Indiana University Athletics
Coach DiNardo Press Conference
11/19/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
"We have a lot of work to do."
Does it matter, in your mind, which quarterback they use? "Kirsch and Orton are two different quarterbacks. We don't really know who they are going to use. My guess is they'll start Kirsch. He rushed for 125 yards against Michigan State, that's a little bit different than what Orton does, so it changes what they do a little bit. It's not going to change it a lot, just because they are a systematic offense. But Kirsch obviously presents some problems containing."
How much different is their offense in a sense of how they run it compared to the spread Northwestern runs? "They are running more of the zone with the quarterback under center than Northwestern does. The biggest difference is they are under the center more often than Northwestern."
Can you talk about the bucket game? Does the staff understand the rivalry? "It's a very intense rivalry and I think we all understand that. The tempo changes a little bit in weeks like this. We'll treat it the same way as everyone else before us has treated it."
Can you comment on the officiating in the Big Ten? "I don't see much difference in SEC and Big Ten officials. I think there is probably more holding that goes on in the Big Ten than the SEC that doesn't get called. But it's all even, you can hold and they can hold - it doesn't get called. I don't think the officials are favoring anyone, I think the officiating is about the same as the SEC. Like I say, I think holding is a lot more prevalent in this conference than anything I've seen in any other conference."
The decision to play Washington, was it a financially-motivated decision? "No, it's not financially-motivated at all for a couple of reasons. Anytime they tell you to play at home and home, there's no big gate. I want to say the guarantee is $325,000. So they pay us $325,000 to go there and we pay them $325,000 to come here. My guess is expenses will be $110,000, so you'd make $215,000. We made more than that when William & Mary came in this past year. You actually make less money by doing a Washington/Washington, Oregon/Oregon thing than you do bringing in an opponent that you don't have to return the game. For instance, Purdue is playing seven home games for the first time in the history of their school this season. They don't have to return any games. Their gate receipts will be more than if they were to play six and six. Our gate receipts would be more the next three years if we didn't have a home and home with Washington and Oregon but we played someone like what Minnesota or Illinois has done. So, it's not money-motivated it's actually just the opposite. You stand to make more money going the other way. I think it's institutionally motivated as far as I can tell because this has gone on through multiple athletic directors and multiple presidents so it must be a university decision that they think this is a strategic plan that they think is best for a football program."
Were you surprised that the game was announced? "I kind of thought we were still in negotiation stages. It's usually a simultaneous announcement, usually you get together on something like this with the Big Ten and the PAC-10. It really should be significant news. It's unusual to be done during a season - it just didn't add up to me."
Is there any chance you don't play that game now? "There's always outs contractually. You're bound by the contract."
Will you explore those options? "Those decisions usually aren't mine. I think they are institutionally controlled and above me."
You mentioned Oregon too, when are you scheduled to play them? "2004 and 2005, which puts us at 10 of the 11. We go back to an 11 game schedule in 2004 and 2005. The unusual thing is that that would put us at 10 of 11 BCS games, which no one in our conference would be playing that year. It's a departure from Bill Mallory years. You can see when this philosophy changed. It changed right after Bill."
Does that mean in 2004 you will play Washington and Oregon? "No. We play Kentucky who is in the SEC, BCS and we play Oregon who is in the BCS and we play eight conference games."
When is the other Washington game? "I think in 2007, from what I hear."
As far as injuries, how has the team suffered? "We're a little banged up. We get some guys back...(Anthony) Oakley will be at center right now because nothing's really changed with Oakley and Chris Jahnke. Chris still has that cast on. I'd say to you today that it's going to be that way. We have to make a decision if we want to go back and look at Jahnke on Wednesday at center. It involves taking the cast off and some other things that I'm not sure going into the last game that we want to do. My hunch is right now it will be Oakley at center and Jahnke at right tackle."
How would you evaluate their play at those positions? "For a first game, Oakley appeared to be more comfortable at center than Jahnke did at tackle. It's pretty good that they can just play those positions, although Steve (Addazio) has trained Jahnke a little more at tackle than Oakley at center, so I'd say the guy who did pretty well was Oakley."
