College coaches don’t get much time off. It’s the nature of the business. You coach the guys you have, recruit the guys you want to have, devise ways to get better, make sure everybody is doing the job in the classroom and everywhere else.
Sometimes, though, you need a vacation. So when IU went on spring break, so did the football coaches.
What did coach Kevin Wilson do?
“I did nothing,” he said. “It’s the first time off since August 3rd. I just did nothing. I was mad I had to come back. I enjoyed it. Coaches are just like the kids.”
No, this doesn’t mean Wilson has gone lazy since becoming a Hoosier millionaire. But sometimes a guy needs to get away from work. Like Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, Wilson wants coaches who have lives and families. He understands that non-stop work can take away from what’s important.
“Sometimes it’s good to get away from work,” he said. “Working till midnight doesn’t mean we’ll get better. It’s about getting the job done and doing it well. Sometimes the guy who gets up early works for the guy who doesn’t get up early.
“I’m not into being lazy, and I am into good work, but sometimes you need a break. Players need breaks. Coaches need breaks. We need breaks from each other. The great thing about our strength staff is they get to coach them sometimes instead of us. There’s a lot of give and take.”
As far as spring break …
“It’s designed to get coaches back with their families. Some families moved. Families had to adjust. I wanted to get those guys a chance to be dads again. Go on a date with their wives. Right now I’m their date. They didn’t like that too well. It’s nice to gt their date back.”
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Sometime this afternoon Indianapolis Lawrence Central’sJeremy Hollowell will make his college choice on where to play basketball. His finalists are Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State and Cincinnati.
The 6-7 Hollowell is a versatile player who will benefit from a program that can develop his considerable skills. He’s not as polished a player as Cody Zeller, but he’s still good enough to be considered a top-40 prospect in the Class of 2012.
Indications remain that by late this afternoon he will be a committed Hoosier. Put him with Hanner Perea, Yogi Ferrell, Ron Patterson and Peter Jurkin and you have one of the nation’s best classes. It’s hard to say it will be the best given there’s still plenty of time for Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina and the usual suspects to rake in prime-time talent.
Still, this is the kind of class that championships are built upon. At least, that’s the plan.
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Indiana has had one winning football record in the last 10,000 years. Wait. It only seems that way. The Hoosiers have had one winning record and one bowl appearance since 1994 and that came in 2007 with a 7-6 record and an Insight Bowl appearance.
Wilson is committed to changing that starting next season. That sounds great to the players and great to athletic director Fred Glass, who hired Wilson to get IU back to winning like it did when Bill Mallory was running the football show. Glass doesn’t, however, have a timetable for when Wilson has to start winning.
“I don’t have a litmus test with so many wins will be considered a success,” Glass said. “I think that’s a fool’s game. So many different things can happen. You’ve got to be able to evaluate any program in the context of what’s going on. So the short answer is no (he doesn’t have a timetable). The longer answer is we’ve given Kevin a seven-year contract on purpose. We want to give continuity a try at Indiana. We haven’t done that in a long time (IU has had six difference coaches since 1996). Continuity can be a key to success here in football.
“If you talk to Kevin, he says he’s a win-now guy. He’s not telling these seniors it’s a four-year process. I want to win next year. That sounds good to me. Let’s see how that works out.”
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