Reports are coming out that Demarlo Belcher has been dismissed from the IU Football team, ending his career at IU.  This coming on the heals of his suspension for the Northwestern game for violation team rules.  Although, with the possible ass kicking we might get at OSU and MSU in the next 2 games, maybe keeping him on the team would have been a more painful punishment.

I have no idea what team rule he violated, but given his lack of playing time and effort in the last few weeks, I would assume that it would have to do with his dragging ass and not being a leader in practice and during games.

This is a very sad end to what was a very promising career for Belcher.  He was progressing each year, and seemed poised to have a big senior year.  With his size and speed, if he put up good numbers this year, it wasn’t crazy to think that he would be a late round pick in the NFL draft in the spring.

But as the season progressed, we saw Belcher disappearing before our eyes.  It didn’t help that he didn’t have a QB who could get him the ball.  But even when he did get the ball thrown his way, he seemed to be going 1/2 speed, that was of course when he wasn’t dropping the ball.

For all the talk about the toxic situation that Coach Crean took over when Sampson left, we are quickly learning that our “nice guy coach” Bill Lynch, might have left us an even bigger mess than Sampson (minus the violations).

So it seems that every player under Lynch didn’t practice hard and was allowed to be a thug or jackass.  So, why was everyone who was “covering” the team last year, continue to blow smoke up our asses and tell us that Lynch was a good guy and just needed more time.  Why was no one reporting the horrible practice habits?  I doubt that upperclassman just started these habits this season.

Demarlo Belcher went to the same high school that my wife went to, Northside in Fort Wayne.  So I always had a connection with him, and kept track of him since his Freshman year.  I hate to see it end like this, but after seeing him play this season, I can’t say I’m surprised.  Sadly, Demarlo will be forgotten, but had the talent to have a much better career here at IU.  To bad he wasn’t 5 years younger and could have had a real coach who could push his potential, but rather a gum throwing joke!

With this dismissal, I think that Coach Wilson has cleaned out all the problems from the Lynch era and now we can begin to move forward.

What are your thoughts on the Demarlo era?

CrimsonCast is proud to be the home of The Fake Coach Wilson Fake Post Game Show.  All questions are answered by @FakeCoachWilson.  If you have questions for @FakeCoachWilson, send via twitter to @CrimsonCast or @FakeCoachWilson.  Or you can e-mail longer questions to Scott@CrimsonCast.com.  Check back the Sunday after every IU Football game for the #FCWFakePostGameShow.  Enjoy #Slapdicks!

So Coach, what exactly was going on out there?

That’s the fucking million dollar question, isn’t it? Pretty easy to take it at face value and breakdown what’s working and what’s not. The offense works when the ball stays in the hands of Tre and JuCo on the ground. The passing game only works for about the first 15 yards down the field. Granted, playing Northwestern isn’t exactly like lining up against the Baltimore Ravens, but we’re grabbing every goddamm positive we can get. When we put together the extremely fucking short highlight film of 2011, you’re going to see a bunch of stuff from our offense from this game.

What you really want to talk about is the defense, right? Hell, you don’t even want to know about the front seven — the real question is what the fuck is up in the secondary? Well, the best way to put it is absolutely fucking nothing is working. Playing Northwestern was just another of about the three worst case scenarios we’ve faced. They’ve been running the same spread offense since I helped build it around 2000. They’ve also got smart kids who don’t make any mistakes — lots of juniors and seniors who’ve done the same things over and over. What we lined up against them were a bunch of freshmen — ones for whom we’ve tried to make this shit as simple as possible. Honestly, we’ve only got four or five different things we do out there with these guys. All week in practice, Mallory and Shelby run these fucking looks over and over until they get them right, but come game time when just one thing goes wrong we get burned pretty much every time. Why? I want to say ‘who the fuck knows’, but the real answer is young kids making mistakes, probably not enough of the right sort of coaching, and a very real gap in confidence. We’ve moved beyond our “come to Jesus” moment…

How much do we really need to talk about this game in detail? The offense looks like it’s making progress, to the point where we’re almost scoring enough points to win a game. The defense pulled an “Is what it is…”* today — they sure as fuck better show at least some semblance of improvement next week. Shouldn’t be that hard as almost anything will be better than that shitshow.

Return of the #helmetsticker banner!!

(continue reading…)

Quick, name me a Junior or Senior who is making a real impact on this team…………yeah, neither can I.

