Ramblin' Reck: ISU opponent feeling the heat, too

By Tom Reck

Indiana State’s football team again will have a tough task in trying to snap its losing streak Saturday when the Sycamores take on major power Louisville in the opener for the Kentucky team.

Louisville has not lost 27 games in a row, but the Cards are coming off two subpar seasons under coach Steve Kragthorpe, who is 11-13 in his first two seasons at the Big East school.

University officials deny there is pressure on the team to win and compete in a bowl game for the first time in three years, but there will be pressure from fans accustomed to winning.

The Cardinals were 5-7 and 1-6 in the Big East last year.

The Louisville Courier-Journal lists Kragthorpe on the hot seat along with first-year Auburn coach Gene Chizik, Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis, Wisconsin’s Bret Bielema and Al Groh of Virginia.

The newspaper’s beat writer picks Louisville to finish 5-7 and to lose to rival Kentucky for the third straight season.

By the way, Indiana State alumni will have a tailgate gathering prior to the contest that begins at 7:30 p.m.

• New coaches — Two Terre Haute North graduates have new coaching jobs this fall.

Andy Hopkins is an assistant coach for men’s and women’s tennis at Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne. He is a 2009 graduate of Ohio Northern and is getting an MBA in health care management.

Rob Roads is coaching cross country, track and swimming at Rivet High School in Vincennes. He is teaching physical education and health. The cross country team began its season in the Terre Haute South Invitational.

In a related note, John Memmer recently became the winningest coach in all sports at Riverton Parke when the volleyball posted a victory.

Elsewhere, Park Tudor has hired Ed Schilling to coach boys basketball.

Schilling has been the coach at Wright State and assistant at Massachusetts, New Jersey Nets and Memphis while also coaching Western Boone and Logansport.

He succeeds Darnell Archey, who is the new coordinator of basketball operations at Butler, his alma mater.

That gave Memmer 255 wins. He and Sam Ball each had 254 going into this season.

• More rankings — The preseason Sagarin Rankings for college football are out and were released prior to games played last week.

Most polls have Florida No. 1. Not Sagarain, a native Hoosier. He has Southern Cal first followed by Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and Ohio State.

Some other teams and their rank: 48. Notre Dame, 57. Purdue, 63. Illinois, 81. Ball State, 83. Northern Iowa, 95. Indiana, 177. Eastern Illinois, 229. Indiana State.

• Tom-Cattin’ It — Lawrence North has lost another basketball player. Xavier recruit Justin Martin will attend school at Mountain State University Academy in West Virginia. The 6-foot-7 ace averaged 10.4 points as a junior. Dominique Ferguson previously said he would attend Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia instead of completing school at Lawrence North. … Heritage Hills is off to another super start in prep football. The Patriots beat Vincennes 68-0 in the opener and beat Tell City 63-13. … Princeton defeated Gibson Southern in its first game to snap a 13-game losing streak while Edinburgh has lost more than 40 in a row. … In a recent golf match, Forest Park defeated Hulman Links 121/2-8/2. Vigo County high school girls teams will meet in the county match Thursday at Rea Park. … Chad Collins enjoyed his week off from the Nationwide Tour last week by scoring his fifth hole-in-one at Geneva Hills. He said all five of the aces have been done in different states. Eight events remain on the Nationwide Tour and he likely will play in seven of them with a chance to finish in the top 10 in money winnings.

Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by e-mail at tm_reck@yahoo.com or by mail at 4284 South 5th Street, Apt. 3, Terre Haute, IN 47802.