A good article from Terry Hutchens. I will be coming back from vacation in a few days and will start writing my pieces to gear you up for the season.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- If senior linebacker Tyler Replogle had opted to redshirt this season, he could have had the rare opportunity to play college football alongside two brothers.
Call it Replogle cubed.
As it is, Tyler and Adam Replogle will start at linebacker and tackle at Indiana. A third brother, Mike, a high school senior linebacker in Centerville, Ohio, has committed to IU and can sign in February. That could assure the Replogles having at least one IU player for eight consecutive seasons through 2014.
As much fun as three Replogles roaming Bloomington could have been, Tyler is focused on a different goal. He hopes to finish his career the way it started -- by playing in a bowl game. And he wants to do it in four years.
"We've worked really hard this summer and the one thing that I've found about this group is that they like to work hard and they like to have fun," Tyler Replogle said. "I'm really close to my brothers, and while playing with all of them would have been neat, I want to finish what I started with the guys I came in with."
Replogle was a freshman on the 2007 IU team that broke a 14-year postseason drought by playing in the Insight Bowl. IU finished 7-6 that season but has combined to win just seven games in the past two.
Changes in personnel and scheme will make a return to a bowl game more challenging. Gone are defensive ends Jammie Kirlew and Greg Middleton, linebacker Matt Mayberry, and defensive backs Ray Fisher, Austin Thomas and Nick Polk. There's a new 3-4 scheme, too.
"I like the 3-4 from the point of view of the linebacker because with so much movement the offensive line doesn't really know where we'll be coming from," Tyler Replogle said. "It should cover up the linebackers more and let the defensive linemen get through more."
Both brothers played well last season. Tyler was second on the team with 80 tackles. Adam, who started 11 games as a freshman, was third with four sacks.
They huddle up off the field, too. About the only time they are apart is in class. Tyler is an accounting major while Adam's major is criminal justice.
"It has been great to play together and have each other's backs the way we have in college," Adam Replogle said. "That definitely makes the whole experience that much more fun."
Friday, August 13, 2010
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