This is yet another reason why we should continue to be pissed at Bill Lynch for what he did to the IU Football program.  Sadly, I remember about a year ago, driving home from the close loss to Iowa and being told by some on the IU Radio Network that I had to give Lynch more time and he was a good guy, etc.

Students - Noon games start when the big & little hands are on the 12!

The fact that Coach Wilson has basically had to give up on his Juniors & Seniors because they are not used to playing hard in practice, show us the kind of culture that Lynch allowed under his watch.  (Sadly, DeMarlo Belcher is proving to be the perfect example of a Bill Lynch player – an underperforming player with a horrible work ethic)  Anyone who wanted another year of Lynch after 2010, needs to be smacked and can I please get a fucking apology from the IU Radio Network for feeding me so much “Good Guy Lynch” shit last year?  Bill Lynch took all that momentum from the early Hoeppner years and completely pissed it away.

His teams underperformed, he recruited like shit and he let his players run the team and not practice.  Any/All anger toward IU Football right now, should go straight on his shoulders.  No other way to say it, than he fucked us for the next few years.  It would have been better if he cheated.  Then maybe we would have won a few games under his watch.  As it is, we sucked under Lynch and now we are under a 2 year “Lynch Probation”.

Although it does have very similar parallels to IU Basketball, I do think that playing young guys will help us in future years.  I think that with Tre Roberson playing at QB our offensive has a much more dynamic feel to it, and really helped to open up holes for Houston.  Just curious why it took this long for Wilson to put Roberson in as starter.  I can’t image that Dusty Kiel was that much better the first few weeks in practice.

A few other thoughts:

• No joke, one of our best plays is a punt where it hits the other team and we recover, or they muff the return and we recover.  We had another one of these today, which I believe is our 3rd of the year.  I’m not 100% sure, but think we have more plays like this, then passes for over 35 yards this season.  Maybe we should bring the punter out on 2nd or 3rd down!
• Why are all football coaches so conservative?   We’re down by over 20, yet we are kicking a FG in the 4th quarter?  We haven’t stopped Northwestern all day, yet after a score in the 4th quarter, we don’t onside kick?  Ugh!
• For the half-time performance, our band plays songs in tribute to the city of Chicago, along with a horrible impersonation of Harry Caray.  (Not sure what was worse, the impersonation, or the fact that Harry Caray hasn’t been relevant in 20 years)  Did anyone think that Northwestern is from Chicago?  Come on IU, it’s bad enough that you play the Northwestern fight song before the game, you don’t need to dedicate halftime to them also.

Current Record – 1-8 (0-5)
TJH Projected Final Record – 1-11 (0-8)

We aren’t going to beat OSU or MSU on the road.  So that would leave Purdue.  And I just don’t see that happening.  So after this season it will have been 2 calendar years since we have seen a B1G victory at home.  Go IU!

Enough from me.  What are your thoughts?

This is with 8 minutes to go in a B1G game. I would guess there were less than 300 IU students still in attendance. Can't say I blame them!

This is the car that will get us out of this mess - The Fred Glass-mobile!

The best way to enjoy an IUFB game? Asleep in your car in the parking lot!

Homecoming!

Opponent Northwestern Wildcats

Record 2-5(0-4 in B1G Ten)

Series History Northwestern leads 44-34-1

Last Meeting IU battled valiantly but fell short against the Wildcats 20-17 last year as a hail last second hail mary pass attempt came up incomplete.

Other recent games of note There aren’t many teams which IU can say they’ve had close and competitive contests over the last 10 years, but pretty much every meeting with the Wildcats has come down to the final whistle. There was the embarrassing 29-28 loss when the Hoosiers blew a 28-3 lead. The last IU win was a 21-19 triumph on homecoming in 2008.  But since 2002, IU and Northwestern have played 7 times and the margin of victory has never been larger than a touchdown.

Stat to consider while you decide how much home you really want to come to:

292.5   That’s the average number of passing yards that Northwestern has given up in Big Ten play. While the Hoosiers have started to show some signs of life in the running game,  the Hoosiers will need to use the pass to keep Northwestern honest on defense. Of course, it would be helpful if the defense could keep an opponent from setting a season high in yards, but I’m afraid the only possible chance IU is going to have in the near future is to outscore its opponents.

QB of the future?

