Linebackers, Greenspan, Who's hot, and Bailey's departure:

Well, today has certainly been eventful on the bball side, and yet the fball side of Indiana University continues on in their preparations of learning new schemes and adapting to new players due to injuries. First let's look at the LBs and see where we are at with these kids.

Going into last season, IU had experience in starters MLB in Adam McClurg, an all-heart, tough guy but just didn't give you the athleticism at the position that it really needed. He played well his senior season and performed extremely well against Purdue. His experience and leadership will be missed, but those behind him offer his strength with a lot more athletic skills and quickness. At OLBs last season, you had Johnson and Patterson, again 2 guys that had experience, but were learning to harness their athleticism into their positions. While Patterson was the 2nd leading tackler on the team last season, I felt that Johnson underachieved and really needs to step it up this season. He's uber athletic, but he's a thinker instead of a reactor, and that's not good for an OLB with low 4.6 speed. IU brought in 4 LBs last season and all redshirted, got bigger and stronger, and appear to have kept their speed and athleticism, which is always the key. All appear to be smart kids that will push for field time this season.


Leon Beckum 5'10" 210 OLB walk-on from Bloomington, IN; RS FR
Leon redshirted last season

Justin Carrington 6' 220 OLB from Leesburg, VA; RS Junior
When you are buried on the depth chart as a 215 pound or so RB, what do you do, well Justin switched to OLB, and though he's only been at the position right at a year, he's climbed to 2nd team, started one game last season, and performed way better than expected. He saw action in every game last season and contributed 37 tackles with 2 more tackles for loss. He's very quick and once he diagnoses what is going on, he's very quick to the ball, actually, he's probably the quickest in that department on the team. Being a RB helps him a lot in that aspect, as he understands how to read OL guys and decipher where the play is going. His one biggest problem, understandably, is diagnosing the play. He needs to be more reactive, but that will come with experience. Also, he's learning coverages. He understands routes from a RB prospective, but he's learning to do everything backwards. Once he retrains his mind to do that, he's going to be a very good player. Also, he was very good on the coverage teams last season, and I expect that to continue into this season as well.

Dane Conwell 6' 230 OLB from Uper St. Clair, PA; RS FR
Dane came to IU last season and redshirted. He came in at 220, so he's put on about 1o pounds of muscle and has performed pretty well so far this spring. He's probably 3rd team right now, but he's hitting hard and learning. He's part of the 4 LBs that were brought in last year that the coaches are really excited about. This season, I expect we'll see Dane on kick and punt coverage teams and mop up time, but don't fret, this kid is going to produce down the road for us.

Darius Johnson 6' 245 OLB from Highland Park, MI; RS FR
Darius came to IU last season and redshirted and boy did he put on the muscle. When he reported last August, he was 220 pounds, so he had great year in the weight room. Darius was a very decorated RB in HS and some thought maybe that would be his college position, but his 4.6 speed hurts him as a Big Ten RB, so now he's switched to OLB and he's already earning a big reputation in early spring ball as a collider. In other words, he'll meet you in the hole and you go backwards, not him. Will be interesting to see what happens when he and Darius Willis meet each other on an off tackle run come fall practice. You may be able to hear the collison in Elletsville. At this point, Darius is 2nd team, backing up Will Patterson at strong side LB.

Geno Johnson 6'2" 230 OLB from Bartow, FL; Senior
An uber-athletic OLB that came to IU as a 210 athelete that was forced to the field to learn on the fly and he's done fairly well, but hopefully, as a Senior, he'll step up his game, as well as provide the leadership for these young guys. He started all 13 games last season and provided 58 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 1 INT, and 1 pass breakup. Pretty decent numbers, but with his speed (low end 4.6) those numbers have to come up. He's getting pushed a lot by Carrington and even Johnson right now, so that's a very good thing. If he wants to keep his starting spot, he'll need to continue to get better.

Jaime Lukaszewski 5'9" 200 OLB from Mishawaka, IN; RS Junior walk-on
Even Jaime put weight on this off season, as last year he was listed at 185. Jamie got into 1 game last season (Indiana State) but didn't record a tackle.

Matt Mayberry 6'2" 235 MLB from Darien, IL; RS Junior
Matt was at 222 pounds last season so he's added some muscle, which shouldn't be suprising, since Bryan Payton's blog says he's a "weight room junkie". Matt is a lot quicker than McClurg and now that he's put the muscle on, he should be able to fly around to the ball a little more, as well as shed blockers to get in there and make the tackle. Also, with more beef in front of him (Brown and Boyd or Mack), this should engulf more OL, to let Matt use that quickness too. Matt will be our starter at MLB this season. Last season, Matt produced 42 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and 1 pass breakup.

Brandon McGee 6'1" 235 MLB from Jeffersonville, IN; RS TR walk-on
Brandon walked on after a very good career at Jeffersonville HS where he recorded 60 tackles and 8 INTS his senior season.

