Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
Coaches are never satisfied. The whole lot of them. The world over.
Indiana State football coach Trent Miles is no exception.
So predictably, in the wake of a comprehensive 57-7 ISU opening day victory over St. Joseph’s on Saturday, a dominant performance that seemed to offer little in the way of complaint from the Sycamores’ perspective, Miles had plenty he wanted to see improved as ISU moves into the far more challenging part of its schedule.
“I can tell you right now, when we critique the film, we’re not going to be happy. That’s just the way we are. That’s our nature,” Miles said.
Without the benefit of having seen the game film when interviewed, Miles expounded on some of things he saw in ISU’s victory that needs improvement.
“I want to see improvement on everything. I want to see improvement from me. I want to see the special teams improve. I want to see improvement on the little things I pay attention to during the game,” Miles said. “Quarterback reads. Catching the ball. I want to see improvement on pass coverage. There’s a lot of improvement that needs to be made. By no means did we play a perfect game.”
But even in his laundry list of complaints, Miles conceded that the problems he saw Saturday are far different from what they were a year ago, when ISU had major issues it needed to address in every phase of the game. As the ISU roster has become more experienced, those glaring issues have begun to fade.
“Through recruiting and through guys getting older and through guys getting more experience, [improvement in] bigger-picture things are easier to see now. It’s the little things we have to take care of and will continue to fight on and off the football field,” Miles said.
One thing that had to please coaches and players alike was the fact that there was little in the way of typical opening game mistakes — false-start penalties, lining up the wrong way, being too slow to line up, etc. The Sycamores had only five penalties for 45 yards.
“I was very proud of the players, but those assistant coaches are excellent. They got those kids prepared for this situation. The kids followed through on it,” Miles said.
n Fouch not pleased with debut — In his ISU debut, quarterback Ronnie Fouch completed 10 of 21 passes for 143 yards.
That wasn’t good enough for the transfer from the University of Washington.
“I’m the type of guy who’s very critical of himself. Anytime I come out of a game like that, I feel like I need to work on a lot of stuff,” Fouch said.
Miles had some ideas about that.
“We forced some throws early. Ronnie was wanting to put the Superman collar on and was trying to make some throws where we didn’t have to do. We had guys open on the first read, but he was trying to make the big play,” Miles said. “Ronnie’s a great kid and he’s going to get better and better. I find it hard to believe there’s better quarterbacks in our conference. He showed glimpses of it tonight.”
While Fouch wasn’t pleased with his performance, he did complete several key passes, including a 43-yard completion to Alex Jones to set up ISU’s first touchdown.
Also, the threat of a legitimate passing game unquestionably helped ISU amass 371 yards on the ground, including a school-record seven rushing touchdowns. ISU also had its first pair of 100-yard rushers — Darrius Gates had 160 yards, Shakir Bell had 133 — since 2004.
“The defense was dropping back a lot and they had four guys deep. That really helped our running game. We didn’t need to throw that much or stretch the field. We took what we needed to and run some play-action pass plays,” Fouch said.
• Newcomers shine on the defensive side — Lost in the 514 yards of total offense was a solid performance by the ISU defense and some of the most notable performances came from its young players in the secondary.
Freshman safety Larry King led the Sycamores in tackles with eight and also had a sack and 1 1/2 tackles for loss. King’s sack came in the first half and it snuffed a Puma drive when they were still within striking range of the Sycamores.
“It felt good. I’m out with 10 other people and I felt like I had to get my 1/11th done out there. I felt like I did my part, but my teammates helped me too,” said King, who is from South Bend and who played at Riley High School.
Also playing well was redshirt freshman cornerback C.J. Ulysse, who had four tackles. Sophomore safety Dillon Painter had four tackles, one sack and one tackle for loss.
• Davis does his job as punter — ISU’s kicking game was of great concern coming into the contest, but for one week at least, one place where things fell into place was Santino Davis’s performance as punter.
A linebacker by trade, Davis averaged 48 yards per punt with a net average of 39.3 yards in three punts. He had two punts of over 50 yards and one that landed inside the 20.
Elsewhere in the kicking game, Cory Little missed an extra point but made his lone field goal attempt from short range.
St. Joe’s average field position from kickoffs was its own 31-yard line as Little’s distance on kickoffs was inconsistent. That average distance is skewed too, as ISU benefitted from a St. Joseph’s personal foul on an ISU touchdown; the subsequent 15-yard penalty helped Little’s kickoff reach the end zone for the only time in the eight kickoffs he had.
• Cincinnati loses its opener — ISU won’t likely be fortunate enough to catch its next foe — the University of Cincinnati — napping.
Fresh off two consecutive Big East Conference championships and the BCS bowl berths that go with those titles, the Bearcats traveled to Fresno State and were beaten by the Bulldogs 28-14 late Saturday night.
Cincinnati had an early 14-0 lead, but Fresno State gradually reeled the Bearcats in. The Bulldogs dominated the second half on both sides of the ball to earn a quality win.
The Sycamores and Bearcats will kick off at noon on Saturday at historic Nippert Stadium on UC’s campus.
