week's game against Iowa will be a noon start on ESPN. Iowa is 8-0 for the first time in school history. Although you wouldn't think so, Iowa has one of the worst offenses in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes ranked 10th in total offense (342.1 yards) and are tied for eighth with Indiana in points (23.6). Four of the Hawkeyes' victories have been by four points or fewer. So why is Iowa undefeated? The answer is because of the defense. The Hawkeyes are third in the conference in total defense, allowing 296.5 yards per game. Iowa's pass defense is ranked 17th in the nation, giving up 174.2 yards per game. This will be a tough game for the hoosiers but every week is still an opportunity to turn things around.

***Iowa has also proven to be at its best when the game matters most. The Hawkeyes have trailed in seven of their eight games this season, only to dominate all of their foes in the second halves of games on their way to an 8-0 record.

Jibreel Black de-commits

Our highest rated recruit for next years class has de-committed from the hoosiers. Jibreel Black was a 4 star recruit with around 20 scholarship offers. He has decided to commit to Cincinnati. I was looking forward to seeing him get playing time his freshman year because we will be graduating both of our starting defensive ends. This happened last year as well with Jeremy Gainer and Kenny Watkins deciding to go elsewhere as well.

Here are some quotes from Jibreel:

“I’ve been watching Cincinnati and the success they’ve had in the Big East. They continue to rise in the Big East and on a national level and I wanted to be part of that continued success. I want to be part of a program that will compete for championships. Right now Indiana is working towards that but has not reached that level.”

“I picked IU because I thought it was the best decision for my family. But in the end I knew I had to make the change and do what was right with me. After talking with Coach Lynch I called and spoke with Coach Kelly on Sunday night about six o’clock. I told Coach Kelly of my plans and he welcomed me to the Bearcats and told me how happy the coaching staff and he were and said it was a long wait but he knew I’d come around someday.”

Hoosiers blow 25 point lead

I couldn't have predicted a better first half for the hoosiers. On the first play from scrimmage Darius Willis took a pitch 70 yards to the house. Ray Fisher was incredible on special teams taking a 93 yard kickoff to the house. He also took a punt return deep into NW territory which led to another score for the hoosiers. Indiana was up 28-3 in the first half but at half time led 28-17 at halftime.

The second half was a different story, a complete disaster. Somehow the hoosiers managed to blow their lead while not committing a turnover and recording 3 INT's. Not only was this game a terrible loss but, we can pretty much kiss our hopes of bowl eligibility good bye. Our next three games are against ranked opponents. (Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State) Unless we take a game from Wisconsin and beat Purdue at the end of the year it will be very difficult for the hoosiers to become bowl eligible. I can't even explain how disappointed I was while watching our second half performance. Northwestern moved the ball at will and we couldn't move the ball at all.

After this game the discussion about Lynch's job began blowing up all over message boards again. Here is my take on it. I understand that we need continuity and constantly firing coaches doesn't help a program. Personally I think a 4-8 record will cost Lynch his job. Originally I thought a 6-6 record and he was safe. 5-7 is where it gets a little more gray. I could see it going either way. I feel like with Fred Glass and the AD, he is committed to the football program. Our history suggests that when we look for head coaches we go to the MAC and hire a very cheap coach. I'm pretty sure Lynch is the second lowest paid coach in the BCS. I am confident that if we need a coaching change Fred Glass will go out and spend money on a good coach. It will be interesting to see how the season plays it self out. Here is another idea. What about keeping Lynch and upgrading the position coaches? Last year I was very surprised that we didn't make any staffing changes after a 3-9 season. I feel like this team has a lot more talent than there record indicates and we don't always play to our full potential. Getting new position coaches could also be a different solution.

Any thoughts on the game or the program?

