Offseason Part 1

Thought I would start the offseason by doing some overviews of the coaches and what we saw from them this year and what we can expect in the future, and also a breakdown of what the players did by position this year and what we can expect going into Spring ball. Add in the signing of a new recruiting class and of course who will still come for officials over the next couple of months, and this blog out to be pretty active this offseason. So I thought I would start with the head coach and the offensive coaches first.

First, Bill Lynch:
If you could use one phrase to describe Coach Lynch, mine would be: "Indiana born, Indiana bred, and Indiana until the day he dies". Coach Lynch has been in, and around football in the state of Indiana since he was a player at Chatard HS in Indianapolis in the early 70's. He has been the HC at Butler University, Ball State, DePauw, and now Indiana. He served as the Offensive Coordinator at Ball State, and as QB coach at IU under Bill Mallory. He has an overall HC record of 88 wins and 73 losses with 3 ties. He also was a football and basketball player at Butler University and he was inducted into the Butler Hall of Fame in 2000. He was a litte all american at QB while at Butler as well.

Because of his extensive background of coaching in the state of Indiana, it should be no surprise to anyone that he really has a strong foothold with many, many coaches and programs around the state. Even the President of the Indiana coaches association came out and said some very encouraging things about the association's feelings about Lynch becoming the head man at IU. This should only help cement IU as a contender from many of the top players that the state of Indiana produces, year in, year out.

Coach Lynch is a competitor, and he doesn't back down from anyone. He's certainly a player's/coach, though that should not be misinterpreted as someone that let's the players run the show. He's a lot like Coach Hep, in that he will be a father figure to you. He believes in family and he believes that the classroom should come first, because you are a student, then an athlete. He really tries to make the team just a big family, and I think we all saw that this season, as this team may very well be the closest knit team that I've ever heard of. Of course, all that is good, but in terms of x's and o's, what should we expect from Coach Lynch in the future.

One thing is clear, no one will outwork Bill Lynch. He's a tireless worker who will have his teams concentrate on the foundamentals and doing the little things that make teams successful. He will continue to run the spread at IU and it appears next season that the IU offense will run a lot of zone spread, which really utilizes the QB to make the decision of whether to run or pass, based on what the defense is presenting to you at the line of scrimmage. On defense, he prefers a 4-3 with heavy pursuit to the ball. He also has the DBs playing a deeper zone, which keeps you from being beat over the top. It has a similiar feel of the cover 2, but it's still an attacking/pressuring defense.

Overall, Coach Lynch is a solid HC that lets his assistant teach and coach, but will be very hands on with the players. He will insist on grades first, football second with a heavy emphasis on fundamentals and attacking offense and defense. IU fans should expect high scoring games, solid recruiting, and the continuance of bowl games for the IU program over the next several seasons. Coach Lynch is a solid choice to continue to build this program upward and outward.

Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach Matt Canada:
Coach Canada is really an up and coming HC in the making. A former QB at Northern Illinois, he started his coaching career at Northern Illinois, where he spent 6 seasons as RB coach, QB coach, and OC. At IU, he's been QB coach and now has added OC to his responsibilities. Matt's offenses have really been known for 2 things, good QB play and lots of points. At Northern Illinois, his only season at OC saw them up reach the Top 12 in the National Polls as well as #10 in the BCS. Northern Illinois averaged 32 pts/game that season and the QBs enjoyed a rating of 140, which is extremely high. Once Coach Hep came to IU, he immediately tapped Matt to be his QB coach.

In 2004, he came to IU and Matt LoVecchio enjoyed an unbelievable season. IU went from 11th in the Big 10 in passing effeciency to 5th, and from 10th in scoring to 4th. Some of it had to do with a scheme change, but a lot of it was coaching as well. In 2005, IU QBs threw for a school record 24 TD passes. Things have continued to climb forward in 2006 and in 2007, Matt was named the OC at IU which put him in charge of calling plays. While 2007 had it's down moments, IU achieved more wins that it has had since 1993.

Matt is also a very good recruiter and has been working in and around the state of Florida for a couple of years, as well as being one of the main points of contact for any QB that IU is recruiting. Matt was intrumental in IU landing Adam Follet and he's the main guy in the continued recruitment of Ohrian Johnson from Gulfport, FL, and he was in attendance yesterday watching Darius Willis in the Under Armor All Star game. Already, he has IU in the mix for 2009 prospects Morgan Newton and Jordan Luallen.

