Monday, October 8, 2007

Kick Coverage and Tyler Replogle

I've been really, really impressed the past few weeks with IU's kick coverage units, especially kick off coverage. Several kids really been speed and hustle and also lay the wood to guys when making the tackle.

The unit is led by Justin Carrington and up until this week, Tyler Replogle (more on this in a bit). Others that contribute on a regular basis include Adrian Burks, Matt Mayberry, Mitch Evans, Jerry Williams, James Bailey, and Joe Kleinsmith. Of course it helps that Austin Starr has been really consistant in getting ball inside the 10 just about every single time.

I hated to hear that Tyler Replogle was lost for the season with an ACL tear. He was really having a great season, and though these things are fairly routine anymore, he's still gonna be a year or so coming back, which will cut into next year a little. The good news is that he just tore the ACL and it's early October. He'll probably have to sit the spring, but he should be about 85 to 90 percent by the beginning of fall practice and near 100 percent by Game 1 next season. He'll be counted on heavily next season, but missing spring practice will open the door for another of the RS freshman.

A couple people have asked about Nick Broome of Columbus, IN and where IN is at with him. Rivals lists him as having 4.5 speed and at 6'4 250 that's pretty darn impressive really. He's been to IU at least 3 times over the past few months, but we haven't offered and only low end MAC and D 1 AA Illinois State and Indiana State have, so something doesn't add up here. He certainly put up good numbers last year with 65 tackles, 6 sacks, and 9 batted balls. He's also blocked 5 kicks in his career and he has a pretty impressive vertical of over 30". So far this season, Nick's team is 7 and 1 and he's got a total of 50 tackles (only stats I could find). According to one of my friends at Columbus FD, in his opinion, he's not good enough to play Big Ten Football. He's pretty athletic, but not very mobile and he really questions the 4.5 speed. Says he's probably low end MAC to D 1AA material. Doubt we'll see IU offer here, unless he's an invited walk on and we won't know about that for awhile yet.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Where we are in recruiting

IU is still at 15 committments, so with at least 5 more ships to give, let's take a look at where IU is leading and who is talking about IU. A 4 and 1 start has brought IU into the for front again and more and more talk shows and of course, ESPN are talking IU up, which is a very good thing.

The prime target right now is Darius Willis the RB from Franklin Central. Michigan, Tennessee, and Notre Dame are getting involved using the same startegy they always have. Basically "bullying" their way into the picture because they are who they are. However, Willis has stated for sometime that he likes the State of Indiana and would love to be close to home. His HC graduated from Purdue and went with Darius last weekend up to West Lafayette. However, I expect him to do the same at IU when they come down as well, so don't read too much into that. Right now, it's a pretty close race it appears and ultimately I expect him to choose between IU, Purdue, and Notre Dame (assuming they offer).

IU leads for William Lowe a 5'10" 170 RB from Cleveland, OH Glenville (Fisher's and Thomas's school). This kid can scoot and he's a DB as well. Probably would be a CB at IU, but we'll see. Lowe visited IU as a part of Ted Ginn's bus tour. He's appears at least at this point to be a MAC RB, but a Big Ten CB. We'll see what happens.

IU also leads for Santuan McGee a 5'8" 160 WR/RB/CB from Tallahassee, FL. Not much competition for him, but he's a 4.4 guy, so you never know. As with any Florida kid, we'll not hear much from him until late December/early January at the soonest.

I've had several people ask about Jewel Hampton and whether IU is recruiting him. IU has picked up there interest here and is trying to get Jewel down to campus as soon as this weekend. Right now, the 2 schools mentioned most are Iowa (already visited earlier this season), Cincinnati and Western Kentucky.

Gerald Brown asked to be reassigned to the Tennessee area to recruit instead of Texas earlier this season. While some questioned, it's obvious that Gerald has some amazing contacts in and around the entire state. He has come into Memphis and Nashville and began to get kids extremely interested in IU. Throughout this blog, you'll see that Gerald has been very busy, especially in Memphis, but Jackie Seward a 5'10" 180 RB from Nashville, TN has IU at the top of his list after IU has just recently gotten involved. A true scatback in the mold of RBs that IU likes to recruit, this kid is one of, if not the best, offensive threat in the entire state of Tennessee. He's a little small for Fulmer's standards, but he's athletic enough and fast enough to be a Big Ten RB or DB.

Contrary to an article in a Fort Wayne, IN publication, IU hasn't offered Ray Byers a 5'10" 180 athlete. While his 4.43 speed is intriguing, look for Ray to end up at Ball State.

2 St Louis high school teammates that both play DE apparantly are looking to Missouri, instead of IU. James Moore and Hulas King, both good sized DEs have the Tigers leading the pack right now. IU would still like to add one more athletic DE to this class, but it doesn't appear to be either one of these 2. Though it's conceivable that Marcus Harmon could end up here, though he's currently listed by Rivals as a TE prospect, but after watching him against Terre Haute North last week, he's a kid that can play DE at the next level. He's listed at 6'2" and 210, so he'll need weight, but he's quick played pretty much the entire game on Defense and rarely saw the field on offense.

Another kid from Lawrence North that IU is after for Football is Anthony Oden. As you know, Greg has been down to IU several times already this season to check out Will Patterson and some other kids that he knows from Lawrence North and Anthony has also came down a couple of times. Anothy is huge at 6'8" 300+ and he's a TE, but could really be a great OT/OG/DT as he develops. He's extremely raw at this point, but IU is actively sending him stuff.

