Coaching Perspective – Indiana

The Hoosiers are over 100 games under .500 and have just 199 conference wins to 466 league losses.  They have just two conference titles and only 9 bowl appearances.  The doormat of the Big Ten still has to have at least a few good coaches, right?

Not For Consideration (Chronological Order)

• Arthur B. Woodford: 1887-1888, 0-1-1
• Evans Woollen: 1889, 0-2
• Billy Herod: 1891, 1-5
• No Coach: 1892-1893, 3-6-1
• Ferbert and Huddleston (Co-coaches): 1894, 0-4-1
• Osgood and Wren (Co-coaches): 1895, 4-3-1
• Madison G. Gonterman: 1896-1897, 12-3-1
• James H. Horne: 1898-1904, 33-21-5 (3-13-1)

…And so the Big Ten embarrassment begins!

• James M. Sheldon: 1905-1913, 35-26-3 (7-25-2)
• Clarence Childs: 1914-1915, 6-7-1 (2-7)
• Ewald O. Stiehm: 1916-1921, 20-18-1 (5-10-1)

The hiring made sense at the time considering he went 35-2-3 (14-0-1) with 5 conference titles at Nebraska.

• Jampes P. Herron: 1922, 1-4-2 (0-2-1)
• Bill Ingram: 1923-1925, 10-12-1 (3-8-1)

Of course his only losing seasons were at Indiana and in 1926 he won the national title with Navy.  Go figure.

• Harlan Page: 1926-1930, 14-24-3 (5-16-2)
• Earle C. Hayes: 1931-1933, 6-14-4 (2-11-4)
• Clyde B. Smith: 1948-1951, 8-27-1 (4-19)
• Bernie Crimmins: 1952-1956, 13-32 (6-24)
• Bob Hicks: 1957, 1-8 (0-6)
• Phil Dickens: 1958-1964, 20-41-2 (8-34-2)

Another guy with an impressive resume elsewhere.  He went 40-16-7 with 5 conference titles at Wofford and 29-11-1 with a conference title, bowl victory and final poll appearance with Wyoming.

• Sam Wyche: 1983, 3-8 (2-7)
• Cam Cameron: 1997-2001, 18-37 (12-28)
• Gerry DiNardo: 2002-2004, 8-27 (3-21)
• Terry Hoeppner: 2005-2006, 9-14 (4-12)

This one still makes me feel sick.  Coach Hoep seemed to have this thing heading in the right way but cancer took his life at the much too young age of 59.

• Bill Lynch: 2007-2010, 19-30 (6-26)

Got the heartbroken team to a bowl in his first year with Coach Hoep’s “play 13” mantra but he would go just 3-21 the rest of his time in Bloomington in league play.

• Kevin Wilson: 2011-preseant, 15-34 (6-26)

Indiana’s opening day (and thrilling) victory over Southern Illinois is included in Wilson’s record.

Did Not Place (4th)

John Pont: 1965-1972, 31-51-1 (21-36-1)

Tough to determine if Pont even deserves to be this high up since he is a true one-hit wonder.  In 1967 he guided the Hoosiers to a 9-2 (6-1) co-championship before losing a tight Rose Bowl to USC.  The finish was good enough for 6th and 4th in the two polls to tie IU’s best finish.  Spectacularly the team had gone 1-8-1 (1-5-1) the season before and 2-8 (1-6) in ’65.  The 1968 crew went a respectable 6-4 with another winning league record – a rarity for the Hoosiers – before returning to normalcy.  Pont’s final four years after the lone winning seasons were a combined 13-29 (9-21).

Bronze Medal

Lee Corso: 1973-1982, 41-68-2 (27-53-2)

Corso and Pont are nearly interchangeable.  Both had mild success punctuated by one great year.  The tie breaker for me is Corso had more fourth or higher finishes (3 to 1) and won his bowl game while Pont did not.  The fact that the Holiday Bowl Corso won was an upset over an 11-0 BYU team makes it that much more special.  Throw in that it was a 38-37 instant classic makes it even more amazing.  Like so many other IU coaches though the decline was quick.  Corso’s club went 6-5 in 1980 after the bowl and then a combined 7-15 (5-13) in the future commentator’s final two seasons.

Silver Medal

Bill Mallory: 1984-1996, 69-77-3 (39-65-1)

Mallory and the man who beat him are very similar.  They have the most wins in program history (69 vs 63) and the most consistent finishes 4th or higher in the league (3 vs 5).  In Mallory’s argument though is the most bowl appearances and wins with a 2-4 mark and most times ranked in the final polls.  Unfortunately for Mallory he coached in an era with more games and more bowls.  He also failed to win the league and has the rough opening and closing acts.  He started 0-11 (0-9) and finished 5-17 (1-15).

Gold Medal

Bo McMillin: 1934-1947, 63-48-11 (34-34-6)

Of coaches to coach more than 2 seasons, just 5 have .500 or better records and Bo is one of them.  Of that group Bo is the only one to not be under .500 in league play.  He lead IU to their only outright Big Ten title going 9-0-1 (5-0-1) in 1945.  The fearsome Hoosiers boasted an outstanding defense that shut out four opponents en route to a 279-56 scoring differential.  The 4th place finish in the final poll makes this IU’s best team of all time.  He also won 7 games two other times (’42 and ’44) and six games an additional time (’46).  Despite being the athletic director and still competitive in 1947, McMillin took his chances with the NFL and jumped to coach the Detroit Lions.