Looking ahead to Northwestern

Todays game in my opinion is a must win game if we would like to be bowl eligible. Northwestern comes in at 4-3 as well. The hoosiers will be without Donnell Jones, Chris Adkins, Jarrod Smith, Will Patterson and possibly Pete Saxon. On defense we will be playing with 5 db's like last week. It will be Richard Council and Ray Fisher at corner. Polk, Thomas and Collin Taylor will be playing at safety. Look for Mike Kafka to air it out today for Northwestern. Since Tyrell Sutton has graduated, Northwestern has lacked a dynamic running back. The hoosiers need to defend the pass well today. Northwestern doesn't have a great receiver so we should be pretty good at not giving up the big play. On defense, Northwesterns strongest point is there safeties. We will need to have a balanced attack on offense and put up TD'S in the red zone. We need to walk away with a victory if we want to become bowl eligible this year.

Hoosiers offer local RB

The hoosiers have been the first team to offer D'Angelo Roberts, a junior running back from Bloomington North High School. Here is a link to some highlights from the first 8 games of his junior season. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPIOySZq7n4

Roberts is predicted to be one of the most heavily recruited kids from the state of Indiana. He is listed at 5'10 and 180 lbs. He will be a top candidate for Mr. Indiana Football his senior year. His tape reminds me a lot of current hoosier Darius Willis. D'Angelo has great breakaway speed along with good strength to break tackles. He accelerates through holes very well and once he gets in space you can't catch him. Through the first 8 games he has rushed for 1,650 yards and 20 TD's.

With Bryan Payton and Demetrius Mccray both being seniors, the hoosiers will need to fill some spots at the running back position for the future. Roberts could be a big get for the hoosiers so let's see how his recruiting process goes. He has already taken an unofficial visit to Illinois but currently Indiana is the only school to offer him a scholarship. Look for his recruiting to pick up some major steam before his senior season.

Chappell named Player of Week

Ben Chappell was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. He threw for 333 yards and 3 TD's.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten

Hoosiers Back on Track

What a great win for the hoosiers last night. The outcome of this game I thought, pretty much determined where our team would be headed for the rest of the season. A loss would've made it extremely difficult to become bowl eligible and winning another game or two would've been very tough. This win makes me feel a lot more confident for next week's very winnable game at Northwestern. I think we can also take the Purdue game and maybe we upset somebody along the way like Wisconsin. Who knows?. I have said it all along I think 6-6 is a very solid target. I think we can hit that mark after witnessing yesterday's game and hopefully we can become bowl eligible.

First thing I noticed walking into the stadium was that the hoosiers seemed to have more energy and enthusiasm during warm ups. I think they definitely came ready to play today. You have to give the coaches credit for having a good game plan and for Lynch's ability to fire up the team this week. Ben Chappell threw for a personal best 333 yards and 3 TD's. Doss led the receiving group with 130 yards and a TD. Mitch Evans also ran very well through the wildcat formation. I believe he had around 80 yards on the ground. It was good to see Darius Willis play even though he was questionable all week. He had some good runs along with some grind it out yards. Early on we struggled putting points on the board. We had many opportunities and missed two field goals. But this time around the hoosiers responded well and ended up breaking through and getting some big points late in the game. Chappell didn't turn the ball over during the game which was pretty key as well. The o-line did a good job most of the game allowing Chappell to sit in the pocket and make good decisions.

The defense played extremely well throughout the game. Kirlew had a fantastic day forcing two fumbles and getting constant pressure on Juice. Overall I was very pleased with how everybody on defense came to play last night. Last week we gave up 47 points to Virginia and we came back and only allowed 14 to Illinois even though 7 of those points were garbage points and the end of the game. Tyler Replogle came up with some big hits today and a forced fumble. Larry Black Jr. had a big sack and has really showed a ton of progress this year. The DT position is definitely going to be something to look forward to the next few years. Even Mick Mentzer got hit hands on a ball that he knocked down. The one surprise to me was that Jerimy Finch still didn't get onto the field on defense. Chris Adkins was out with an elbow injury and Collin Taylor ended up playing safety for most of the game. We played 5 DB's most of the game while Nick Polk played around the line of scrimmage for the most part.

