Column: IU Football on its way with Coach Wilson

On Dec. 7, 2010, IU Coach Kevin Wilson made his way to the podium within the Henke Hall of Champions, emanating an aura of confidence.

Dressed in a black blazer, white shirt and red tie, Wilson made clear his vision for the IU football program on the day of his hiring.

“We’re ready to build our program,” Wilson said. “We’re ready to build something special. It’s a process. It’s a daily process, a winning process.”

Nearly two years later, the results of that process are beginning to take shape.

2011
Wilson’s first season as head coach at IU transpired as smoothly as a dinghy caught in the middle of a violent storm in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Hoosiers began the season with a 27-20 loss to in-state foe Ball State, the first of 11 excruciating losses.

IU’s lone victory came against Football Championship Subdivision member South Carolina State.

Big Ten Conference play did IU no favors. The Hoosiers were outscored 342-147 in eight conference games, all losses.

Wilson and his coaching staff, meanwhile, battled mutiny from members of the senior class, most notably wide receiver Damarlo Belcher. Belcher was ultimately dismissed from the program for a repeated violation of team rules.

With all that had gone wrong, was Wilson, the coach IU Athletic Director Fred Glass had called “our guy,” truly the right man for the job?

2012
The image of IU football has drastically changed since the Hoosiers ended the 2011 season with a 33-25 loss to rival Purdue on Senior Day at Memorial Stadium.

Senior center Will Matte remembers vividly the Purdue loss as well as its aftereffects.

He recalled the process Wilson referred to during his introductory press conference.

“The process started way back after Purdue last year,” Matte said. “The coaches wanted to instill a sense of pride in what you do every day. The offseason was great, and we’ve built that all the way through, day by day here in the season.”

That method has been evident in all areas of the program during the current season.

Last week’s victory against Illinois is a microcosm of the effort put forth during the offseason Matte alluded to.

Not only was the victory the first conference triumph of Wilson’s era, it tripled the Hoosiers’ win total from last season.

While those three victories speak volumes about the progress made along the process, the numbers do, too.

The Hoosiers rank 35th nationally in scoring offense, 28th in passing offense and 38th in turnover margin, all significant increases from last season.

But the feeling within the program can’t be measured by numbers, statistics or figures. Words can’t do it justice.

Following Monday’s practice, sophomore wide receiver Shane Wynn came skipping onto the turf at Memorial Stadium for interviews with reporters, joyfully shouting, “Who got me?”

When he was finished, Wynn skipped all the way back off the field and into the closed doors of the football offices.

It was a fitting scene for a program that has finally begun to evolve, two years after Wilson began building.

­— ckillore@indiana.edu