Hlas column: Hawkeyes must create their own excitement at Indiana

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Maybe the hardest part for Iowa's football team today is reminding itself it is in a Big Ten game.

After three highly charged weeks in succession - a win at Michigan, a home loss to Wisconsin, a home win over Michigan State - the Hawkeye are in Bloomington, Ind., Saturday to play the Indiana Hoosiers.

There will be no wall of sound, no sellout crowd, no feeling that they are in one of the Big Ten's many football meccas.

Some weeks, teams pump artificial noise into their practices before heading to a road game. There was no such need for that this week for the Hawkeyes, who may have almost as many fans in Memorial Stadium today as do the Hoosiers.

Football has just never really caught on here in a big way. The primary reason is simple. Indiana doesn't win.

The Hoosiers have won just two of their last 20 Big Ten contests. An 0-8 conference record this year looks more likely than not.

Their stadium got a renovation and expansion a few years ago. A huge high-definition scoreboard was introduced this year. But it's still Indiana, and it's still Indiana football.

This isn't the Horseshoe or Big House, it isn't Penn State or Wisconsin. It isn't Kinnick.

This is a place where elbow room is plentiful for tailgating, where time doesn't stop for three hours on a Saturday afternoon just because the Hoosiers are playing football.

The two primary questions people here ask about Indiana athletics are how the men's basketball team is doing and how men's basketball recruiting is going.

But let's not shortchange the IU men's soccer team, which clinched the Big Ten regular-season title last Sunday.

Football? Things had kind of gotten going here a few years ago. Terry Hoeppner came from Miami (Ohio) to coach and began aggressively trying to change the attitude people had about it. He marketed it, traveled around the state to beat the drum for it, coined the mantra “Play 13.” Meaning, get to a 13th game, a bowl.

In 2006, Hoeppner's second year at Indiana, the Hoosiers upset then-No. 15 Iowa here, 31-28. They went 5-7 that season, but looked to be on the upswing. Hoeppner had some dynamic players on offense and utilized them well. Few receivers tortured ever tortured Iowa over a career the way James Hardy did.

However, Hoeppner had been diagnosed with a brain tumor after the 2005 season, and had additional brain surgery in September 2006. He returned two weeks after that and finished the season with the team. But he died in June 2007 of complications from the tumor.

Bill Lynch was thrust into a tough role as Hoeppner's replacement, but Indiana went 7-5 in the 2007 regular-season (including a 38-20 win at Iowa) and finally got that 13th game. It was the Hoosiers' first bowl since 1993. There hasn't been another.

It's a tough place to recruit to, a tough place to win. Indiana has sold off its Nov. 20 home game against Penn State. It will be played at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. The crowd will consist mainly of Penn State fans.

It isn't the Hawkeyes' job to feel sympathy for Indiana. Genuine league title-contenders seldom lose games like this.

Both Lynch and Iowa's Kirk Ferentz have 99 career wins as head coaches. The smart money is on Ferentz to get to No. 100 first.