All in all a very big win for the hoosiers in front of 42,385 fans. The came out fired up and played a very good 6o minutes. The defense came up huge with turnovers and not allowing any big plays. The offense put up a lot of yards and moved the ball very effectively. It was nice to see the TE's get more involved as well. Troy Wagner had a great diving catch in the end zone and Max Dedmond had a few catches as well. Next week will be just as big of a game if the hoosiers would like to continue this momentum and push for a bowl bid at the end of the year.

Any thoughts on the game?

Commits Weekend Performances

Here are the top 5 performers from our 2010 commits over the weekend.

1. Matt Perez (Park Ridge, IL Maine South)- another huge week from Matt Perez. Perez had 16 carries for 222 yards for 4 TD's. Maine South beat Waukeegan 45-0 and they are 7-0 on the year. On the year Perez has 16 TD's so far this year and averages over 11 yards a carry.

2. Leneil Himes (Plymouth, IN Plymouth)- Leneil did a little bit of everything over the weekend in the 50-2 blowout of Goshen HS. On offense Himes had 3 receptions for 110 yards and a TD. He also carried the ball twice for 29 yards. On defense Leneil had 2 tackles, 1 pass breakup and an INT that he took 58 yards for a TD.

3. Matt Zakrzewski (Traverse City, MI St Francis Catholic HS)- St. Francis improved to 7-0 after they hammered Harbor Springs HS 70-7. Zakrzewski had 5 tackles on defense, and on offense he rushed for 83 yards and a touchdown on five carries.

4. Logan Young (Muncie, IN Delta)- Delta moved to 8-0 on the season with a 24-16 win over Mount Vernon (Fortville) HS. Young hauled in six catches for 68 yards and two touchdowns. Delta is the 6th ranked team in class 4A in Indiana.

5. Jibreel Black (Cincinnati, OH Wyoming HS)- Wyoming (7-0) remained undefeated with a 47-7 win over Deer Park HS. Black had five tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack.

Is it Juice or McGee?

Ron Zook has yet to name the starter for the Illini for this Saturday's game. However, it really doesn't matter because both of them will be playing. Juice Williams was benched from his starting position last week against MSU and Eddie McGee got his first collegiate start. Things didn't go well for McGee at all completing just 2 of 11 passes for 31 yards and he was sacked twice. Juice came in later in the game and completed 7 of 17 passes for 109 yards and a TD. He also rushed for 53 yards on 12 carries. Both Juice Williams and Eddie McGee have been named captains for the game against the hoosiers but my prediction is that in the end Juice Williams will get the nod at starting QB.

Damon Sims to redshirt

Bill Lynch has decided to redshirt freshman linebacker Damon Sims. Before the year started there was a decent shot that he might be able to play linebacker and on special teams. Damon had been traveling with the team all year. This decision will most likely be beneficial for both him and the team in the long run.

There is still no word on whether or not Ed Wright-Baker and Mitch Ewald will play this season. At this point in the year it will probably be better for them to redshirt. The limited amount of playing time they could get the rest of the year probably wouldn't be very beneficial for the program while burning a year of eligibility.

Don Fischer talks Indiana Football

The play by play announcer for IU football talks about Indiana Football on the Dan Dakich show.
http://www.1070thefan.com/dakich/podcast.aspx

Hoosiers hit with flu before Virginia game

Now I'm not making any excuses for our poor performance against Virginia but I feel like everybody has the right to know that many hoosier players had the flu last week leading up to the game. Most of the players with the flu were on defense and some of the important players hit with the flu bug were Nick Polk, Austin Thomas, and Matt Mayberry. I know many people fill figure this is just an excuse for the poor performance you should know that a handful of players did sit out practice multiple days last week because of it. I will post any updates that I learn about this issue leading up to the game against Illinois.

*Just found out that Greg Middleton and Deonte Mack were also added to the list of people hit with the flu. Matt Mayberry said last Tuesday and Wednesday he was pretty sick but is feeling better today.

