The Randle El tour nears end

If -- right now -- you think watching IU football is less exciting than watching beer ferment and blood coagulate, you're in for a long, long season next year (when senior Antwaan Randle El will be playing six positions in the NFL and not for the Hoosiers). \nThe Antwaan Randle El Tour has only five more stops, and three of them are in Bloomington. Too bad no one (I'm calling 31,116 people in a 52,000-seat venue "no one") will get to see him. Too bad his Heisman hype fluttered after IU lost five of its first six games. Too bad Randle El is the best player no one (again, 31,116 people at a home game) gets to see. \nThe Randle El tour would be better off if the Hoosiers played their final five games on the road, at Michigan State, where 72,000 Spartan fans will fill the seats and at Penn State in front of 106,537 Nittany Lion fans. Hoosier fans merely hand out the golf clap for Randle El. \nYou'd think things would be different. \nEspecially for a guy who is third all-time in Big Ten total yardage. Especially for a guy who owns about 1,311 NCAA records. Especially for a guy who came back for his senior season and is still stuck on 12 victories in nearly four seasons at IU. \nWait until next year, when some less-mobile, slightly-taller, less-talented and less-gutsy quarterback will try to lead IU's offense. It doesn't matter who's playing -- junior Tommy Jones, freshman Patrick Thompson, junior Gibran Hamdan or some new Randle El wanna-be. We already saw just how horrific an other-than-Randle-El-led offense can look when IU stumbled to a 35-14 loss at North Carolina State to open the senior's final season. \nRandle El's final three home games do matter. This man creates more buzz on opposing campuses than anthrax. He dominates newspaper headlines, fills special football preview sections and attracts gazes and turns heads in pre-game warmups 90 minutes before kickoff. \nN.C. State and Iowa fans were thrilled to see Randle El run around right end on the option and be held to a five-yard gain. Thrilled because they were happy Randle El didn't run three circles around each of their linebackers, sing the IU fight song twice and do a flip on his way over the goal line. Thrilled because they know they're seeing one of college football's greatest players (ever), all the while sure their team will stomp the Hoosiers. \nHis comparisons to Nebraska's Eric Crouch and Clemson's Woodrow Dantzler aren't whims cooked up by the IU Media Relations Department. They're viable. He's not having his best season in Bloomington, but Randle El would be grabbing Heisman attention if he were somewhere else. \nInstead of appreciation, Randle El gets depreciation and his talent gets lost in IU's sea of empty seats and losses. \nIU fans show up in droves of 4,000 to see Randle El, complain about his one interception and two bad passes and take his talent for granted. Randle El won't win the Heisman, he won't be the most celebrated player in the Big Ten and he won't be a top draft pick. He also won't play in front of more than 30,000 people who are rooting for him. \nThe Randle El Tour has five more stops. Three of them are right next door. Go see the guy play. There is no waiting until next year.