Right or Wrong: Let us give thanks

First appeared on November 25, 2015
in The Lebanon Reporter

Let us give thanks. Thanks to the Pilgrims with their drab frock coats and blunderbusses. Thanks to the natives who showed this desperate band of immigrants the tricks they would need to survive a brutal winter. Things like how to grow corn and track deer and the best places to find cheap gas and cigarettes.

And let us not forget the turkeys. A bird so good we eat him only once a year. Poor souls, who will, by the millions, give themselves up for us to celebrate the legendary triumphs of our ancestors. So how can it be that all this pomp and circumstance could be based on one big lie?
How could it be everything you were taught as kid is wrong? Historical truths that seemed the cornerstones of a nation suddenly dismissed. George Washington cutting down his cherry tree and Teddy Roosevelt inventing the Teddy Bear or the fact Donald Trump’s hair is real.

And so historians, who apparently have nothing better to do than sit around trying to prove other historians wrong, tell us the Pilgrims, forever the stalwarts of purity and righteousness, were not all devout Christians. They weren’t all nice to the natives and, at least when it came to their wardrobe, they didn’t all favor fifty different shades of gray.

They spoke of a government of, for and by the people and yet early on theirs was dominated by a religious elite. There were no cranberries, sweet potatoes or pumpkin pie at the first Thanksgiving, which leads most 7 year olds to wonder why you just can’t order a pizza.

For you this means it’s all been for nothing. Thirty plus years of bad football and choking down dry turkey as your Uncle Randy recounts the free throws he made to win that sectional game, all this over the bass beat of your father complaining about gas prices. And for what? For what historians would have us believe is a fake holiday?

So we’re left to decide for ourselves what we accept as truth and what we question. And at 5-6, can we really believe in the Indiana Hoosiers? A team that could easily boast wins over ranked opponents in Michigan, Iowa and Ohio State and yet had dropped 6 straight before downing Maryland last week.

A team one win away from strapping on their bowling shoes. And there, at the bottom of the schedule, a familiar foe awaits. Instead of finding two teams limping into an Oaken Bucket game hoping only to finish their seasons on a high note, a victory Saturday sends Indiana to their first bowl since George W. Bush was the Commander in Chief of Strategery. Meanwhile, Purdue arrives at 2-9 trying to jab a needle the size of a javelin into Kevin Wilson’s balloon.

These are not uncharted waters for the Hoosiers. This is not a New World. Still, can up really be up and down truly down? Was the Revolutionary War really fought against the British? Or could it have been three-foot tall aliens who just happened to fight using conventional European military tactics? These are the questions we’re forced to ask ourselves when historians tell us its entirely possible Lincoln never eclipsed 5’11, using blocks of wood in his boots instead to compensate for rabid insecurities.

So on this Thanksgiving, get out there and be the master of your own destiny. Believe in the unlikely, embrace the magic of your childhood or accept the so called conventional wisdom. Either way, it’s still a free country and nobody can dispute that. In the meantime just be careful believing in the Indiana Hoosiers because, revisionist history or not, they’ve let us down one too many times before.


© 2015 Eric Walker Williams

Now that they're awake, Hoosier fans want more

First appeared on September 24, 2014
in The Lebanon Reporter

The state of football in Bloomington and West Lafayette is exceptionally unclear. And by “exceptionally unclear” here we mean something on the level of the leader of a world power admitting to his constituency that he doesn’t have a plan for one of the largest threats currently facing the world.

And while ISIS has been busy conquering land in the Middle East few cared about or lived on anyway, Darrell Hazell and Kevin Wilson seemed to be in a footrace for the unemployment line. All this changed Saturday when Wilson’s Hoosiers upset nationally ranked Missouri on the road. One win a job doesn’t save, but it does buy him a heck of a lot more rope and propels Hazel into a clear lead. And while it’s a race Darrell Hazel doesn’t want to win, at this point he seems willing and able to take a win wherever he can find it.

The Hoosiers should be 3-0. Instead a disappointing loss at Bowling Green sends them into Big Ten play with a 2-1 record. And while they won’t play Wisconsin this year (this is the point in the column where Badger fans will pause to lament waiting another year for their chance to set an NCAA single game rushing record), the Big Ten schedule won’t be easy either.

Still Indiana will play two programs, Ohio State and Michigan, which appear to be in full-fledged free-fall mode. Throw in North Texas and Hazell’s Boilermakers and what you have is a group that seems to offer three winnable games for the Hoosiers. Especially if their defense is going to consistently perform at the level they reached Saturday.