Get Ready for the Illini

This is a huge week that will answer a lot of questions about our hoosier squad. A win this week will make me much more confident in finishing bowl eligible. A loss this week will make that goal very tough to accomplish. Although Illinois only has 1 win this year don't be fooled. They have a ton of potential on their squad and could just be waiting for there breakout game.

Like Virginia, Illinois has not been able to protect the QB very well this year. They have given up 17 sacks which ranks them 113 out of 120 division 1 teams. On paper Illinois offensive line shouldn't be performing this bad. It will be essential for the hoosiers to generate a consistent pass rush and get after the quarterback.

Illinois offense has been struggling only putting up 17 points per game. This ranks them at 111. Don't be fooled though. They still have a ton of firepower on offense with both Juice Williams, Eddie Mcgee and at WR with Arrelious Benn, Jarred Fayson and Chris Duvalt.

At the running back position they have had a committee this year. It's been with Jason Ford, Daniel Dufrene, and Mikel Leshoure. None of them have really separated themselves yet. Jason Ford leads them in rushing with 213 yards and 1 TD this year.

Let's get pumped up for another night game at Memorial Stadium. We need to bring as much support for the hoosiers as possible because this game could very well determine the direction our team will be headed for the rest of the season.

3 Reasons to like Coach Lynch

There has been a lot of debates on whether or not Coach Lynch is the guy to be leading our hoosier football program. I am not going to debate whether or not he will be our coach for the long haul but here are my top 3 reasons of why I like the guy.

1. Personable- Coach Lynch is probably one of the most personable guys I've ever met. He always takes the time to talk to me after a practice or after the signing day press conference. He remembers who you are and things that you have talked about. He has always responded to every e-mail I've ever sent him and encourages fans to give recommendations about how to improve the hoosier program.

2. Upgrade in recruiting- Lynch isn't a nationwide know recruiter and hasn't landed tons of 5 star recruits, but he has improved the overall talent level in our program through his recruiting. Although he isn't too big on the stars that are placed on recruits here is a break down in the improvement over the last few years.
_______2007_____ 2008_____ 2009_____ 2010
4 Stars___ 0_______ 0_______ 1 _______ 1
3 Stars___ 5 ______ 5 _______ 12 _______ 9
2 Stars___ 14 _____ 14_______ 6 _______ 12

There are many players from the 2010 class who aren't ranked and a few that I think will get upgraded by the end of their senior seasons.

3. Ties to certain states- Although the state of Indiana isn't generally known as a loaded football state, the talent pool is increasing dramatically every year. Lynch has been a coach in the area for over 30 years. Lynch and the rest of the staff also have a ton of ties to the state of Ohio. Our pipelines consist of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, and Florida. We have the right pipelines it will just take a few more bowl seasons before he can recruit the cream of the crop from those states.

Reader's Thoughts

Now that I-core midterms are over I will have a lot more time to focus on the blog. We come to a very critical part in the season that will show us what kind of football team were are. We still have time to turn it around and become bowl eligible but it has to happen soon. If you have any questions regarding the hoosier football team, specific players, match ups, or anything feel free to write your question in the comment box below the post. I would like for everybody to have a chance to ask anything that has been on their mind about IU football.

If I were the Coach...

and we were just destroyed by a 1-3 team I would be furious. In my post-game press conference I wouldn't be giving the same old speech about how we just didn't play good enough to win today. I would be outraged. Personally I absolutely hate losing at anything. I would have been disgusted in what I saw on the field and would have let everybody know about it.

What gave me some excitement this year was seeing Coach Lynch furious on the sidelines when the hoosiers were getting screwed by the officials. I felt like his Michigan post game press conference was a lot more of what I was hoping for out of our football coach. I wish he would've sat down after the Virginia game and didn't accept what just happened. It seems like we just sort of accept losing and that it isn't something that lights fire under us. We have a ton of potential and it would be nice to see our team not accept what is happening and come out fired up and ready to play week in and week out. Next week will answer a lot of questions about this team and where the season is headed.

