Two weeks ago during the Ball State game, the announcers on the IU football radio broadcast (Don Fischer in particular) were bemoaning the fact that IU doesn’t allow halftime pass-outs from the stadium. Fischer implied that because of this, the stadium empties for the second half and the football team misses the crowd. Kevin Wilson was quoted in the South Bend Tribune on Sept. 20 as imploring students to stick around for the second half of home games. He suggested they invest in better coolers so their beverages of choice would stay cold for the duration of the game and they would be less tempted to depart early.
May I suggest, as an IU graduate (B.A. in Journalism, ’86) who saw IU suffer through a 0-11 season in Bill Mallory’s first year, that Wilson concentrate on improving his team’s defense before suggesting students be made suffer through yet another second half defensive collapse.
Rutgers embarrassed the Hoosiers last year with a second half scoring frenzy. One stop against Michigan last year would have sealed a victory. The same is true for Duke in the bowl game.
Wilson’s teams have averaged 35 points a game during his tenure in Bloomington. Wilson is trying to blame the fans for the non-existent defense his teams have featured. I attended the Maryland game a couple of seasons ago, in which Maryland romped IU. The worst part of the day was attending the game. No wonder the students would rather drink or find something else enjoyable to do. Start playing late defense in the second half and the fans will stick around.
Scott S. Dunham, South Bend
