Are you feeling the buzz that maybe, maybe, SOMETHING is about to happen with Indiana’s football coaching search and Oklahoma offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson.
First come reports that athletic director Fred Glass interviewed Wilson in Oklahoma on Friday. Then Sooners head coach Bob Stoops went out of his way to deny it. Then Wilson had a chance to put it all to rest after Oklahoma beat Nebraska to win the Big 12 championship. Instead, he talked all around it according to the Tulsa World.
“We’ll see. I don’t know. It’s the time of the year where you’re getting through the last game. Always this time of year maybe there’s a chance for something. But when you get into the postseason you don’t want to… The most import thing is winning … We’ll just see. I don’t really do a bunch of networking. We’ll see if anything happens.”
A gray area is whether Glass did, or didn’t, interview Wilson. Wilson kept that vague, but didn’t deny anything.
“Now that the season is over if there’s an opportunity … I’m just lucky I get to work with some great kids and great coaches. If anything happens, it does. I’m excited and happy to do what I do. It’s a great gig.”
It sounds like Wilson was trying to cooperate with the media and still be discrete, which is hard to do.
Wilson directed record-setting offenses at Oklahoma in 2008 and Northwestern in 2000.
Then there’s Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Doeren. He’s directed some of the Big Ten’s best defenses the last couple of years and heaven knows IU can use all the defense it can get.
Don’t forget Michigan State offensive coordinator Don Treadwell who’s in charge of the Big Ten’s most diverse offense.
The one thing is that none of these guys has ever been a head coach, but then, that was once true of Joe Paterno and he turned out okay.
Now that the regular season is over, expect to see the search pace accelerate. Glass wants to make a hire as soon as possible, but his No. 1 priority is to get the right guy. It seems likely he will – sooner rather than later.
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Scrap the plans about seeing Notre Dame -- or anyboby -- join the Big Ten. The league is out of the expansion business -- at least for now.
That was the word coming out of the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors meeting in Park Ridge, Ill. Apparently landing Nebraska, which is set to join the conference next season, is enough. The Big Ten won't seek to add any more new members.
IU President Michael McRobbie said that after a year, "The (expansion) process has reached its natural conclusion."
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While the football coaching search has taken up most of the attention, the current team and coaches had one last gathering with the team awards banquet. The big winner was quarterback Ben Chappell, who got 2010 Anthony Thompson MVP Award.
Chappell finished as the most accurate quarterback in school history. This season he threw for a school-record 3,295 yards, plus 24 touchdowns against nine interceptions. He led the Big Ten in passing.
Also, an anonymous donor gave $100,000 to name the defensive linemen meeting room at Memorial Stadium in memory of Bill Phillips Sr. His son, Paul, is a freshman tight end for the Hoosiers. Bill Phillips died in a plane crash in Alaska earlier this year.
Predictions:
ReplyDelete1. We will HYPE the hell out of him even though he is nothing special and shows IU's lack of imagination. Trent Green or Mike Singletary would have been much better.
2. He will suck just like all the rest of our coaches and we will lose most of our games and rank 10 or 11th in the Big 10 recruiting ratings.
3. After 2-3 years of continuing to be the Big 10 doormat we will replace him with someone of the same caliber. In other words repeat 1, 2, and 3 all over again. You read it first here..swallow hard Deep Throat!