And while Kevin Wilson seems to have several arrows aligned, there still remains little to no buzz surrounding his program. This likely speaks more to the coach than his football team. In the 21st century a head coach, especially one daring enough to wade into college athletics, needs to be have an enormous business card.

They’re expected to have more than just a great mind for the game. They need to be charismatic masters of time management. They need to be innovative and creative, well schooled in their discipline as well as polished speakers and, in what few hours are left in a day, attempt to be a father figure to dozens of young men. They are one part expert in their sport, three parts used car salesman.

By setting 22 school records in three short years, Kevin Wilson has proven himself an offensive genius, but he falls well short of the mark in salesmanship (see asking the band to stop playing during offensive possessions). He rode the wave any coaching change creates, but has done little to endear himself to Hoosier fans since. Of course, winning changes everything; especially when nationally ranked teams are involved.

Still, this is Wilson’s first major win in three years which is why Hoosier fans still can’t be certain what they have. The elephant in the room has long been defining success for football in Bloomington. Wilson’s teams have been ultra-competitive with the best in the conference (the lone, glaring exception being Wisconsin), but they’ve also looked disconnected and disinterested against teams they should beat by 30.

In the end, all Saturday likely did was stir drowsy Indiana fans from their slumber. And now that they’re awake, they’re left to decide if posting 500 yards and 6 touchdowns in a three point loss is enough to keep them coming back. Or do they long for more? And if it’s more they want, is Kevin Wilson the man for the job?

© 2014 Eric Walker Williams

Hello Indiana, this is Football

First appeared on October 7th, 2013
in The Lebanon Reporter

Historically speaking Indiana and football are two words that have shared an awkward moment when finding themselves in the same sentence, not unlike ‘extra large and diet coke’ or ‘functional and government’.

They were those two kids at the middle school dance lingering in opposite corners, one fighting to hide braces, the other using shadows to cure a bad case of acne, so many having tried before to bring them together only to fail in a miserable, flaming ball of disappointment and loss. Lots of losses.

But that has changed. Saturday was more than just a victory over Penn State for the Indiana Hoosiers. It was more than just their first win in 17 tries against the Nittany Lions. Saturday was different. Saturday was a glimmer of hope for Hoosier nation, a shot in the arm for Kevin Wilson’s program and potential vindication for IU athletic director Fred Glass.

Aside from taping a million dollars under one of Memorial Stadium’s 52,000 seats, Glass has done nearly everything in his power to get people to come to The Rock. This includes a multi-million dollar North End Zone renovation, erecting the largest flagpole in college athletics, adding a new scoreboard, developing a play area for the kids and now, apparently, fielding a defense capable of making the stops necessary to beat quality Big Ten opponents.

But just like that church that tries to get younger by offering a full coffee bar, free donuts, sermons best timed with a stopwatch, digital projectors and live music featuring electric guitars, drum machine and confusing front man who seems more interested in finding a captive audience than flirting with real faith, people initially attend out of curiosity. It’s real belief that brings them back every time.

Before Saturday real belief in Indiana Football simply didn’t exist. While Glass’ hiring of former Oklahoma Offensive Coordinator Kevin Wilson was seen as a coup at the time, two years of continued frustration saw Wilson entering the third year of his contract as an unproven commodity.

Labeled a mad scientist by some for his offensive innovation, the fact alone Wilson left a prominent position with one of the perennial powers in college football to take the Indiana job is reason enough to consider him mad. For, before Wilson’s arrival, Indiana had been a place where good coaches went to die.

But Saturday the world got a glimpse of what Wilson imagined his Hoosiers could be. Potent on offense, stout on defense. And while Penn State may be a current shell of its former self, they remain a quality Big Ten opponent and another win in Indiana’s quest to return to a bowl.

Coming into Saturday, Indiana’s 2-2 start had left many fans fuzzy and disillusioned, uncertain that recognizable progress was being made. To quote former Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green, it seemed as though the Hoosiers “are who we thought they were!”, a high powered offense and lackluster defense; the Loyola Marymount of Football.

But Saturday was different. Saturday was the first win over Penn State in school history. After coming up short against Navy and Missouri, Indiana found what they needed most; a victory over somebody they weren’t supposed to beat.

Moving forward, Doug Mallory and the Hoosier Defense appear destined to determine Indiana’s bowling fate. Wilson’s offense can score points against anybody in the country but the hope of playing 13 lies with the defense. And, at least for one afternoon, the defense gave hope to Hoosier Nation that football was more than a giant flagpole, million dollar scoreboard and endless activities for the kids.


© 2013 Eric Walker Williams