This college season expectations are everywhere

When the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they surely expected the King of England wouldn’t take it well, just as Marty McFly surely expected one wild ride when he climbed into Doc Brown’s DeLorean Motor Car. Expectations are nothing new.


Few know expectations better than college football coaches. Those writers suffering from TCA (Tired Cliché Addiction) might opine “they come with the territory”. Expectations follow college coaches around like the paparazzi and when things go south they hover overhead like vultures spying a trash dump.

Yes it would seem expectations are not unlike Justin Bieber, they’re everywhere, they’re overhyped and they’re often taken way too seriously. Except that is when you are the head football coach at Indiana University. Expectations haven’t been seen in Bloomington since the Cutters expected to lose at Little Five.

Despite notching only one Big Ten win last year, IU still harvested their largest

attendance numbers since 1992. This is due in large part due to AD Fred Glass marketing Memorial Stadium as Indiana’s version of a “one tank trip to Disney World”. Head coach Bill Lynch is competent enough to realize the only successful battle strategy in a war against empty seats is winning football games however.

By returning a duo of talented wide outs who ranked 3rd in yardage last season, Lynch has perhaps his best shot thus far. Returning Senior Ben Chappell averaged the second most passing yards per game in the leauge. Combine this with the NFL storylines generated by Tracy Porter and Roger Saffold and the Hoosier football program appears to be gaining the traction they’ve so longed for.

Unfortunately, this is the worst news Lynch could have gotten. In real expectations, he suddenly finds himself flirting with a fickle lady. No expectations allowed Lynch to quietly reshape the program in his image, real expectations could wind up sealing his fate.

With Purdue’s long strange love affair with Joe Tiller firmly planted in the rearview, the Boiler’s first campaign under Danny Hope brought mixed reviews. After a horrendous start, a surprising upset of Ohio State triggered an avalanche finish that saw the team win four of their last six games. All this of course leads to definite uncertainty.

Was their strong finish more the product of Danny Hope’s coaching, or was it simply Ohio State’s ineffectiveness that struck like a steroid shot to the psyche strong enough to carry the team through six games? This season should go a long way towards answering that question. Safe money knows Purdue fans won’t be nearly as patient as fans in Bloomington have been however.

Hope’s season, and career likely, would benefit from his finding lightning in a bottle early. His best shot comes this weekend. Hope needs to go into Notre Dame Stadium and deck new head coach Brian Kelly in his first game. After that, the Boilers should benefit from not playing Iowa or Penn State during the regular season.

Notre Dame begins a new era under Brian Kelly and, like a bad Lifetime Movie, it’s looking like the one where the husband (aka head coach) learns the hard way that flirting with his co-worker (aka expectations) is dangerous. At a non-football school Kelly devoured expectations like a trucker inhaling a five dollar steak. But after alerting NBC exec’s to shorten commercial breaks because his offense is faster than the German Blitkreig, Kelly may have opened the door for expectations. Somebody should pull him aside and remind him that expectations bought the billboard that helped run Charlie Weis out of town. Either way, fans can expect an interesting season.