Brookings, S.D. — These are the dark times for the Indiana State football program, the times when faith is tested and when hope is hard to come by.
The Sycamores filed off Coughlin-Alumni Stadium in defeat for the 30th straight time on Saturday after South Dakota State defeated the Sycamores 41-0. Without any offense to speak of — ISU had 90 yards of total offense against the Jackrabbits — the Sycamores had no chance.
Terre Haute mayor Duke Bennett was one of the few friends of the program who made the long trek to the Dakota prairie to watch the Sycamores get cut down again. But what really matters is the friends the program, and head coach Trent Miles, have at home.
The numbers don’t lie. ISU’s losing streak is the fourth-longest in Division I history. The only teams “ahead” of ISU on the all-time losing streak list are Northwestern (34 losses), Columbia (44) and Prairie View A&M; (80).
It’s understandable that some fans have turned a blind eye. You can’t blame anyone for being apathetic when they’re not thrown a victory bone once in a while. The Old Testament’s Job has nothing on ISU football fans.
Apathy is one thing. What isn’t as understandable are ISU fans who want to throw up their hands and quit. Either on the program itself or on Miles’ stewardship of it.
Ever since an admittedly embarrassing loss to Quincy, the “drop football” voices have once again emerged. They’ve been around as long as I’ve been covering the team, but the volume of the voices is usually determined by which way the wind blows as far as the Sycamores’ ebbs and flows on their odyessy to respectibility.
Dropping football at ISU, to me, is a complete non-starter.
The administration just installed field turf and built a new locker room. I’m just spitballing here, but the only way to recoup that money by dropping football would be to add men’s soccer and house it in the current football facilities. ISU has to add a sport if it drops one as it is at the minimum amount of sponsored sports to remain Division I.
To do the above scenario, or any scenario where football is dropped, would be financial folly. The Sycamore program has more than $500,000 coming into the athletic department in buy games alone in the next two years (Cincinnati and Penn State). There’s more money coming in for games ISU hasn’t publicly announced, but has verbally agreed to without finalized contracts yet.
There’s no way a soccer program (I think it would be great if ISU had men’s soccer, incidentally) can come close to matching those dollars, even if it costs less to operate than football. No sport but football has that kind of instant earning power for an athletic department. Not even basketball.
In addition to the drop-football contingent, there are some whispers out there that Miles should be feeling job pressure. That’s patently absurd.
Apart from the fact that Miles hasn’t had anywhere near enough time to be realistically assessed — he’s only had one full recruiting year and only 16 games to date — Miles has been open from the beginning that he was starting over from scratch.
Due to the infusion of youth and the departure of those who couldn’t or wouldn’t buy into his program, Miles has been open from the beginning that there would be lean times early in his tenue. Some of the losses along the way have been disappointing and the current state of the offense is bad, but the Sycamores are better than they were a year ago. Unfortunately for ISU, they’ve only been better on one side of the ball. But when you start over, it’s usually the offense that develops last.
Time will tell if Miles’ plan is successful. Everyone has their own personal cut-off when patience stops and Miles has to stop rebuilding and start winning. But at the very least, and I mean very least, he deserves as much time as the 33 games Lou West got.
Miles is also popular among most of the fans. The majority of ISU supporters — whether they openly support football or not — won’t tolerate a quick hook for someone who is an alum, a former player, a Terre Haute native, and who’s been honest about the time it will take to end the Sycamores’ long nightmare.
These are bad times, there’s no doubt at about it. Bad times are when you find out who your friends are. In the wake of another demoralizing loss, Miles and the ISU program probably don’t feel like they have many friends at the moment.
But they don’t deserve some of their too-quick-to-hit-the-panic button naysayers either.
Note: Due to a computer problem, Golden was not able to live blog the South Dakota State game on Saturday night. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Todd Golden is sports editor of the Tribune-Star. He can be reached at (812) 231-4272 or todd.golden@tribstar.com.
From the Press Box
Bad times are when ISU football will know who its friends are
- From the Press Box
-
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU baseball has pluses, minuses for tourney bid
Last Thursday, when Indiana State’s baseball jumped around in a celebratory dogpile after clinching the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship at Bob Warn Field, no one thought that a little over a week later, the dreaded NCAA Tournament bubble would fly over Terre Haute. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Subtle switch has fostered MVC baseball parity
When Indiana State was crowned as the regular season baseball champion of the Missouri Valley Conference last Thursday, it marked the fifth different regular season champion the league has had since 2005.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU has done enough to be in NCAAs
When you get older, you’re supposed to get wiser. I don’t know if I qualify, but I’m trying.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: TH’s Murans back in the Derby … this time with favorite
When Terre Haute native Paul Murans experienced his first Triple Crown horse racing run as part-owner of Mucho Macho Man in 2011, the experience was — to borrow a phrase from one-time Marquette coach Al McGuire — seashells and balloons.
-
TODD GOLDEN: IHSAA debate interrupts more pressing issues
State Senator Mike Delph has sowed a 15-year-old wind and put the emotional class basketball debate back on the public’s mind.
-
TODD GOLDEN: ISU eyes prize one game at a time
Most baseball fans know that the baseball season — even a college baseball season — is a marathon, not a sprint.
-
TODD GOLDEN: Grass is green enough for Indiana State in Missouri Valley
Take a look around the Missouri Valley Conference landscape and it would be easy to assume that a significant portion of the league membership is searching for perceived greener pastures.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Sycamores are Odum’s team now
Soooo … who wants to talk about the 2012 Indiana State men’s basketball season?
