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: 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.
-
Paradigm shifts for Sycamores after UNI win
In many respects, it’s been an Indiana State men’s basketball season like no other in its recent history.
-
Odum shouldn’t be overlooked as MVC’s Freshman of Year
The cliché would state that Creighton forward Doug McDermott has taken the Missouri Valley Conference by storm from day one. The truth is that McDermott had the attention of MVC observers long before day one.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Late turnover doesn’t define excellence from Jake Odum
You know what’s one of the best tests of how a player has gained respect? Listen to the way the road crowd reacts when that player has the ball in his hands.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Tempo changes for worse on both ends for Sycamores
When Indiana State was on its six-game early January winning streak that saw it rise to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference, team chemistry was seemingly the biggest reason for the success.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: ‘Yeah, but’ … maybe ISU is for real
I had an eighth-grade reunion in Milwaukee last summer, the highlight of 2010 for me. Among the memories we re-lived, I had totally forgotten that my seventh-grade teacher nicknamed me “Yeah But.” As in, “Yeah, but …” I always seemed to have an argument for the answer he sought in class, whether my argument was right or not.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU’s place in pecking order hasn’t changed
The nonconference portion of the college basketball season serves several purposes.
-
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Thompson’s latest honor stands apart from the rest
Anthony Thompson has won his share of trophies and awards.
-
From The Press Box: Waltman reception highlights ISU reunion
It seems like every time I’m around Royce Waltman, I have to brace myself.
-
From The Press Box: At its worst moment, Indiana State showed a lot
Everyone knows life is unfair … you just hate it when life proves it.
So it went for Indiana State’s football team on Saturday as it faced perennial power Northern Iowa. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Don’t get too worked up about preseason polls
The Indiana State men were picked where in the MVC Preseason poll? The Sycamores tied for fifth last year and have seven players back from a postseason team. Terre Haute is so excited about this team. They had to be picked in the top half of the league, right?
- More From the Press Box Headlines
-
Nordic Festival Puts North Korea in Spotlight
Greece Passes New Austerity Deal Amid Rioting
'Rumor Has It' Adele's Rolling in the Grammys
Coroner: Houston Autopsy Results Weeks Away
Raw Video: Whitney Houston's Last Performance
Grohl, Grammy Nominees Cut Up on the Red Carpet
Raw Video: Greek Rioting Ahead of Austerity Vote
Raw Video: Child Rescued After Kosovo Avalanche
Reaction to Houston's Death at Clive Davis Party
Pop Music Superstar Whitney Houston Dies at 48
Fuel Removal Under Way on Capsized Italian Ship
Severe Cold Wreaks Havoc in China
Whitney Houston's Church Mourns Her Passing
79 Turtles Seized at Shanghai Airport
Police: Houston Found Dead in Her Hotel Room
Fans 'Speechless' Over Houston's Death
Today in History for Tuesday, February 12th
And the Winner for Best Super Bowl Ad Is...
Stocks Fall Sharply As Greek Deal Is Held Up
Arab League Wants U.N. Help in Syria
Sandusky Can See Grandkids, Have Local Jury
'Bachelor' Free Falls into the Ocean
Apple of their eye at $500 a share
Adele's revealing "60 Minutes" interview
Rosenthal: A's sign Cespedes
Bobby Brown on Houston's Death
Turkey's first face transplant
Exclusive Video: Bobbi Kristina Leaving Hospital
Obama Unveils $3.8 Trillion Budget
Kelly Ripa's Fashion Faux Pas
Lusetich: AT&T Recap
Raw Video: Aurora Borealis As Seen From Space
Grammys 2012: Highlights
2.12: Pebble Beach Pro-Am -- Phil Mickelson
2012 Grammys: Rihanna
2012 Grammys: Taylor Swift
Exclusive Video - Whitney's Bodybag
FUEL TV: Punk Payback Gym tips
