Here is a story from the Daily Hoosier and another from Indiana Public Media regarding Mike Penix departure. Mike specifically mentioned Coach Sheridan in the Daily Hoosier article and the other article shows his league leading passing yardage performance under Sheridan in 2020 and struggles in 2021. A deeper look at stats from the IU football website shows that Mike had 5 touchdown passes & 491 passing yards against O$U and the B1G Tatum-Woodson Defensive Back of the Year Shaun Wade. On the day the Hoosiers gained -1 yards on the ground. Starting offensive linemen in 2020 still with us included Matthew Bedford, Mike Katic, & Luke Haggard.
Coaches DeBord and Sheridan were the main players in attracting Mike to IU. An assist goes to the current head man at Arkansas State, Butch Jones. When Jones was hired at Tennessee for what turned out to be a short term tenure of poor results he cut loose DeBord, Sheridan, and Penix. DeBord & Sheridan had recruited Mike to UT and when Jones indicated Mike wouldn’t fit his plans they jumped at the chance to bring Mike to IU. Mike has had his share of bad luck, but getting away from Jones & UT was a break.
The above is pretty well documented, however I did opine that Jones tenure at UT was marked by poor results. The following is my opinion. First, Mike has a great arm. I believe what elevates him above many strong armed gunslingers is his ability to make quick reads and decisiveness. These factors allowed him to overcome some lackluster offensive line protection and was a critical consideration in offensive game planning. Unfortunately these strengths were noticeably absent at the start of the 2021 season as reflected by production and interception numbers starting with Iowa. In my opinion this can be attributed to rushing him back into action from the October 28, 2020 season ending ACL injury. While I don’t doubt his repaired knee was sound his lack of live action prior to facing an Iowa team in the opener undercut his confidence and decisiveness.
I have followed college football for many years and I do not recall another situation where the university announced that a head coach contributed money toward the cost of firing an assistant. Generally who eats the costs of terminations is not made public, and why should it be. The announcement in the Sheridan situation made me wonder why was it done here. The only reason I could think of was to focus the blame for 2021 on Sheridan. If Coach Allen wanted to accept blame for the 2021 season there was no need to link his salary cut to Sheridan he could have followed Harbaugh’s example. Again my opinion, but there would be some logic to him giving some money back as Coach Allen lost the team in 2021, see Rutgers game and player and assistant coach exodus.
In conclusion, Coach Allen reconstructed the staff and brought in several new but experienced players for 2022 at virtually all positions, however only Parker Hannah was added to the OL mix from the portal. With it all Coach Allen sits at 3-1 with a trip to a program in disarray in Nebraska, and then games remaining with programs we have been competitive against during Coach Allen’s tenure in Maryland, MSU, Rutgers, and PU. It will interesting to see how it goes.
Coaches DeBord and Sheridan were the main players in attracting Mike to IU. An assist goes to the current head man at Arkansas State, Butch Jones. When Jones was hired at Tennessee for what turned out to be a short term tenure of poor results he cut loose DeBord, Sheridan, and Penix. DeBord & Sheridan had recruited Mike to UT and when Jones indicated Mike wouldn’t fit his plans they jumped at the chance to bring Mike to IU. Mike has had his share of bad luck, but getting away from Jones & UT was a break.
The above is pretty well documented, however I did opine that Jones tenure at UT was marked by poor results. The following is my opinion. First, Mike has a great arm. I believe what elevates him above many strong armed gunslingers is his ability to make quick reads and decisiveness. These factors allowed him to overcome some lackluster offensive line protection and was a critical consideration in offensive game planning. Unfortunately these strengths were noticeably absent at the start of the 2021 season as reflected by production and interception numbers starting with Iowa. In my opinion this can be attributed to rushing him back into action from the October 28, 2020 season ending ACL injury. While I don’t doubt his repaired knee was sound his lack of live action prior to facing an Iowa team in the opener undercut his confidence and decisiveness.
I have followed college football for many years and I do not recall another situation where the university announced that a head coach contributed money toward the cost of firing an assistant. Generally who eats the costs of terminations is not made public, and why should it be. The announcement in the Sheridan situation made me wonder why was it done here. The only reason I could think of was to focus the blame for 2021 on Sheridan. If Coach Allen wanted to accept blame for the 2021 season there was no need to link his salary cut to Sheridan he could have followed Harbaugh’s example. Again my opinion, but there would be some logic to him giving some money back as Coach Allen lost the team in 2021, see Rutgers game and player and assistant coach exodus.
In conclusion, Coach Allen reconstructed the staff and brought in several new but experienced players for 2022 at virtually all positions, however only Parker Hannah was added to the OL mix from the portal. With it all Coach Allen sits at 3-1 with a trip to a program in disarray in Nebraska, and then games remaining with programs we have been competitive against during Coach Allen’s tenure in Maryland, MSU, Rutgers, and PU. It will interesting to see how it goes.
