Indiana finally announced its football schedule for the 2007 season becoming one of the last teams to do so. The conference schedule was already known but for those of us who actually care about Indiana football the anticipation was over who the non-conference opponents would be.
The season kicks off at home against division I-AA opponent Indiana State and since the game starts at 6 P.M. that should give students plenty of time to drink before the game. The next week IU travels to Kalamazoo, Michigan to take on Western Michigan which appears to be the toughest non-conference game of the year.
The next week IU will be back at home to face the Akron Zips in the first ever meeting between the two schools. This game is also at 6 P.M. The last non-conference game at home against Ball State is sandwiched into the Big Ten season in between games at Wisconsin and at Northwestern. Ball State could give IU a tough time with Nate Davis at quarterback who is an Antwaan Randle El type player.
With this schedule I see IU finishing either 7-5 or 6-6 and earning their first bowl bid since 1993. 8-4 is possible if IU can win all their games at home and pull off a win at either Michigan State or Northwestern but home games against Penn State and Purdue will be tough and IU still has trouble on the road in the Big Ten.
In other IU football news the Hoosiers brought in 19 recruits for next season. Hoeppner and his staff did a nice job of finding talented players along the defensive line bringing in three star recruits Eric Thomas, Fred Jones, Jeff Boyd and Max Dedmond. Dedmond is expected to switch from tight end to the defensive line. Junior college transfer Kevin Burrus will also help out at defensive tackle and since he enrolled at IU this past January he will be able to participate in spring ball and get a jump on the other recruits.
The loss of four star recruit and top safety prospect in the nation Jerimy Finch to Florida was a blow to IU's recruiting class but IU was able to establish important recruiting pipelines to powerhouse high school football programs like Warren Central in Indianapolis and Glenville high school in Ohio.
With the solid recruits Hoeppner is bringing in, an easy non-conference schedule, and a Big Ten schedule that doesn't include Ohio State or Michigan next year, I look for the 2007 season to be the year IU finally breaks through and returns to a bowl game.
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I think the biggest boost for this team will be having Kellen Lewis at the helm for the whole offseason. As a midseason, even a midgame, replacement, Lewis did a pretty good job at quarterback for the Hoosiers. With the whole offseason to work with his team and a strong receiving corps, this will be Lewis' team next year.
I'll also predict a bowl for the Hoosiers in '07. Coming down the stretch this year was painful knowing all they had to do was win one game out of three, and they weren't able to pull it off. Covering the team for the IDS, I'd never seen such a depressed group as the IU team we saw in the locker room after the Purdue loss. Hopefully they can use that to fuel them this offseason.
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