Hoosier Mailbag: March 8, 2014

The Indiana Athletic Department needs to figure out a way to get students to make it into Memorial Stadium

Written By Sammy Jacobs (@sammyj108)

Welcome back to the Hoosier Mailbag.  Spring football is finally upon us and hopefully that will bring sunshine and warmer weather.  Let’s get to this week’s questions

1. Tom Z. From Twitter- Why is everything I read thinking that Roberson is going to be the starting QB next year?-

Tre Roberson left a big impression on fans and the coaching staff with his performance in the Bucket Game last year

Tom great question, the easy answer is that Tre Roberson left a monster impression on fans in the last game versus Purdue, while Nate Sudfeld struggled down the stretch.  The competition is going to be wide open this spring though and could end up running into fall camp again.  I do believe Kevin Wilson will once again go with the two-quarterback system.

2. Lincoln, From Twitter-I look forward to the continued on field improvement, but can we drop the circus during the game (i.e. Homerun Derby, Song Votes etc.)-

Athletic Director Fred Glass sports the candy striped jacket at the 2013 Spring Game

Lincoln, personally I agree with you 100%, some of the “Game Day Experiences” are growing a little tired on people, but Fred Glass has clearly made his target audience clear.  That target is the family or the younger fan.  He created Knothole Park, added a fireworks show and made IU Football more kid friendly.  Is this the best way to fill Memorial Stadium on Saturdays? It sure doesn’t seem so, but I do understand the logic in his thinking.  Giving a 7-year old a great experience will hopefully get the child to ask his parents to take them to more games, but that is not the demographic that IU needs to appeal to.  The demographic that should be at the top of Glass’s list are the students.  Indiana has about 40,000 undergraduate students and yet they struggle mightily to fill up their allotment of tickets.  Sure the home run derby was “cool” five years ago when Wii was still a hot commodity, but it is time to change things up a bit.  The same goes for the text voting for songs.  It was awesome when it first came along, but has grown tired the last couple of years, especially when it is the same songs every week.  If you have any ideas how to improve your game day experiences I would email the IU Athletic Department with your suggestions.  Even if you change these things, the only thing that will fill Memorial Stadium is putting out a winning team.

3. Herbie, Cornfield, USA- With a new D-Coordinator can we realistically expect the O to put up enough points to cover the D that will have growing pains?-

Herbie, the defense cannot get much worse than it has been the last three seasons, so I don’t think growing pains will be that much of an issue.  However, the offense will have some new faces and may experience more of those growing pains.  The Hoosiers offense is not going to just drop of the map though.  The Hoosiers early schedule is way easier to open the season than it was last season, so the offense will have some time to break in those new faces.  The defense does not have to be great for this team to win, it just has to be better than horrendous.

Thanks for the questions.  We will be fielding more questions as spring practice moves along.