The reckoning for Indiana University football began Sunday morning.
Coach Tom Allen announced offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan is history. And Allen said he was shaving $200,000 off of his own contract each year from 2022 to 2025 to fund the change.
After the increasing paralysis in the Hoosiers’ offensive production as the team stumbled to a 2-10 record for 2021 while going winless in the Big Ten — injuries or not — someone was going to take the fall and Sheridan got the axe. Allen said, in part, “We are in need of a reset on the offensive side of the ball.”
Most vividly on “O” but on “D,” too.
“We did not meet the standard that I expect from our football program, and that starts with me,” Allen said. “This season was not acceptable, and we will work to address it.”
In nine programs out of 10, after a season like the one IU endured, the head coach would be blamed and fired. Luckily for Allen, he had banked some goodwill during last year’s 6-2 season that saw the Hoosiers rise into the top 10 nationally for a time.
That’s what made this such a shocking, freefall performance. Riding that wave, these Hoosiers began the season ranked in the top 20. Coming off of the best season in a half-century, Hoosier fans were as upbeat and optimistic as Allen, whose outlook in those realms is hard to match. However, reality was brutal.
The Nov. 27 Old Oaken Bucket game 44-7 loss to Purdue was the finale but was not so different from many other lowlights. The campaign ended with an eight-game losing streak, but it also began with a bruising defeat. This year, the Hoosiers lost 34-6 to Iowa, 24-0 to Penn State, 54-7 to Ohio State, 29-7 to Michigan and 38-3 to Rutgers. In six games, IU did not score more than one touchdown.
Of course, the quarterback soap opera contributed mightily to the disaster. Injuries knocked out the top two throwers, and inexperience cost the third-stringer, so by season’s end, IU was counting on its fourth-string QB. Tough circumstances. Next, the top running back went down for the year.
Then the defense began fraying around the edges, not matching its 2020 showing, and coping with its own injury woes.
By the last couple weeks of November, Allen was beginning his postgame press conferences by calling his team’s look “unacceptable.” He said he had tried to ingrain a standard of play and expectations, and IU was not living up to it.
In theory, Michael Penix Jr., Jack Tuttle, Donaven McCulley and Grant Gremel, who all started games at quarterback, can return for 2022. Penix has been the best of the bunch but repeatedly plagued by injuries.
Under the more liberalized NCAA transfer rules, any or all of them could transfer somewhere else if he feels he has a better chance to play. And Allen has to review each of their results and decide if one of them has the goods to be the main man. Heck, the way college football works these days, one of them is bound to transfer out, and an all-star from somewhere else could parachute in.
Allen and his staff must recruit newcomers with unprecedented intensity. The rash of injuries exposed a lack of depth, though it’s not certain what team could absorb some of these hits. If you are a talented running back, it might be a great time to seek out IU. You might walk right into the starting lineup.
Allen believed he had already nurtured the Hoosiers into a team others would fear as a league championship contender, but as the team sunk deeper into quicksand, there became more urgency to review, revamp, recruit, rebuild.
After the 2021 debacle, Allen must start over, instill the spirit, hunger and determination a Big Ten football team must exhibit.
Under the NCAA pandemic eligibility rules, many Hoosiers will be able to play an extra year. Their return, perhaps bearing anger from this year’s humiliations, may be valuable. Still, hitting the refresh button on the recruiting trail — for freshmen and transfers — is probably the most important element so the Hoosiers can flip things around in a hurry.