No Apology for Faith and Hope - speaktherights.com

Never give up. Keep working at it. Believe in yourself. Have faith you can do better and prove it to yourself.

These are things I say often to those who need to hear it. It is part of what I do.

My affinity for Indiana Hoosier Football has been a strange romance.

I grew up watching The Lee Corso Show on Channel 4. He’d mark up a chalk board with plays and declare “THIS IS HOW IT WORKS!” Coach Corso’s last year at IU was 1982. Having moved from Brownstown to North Harrison in 1979, we lost a great deal of our Indiana-based news influence. The local Louisville televison stations did not carry the Lee Corso Show. In fact, by 1982, the University of Louisville football program was in doubt playing in antiquated old Cardinal Stadium. The announced attendance of a U of L upset over Oklahoma State on September 25, 1982 was 21,202. I doubt that many were there.

A guy name Howard Schnellenberger changed all that and he is the one to thank for Louisville being in the ACC these days, along with the former Pizza Shop they play in.

Geography and media shifts could not sway my affection for the Hoosiers. After Coach Corso left Indiana, Sam Wyche came in for one year. Indiana was 3-8 that season. He bolted to return to the NFL where he did quite well.

Enter Coach Bill Mallory. From 1984 to 1996 Coach Mallory lifted Hoosier football to new heights. Six winning seasons seasons and six bowl games. He was amazing.

Everything changed on Halloween Day 1996. Indiana fired Coach Mallory. The school has had one winning season since. For me it was the day Hoosier Football died. I never wished ill on the players. But I will report to you like I told Bill Mallory’s successor one day when we were standing face to face pulling up the ground, I had enough. No offense, coach, but I am done. Coach Cameron said he understood. Our conversation led to a form of commiseration. We found out we both had Dad’s who were high school coaches that were asked to turn in their keys to the stadium at some point in their careers. It wasn’t enough.

Coaches came and coaches went. We lost one to brain cancer. Coach Hep gave me some hope. He was quite a presence in a room with media types. I liked Bill Lynch. I expected Coach Kevin Wilson would be a disaster. And along comes Coach Tom Allen. He’s the first Hoosier head football coach who is younger than I am. But I still have faith. I still believe he will continue to do good things at Indiana.

I won’t apologize for picking the Hoosiers to beat the Buckeyes this past Saturday. I will say I expected more effort. I will say a no call on a pass interference along the Hoosier sideline deflated some air too. It was butt-ugly all around.