Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Derrick, you ignorant slut, Mallory's playcalling was for the birds, but he found some guys who could play. He realized that HS recruiting, for all the bullshit out there these days (and 99 percent of all the garbage out there on HS basketball and football players is just that, bullshit), is a crapshoot. He knew that he'd need to find 30 top quality guys who are capable of playing D-I football and who have a chance to improve. They might not have the glossy recruiting brochure, or a highlight tape with glitzy effects and music (which brings up another question: who thinks Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno and Nick Saban are going to be wowed by a highlight tape to the tunes of the latest R&B or rap song?), they might not come from some of the top national HS programs, they might not have all the recruiting gurus (I'm tired of those guys) salivating over them. But they can play, and given a chance to play in some real games, they will improve.
Mallory would be infuriating because of his horrible offensive play-calling. He was a defensive-minded guy. Nothing wrong with that. It did hurt him later on that Alex Smith was chronically injured -- Smith played through most of those injuries but wasn't near 100 percent.
My point is, you need to be aggressive, but you can't always swing for the fences. Randle El was a major coup for Cameron in his first recruiting season. Unfortunately, after the first season or two recruiting, Cameron was not getting the top guys but he was still focused on getting them. Again, let some of those guys go to the Miamis and the Floridas and the Michiagns of the world. It's a crapshoot; they might not be anything, anyway. Cameron's downfall was a shorthanded and undersized defense, and that's why they couldn't get to a bowl game Randle El's junior and senior year.
Give Cameron credit for trying to change the perception of IU football. But he also came in post-Gary Barnett. The Big Ten changed once he came and brought Northwestern to a Rose Bowl. If NU can talk bowl games consistently (and they've been to 4 since the Rose Bowl), why can't Minnesota? Why can't Illinois? Why can't Purdue? Why can't Iowa? Why can't Michigan State? Those 5 programs have a richer tradition and more football-mad alums than IU and they made some good coaching changes (Ron Turner's honeymoon has long been over, but he had a great program 3 years ago).
Rome wasn't built in a day, Derrick. IU football isn't Rome and never has been Rome, but Mallory had at least made them respectable. DiNardo has a good chance to do the same.