Tre Roberson most likely benefits from both the comparisons to Edward Wright Baker and Dusty Kiel, and the fact that he sparked an IU fan base which needed a pick me up after the news of

IU wanted a 5 star recruit, but the Hoosiers got the rock

Gunner Kiel rescinding his commitment. But I think it’s foolish to dismiss Roberson entirely.  His ability to run will serve him well as he plays behind an offensive line that will often be  overmatched.  From what I’ve seen, he is probably not going to be laser like with his accuracy, but the ability to make a play when things have broken down is probably the most necessary skill an IU quarterback can have. There will be the obvious comparisons to Antwaan Randle-El, but for now the biggest similarity between Roberson and Randle-El is they are starting on a team that needs a lot more than a good quarterback to win.  Still, if Roberson’s best is yet to come,  it’s certainly possible that the rest of the team will improve enough to be looking at a bowl bid before he’s gone.

A more focused effort 

I’m not usually one to attribute a loss, even a blowout loss, to a lack of effort. For one, I think it’s a cop out for fans who don’t want to admit their team isn’t as good as they thought.  However, I always find it interesting how much sharper teams are when they go into a game knowing there’s a legitimate chance at victory. It’s not that I don’t believe IU’s players were playing or practicing hard for the last few weeks, but it’s only human to not be as focused on preparing for a game where you know it is highly unlikely you will win.  With that in mind, I expect a sharper effort out of IU this week. Of course the same could be said for Northwestern.

Scouting Future Opponents

THE Ohio State University welcomes a highly irritable Bucky the Badger to the Horseshoe

THE Michigan State University visits Nebraska in the game of the week for the B1G Ten

Purdue visits the big house to take on the Michigan Wolverines

Prediction: Much like Homer Simpson honoring Red Barclay, I can’t quit now

It’s homecoming and the Hoosiers have won six of their last seven on homecoming. Other than that, and the fact the games have been so close the last few years, I have no reason to believe the Hoosiers will win on Saturday.  And yet I do. This will represent a chance to break away from past Hoosier squads who would follow up a reasonably good performance against a superior team with a weak effort against an evenly matched team. I think this is where we start to see some actual results. Hoosiers win 31-27.

CrimsonCast is proud to be the home of The Fake Coach Wilson Fake Post Game Show.  All questions are answered by @FakeCoachWilson.  If you have questions for @FakeCoachWilson, send via twitter to @CrimsonCast or @FakeCoachWilson.  Or you can e-mail longer questions to Scott@CrimsonCast.com.  Check back the Sunday after every IU Football game for the #FCWFakePostGameShow.  Enjoy #Slapdicks!

So Coach, how did this game in Iowa compare with what happened in Madison?

Almost looked like we could play fucking Big Ten football for a while there, didn’t it? Looking at the time of possession numbers and the fact we didn’t give up any turnovers. We had a quarterback who showed he could play a little and move the chains, and we’ve got a running back in JuCo who’s shown he can produce on a consistent basis. We also saw a receiver or two show up — we got the sort of good stuff out of Cody Latimer that we’ve been waiting to see from a number of other slapdicks on the roster. Other than that, our special teams held their ground and the defense was only slightly better than fucking hopeless. On the whole, this week was a step up — not much of a goddamm step — but we’re at least going somewhere.

Going forward, has Roberson established himself as the #1 QB and what does that mean for play selection?

Well no shit. We’ve all been watching the same games, right? Since August I’ve been telling you that this High School kid is pretty good — the thing is now that he’s been given a chance the last couple of weeks it’s pretty fucking obvious he’s our best shot to move the ball with the ball in his hands. Is there room for improvement? Fuck yeah there is… at least three more years of room. So far this year we have absolutely zero threat of making a big play happen on offense — the line can’t push out a big enough hole and there’s no vertical passing game. Tre gives us just a little more chance of making something big happen. Now Larry the Cable Coordinator needs to teach the kid how to throw the long ball.

Victory Bacon & Eggs - Submitted by @joshmenzies

Looking up the schedule, what games to you see as real chances for a win?

First of all slapdick, every game from here on in is a chance for a win — I don’t go into breakfast every Saturday morning and order up a big plate of #victorybacon not thinking we’ve got a real shot of winning. Conventional wisdom amnonst you out there in the collective braintrust say that we might have a shot against Northwestern and Purdue. I can tell you right now neither of those teams is coming to Bloomington planning on losing. If Ekeler and Mallory can get their shit together on their side of the ball, and get their cats to make some stops, there’s a legitimate chance we can beat anyone from here on out. Unfortunately, that seems to be a big fucking ask.

