First-Year Indiana Football Coaches: Cam Cameron Promised To Jolt Hoosiers Offense

This is the next in a series of how Indiana football coaches fared in their first year in Bloomington.

Indiana football coach Cam Cameron shouts instructions during an Oct. 4, 1997 game against Michigan. Cameron, a former quarterback and basketball player for the Hoosiers, coached Indiana from 1997-02. /

Even in November 1996 – when at the low ebb of his fortunes, Bill Mallory was unceremoniously fired before the season had concluded – there was a recognition that the process to replace Mallory would be unlike any since at least the early 1970s.

The man who followed Mallory would be following someone who had tangible sustained success as Indiana’s coach.

No Indiana coach since has repeated what Mallory was able to achieve in Bloomington. In its 43 seasons where it finished .500 or better, Mallory was responsible for seven of them.

Only Bo McMillin has done better by that standard. Mallory proved you can win, and do so consistently, at Indiana.

His replacement would be charged with the same mission.

Why change?

Mallory’s demise at Indiana came quickly and would have been unbelievable as recently as two years earlier.

That’s because Mallory had built Indiana from the ground up to enjoy unprecedented success.

Nov 17, 1990; Bloomington, IN, USA; FILE PHOTO; Indiana Hoosiers head coach Bill Mallory on the sidelines during the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: RVR Photos-USA TODAY Sports / RVR Photos-USA TODAY Sports

After a winless start in 1984, Mallory’s Hoosiers gave a taste of what was to come with a 4-0 start in 1985. In 1986, with help from freshman running back Anthony Thompson, Indiana moved to 6-6 and its first bowl bid since 1979.

In 1987, the Hoosiers arrived. Fueled by wins over both Ohio State and Michigan, Indiana surged to a 6-1 record.

On Nov. 14, Indiana played at Michigan State in a showdown for Big Ten supremacy. Lorenzo White and the Spartans prevailed 27-3, but the Hoosiers finished 8-4 and were in the national rankings for six weeks.

The good times didn’t fade away as it did for some of the other Indiana coaches who enjoyed a year or two of success. While Indiana didn’t threaten to win the Big Ten again, bowl seasons were in store in 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1993.

Mallory’s offense favored dominant running backs. Thompson nearly won the Heisman Trophy in 1989 and finished his sterling Indiana career with 4,965 rushing yards. Vaughn Dunbar, Thompson’s successor, racked up 2,842 rushing yards in two seasons.

By 1995, however, Mallory’s run of success at Indiana hit a brick wall. The Hoosiers went winless in the Big Ten and would end up losing 15 conference games in a row.

Indiana fans began to lose interest as the offensive remained conservative. Attendance dropped to last in the Big Ten.

In the middle of the 1996 season, Indiana president Myles Brand and the IU trustees asked athletic director Clarence Doninger to do a mid-season evaluation. On Halloween, Mallory was fired by the Hoosiers.

“Bill created some of his problems. If you’ve studied Indiana football, we had always been in that lower third (of the Big Ten). Bill got us above that,” Doninger said to the Indianapolis News.

“A lot of our fan base said, ‘That’s not enough. We’ve got to go another step,’ There was a downward momentum that was going to be hard to turn around,” Doninger added.

Mallory was devastated. He had committed the rest of his coaching career to Indiana and still had two years left on his contract. He fought back tears in a subsequent press conference calling the firing “a shock”.

“He didn’t quit and it seems obvious people quit on him,” Indiana linebacker Matt Surface told the Indianapolis News.

Enter Cameron

Almost immediately, speculation about Mallory’s replacement focused on former Indiana quarterback and men’s basketball player Cam Cameron.

Cameron had spent 10 years as an assistant at Michigan and was in his third year as quarterbacks coach with the Washington Redskins. Less than two weeks after Mallory was fired, the Indianapolis News reported that Cameron was offered the job.

Three days after Indiana defeated Purdue to send Mallory out on a high note, Cameron was introduced as the Hoosiers’ next coach. Indiana signaled its commitment to Cameron with a seven-year contract.

The Terre Haute native came in confident.

“You would like to think at some point in time people would say, ‘Indiana does that, we need to do this.’ If we can get to that point, we’re in business,” Cameron said when introduced as coach.

Year One

Indiana coach Cam Cameron extends a hand to an unseen Ball State player after the Hoosiers defeated the Cardinals at Memorial Stadium in 1997. / Indiana University Arbutus

Much like it was when Indiana had last turned to the pro ranks for its coach when Sam Wyche was hired after the 1982 season, the Hoosiers re-branded their look to signal a new era.

Out went the traditional maroon block “I” helmets. Replacing them would be then-in-vogue black helmets. The iconic inter-locking IU logo was nowhere to be found, replaced by a red oval on the black helmet with “I” and “U” separated within it.

This iconography defines the Cameron era, but his first season in 1997 was unlike his others. That’s primarily because it was the only year Cameron was in charge where quarterback Antwaan Randle El wasn’t dazzling Indiana fans with his feet and his arm.

Indiana quarterback Jay Rodgers attempts a pass during a 1997 game against Kentucky at Memorial Stadium. / Indiana University archives

What was in evidence was a new-look offense. With Jay Rodgers at the helm at quarterback, the Hoosiers surged from 148.6 passing yards in 1996 to 213.7 in 1997.

Wins, however, didn’t come any more frequently than they did in Mallory’s final season. The Hoosiers defeated Ball State in their second game for Cameron’s first victory, but then lost six in a row.

The only respite was a 23-7 home win over Illinois on Nov. 1. The Hoosiers finished 2-9, one game worse than they did in Mallory’s final season.

Cameron was chaffed. He took out a full-page ad in the Bloomington Herald-Times after the season concluded where he said, “what happened was inexcusable.”

Cameron bemoaned lack of team speed at the close of his first season and vowed to change that.

He certainly would change it at the quarterback spot, but could he complete the mission to improve Indiana across the board? In 2002, the answer came as Cameron era ended with an 18-37 record.

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• FIRST-YEAR COACHES, JOHN PONT: The ex-Miami of Ohio and Yale coach got a literal black eye when he took the Indiana job and got a metaphorical one in his first season, but it would get better. CLICK HERE.

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• FIRST-YEAR COACHES, BILL MALLORY: It didn't start well in 1984, but it would get better in a hurry as Bill Mallory had the most sustained success of any coach in the post-McMillin era. CLICK HERE.