Looking at what happened in Arizona, I'm just curious what you reaction is to that? "I don't think this incident made me look at how I interact. I think we should do that everyday. I think it's wise for us to be careful how we interact. I think we've all changed down through the years and I have a little bit of a break there. I was in professional football for a little bit, so I have tried to do that. I talk to players a lot about those type of things. I think the real disturbing thing is the reporting lines, how they have gotten really distorted in college football where coaches can report directly to presidents, players can go directly to presidents and board members. I think that is going to be part of the downfall of this thing eventually. There's no way it can't be. It would be the same thing as students going to the president instead of the dean. What you have is a business within an educational structure, so there's always conflicts between education and business. Ever since college athletics moved away from the education model, since Title IX basically, and moved into the business model, we have all these conflicts."
"If I'm an athletic director and the coach can go right to the president or I'm a coach and the players can go right to the president, there's no reporting structure, the lines are fluid. It might be different for that coach and this coach."
Any previous positions did you get to a point where you felt like you were losing the players? "When we first were at LSU, there was some questioning by the players if we were working them too hard. They approached me in a team meeting. I think you always have to be careful. I told them that it was a voluntary sport and they didn't have to go to practice, they just wouldn't be on the team anymore. And we won seven games and went to a bowl game for the first time in six years and I think they understood."
"We have to keep this in perspective that we are the educators and they are the students, much like at home we are the parents and our children are our children. Does that mean we can be abusive? Absolutely not. But we are the decision-makers and we shape the philosophy and we shape the procedures. I think you can include them in the discussion. I love open debate and open discussion with players about things. There's more things that you are with the players on than you are maybe opposed. For example - training table, how do we feed our athletes? Per diem - should they be given money? You'd be surprised how the coaches and the players line up together on more important issues than they are opposed. Like I said, I've been aligned with them a lot more than I've been aligned against them. Celebration rules, I was against that when they wanted to pass it, but now that we passed it, I'm hard-lined that we don't do it because it brings us closer to victory than defeat. Dress codes and all that I line up more directly with the players than I do with anyone else."
How have you felt about the points given up by the defense? "Some of those points were given up by our offense, but I still think we're giving up too many points. I think you have to watch the tape and say, are we doing the right things defensively? Is what we're doing going to serve us well long term? Are we so convinced that the scheme is more important than the players, have we adjusted the players to the scheme? So you go through all those things and you analyze and that's what we do every Sunday. Sometimes it's not really what you call, it's when you call it. We feel like we are on the right track with a lot of the things we do. We have to keep coaching our guys and our guys are making improvements. We had one of the fewest number of loafs against Penn State. Was there somebody who was supposed to be in that gap when (Larry) Johnson went through there like no one was there. Absolutely. We didn't mean to leave that gap uncovered."
Is there anything that you say to your seniors going into their final game? "I appreciate everything they've done. They need to - and I believe they do - take this seriously and really take it to heart. I've said this over and over since January 8, there's good people here because IU is a good place and it attracts good people. So these guys have really been good."
Have you considered playing both Hamdan and Jones in this final game? "Yeah, it's a consideration."
At LSU was there a rivalry game you could compare this to? "No there wasn't. The rivalry situation at LSU was a little unique. Traditionally it was Ole Miss, but while we were there we felt like it was Auburn or Florida. Our only permanent crossovers were Auburn and Florida when we were there. It wasn't as clearly defined at LSU as it is in the Big Ten."
How much of a disadvantage is it to not get those extra weeks of practice (when you become bowl eligible)? "It's an absolutely huge disadvantage. Today will be our fourth pre-spring practice. It's a huge disadvantage. It's interesting that the NCAA legislates against spring football, what you can wear, how many days you can practice, how long you can scrimmage, how long you can be out there. They legislate against preseason practice. Now they're legislating that you can't have three-a-days. And yet, for bowl practice it's whatever you want to do, it's unlimited. What we would do is that the guys who were playing, it wasn't that big a deal. We'd get them ready in a week. But the guys that weren't playing a lot and the redshirts, it was better than spring practice. It's a huge advantage to be bowl eligible. Another rule is that before the bids come out, anyone who is bowl eligible they can start practicing as much as they want."
