Hoeppner Counters
Hoosier’s Cycle of Despair

By Paul Smith
paul.smith@collegeblitz.com

CHESTERTON, Ind. — The 10-15,000 or so who would follow Indiana University football from Katmandu to Kalamazoo have redefined the words "long suffering."

The ritual: New Coach. Godawful first year with possibly one win against a I-AA team. Second year with one or two beams of light through the murk of an 8 or 9-loss sesaon. Third year: in a good cycle, four or five wins. In an average one, three.

	Indiana coach Terry Hoeppner. (Paul B. Riley/IU Athletics)

Repeat cycle. Recycle. New coach, his name destined to be a piece of trivia within half a decade.

Enter Terry Hoeppner, who last year went positively Professor Harold Hillish, turning the genteel valley college town of Bloomington into River City, and taking everything but 76 trombones and a big parade across this sleepiest of Midwestern states, proclaiming the joys of following I.U. football.

"Good luck," most of the weather-worn populace would say, shaking his hand, then wondering out loud when midnight madness would greet the basketball season.

"I think we made our greatest impact off the field," Coach Hep told freelance writer Michael Bradley of The Sporting News' Big Ten football magazine, "in terms of season ticket sales and the level of interest and excitement around the state."

The Hoosiers, aided immensely by home dates with Purdue, where for nearly half a generation, the majority of the "home" crowd wears visiting colors, and Ohio State, which despite a desperate keep-'em-out campaign still brought nearly 40% of a 52,000 sellout, averaged 39,000 fans in Indiana Memorial Stadium, a pair of clap-trap cement high-rise stands that inspires little suggestion of a real college football tradition.

But that was a start. I.U., going against an early sked that included Mid-American Conference mid-level Central Michigan, I-AA Nicholls State, a weak Kentucky team and Illinois among its first five opponents -- its only real opponent, Wisconsin, pounded I.U., 41-24 -- got off to a 4-1 start.

Hoeppner, whose pedigree includes coaching Ben Roethlisberger to M.A.C. dominance at Miami (Ohio), brought a Dick Vermeil-type emotion and optimism to the rolling hills of Monroe County.

The seven straight losses against the steamroller schedule that is the annual Big Ten reality didn't fully erase the mindset of that exhilarating start.

And there were pockets of occasional enthusiasm beyond Area codes 812 and 317.

For a change. For the aforementioned 10-15,000 Hoosier football diehards, a very, very refreshing change.

Not much adversity fazes Hoeppner. Not the embarrassment of watching a tape of a 2004 Indiana-Penn State game where a good and decent man, Gerry DiNardo, watched his quarterback, Matt LoVecchio, his team taking seven unsuccessful cracks at the goal line after an original first-and-goal situation from the Nittany Lions' 9...

...Trying to quiet down the uproar of several thousand Penn State end zoners disrupting his team's offense.

Hoeppner grimaced when a nonmedia person brought that up this summer. But Hoeppner's a guy who dealt with a brain tumor, with the death of one of his closest friends and coaching mentor, Northwestern's Randy Walker, who had preceeded Hoeppner as Miami's head coach.

With the Indiana crowd barely visible at the annual Big Ten Meet the Coaches media day in Chicago, particularly when surrounded by huge fan, media and personnel contingents from Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Illinois and Northwestern, Hoeppner never lost a beat.

Nor his sense of humor.

"I know you're just waiting for (Michigan coach) Lloyd Carr," he said with that classic self-deprecation that has endeared him to media like the Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein.

Despite being picked next-to-last in the Big Ten by Street & Smith's, Athlon and CBS Sportsline and virtually every other preseason sports outlet, and in some cases, flat-out last, Hoeppner forges ahead.

"The other side of that is I've rated the various magazines and newspapers," he told Greenstein, smiling. "You don't want to know how I rated you, either."

Unlike a lot of coaches, though, this was lighthearted. At 58, having endured a series of searing headaches that resulted brain surgery two days after last Christmas, and having regained his normal health, his optimism, spliced with homespun humor, kept 'em laughing. Somewhere on the Great Sideline in the Sky, Randy Walker was smiling.

"I got out of the hospital on a Friday," Hoeppler told Greenstein, "and I was in the office on Saturday.

"At the first 6 a.m. (players) workout, I was there...My hair's a lot shorter, but I'm faster in the pool. I've worked on my flip turns."

He's also worked on implementing a saleable season gameplan to a team with a mediocre talent level to get them to begin the long uphill trek.

The Hoosiers, who have been the Rutgers of the Big Ten, are hoping Hoeppner has the same effect on I.U. that former Miami assistant Greg Schiano has had in New Jersey.

The team is not totally bereft of talent. Quarterback Blake Powers, a 6-feet, 4-inch, 228-pounder built along the lines of Notre Dame Adonis Brady Quinn, has some of Quinn's talents as well.

Wideouts Jahkeen Gilmore, a senior, and sophomore James Bailey may not be thought of as game breakers, but they can stretch a defense at times.

The offensive line is large. Is it talented? That is a question Hoeppner wants answered early and often.

The running game a potentially major talent in Demetrius McCray, a redshirt freshman who played the role of opposing running backs as a scout teamer last fall.

In the end, the Hoosiers will likely score at least a few points in an offense-happy league, particularly a friendly front end of the schedule that includes Western Michigan, Ball State, I-AA Southern Illinois and Connecticut.

The big ball-and-chain for I.U. will be its defense. Going against quarterbacks like Chad Henne (Michigan), Heisman Trophy hopeful Troy Smith (Ohio State), Michigan State's Drew Stanton, Anthony Morelli, who replaces Michael Robinson at Penn State, Iowa's proven gamer Drew Tate, Bryan Cupito of Minnesota and others will prove too much.

There is a little bit of talent on the other side of the ball -- middle linebacker Vernon Smith, a transfer from Butler County (Kans.) Community College, could prove to be a catalyst for whatever success I.U.'s defense can produce.

If pure effort can make talented performers out of pedestrian linemen like defensive ends Charles Emerson and Kenny Kendal -- opposing quarterbacks' pass protection time was measured by hourglass the past few years, e.g. -- Hoeppner will be vindicated.

"I've talked the talk all these years as a coach," Hoeppner told Greenstein. "I've told the players, 'If you have an injury, don't be soft, but don't be stupid.'

"I wasn't soft (bouncing back from his brain tumor surgery, but I wasn't stupid. I paced myself."

That's it. Maybe that could be the theme for Indiana's 2006 football team. The Indiana Pacers.

But if they don't come out of the gate 4-0 against a less-than-spectacular opening schedule, will the skeptics begin the latest coach watch?

At Indiana, it's a ritual.

Now that's pressure.