IU’s upset of Iowa this past Saturday makes those losses to Connecticut and Southern Illinois - Southern Illinois! - loom a lot larger, doesn’t it? Consider: if IU had had its crap together in those two gimmie games, they’d now be sitting at 6-1 – bowl-eligible for the first time since the Trent Green days.
Regardless, the 4-3 Hoosiers are still, phenomenally enough, listed in ESPN.com’s bowl projections for the first time. College football guru Ivan Maisel has the Hoosiers slated for the Motor City Bowl for a rematch with Central Michigan, while Mark Schlabach projects IU for the Insight Bowl against Oklahoma State.
You could knock me over with a feather right now. I suppose Maisel and Schlabach have started drinking the Kool-Aid that IU coach Terry Hoeppner is selling. (You know something? So am I.)
Foxsports.com is a little more realistic, I’m afraid. The Motor City Bowl pits a MAC squad against the No. 7 Big Ten team – and foxsports.com projects a Central Michigan-Wyoming matchup, as they don’t foresee a seventh Big Ten team (ideally Indiana) to be eligible.
What looms next for the Hoosiers? In spite of the fact that Coach Hep will have them taking the field believing they can win, they'll take their beating against top-ranked Ohio State this weekend. (Ohio State is favored by 31.) Afterwards, there's a schizophrenic Michigan State team that, depending on which Spartan squad shows up, is very beatable, followed by another winnable game against lackluster Minnesota. Another "L" will go on their record against Michigan, and then the Hoosiers close against a Purdue team that hasn't set the world on fire this year.
It's conceivable that IU could go into the season-ender against Purdue at 5-6, needing a W for a bowl berth, or even at 6-5, already bowl-eligible. Hard to imagine after they barely showed up in those two early-season losses to UConn and Southern Illinois (let me reiterate: Southern Illinois!). Still, knowing IU's tendency to lean toward "suck" deflates any of my expectations that were built up after the Iowa win. I'll get excited when I see it.
****
My beloved St. Louis Cardinals gave me a childhood's worth of thrills, but managed only a world title in 1982, followed by heartbreak in 1985 and 1987. They limped home with an 83-79 record this year, and were expected to be put away handily by San Diego in the first round.
Yet, here on October 18, they're one win from the World Series. (Where, if they make it, they will promptly get trounced by Detroit.)
I'll get excited when I see it - I still foresee the ass falling out of their season over the next two nights, and I also expect their bullpen to turn into a pumpkin over same. But I'd love to be wrong.
****
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please note: My policy at Bramble Tamble is to not use real names for private citizens. I hope you will adhere to this policy; hell, it's my only rule here. (But you can use your own real name if you'd like. Cause I'm magnanimous like that.)