We have the potential to change most people's attitudes towards Indiana football. We have a lot of potential with this years squad and the future squads, and if we face some adversity we can't need to just roll over and let it happen. Although I love IU basketball dearly there is no reason why we can't also have a successful football program. This is where our senior leadership needs to step up and get this ship back on track. So let's not accept our performance yesterday and come out extremely emotional and energetic against the Illini and show everybody what kind of football team we can be.

Complete Disappointment and Embarrassment

Coming into Saturday I couldn't wait for the game. This was a great opportunity to start the year 4-2 and get some momentum going into a stretch of very winnable games. There were so many times during the game that I couldn't believe my eyes. Virginia's offense came into the game ranked 117th out of 120 division 1 teams in total offense. They managed to put up 47 points, 536 total yards and 337 in the first half. Outside of the first drive that ended up with a Terrence Turner fumble, the offense couldn't move the ball at all. Chappell was under a lot of pressure, our running backs had no holes to run through. Ben finished the game 22-33 for 177 yards and an INT. Willis was questionable going into the game and did not play. In his spot Mccray rushed for 47 yards on 13 carries. The hoosiers only score came late in the game on a Bryan Payton ran for 12 yards up the middle. Jammie Kirlew and Adam Replogle both recorded sacks on defense. There isn't much more I want to say about the game because of how ridiculous it was.

There are only two ways I can see the rest of the season. The optimistic one is where we bounce back next week to beat a 1-4 Illini team. We gather some momentum to also beat Northwestern and Purdue to finish the year 6-6 and become bowl eligible. The other route is where the hoosiers start out the year 3-0 and get our hopes up then crumble the rest of the year in big ten play. The hoosiers maybe win 1-2 games at best and finish the year on a sour note. This game reminded me a lot of the Purdue game last year. If we come out and play like this ever again this year I don't expect to see Coach Lynch back next year. Next week will be a make or break week to determine which Hoosier team will come out and play for the rest of the year. What do you guys think about the outlook for the rest of the year?

Getting to know the Cavs

Virginia got their first win last week at North Carolina to improve to 1-3. Last year the Cavs started the year 1-3 only to go 4-0 in October. Here are some of their strength's and weaknesses.

Strengths- they have a dual threat QB in Jameel Sewell. He has rushed for 3 TD's on the year and has more than twice as many carries than anybody else on the team. Virginia RB Mikell Simpson is coming off of a 100 yd game over UNC. Virginia's secondary ranks 8th nationally in pass defense with 156.5 yards per game. Cornerbacks Chris Cook and Ras-I Dowling have a combined 11 career INT's. Virginia now has a little bit of momentum that it can bring into its game at home against the hoosiers.

Weaknesses- The biggest weakness is that Virginia ranks dead last in sacks allowed with 4.25 per game. This is great news for the hoosiers with Greg Middleton and Jammie Kirlew. Generally UVA's offense has been pretty quiet this year scoring just 14 points in their first two games against William and Mary and TCU. They did bounce back against SMU putting up 34 points in a loss but managed just 16 against UNC.

This is a pivotal game for the hoosiers if they look to get to 6+ wins and bowl eligibility this year. On a good note though, the hoosiers have played some of their best football on the road this year.

Disgusted in IDS article

I was reading all the IU football related articles published this morning and was really disappointed in a specific article written in the ids. Here is the link. http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=70628