(continue reading…)

As I mentioned in my last post, I apologize for this being posted to late.  I was in Vegas for the weekend, and the original plan was to write this article while I waited for my flight on Sunday morning.  Well a fun Saturday night in Vegas with my friends happened, and I spent most of Sunday morning trying to wake up and not feel like total fried hell.  If you have ever been to Vegas, then you understand.

I also should have listed to the advice from @joshmenzie and NOT bet on Iowa to cover the spread. (My losing ticket is pictured to the right)  I just can’t win with IUFB!  I was keeping track of the game on ESPN, and at one point Iowa was covering the spread and I felt good.  Then I had to get back to my conference, and next thing I knew, I had lost the bet.  Ugh!  I wish I would have been there last weekend, as I would have won with Wisconsin covering that spread!

I wasn’t able to watch a single second from this game, so I really have no worthwhile thoughts on the game, but I will take a moment to discuss what has been on everyone’s mind, Gunner Kiel and his status.

I honestly don’t think it matters as much as people are making it out to be – it was the front story on IndyStar.com for a full day for goodness sakes!  I’m not saying that he wouldn’t be a good college quarterback or that he wouldn’t help our team if he did come here.  But it must be mentioned that we are treating Gunner like the next coming of Andrew Luck.  He could be great, but for all we know, Gunner might not even be a decent D1 QB.  Only time will tell.

Let’s look back at Antwaan Randle-El for comparison.  I admit that he didn’t have the best throwing arm, but he was one of the most dynamic and athletic QB’s we have ever had at IU.  How many B1G titles and bowl appearances did it net us?  Zero!

This was due to the fact that the supporting cast around Antwaan wasn’t good enough and the coaching was awful. (continue reading…)

Live game chat!

Pre-Game Meal: Week 8

Opponent: Iowa Hawkeyes

Series History: Iowa leads 41-27-4

Last Meeting: The Hoosiers lost a heartbreaker to Iowa last year 18-13. The IU defense which had played bend but don’t break in holding the Hawkeyes to three field goals through three quarters broke at the worst possible moment. Giving up a 52 yard touchdown with under 3 minutes left. The Hoosiers marched down the field but Ben Chappell’s 4th down pass to Demarlo Belcher fell harmlessly to the end zone turf.

Hey that sounds like another IU game I watched; Actually,  it sounds like a lot of IU games. At least the ones where they aren’t losing by 50 points. But in 2009, the Hoosiers led the Hawkeyes 21-7 at halftime.  This was stunning because Iowa was ranked undefeated and ranked #7 at the time.  Everything was going well for the Hoosiers, but soon it would all come crashing down.  The Hoosiers drove to inside the Iowa 10 early in the 3rd quarter,  but Ben Chappell’s pass was deflected, bounced off two people before it landed in the arms of Iowa safety Tyler Sash. Being that IU is IU of course he then raced 96 yards for a touchdown. Still the Hoosiers rebounded and led 24-14 going into the 4th quarter.  But alas, IU is IU, and the Hawkeyes scored 28 unanswered to not only beat IU but perhaps more importantly cover a 17 point spread.

Fun Fact: During my 4 years at IU(1996-2000) the Hoosiers had a winning record against 0 Big Ten teams. They did however manage to go 2-2 versus a couple of opponents, Illinois and Iowa. This was during a bit of a dip in Iowa’s program.  Hayden Fry went 3-8 before running the score up on the sunset. Kirk Ferentz went 1-10 in his first year and 3-9 in his 2nd year before going 7-5 in 2001. The Hawkeyes haven’t  finished  a regular season below .500 since.

(continue reading…)

Scott is joined by George from Oilpressure.com to discuss:

• The loss of Dan Wheldon on Sunday
• Unprofessional journalism
• How this effects the INDYCAR series moving forward
• Why NASCAR is making statements about INDYCAR and Ovals
• The future of Ovals on the INDYCAR schedule
• The future for Dario

Remember to subscribe to us on iTunes by clicking here. Follow us on Twitter @CrimsonCast. You can also join the discussion by keeping an eye on Twitter as we will tweet before we start any podcast. If you have a question just send us an e-mail or tweet, or join us on Skype, just search for CrimsonCaster. If we are online, shoot us a message and we’ll put you on the air!

You can also e-mail us at : Scott@CrimsonCast.com. Now go spread the word!

CC 10-19-11 - Dan Wheldon & INDYCAR talk with George from Oilpressure.com [ 1:05:20 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (558)

There is nothing I’m going to say here that hasn’t been said more eloquently in other places.  In fact, my friend, and CrimsonCast Co-Creator, Galen summed up my feelings well last night with his Tweet:

I got interested in the Indianapolis 500 in 1985, when my parents and I moved from New York City to Bloomington, Indiana.  My father won a pair of tickets to the race at Chi-Chi’s, and that was the first in 10 straight races that we went to.