Another kid that IU is stepping up it's interest in is Berchard Hines a 6' 190 CB/DB prospect from Cleveland, OH Glenville. A true 4.5 guy, he's receiving a lot of IU interest. He also participated in the Ted Ginn bus tour and performed well during his stop at IU. Like his teammate Lowe, IU is pretty good shape here, but both will wait until the season is over to decide their futures.

Here are the names of some other Tennesse kids that Gerald Brown is recruiting. All these kids have IU in their top 3 or 4. Marcus Hightower a 6' 180 CB, Deante Mason a 6'4 180 WR, William Martin a 6'2" 220 LB, DeAndre Jones a 6' 225 LB, Aaron Trent a 6'3" 230 LB/DE, Matt Arent a 6'3" 220 QB/TE, Marcus Rucker a 6'3" 190 WR, Tray Law a 6'4" 260 DE, and Jabarie Trent a 6'1" 240 LB/DE

And finally Nick Freeland a kicker from Lawrence North. He's listed at 6' 200 pounds and I got to see him kick last Friday. Good hang time on kickoffs and got a touchback and all the kicks were inside the 10 on kickoffs. Good leg. Really likes IU and was down for the Illinois game. As of now, I don't think we have offered, but we are engaged in recruiting him heavily. I think the offer will come, but other than sending letters, this staff is concentrating mostly on one thing: Play 13!

Also, besides Darius Willis, there appears to be some Indiana kids that IU is still keeping close tabs on. I've mentioned Harmon and Freeland from Lawrence North and Byers from Fort Wayne Wayne. Also, IU is actively after David Alexander from Griffith, Bob James from Hobart, Adrian Spencer from Fort Wayne, and Jeff Baker from Lowell.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Mental Toughness, progression, and this year's team

I doubted. I didn't think this team had showed enough mental toughness to go into a hostile envioronment at Kinnick Stadium and win. All season, IU had played well in stretches, but hadn't put 4 quarters of good football together for me, and probably 90% of the fanbase to believe that they could win. BUT WIN THEY DID! 70,585 fans eye witnessed a dominate performance from start to finish. In my opinion, this was the best game they played all season, and they played all 4 quarters like their season depended on it.

Last season, IU was up and down. Coach Hep brought high points and the Iowa game was one of them. A very unlikely win in most fans minds because of 3 big losses against Wisconsin and 2 at home that most thought we could win. Then they go on the road and win at Illinois. Last year was very tough mentally, and it was one that most fans judge Coach Lynch's ability to coach this year by. Coach Lynch took over for Coach Hep for a 2 game stretch against Division 1-AA Southern Illinois and UCONN and lost both games. Of course those 2 games were without James Hardy and Kellen Lewis wasn't yet the starting QB.

So back to Saturday. Here is IU having lost to a winnable game at home to Illinois, and they are walking into Kinnick Stadium for Homecoming. Couple that with a very hungry, and embarrassed Iowa team, and well it was a recipe for disaster. However, James Hardy, Kellen Lewis, and the IU defense had other ideas. Just about everyone on the entire roster played their best game of the season. Jaime Kirlew who had been a non-factor much of the season went on a rampage and Greg Middleton was his usual self. IU leads the nation in sacks after 5 games, which is absolutely incredible for IU to be leading the nation in anything.

The coaches have really simplified things this season. They run basic packages, with pretty basic blitzes, but swarm the ball. They mimic the Colts style of defense in that they are aggressive and go all out to the ball. This defense will not be out hustled, and on Saturday it wasn't just about blitzes and pressure, it was all about coverage. Most of the sacks were indeed coverage sacks. Leslie Majors, Nick Polk, Geno Johnson, and Tracy Porter had extremely solid coverage days. Even special teams was off the hook.

This game was about as complete a game as IU has played in a long time. It put this team to 4 wins, 2 more, and IU is bowl eligible. IU has 2 very winnable games left in Minny next week and Ball State. They also can beat Penn State and Purdue at home, and Northwestern at their place. I'm still not sure about Michigan State and Wisconsin, but I haven't seen either of those 2 teams enough to comment. However, if this team plays like it did on Saturday, they can win out, and I'm serious about that.

This team has endured more together than most people deal with in a 10 year period of their lives. They watched their head coach deteriorate and die right before their eyes. They watched him rally from not 1, but 2 major brain surgeries. They saw him fight until the second he took his last breath. While devestating emotionally, it brought these kids together, and it brought the coaches together, and it made them better as a team. What it also did was make them mentally tough. I talked with several of the players after the Illinois game and they were crushed. Most of them brought up Coach Hep and how they felt like they quit fighting. This team drew upon what they saw Coach Hep do, they drew upon his last days, how the doctors marvelled has his endurance and strength to overcome pneumonia, not once, but twice. The team got together and decided that no matter what, they wouldn't give up again, that they would fight until the end, and they would prove again to the IU faithful that this is a team to believe in that Play 13 really does mean something to them and that we as fans will never question their heart or desire again the rest of the season.

After the Illinois loss the seniors and captains drew a line in the sand and said we will not return to mediocrity like the fan base thinks we will again. Instead, we will learn from our mistakes, draw upon the lessons we learned in the offseason, and fight and play together and believe in each other.

Saturday is a big weekend for IU and it will be a big recruiting weekend as well. Several kids coming in, including more junior prospects and committed players. Very winnable game and look for a little bit more option from KL in red zone opportunities. You won't see it much, but IU wants to keep you guessing down there, so they are throwing out all kinds of formations just keep everyone guessing and off balance.

Also, a shout out to Josiah Sears and his Brian Leonard leap impression. Great impression and great play!