No offseason for DiNardo

It was Wednesday's practice of the UConn game week. Coaches yelled, whistles blew and over 100 players moved from one organized drill to the next. Coach Gerry DiNardo walked the fields observing every part of his second IU team. He watched his assistant coaches work. He watched his players practice.\nTo the casual observer it might appear to be organized chaos. But this practice, along with every other one in fall camp, has been thoroughly planned over the summer by DiNardo and his staff. Along with planning practices, the staff evaluates game film, scouts its first four opponents, and reviews countless tapes of high school prospects during the hot summer months.\nDiNardo said the hands-on coaching is his most enjoyable.\n"I enjoy being on the field more than anything," he said. "But if I can't be on the field, I love studying the game, watching tape and coming up with new ideas."\nDiNardo has had four months since spring practice to figure out how to improve this year's club from last season's 3-9 campaign. But because of NCAA regulations, he can't have any contact with the players. That leaves him and his staff the long summer days of running the IU football program.\nAnd running a major college football program is a lot of work with many distractions. While DiNardo would much rather devote all of his time to coaching, he spends many of his least enjoyable hours taking care of the business of major college football.\n"The least enjoyable activities I do are the other things other than coaching and recruiting," DiNardo said. "There's a lot of distractions in college football so sometimes you spend 80 percent of your time on the things that are 20 percent least important. Maneuvering, that is always the most difficult thing."\nIf DiNardo is tied down by non-football obligations, the rest of the staff stays busy. Staff members continue to prepare for the season, filling their collective heads with every bit of info available on IU's first four opponents: UConn, Washington, Indiana State, and Kentucky.\nDefensive coordinator Tim Kish spends countless hours in the film room trying to find ways to stop opponents offenses and evaluating potential recruits. Kish, in his second season at IU and 28th in coaching overall, said most of his time during the summer is spent on recruiting.\n"I think we did a great job on evaluating film during the spring and summer," Kish said. "It enabled us to get a better feel for the guys we are really interested in for the fall of next year."\nKish prepares his current players by giving them film evaluation sheets after spring practice to help them study opponents while watching tape. The evaluation sheets assist the players in understanding and recognizing opponent's offenses.\nA veteran player who has plenty of experience in all aspects of the defensive side of the ball is junior safety Herana-Daze Jones. The 5-11, 205-pound Jones made the biggest position change of the off-season moving from linebacker to safety. And Jones said while watching tape helped him make the switch, playing linebacker helped more.\n"I watch a lot of tape," Jones said. "I know the defense. It wasn't like I didn't know what I was doing because as a linebacker I knew what everybody was doing. I just needed to get comfortable again playing back there."\nDiNardo and Kish have the comfort of knowing their team better going into their second season. And DiNardo expects he'll have a better football team the second go around.\n"We all know what we want to do," Dinardo said. "We all know we want to win, but I think it would be most disappointing if this team wasn't better than last year's team if they played one another. But we've worked them hard and I believe we're ready."\nContact staff writer John Rodgers at jprodger@indiana.edu.