Sadly “The Split” came at a bad time in life for me, as I was leaving High School and going to IU for college.  My interests began to change and while I would still try to catch the race on the radio or TV, my Dad & I stopped going to the track each year.

After college, I moved to Houston, Texas and was so wrapped up in a new place and new career, that I even watching or keeping track of the series and the 500 for a few years.  But in 2004, as Memorial Day rolled around, I realized something novel for a kid who grew up in Indiana.  In Houston, I could watch the Indy 500 LIVE on TV (The race has always been tape delayed in the Indianapolis area).  That brought me back to the 500.  After a few years, I realized how empty I felt at the end of May because racing was over for the year.  That when I realized, I need to be watching the whole season, and since then, I have been hooked.

When I fully got back into INDYCAR, I hate to admit it, but I wasn’t a huge Dan Wheldon fan.  He seemed brash and a bit cocky.  Plus, I figured that since he left on bad terms with Ganassi & Andretti, and was suing the ownership of Panther, he wasn’t the best guy to deal with.

That all changed at the 2011 Burger Bash.  My wife & I attended, and we got to see Dan up close and personal.  I only met him in passing, but I was blown away by how engaging and funny he was, not to mention how nice he acted toward all the fans.

Leaving the track after this year’s 500 with my wife, I listened to interviews with Dan, where he talked about how much this race and city meant to him.  My thoughts on him started to change.  Then in the following weeks, he really impressed me with his personality on the VS broadcasts.  At that point, I even mentioned in a column, that my thoughts on Dan had changed.  This only continued throughout the season, as I heard him talk about the new 2012 car he was testing and his planning for the Vegas race and 2012.

I had really gone 180 on Dan, and behind TK and James Hinchcliffe, Dan was someone I was rooting for to win.

On Sunday, I was watching the race on DVR, so I was about 30 minutes behind real-time.  I have seen quite a few wrecks in INDYCAR, yet oddly the moment I saw this one, I had a feeling that something was wrong.  My wife had stepped away, but came back into the room, and there we stayed for the next 2+ hours.  I knew things were bad when they showed all the in-car cameras, but not Dan’s.  It got more surreal, when I started thinking about how the live ABC coverage was showing Dan’s in-car camera and talking about safety when the wreck started.

As things seemed to get more serious, my wife and I started to check Twitter & news feeds, which because of the DVR were about 30-40 minutes ahead of where we were in the broadcast.  The confirmed reports seemed to stay that while it was serious, the vitals seemed good.  But the mood on the telecast seemed to show us that something more was wrong.  It made me sick to see all the fake reports on Dan’s death on Twitter, but as more were popping up, it got me more and more concerned.

Sadly, once I saw that Curt Cavin Tweeted that Dan had passed, I knew it was real.  Oddly, even after all online outlets were reporting it, my wife and I continued to be glued to the 40 minute delayed broadcast, almost hoping that it would change, or that it wasn’t fully real until ABC announced it.

For not having time or forethought, I thought that the 5 lap salute was very moving.  I was also impressed with Marty Reid’s sign-off, very well said and very poignant.  My wife and I left our house for a walk, just to clear our heads.

Going back to the Tweet from Galen, I found myself last night very bothered by this.  Maybe it’s because I am the same age as Dan.  Maybe it’s because I was watching the event live as it happened.  Maybe it’s because my wife is currently 5 months pregnant, so seeing his family left behind really hit home.  Maybe, it is because this is the first major death that I have dealt with since I have gotten back into INDYCAR.  Maybe it’s because my thoughts had changed so much on Dan over the past 3-4 years, and I was finally at a point where I was excited for him in 2012.

In the end, there is no need to find out why.  All I know is that even after a night of sleep, I still feel empty.  And in the end, that is what we are all left with, an empty hole in the INDYCAR world that will not be filled.

This post was as much for me to get my feelings and thoughts posted, as it was for you to read.  I know I wasn’t breaking any new thoughts on Dan, but just sharing my feelings was something I felt I needed to do.

Besides saying that I’m sad & empty and that my thoughts & prayers go out to the young Wheldon family, I’m not sure how to correctly end this post.  So I’ll just leave you with a picture that Tony Kanaan posted on Twitter saying this is how we should remember Dan.