Many believe that Matt could be the next HC at IU, but for now, he's a young, and up and coming offensive coach that continues to see his teams put up large numbers on offense and his QBs be efficient with the ball. This coming season will be KL's 3rd year under Matt and he's improved every season. Though KL had some fumbling and interception issues toward the end of the season, I believe he and Matt will get those issues worked out and KL will be a very dynamic player that will lead the team back to another bowl game next season.

Assistant HC/Running Back Coach/Special Teams Co-Coordinator Gerald Brown
The elder stateman of the assistant coaches, Gerald has become a very hot name for offensive coordinator positions at other BCS schools. Tennessee has tossed his name around this season, and as his RBs and players continue to blossom at IU, I think it's going to be harder and harder to keep him here. His brother, Kippy Brown, is the new OC for the Detroit Lions of the NFL.

Gerald Brown was the recruiting coordinator for the state of Texas up until last season, when he asked Coach Hep if he could switch over to Tennessee and the Northern part of Georiga. Since the switch, he was cemented IU into the minds of several top players in the state of Tennessee and especially the City of Memphis. This state produces a lot of underrated talent, and this season, IU landed one of the biggest sleepers that I've seen in sometime in Charles Love III from Memphis. I fully expect IU to continue to tap into the state of Tennessee because of Coach brown for years to come. Though I don't have a list, I've heard that IU is on some very highly ranked kids from that state, which is unusual for a non SEC school to get this involved with recruits.

At IU, RBs have averaged, well, until this season, 1,550 yards per season. This season, saw that change, and will be a point of emphasis for the coaches in the spring time. Darius Willis will help, but IU must improve it's OL play in the running game to get the RBs more time.

Offensive Line Coach/Running Game Coordinator Bobby Johnson
Bobby Johnson is quickly becoming on of the best OL coaches in the entire country. His summer camp has attracted huge names to IU over the past couple of years, and this season that camp was instrumental in IU landing as many OL prospects as they did. Coach Johnson came to IU with Coach Hep from Miami of Ohio and he's had several former players make it to the NFL.

This offseason may bring coach Johnson's biggest challenge yet, as he must replace 3 starters on the OL and figure out someway to bring the running game into a consistant attack for this offense. It still amazes me that IU could win the amount of games they did win and put up the offensive numbers that they did, without much of a running game. Like Coach Brown, Coach Johnson will be working a lot this off season with the running game. However, IU is very solid here with Coach Johnson and we should continue to see the new recruits and the 7 blocks of Limestone improve every year.

Wide Receivers Coach Billy Lynch Jr.
Younger Coach Lynch is another of the group of young assistants that IU has on its coaching roster. Another coach that came from Miami of Ohio, he is also a tireless recruiter that is responsible for luring almost 1/2 of last year's class and many from this year's verbals as well. Lynch jr. concentrates in the Midwest and in the state of Indiana. He was present yesterday, along with coach Yeager at the Junior Combine at the Army All Star game, and already has IU in the running for several kids in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois for 2009. Last season, IU's receivers totaled over 2,600 receiving yards and that was good for 4th in school history. This season, again, the WRs posted 2600 receiving yards and this year, Billy has tutored James Hardy into a probable first round draft choice.

While the off season will bring in a new crop of WRs and a huge challenge to find replacements for Hardy, and probably Andrew Means, IU has a strong, young group of WR that are not only talented but bring a lot of athleticism to the table. Coach Lynch Jr. will have a lot to work with this spring and fall, and it will be fun to watch all of these kids develop.

Tight Ends Coach Kyle Conner
Yes, IU does have a TE coach and they do have TEs on the roster. This season, the TEs actually caught 5 passes and they were mainly used as blockers on the right side of the Offensive Line. Kyle was at IU in 2006 as the Offensive Quality Control coach, but move to TE coach for this season. He was instrumental in developing Blake Powers from QB to TE during the offseason and Spring. In fact, Blake remarked that Kyle was great in teaching him what he needed to know so quickly. However, Blake and the staff felt it best that he return to QB after the season started to get more experience behind Lewis.

This offseason he's been responsible for the development of Max Dedmond. With only 3 scholarship TEs on the roster, it appears that IU only views the TE as a position of necessity, not necessarily a position of need. I also expect Dedmond to come in and lead block at times at Full Back. Kyle hasn't really recruited all the much until this season. Kyle is another of the deep group of young assistants that IU has, and will only continue to get better with time.

Well, next time, I'll talk about the Defensive Coaches, as well as the Harold Mauro, the Director of FBall Operations at IU.

God Bless!