William Patterson 6'1" 235 OLB from Indianapolis, IN; RS Junior
Will has been a starter since his freshman season. He settled in pretty well at strong side LB and produced 104 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 1 INT, 3 pass break ups, 3 fumbles caused, and 3 fumbles recovered. Yeoman's work for him and his experience and leadership will be counted greatly this season, but doesn't mean he won't have to work. He, like Johnson, is getting pushed by our youngins'!. I expect Will to be name pre-season first or second team big ten and a lot will be expected of him this season.

Issac Price 6'2" 250 MLB from Detroit, MI; RS Senior
Issac came to btown, along with James Bailey as a 3-star WR, yet he chose Indiana mainly because they gave him the opportunity to play defense. He came in at 6'1" 210, and looking back, the decision to switch to defense was probably a mistake. He's bounced between LB and DE and now has settled in at MLB. He's fairly quick, but he's really behind the 8-ball experience wise and injuries continue to hurt his development. Last season he was only able to play in 6 games, but did produce 4 tackles on special teams. He'll be looked upon to again be a special teams guy this season.

Ian Reeves 6' 245 OLB from Ferndale, MI; RS FR
Like Johnson, Reeves came to IU at 220 and yet has managed to put on 25 pounds of muscle and he's looking like another of the quad youngsters at LB that is going to push to see the field this season in more than just special teams role. He's battling for 2nd/3rd teamer right now with Johnson and Carrington, and it's a very spirited battle. Ian seems to have pretty good field awareness as he's picking off passes some this spring and he had a knack for that on the scout team last season as well.

Tyler Replogle 6'2" 235 MLB from Centerville, OH; Sophmore
When Tyler came to IU last fall, it was pretty obvious he was going to play as a true frosh and until he tore his ACL in the middle of the season, Tyler really was pushing for more than special teams field time. Now, the injury has done 2 things: first, he's moved back to MLB from the outside and will back up Matt Mayberry this season, and second, it's stunted his development a little bit. But this kid is a beast. A true Ohio born, bred, tough as nails MLB that will produce at IU and is going to be awful hard to keep off the field once he gets that knee closer to 100%. He's limited to basically cardio right now, but he's itchin' to get back out there and buy the end of the season, I expect him to really be pushing Matt.

Jerry Williams 5'9" 230 OLB from Merrellville, IN; RS Senior walk-on
After spending 4 years at safety for the Hoosiers, Jerry has put on 10 pounds and was moved to OLB for depth purposes. Jerry played in 12 games last season and recorded 9 tackles exclusively on special teams.

Coming this fall:
Chad Sherer 6' 200 OLB from Cicero, IN, will redshirt due to knee injury suffered back in December playing basketball and he will not be 100% by August.

Rick Greenspan has certainly not made many friends on the message boards lately, but I wanted to take a little closer look at this guy, not to defend him, but to take just a few paragraphs to look into what he's done while he's been here and the hires he's made. Since he was hired in September of 2004, he's had a very interesting tenure at IU.

Rick came to IU from West Point and was known for generating profit margins and building facilities. He has shown that he tends to like coaches that are a little older with experience, instead of up and comers, which has drawn both criticism and praise from his peers and fans. Here are some highlights of what he's done so far in about 3.5 years at IU where he oversees 24 sports programs:

1. Captured 6 individual or team national titles
2. IU has ranked 3rd in the league in academic all-league selections since his arrival
3. The football program has seen a 39% increase in home attendance, 46% increase in season ticket sales, and 110% increase in season ticket sales for students. This alone is a major accomplishment for anyone.
4. Hired Coaches: Football: Terry Heoppner (probably the best of his hires so far) and Bill Lynch; Men's bball: Kelvin Sampson and Tom Crean (as of tomorrow anyway vbg!); Women's bball: Felisha Legette-Jack; and Baseball Tracy Smith (probably his second best hire, though IU baseball isn't followed that closely)
5. Saw an 8.3% increase in Varsity Club annual giving and a record 11.5 million dollars in gifts and pledges to the Endowment Fund.
6. Overseen the installation of 2 million dollar scoreboard/video board, new field hockey field in 2006, and new, banked indoor track, as well as the new Athletic's Center currently under construction.
7. He's also primarily respossible for getting "money donors" involved in the 2 bball hires and getting them to donate planes and other means of transportation, as well as people ponying up money for buyouts.

When Rick arrived, IU's athletic department was broken both financially and down trodden by a poor football program, an underachieving basketball program, and no real facility upgrades to speak of. One thing people will never be able to criticize Rick for, at least fairly, is that he's come in and gotten his hands dirty and worked to improve the athletic department from top to bottom and he's done that. Personally, I've met the guy, and he's personable from what I've seen of him and he really does always seem to have the student-athletes interest at the forefront. And while the Kelvin Samspon hire was NOT a good move, overall, he's gotten things done at IU so far in his short tenure. He's not a fan favorite, because he's a guy that tends to go for experience and enthusiam, over young and flashy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but for Rick's sake, I hope Tom Crean pans out, because if for some reason he doesn't, Rick will be shown the door.

