Glass Feeling the Indiana Football Love

By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Fred Glass is pumped.

Are you surprised?

Indiana's vice president and director of athletics has always been an upbeat man-on-a-mission guy, whether it's upgrading facilities, securing the resources needed for success, launching fireworks or spreading the Cream & Crimson word.

When it comes to the state of Hoosier athletics, naysayers need to get out of the way.

"We're excited about Indiana athletics across the board, particularly our premier sports, men's basketball and football," Glass said during this week's media gathering at Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium. "I feel like the foundation is getting laid to get where we want to be and we are optimistic about the future."

Tom Allen is starting his third season as head football coach, and his fourth season with the program.

Football dominates now, and after consecutive 5-7 records and plenty of near misses (seven losses by eight-or-fewer points in that stretch), optimism rules. Allen has delivered the best two recruiting classes in school history the last two years, and is on his way to making it three straight.

First, though, there's a season to play, a winning record to achieve and a bowl bid to secure.

It starts Saturday, Aug. 31, against Ball State at Lucas Oil Stadium, a facility that stirs Allen's football-drive passion, especially given it's the site of the early December Big Ten Championship game.

"It's beautiful. They've done a great job and it has a great feel to it. It's first class all the way. This will be my first time on the field here and it's awesome."

Glass, as you might imagine, is pumped about the Indianapolis location.

"I love having Indiana football up here, particularly when it's a Ball State home game. We want to keep as many of our home games in Bloomington to create a tradition of people coming down there for games. I asked Coach Allen how many times he would like to play in Lucas Oil Stadium in a season and his response was twice, a non-conference game and a conference championship."

That's what Glass wants to hear from his football coach, and all his coaches, although he won't put a number on it.

"I think it's lazy for an administrator to say, 'If we don't win these many games, if we don't qualify for this postseason tournament, if we don't do this or that.' They go on automatic pilot, 'It's not my fault, I set it and that's where it is.'

"It's no secret that I'm ambitious and I want to be at a championship level, but I think it's short-sided to set, what are ultimately, arbitrary goals."

That has no relevance to Allen, who is driven to deliver IU's first winning record since going 7-6 in 2007.

A Thursday practice at Lucas Oil Stadium was a big step in that direction.

"It's important from the perspective of walking in here, it's the reality of catching punts, catching kicks and catching passes," Allen said. "The lighting is different. Being able to know what it is going to feel like, going to look like, being able to find the ball when you're tracking it, especially on special teams. Those are the things that really matter and just the familiarity helps, so it feels like the next game and not something new."

Beyond that, Allen said, "The Big Ten Championship game is played here, so our season starts here and the regular season ends here. That's the goal, that's what we set and that's our objective.

"Just being able to get in this venue, it's a beautiful place. This is kind of my second home. I was born in New Castle. I spent nine years in Indianapolis and at Ben Davis, so this special to me and it feels great to be home."

After nearly a month of preparation, the fact the season is so close has Allen borrowing a page from Glass's get-pumped playbook.

"It's hard to imagine that it's already back again, the 2019 season. It's here. It's definitely a fun time. Can't wait."

Indiana University Athletics

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