Column: This year has to be different

CHICAGO — No one has really ever expected much out of the IU football team.
During my time at IU, they’ve long been a joke among students.

From all indications at Wednesday’s Big Ten Media Day in Chicago, this year is different.

And for IU Coach Kevin Wilson, it has to be.

“Saying that we expect to make a bowl game is a complete understatement,” senior kicker Mitch Ewald said. “Our goal is not to make a bowl game. Our goal is to be consistently one of the two, three best teams in the Big Ten year in and year out.

“That’s our goal. To say that we’ll just make a bowl game, that’s an understatement.”

For Wilson, now in his third season, this is the year that people will start to judge him. He got a pass his first year when he went 1-11. That wasn’t his team, and it was a transition year.

Last year, he showed that he had made some strides with the players, as the team won two Big Ten games, but still finished 4-8. Again, he got a pass with it just being the second year, and losing incumbent starting quarterback Tre Roberson in the second game.

Now, with a roster familiar with Wilson and the expectations, there is no reason for this team to be a joke anymore.

“We are, though, a veteran team,” Wilson said. “I think we’re going to be fifth or sixth in the country with returning guys with starts. So we do have guys that are battle tested.

“We have guys that are getting more mature, but I do think we’re a young team growing and there’s a lot of growth potential with our football program in these next few years.”

But for the three players Wilson brought with him to Chicago Wednesday — seniors Kofi Hughes, Greg Heban and Ewald — there’s no time for the future.

They want to win now.

And there’s no reason for them not to.

“We expect to be great, to play great, to win a lot of football games,” Ewald said. “We owe it to the University to be a good Big Ten football team.”

During the last two years, Hughes has noticed a lot of changes around the team instituted by Wilson.

What has excited Hughes, who was not recruited by Wilson, but by former IU Coach Bill Lynch, is that the players who are there are a “brotherhood” and all want to be there.

Wilson finally has his team.

“Coach Wilson, when he came in, he said he was going to set a standard,” Hughes said. “He asked us, ‘What does it take to be a man of Indiana football?’ and we really didn’t know what to say.”

Now the team knows what to say.

The team goes to class. Players have meals together. They hang out.

They clean their area after they’re done. They clean the locker room. They get after it in practice.

“I think we really changed IU football,” Hughes said. “I know that when I was a freshman, I came in, it was the stereotypical kind of team. You’re a freshman, the seniors are seniors. You don’t really socialize that much type of thing.

“I’ll say right now, I’ll have dinner with (freshman defensive back Rashard) Fant or hang out with (freshman defensive back Antonio) Allen. I’ve got (freshman wide receiver) Isaac Griffith at my house playing video games.”

Watching Heban’s face light up while talking about the athletic freshmen defensive players, hearing Wilson gush about the development of sophomore running back Tevin Coleman and listening as Hughes spoke about how he enjoys rallying a talented group of receivers shows this team has nothing but positives entering the season.

“There’s a lot of good energy with what’s going on,” Wilson said.

None of the players were joking around July 24. They really believe it’s different. There’s no excuse for mediocrity this season.

There’s no reason for this season to be a joke.

Now, it’s time to see those results on the field.

— robhowar@indiana.edu