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU will face uphill climb in MVC in 2013
The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals are always scintillating. No more so than Saturday when Illinois State upset 15th-ranked Wichita State 65-64 and when No. 25 Creighton took care of business with a 99-71 victory over Evansville.
Arch Madness indeed. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Effort, heart, concentration are fleeting for ISU
Every time Indiana State’s men’s basketball wins a game, you think to yourself, OK, now is when these Sycamores live up to their potential.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Peyton’s place belongs to Eli
The good people of Indianapolis justifiably puffed out their chests throughout Super Bowl week as the city received deserved rave reviews for the job it did as hosts of Super Bowl XLVI.
-
TODD GOLDEN: Teammates, colleagues express their loyalty to Weatherford
Sometimes you worry whether someone is stopping to smell the roses when they smell rosiest.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Does melted ice reveal Belichick's heart of gold?
If you’re into Youtube — and who isn’t these days? — there’s a vintage television profile of then-Cleveland Browns coach Bill Belichick posted on the popular site.
-
TODD GOLDEN: Indiana State men caught between expectation, reality
The Missouri Valley Conference is hush-hush on how it puts together its matchups for the annual conference schedule.
-
TODD GOLDEN: Accentuating the positive with ISU's Odum
There’s something to be said for being your own worst critic, especially when it comes to sports.
-
TODD GOLDEN: Loss hurts, but national exposure is ... priceless
Trying to advance the philosophy that any publicity is good publicity is probably an effort wasted on a losing team less than 10 minutes removed from a disappointing defeat where victory had been oh so close to fruition.
-
TODD GOLDEN: The great playoff race is on for Indiana State football
The great race is on.
-
TODD GOLDEN: Fans owe ISU seniors 10,000
I have covered Indiana State football since the 2004 season.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Indiana State has used up its playoff mulligan
It’s been a glass half-full kind of season for the Indiana State football team, so it was easy — and exciting — to get caught up in looking ahead to scenarios that placed ISU in the FCS playoffs, even if ISU didn’t win out.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Not a coulda, shoulda for Sycamores
Indiana State's football team is getting tired of being graded on the curve of its own past futility.
-
TODD GOLDEN: Supernatural Shakir was a sight to behold
I’ve often heard it said when a player has a big statistical day that he’s racking up “video game numbers.”
-
TODD GOLDEN: Sycamore defense absorbs lesson
A win is a win, they say. And for Indiana State, none of the Sycamores are going to take back or put an asterisk next to their 48-34 victory over Butler on Saturday.
-
TODD GOLDEN: And now on to the normal part of the schedule
The Steve Miller Band would’ve appreciated Indiana State’s trip to Penn State.
-
TODD GOLDEN: Sabermetrics has changed love of baseball
I turned 40 this summer. No problem.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: No debate about quality of Vigo baseball
It’s standard practice for losing high school coaches — especially coaches who led teams on a deep postseason run — to heap praise on their seniors one last time. It’s even more so when one of those seniors was the rock of a given team for a four-year period.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Season dies down, but ISU’s plate not empty
With coaching changes having mostly sorted themselves out and with recruiting having just entered its quiet period today, college basketball has settled into its more relaxed offseason mode.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Winning spring more important than winning the spring game
Indiana State football coach Trent Miles has been involved in collegiate coaching since 1987. He knows better than anyone that there’s no one-size-fits-all way to approach the annual spring football game.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Friday wait was worth it for Indiana State
Many have seen the famous Salvador Dali painting, “Persistence of Memory.” The most memorable images in the surreal painting are unquestionably the pocket watches that are drooped over a ledge, a tree branch, etc.
-
Many Sycamores, past and present, to remember
The minute it became apparent Indiana State had punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a 60-56 victory over Missouri State on Sunday, I reflected on all of the moments in the previous seven years of covering the Sycamores that led to this.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Sycamore AD Ron Prettyman explains Cal Poly interest
Editor’s note: Indiana State Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman interviewed and participated in a public open forum for the same position at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo last week.
- More From the Press Box Headlines
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU baseball has pluses, minuses for tourney bid
Beryl Threatens Rain, Winds on Southeast Coast
Raw Video: National Mall Concert Shut Down
Biden Addresses West Point Graduating Class
Beryl Makes Landfall on Florida Coast
Raw Video: Gay Protest Blocked in Moscow
UN Blames Syrian Forces for Shelling Houla
Astronauts Enter World's 1st Private Supply Ship
Tropical Storm Beryl Strengthens, Nears US Coast
Shell Readies Arctic Drill Ship
Today in History
Vatican in Chaos After Butler Arrested for Leaks
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Jimmy Carter Endorses Egypt's Election Results
Dozens of Children Killed in New Syria Attack
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Raw Video: Activists Allege Massacre in Syria
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Dragon Arrives at Space Station in Historic 1st
Passenger Restrained on Flight to Miami Arrested
Raw Video: Man Rescued From River in China
Beyonce Entertains the First Family
Celtics crush Sixers in Game 7
Alleged Lego Thief Faces Felony Charges
Has Snooki Named Her Baby?
Heat Wave Warms Holiday Weekend
Inspiration for the class of 2012
Colorado College Student Shot While Trespassing
Will Smith & Josh Brolin on "Men in Black 3"
80-Year-Old Skydiver's Nightmare Jump
JWoww Sizzles in a Black Bikini
Sliders on the Grill
Cruise ship crunch
Backstage With Beyonce
Ultimate Creamy Potato Salad
Pope's Personal Butler Under Arrest
Jenny McCarthy's New Man
Tyler's Classic Coleslaw
Britney Spears Under X Factor Fire
Flesh-Eating Bacteria Victim Hits Milestone
