"Hey ref, you just missed one of the 12 plays that made us suck this season!!!"
We all know Bill Lynch isn't a very good coach. Ball State fans know it, IU fans know it. But, now, he's adding to his crappy coaching with horrible situational awareness. Lynch's Hoosiers mustered up victories versus a D-II school, two MAC squads and a fellow BT cellar dwellar in '09. But in spite of the obvious poor play last season, Lynch thinks his team was a mere 12 plays from finishing 8-4 last year.
I for one am a big Bill Lynch fan...I hope he stays at IU for a long time as Glass enjoys his bargain basement salary and try-hard attitude...who gives a damn about victories. But, me thinks his days in the land of awful football might be numbered. This talk reminds me of Colletto in his last season in West Lafayette- Ole Jim used to say Purdue lost because of incorrect alignment by the offensive linemen or, get this, a couple of plays kept them from being successful. Just like in Lynch's case, it had little to do with poor preparation, poor play-calling, lousy recruiting or poor talent assessment.
While I'm good with just allowing Coach Lynch to have the floor and letting his diarrhea of the of the mouth flow, Coach Hope isn't. He's said since he came into West Lafayette that he wasn't hired to make friends in the coaching profession. Rich Rodriguez was the first example of this philosophy, Bill Lynch is now the second.
Lynch said ATM's 87 yard kick return for a touchdown was the play that made the difference versus Purdue in '09...and that it didn't take talent (on McBurse's part) to score 6...instead, he blamed it on a "breakdown" by the fellows wearing crimson helmets. He went further to hint at the idea that IU was in a position to win had it not been for the opening kickoff of the second half.
I think one just might argue that Purdue was merciful as they were up by 21 following that single, talentless, breakdown play...and that was the lead that stuck. Perhaps they will erase all questions in Lynch's mind about any single play that might have made the difference in the '10 game...we'll have to wait and see. At least IU will be at home in 2010...oooh, wait, they won't.
Hope, like me, checked the math and reminded everyone that the ATM runback was merely 7 points in a 21-point loss. He also backed up his guy by saying his speed and talent made the play possible.
You might not like Hope's philosophy about calling other coaches to the carpet and simply letting conflicts sit where they lie...but his players most-definitely love the fact that he perpetually has their collective backs and is willing to stand up for them...I think we'll see that payoff this season. We'll have to watch the Hoosiers and see if they can figure out which 12 plays to eradicate in '10. If not, Lynch might join a long list of IU coaches who coach their last game as the Hoosier head man, in West Lafayette.
(thanks to my pal Chris for pointing this story out to me...)