BLOOMINGTON – Bill Lynch walked into the football meeting room at Memorial Stadium to meet with reporters Monday.
“I feel like I have to come in and introduce myself,” the Indiana football coach said with a laugh.
After a bye in Week 2, the Hoosiers returned to their game-week routine. IU will go 16 days between its season-opening 51-17 victory against Towson on Sept. 2 and Saturday’s second contest at Western Kentucky.
“I felt we had a good week last week,” Lynch said. “The biggest thing is to maintain the intensity and keep working to get better. We tried to make it very competitive and I think we did.”
The Hoosiers had what Lynch called a “scrimmage-type” situation Thursday. There was no live tackling, but Lynch wanted to establish some “game-like” conditions.
“You can do wind sprints and those types of conditioning deals, but it’s not the same, particularly for the big guys to be able to put their hands on the ground and block and rush the passer and chase the ball,” Lynch said.
On Saturday, a couple of days ahead of the regular schedule, the team began planning for Western Kentucky.
“That’s the benefit of a bye week,” Lynch said. “But if you get into that too early, then I think by the time the game comes around the game plan is stale. You want it to be fresh and have that sense of urgency.”
On the road
The Hoosiers will be the first Big Ten team to play at Western Kentucky, which is in Bowling Green, Ky.
Lynch was asked whether he had been in a similar situation as a smaller school opening the doors to a BCS foe.
“Unfortunately, I never had that opportunity because when I was in the Mid-American Conference (at Ball State), we never could get them to go play us and we had to go everywhere else,” Lynch said. “I think they are going to have fun with it.
“I’m sure there are a lot of mixed emotions there like when we played at Ball State (in 2006, a 24-23 Indiana win). And now they get a Big Ten school to come in and play at their stadium, and they’ve probably have been pointing to it for a long time.”
Coaching links
David Elson, who is in his first season on IU’s defensive staff, spent 2003-09 as Western Kentucky’s coach. IU assistant head coach Dennis Springer was a Hilltoppers assistant in 2007.