Rick certainly has injected a lot of time and effort in the football side of things and for us football fans, that's enough to hope he sticks around, it really is one reason he was hired as well. Rick was also a guy that came in and really got the Big Ten Network to become a reality. It was discussed for years, but when Rick got involved, many people associated with the deal credited him for really being the final piece of the puzzle. IU, as well as all the conference schools, are going to greatly benefit from this historic venture.

So, who's hot so far this spring? I know we are only a few days into spring practice, but I'm going to give some kids some kudos here. This is certainly just my opinion based on what I've heard and witnessed so far.

First, Ben Chappell has really impressed me. It's too bad the only memory fans have of him so far is that picked off pass at Northwestern, but for anyone that watches this kid, after a couple of practices, I think you will really like him. He's a passer, not a runner. He's accurate, and what I really like about him is he's a technician QB, and by that I mean, he gets his footwork right, he's on his toes (ala Peyton Manning), does his mechanics right and then really gets some zip on the ball. I like his passes and I like the rappaport he's developing already with Ray Fisher. That's going to be a very good combo for us in the future.

Next, as a group, the LBs are really impressing me, especially the 3 RS FR. This group has really dedicated themselves to improving in the weightroom, as well as on the field and it's paying off already.

Another person that has impressed me is Chris Hagerup. For a guy that was a Punter all season, he's shown me some things early. While I don't think he'll unseat Ben, he's a kid that I'd like to stay at QB, as well as be the main punter. Also, you are going to witness a much more relaxed punter this season, than what you saw of him in fall ball. Chris is also a born leader, and you can see that though he's young (RS FR), he's going to develop into a real leader of the entire program in a year or two. I know the coaches, especially Coach Canada have really been impressed with him so far this spring.

I'm also impressed with the DL, and I'm going to predict that the DL will be even deeper than last season, especially at DT and be able to run some real bigguns in there. Also, Emile Bass was back at DT today, so I don't know if the OL experiment is over, but for today he was back at DT and will only help the rotation if this is permanet, which I'm going to assume it is. I've also enjoyed watching Boyd and Fred Jones. These 2 RS FR are going to be MAJOR contributors to our program in a year or so and maybe even this season for Boyd.

Donnell Jones is a kid that I really paid a lot of attention to today as well and I liked what I saw. he's really quick and he's pretty well built. He looks about Porter's height from what I remember, but he's much thicker and he's not afraid to stick his nose in there. Right now, he's the 3rd corner and I'll be interested to see what he does more and more when the turn the lights on.

I will have to say that the OL is a patch work bunch of projected starters, 2nd and 3rd teamers, but they haven't done badly either. Of course, I really like Coach Johnson and feel he could get me ready to play the OL in a week if had to. VBG! I will say also that Ziegler is one big guy, and I thought he looked pretty good at RT from what I saw. For such a big guy, his feet are probably the best on the team, he's nimble, if that's possible for a guy that probably weights 340.

From what I've heard there's been a lot of kids in for the practices so far and many more expected in over the next couple of weeks as well. Nothing appears to be coming down the line for a committment, but the real hot name right now is Edward Wright-Baker a 6'2" 200 QB from Jeffersonville, IN. This kid is a real sleeper, but the staff absolutely loves him and believes his ceiling is higher than Newton's and Luallen's. At this point, IU appears to be heavily involved with 6 QBs that I know of and they really would like to take 2 for the upcoming class. Baker is a true runner/passer. He's been a sleeper but last season he really came into his own and put up 1,467 yards rushing and 15 TDs and 1,333 passing yards and another 18 TDs. He also had 5 tackles and an INT on defense. He's a kid I can see IU really putting at the top of their wish list, especially if Newton and Luallen go elsewhere.

A couple of other quick notes:

James Bailey is transferring and going to a D 1-AA program. Bailey had pretty much been relagated to kickoff return duty and spot time at WR, so look for him to end up in a pass-happy program somewhere near Michigan.

With Bailey's ship open, it's conceivable that we could see another committ for this class, but nothing really concrete to point to anyone. I had an email about a possible Florida LB commit, but haven't found anyone that could confirm that. I know the staff was following a couple of kids down there that were waiting on test scores, so it's always a possibility, but with the plethora of the HS class instate next season, smart money says they will give the opening to a deserving walk on for a year and then try and bring in an early enrollee next season.

Nothing much on the KL situation as opinions vary widely on what is going to happen. Coach Lynch is being very "PC" about it all to the media, but the coaches were pretty disappointed in what took place with him over spring break. I'm really beginning to question whether the kid really "gets it" or not. We'll see and I hope I'm wrong, but after witnessing Chappell first hand, if KL doesn't come back, IU will be okay, and I really believe that.

Well, next time, we'll take a look at the Corners and Safeties for this season as well as update anything new on the recruiting front and what's up in spring ball.

Take care, be safe, and God Bless all of you!!