I understand that the hoosier fans got a bit excited after how well we played against Michigan. It certainly drew many people's attention who figured this year would be a losing season for the hoosiers. I have been a proud supporter for this team and strongly believe that they will become bowl eligible this year. I said that before the year when every single "expert" was picking us dead last.
When reading this article it makes me feel that some of the columnists don't understand too much about IU football. I understand that people were excited for the game and the student section sold out and it was our biggest crowd of the year. I to thought about how cool it would be if could pull off the upset but I didn't go into the game expecting to do it. I just want to see the continuous improvement that this team has made from week to week. Saying that IU fans were "ashamed" after the loss is absolutely ridiculous. If Murray State walked into the stadium Saturday night and beat us I think that would've been the correct word to use. However, it was the #9 ranked team in the country who hadn't given up a point in 2 straight weeks. A team who every year is considered to be a favorite to play in the rose bowl or national championship game. The author of the article made it seem that the hoosiers just came out and rolled over in a game that we should've won. "As it has been for decades in Bloomington, no one will buy the tickets if the show isn’t worth attending. It doesn’t help that no one likes to be shamed like the IU faithful were last weekend, either." I know the argument about winning brings fans into the seats and I believe that it almost always works. It would also be nice for people to show their support regardless but I know that doesn't always happen. But the author makes it seem like we just played god awful and all hope is now lost for the season. It was the best team in the big ten and it's over now. We have a much more winnable stretch of games coming up.

Looking back so far this year we are 3-2. This is much better than almost every single expert predicted. Most people had us at 2-3 or possibly worse. I was a believer in this team from the get go and knew the predictions were extremely low. This is a good hoosier team who has an important string of games coming up. I don't think any games are "gimmes" but I think we will beat Virginia, Northwestern, Purdue and possibly Illinois.
Just because the outcome wasn't in our favor doesn't mean their isn't anything to be excited about with this year's team. If we can win this weekend and get some momentum back you will all see what I have seen in the team from last spring.

Reaction to OSU game

I'm going to keep this post brief. I've been very busy with i-core midterms. The OSU game is over now. They played better than us in pretty much every facet of the game. They are an extremely tough team and have a lot of depth at every position. Pryor is a very good QB as we all know and OSU's defense is very big and quick. We moved the ball a little bit but had some turnovers. The defense fought tough in the second half but the first half OSU did what they wanted. On the bright side, we did score 14 points and OSU hadn't given up a score in two weeks. Outside of the fumble, Tandon Doss was a bright spot. Many people felt very good about this team because of the way we played against Michigan but OSU is a much better team. I'm still pretty confident in this hoosier team. Next week will be crucial to our season, especially if we want to become bowl eligible. Virginia got their first win this weekend at North Carolina. It should be a good road game for our hoosiers.

Looking at the Buckeyes

This is the game that many people have been looking forward to since the schedules became public in the spring. It has been stated that the student section has been expanded a few thousand seats as has been sold out as of yesterday. This will be the best atmosphere this year and it will be nice to see Memorial Stadium rocking.

Ohio State started out the year a little rocky barely getting by Navy. Then the loss to USC nearly put their BCS title hopes in jeopardy. However, they have bounced back in a huge way. The last two weeks they have given up 0 points. Their defense has held opponents rushing to 95 total yards the last two weeks and registering 7 sacks and 4 INT's. This OSU defense is playing extremely well and will create some problems for the hoosier offense. Although the Buckeyes don't expect to miss any players from the flu it was announced that 6-7 players on the team have come down with the flu. All-American candidate at safety Kurt Coleman will be sitting out this game due to a suspension after his hit against U of I. Here are a few keys for the hoosiers if they want to pull off the upset this Saturday.

1. Stopping the run- OSU has been killing people on the ground. If their running backs don't get the job done then Pryor has the ability to make the big play. Their offense line is gelling really well and creating lots of holes to run through for the backs. The key is to stop then run as best you can and force them to beat you through the air. Pryor hasn't really put up tremendous passing numbers yet this year so look for the hoosiers to load up the box and focus on the run.

2. Don't trade 7 for 3- if we get into the red zone we have to come away with a TD. This has been a point of emphasis all year and should be even more important this week. OSU's defense is playing very well and likely will pose some problems for our offense.

3. Come back strong- last week was a thriller up in Ann Arbor and the hoosiers played their hearts out. I think they made a statement and surprised a ton of people. We have to come out with the same level if not more intensity and energy as we did last week. Hopefully running out on to Memorial Stadium with fireworks and a packed house will help.