I like Indiana’s interim head football coach as much as the next guy. Bill Lynch seems like a very capable, intelligent guy who cares about his players and about this program. He has been undoubtedly been put into a tough spot and performed admirably. Following Terry Hoeppner is no easy task. Hoeppner in his short time at IU had become something of an iconic figure in Bloomington, a symbol of the program’s new hope and any coach would have a tough time following that. It’s always tough being the guy after the guy and Coach Hep was well on his way to becoming the guy at IU. This program, now more than ever, needs someone with Hep’s charisma and Hep’s enthusiasm and likability and I just don’t think Bill Lynch is that guy.

Frankly, whatever success the Hoosiers are having this year and whatever the result of this season is, bowl berth or not, Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan would do well to remember why student ticket sales for the last three years have been on the rise and why there is a renewed enthusiasm surrounding this program. Indiana football is on the up and up because of Terry Hoeppner. Terry Hoeppner was the face of this program and Terry Hoeppner was a difficult guy not to like, not to follow and not to believe.

I remember sitting at Alumni Hall in Bloomington when Hep held his first ever meeting with the student body at IU, shortly after being brought on to coach the Hoosiers. His excitable was palpable. You could feel that he was thrilled to death to be in that room, be on that campus, and wearing that cream triton on his chest. That passion and that excitement was absolutely contagious. One would be hard pressed to listen to Hep for 15 minutes about his vision for Indiana football and not start believing.

This season, while it is certainly a fitting tribute to the memory of Coach Hep, who passed away in June of this year from brain cancer, it has less to do with Bill Lynch’s leadership and more to do with IU’s schedule, which was ranked as one of the nation’s weakest before the season began. Frankly, with a non-conference schedule that includes three MAC teams and Div. I-AA Indiana State and a conference schedule that didn’t include Ohio State or Michigan, if there was ever a season for the Hoosiers to “Play 13,” it was this one.

At the end of the day, the guy who replaces the guy who filled in for Terry Hoeppner this season needs to be someone who shares Hep’s vision for this program’s future and an equally clear love for it. That guy just isn’t Bill Lynch. Greenspan needs to keep the ball rolling, needs to keep student interest in this program that Hoeppner helped build. He needs someone to do for IU football what Greg Schiano did for Rutgers and Jim Leavitt has done for South Florida and candidly, what Ron Zook is doing across the border in Illinois.

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