Internally, Hoosiers are sound

Emblazoned on a white banner, black letters proclaimed something a growing chunk of Bloomington felt.

“Fire Bill Lynch.”

The words rang loudly Saturday, and while the Hoosiers endured yet another loss in a forgettable season, the players on the sideline who could see the sign pocketed their feelings and let it all out as soon as they had the chance.

“Honestly, I wanted to go across the field and go into the stands and rip it away from them,” senior kicker Austin Starr said this week. “It just made me so upset. I went to the state police and asked them if there is any way that they could make those guys leave.

“I just think it’s incredibly disrespectful. They don’t know what goes on in our team. They may not even know Coach Lynch. But I just can’t believe that we have fans like that that are that harsh and that, I mean, I could call them any kind of name.”

Still, Lynch said “it’s all part of the territory” and tried to brush off the sign as nothing out of the ordinary.

“You’re so wrapped up watching the football game that I don’t notice those kinds of things,” Lynch said. “If you’re a football coach and you’re paying attention to that stuff, you’re not doing your job.”

As recently as a year ago, it seemed as if Lynch had the full backing of not just the student body, the athletics department or football alumni, but arguably most of Hoosier nation.

Following the death of coach Terry Hoeppner earlier that summer, Lynch took the reigns of a team that played with limitless emotion for 13 games, including the program’s first bowl game since 1993.

The Hoosiers finished 7-6. Back-to-back bowl games became a legitimate possibility. IU had a football program once again.

But this September, the season began to unravel. Beginning with a 42-20 loss to Ball State at home, IU fell in four more games, picked up an upset win against Northwestern and then subsequently lost the following two weeks.

Last Saturday, the Hoosiers hit rock bottom after Wisconsin blew up the scoreboard in the second half and won by 35 points.

“Coach Lynch is not doing anything wrong, and he’s taking a lot of the heat – people are saying he shouldn’t be here,” said junior linebacker Matt Mayberry. “But I mean, really, it’s the players. We’ve got to pick it up, and we’ve got to learn how to execute better.”

In articles and blogs and on message boards, many fans continue to voice their displeasure with the outcome of the season, blaming the woeful play on the coaching staff.

So with a visibly upset fan base and a team riddled with injuries – three-fourths of the secondary is out for the year – Lynch heads to Happy Valley to play a talented Penn State team.

All the while, his players stick with him. Starr exuded confidence in the coaching staff – specifically Lynch.

“There are no doubters on this team about our coaching staff,” Starr said. “You can’t doubt them because we come in every single day and their passion for the game – I mean, it speaks for itself and how they coach us.”

The players have their coach’s back even if they know a sizeable portion of their fans feel otherwise.

But to know the Hoosiers support Lynch is a good feeling, he said.

“We’ve had a tough year, and we’ve had a lot of things happen to us,” Lynch said. “But we’re sticking together, and we’re going to fight. We’re still fighting, and those of us on the inside that are there every day understand all of the things that have gone on. We’re all disappointed, but we’re still battling.”