IU Football 2005: Optimism runs rampant

Hope springs eternal once more in Bloomington as the football team kicks off another season. But this year is different. Since arriving in January as the new head coach, the Terry Hoeppner PR machine has invaded our campus like cicadas on a hot summer day. Armed with optimism, a 48-24 record in his six seasons at Miami of Ohio and handfuls of Uncle Sam knockoff posters, coach Hep has promised to restore glory to an otherwise laughable decade of Hoosier football. \nHow laughable? Since 1995, the Hoosiers have had a record of 29-72. Not once across this stretch did IU have a winning record or clinch a bowl berth. In fact, not since the 1993 Independence Bowl has the cream and crimson played football in December. Would you call it comical? I haven't laughed this hard since I saw "The Notebook" ... errr ... I mean "Wedding Crashers." \nBut Hoeppner does have Bloomington believing one thing: Why not? After a desert-like decade of football seasons that have brought nothing but heartache, Hoeppner has been the athletics department's oasis, bringing excitement, confidence and, most importantly, people in the seats. \nNow I'm not saying confidence breeds winning -- on the contrary, winning breeds confidence. And in his first game for the cream and crimson, coach Hep showed a vastly improved Hoosier offense and the possibility for the Hoosiers to gallop to a 5-0 start. Just look at the schedule. \nAfter a 20-13 victory over Central Michigan, the Hoosiers' first home game against Nicholls State should be easier than Tara Reid on ... well ... any night. While IU has nothing to toot its horn about, the Hoosiers are nonetheless a Division I team and should take pleasure in pounding out a second straight win. In fact, the game should serve more as a mini-camp for coach Hep to evaluate talent than a must-win game early in the season. And understand, it is a must-win game. \nBut coach Hep's true test will come between weeks three and five when the Hoosiers host Kentucky, travel to Wisconsin and return to Bloomington to face Illinois. Let me begin by saying we can win every single one of these games. Kentucky has been pinned on Hoeppner's calendar for the last six months and serves as an immediate trial for 2005 expectations. The Hoosiers will then hitch to Madison to face a star-depleted Badger team that should supply the Hoosier's first big win of the season. Simply stated, there is no reason a team, which starts 4-0, should lose its homecoming game to (by that time) a 2-3 Illinois squad. \nSo you see? 5-0 right there. Sure it may seem a little positive, OK, optimism run amuck, but you're talking to the guy who thought Patrick Ewing Jr. was going to be better than his father. Whoops.\nSince Hep has taken the helm, 16,662 season tickets have been sold. This is a 3,100 ticket increase from 2004, including a 47 percent increase in student tickets sold. \nStill none of this -- initial ticket sales or patriotic posters -- will matter unless the team wins. \nYet, when all is said and done, the Hoosiers did win their first game of season. And an away game, at that.\n"Winning is a great feeling," sophomore quarterback Blake Powers said in a press conference after the game. "I'll take a win no matter what the score."\nNow that's the Hoosier spirit.