He has to go

Indiana lost the Old Oaken Bucket to Purdue today by a score of 62 – 10. Words can’t really express the embarrassment Hoosier fans feel over this latest football humiliation. Here is my stream of consciousness during the first 15 minutes of the game:
Neither of these coaches will be back next year. Kellen Lewis is from Jacksonville? No wonder he sucks. They are going to be 3-9 one year after their bowl. Purdue is kicking onsides? They are clowning us. 17-0 in the first quarter. Goodbye Billy. Don’t let the door hit you etc. I’m done with IU football forever if Lynch is retained. But he was 8-2 at DePauw!!! He looks forlorn. Like he knows there is a -1% chance Lewis could lead a 24 point comeback. Yes, a negative chance. In fact, if IU got like 6 turnovers and defensive scores. . . Lewis would definitely throw several picks on obvious running downs just to make sure. All the little things that have gone wrong. Penalties, fumbles, dropped picks, and it is still the first quarter. Punting into the end zone from the 40 when you are down four scores?! Good job you held them below 30 in the 1st quarter.

FLASHBACK: On November 26 of last year Indiana University announced that it was removing the interim tag and making Bill Lynch its head football coach. This turn of events prompted us to post a not-so-ringing endorsement. Just under a year later our initial reaction appears justified. Was this the worst hire in recent Hoosier history? No, but only because of the Kelvin Sampson disaster. All I can say is thank goodness the AD, Rick Greenspan, is stepping aside next month.
A special thank you to Bob Kravitz for insisting that Lynch should be hired last year. Funny that despite a long search I couldn’t find a link to that column.
DZ Comments: The original piece by Kravitz is gone from the Star. Here’s a blogger’s breakdown of it.

UPDATE: Kravitz was gutless today. He avoided Weis (yikes!) and Lynch altogether. The weird thing about the whole Lynch situation is how painfully obvious it was from the start. Indiana had 8 home games. They didn’t play OSU or Michigan. They played two MAC teams.

They won 3 games.

I wouldn’t say Kravitz avoided the issue, so much as buried it at the bottom of his column. Here’s his take:
Now, though, there will be questions about the future of the guy across the field, Bill Lynch, whose Hoosiers were thoroughly embarrassed. This effort recalled Gerry DiNardo’s farewell performance in 2004, a 63-24 loss here in West Lafayette.

Let’s just say this: It’s possible this was Lynch’s last game. But it’s not likely.
First, lame-duck athletic director Rick Greenspan will not make the decision. IU let a lame-duck president named Adam Herbert hire Kelvin Sampson, and that didn’t work out so well. If anyone is going to make a move any time soon, it’s going to be incoming AD Fred Glass, although I don’t see that happening. Not right now.

Second, Lynch signed a four-year extension last year after leading the Hoosiers to the program’s first bowl appearance in 14 years. It would be both rash and financially irresponsible to pull the plug after one bad season/horrendous performance. At the very least, he needs another year.
Kravitz is correct about the complicating factors that will effect Fred Glass’s decision. But the question is do you compound a terrible decision made by your predecessor with a mistake of your own?

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