First-Year IU Football Coaches: Gerry DiNardo Era Was Part Of Rocky 2000s

After Cam Cameron falters, one-time Vanderbilt and LSU coach takes over but fails to stabilize the program.

Indiana football coach Gerry DiNardo coaches on the Memorial Stadium sideline during his three-year coaching tenure. / Indiana athletics

The 2000s were not the kindest decade for the highest-profile athletic programs at Indiana.

Bob Knight was let go in the first year of the decade amid controversy, and while men’s basketball managed a Final Four appearance in 2002, the rest of the decade was mired in failed expectations, fan division, and later, a coaching regime that got the Hoosiers in NCAA trouble.

The women’s basketball program was stuck in neutral for most of the decade – with just one NCAA Tournament appearance in 2002.

Football provided no respite from the troubles in other sports.

Four coaches headed the program in the decade, the most since the 1950s -  a period that included Bob Hicks’ one temporary year in-charge for suspended Phil Dickens. Those are the only two decades where Indiana had four men in charge of its football fortunes.

When Cam Cameron was dismissed after the 2001 season, Indiana hoped it was embarking on a new dawn, but it was just the start of the coaching churn to come.

Why Change?

After a 2-9 opening season of the Cameron regime, he unveiled the player who would define his time as coach in 1998 – the dazzling Antwaan Randle-El.

Those blessed to watch Randle El – this writer was one – will never forget it. In his first game as a Hoosier, he set an Indiana record for total offense in a game with 467 yards, and he kept on wowing IU fans. He would go on to become the only player in college football history to amass 2,500 total yards in all four years of his career.

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One of the many highlight moments from Antwaan Randle El's career.

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As an option quarterback, he was stunning. Fast, elusive, brave and blessed with derring do. As a passer, he ultimately threw for 7,469 yards and 42 touchdowns.

Randle El was the embodiment of what the Cameron era was supposed to be about – exciting, high-scoring football. However, his excellence also raised the pressure on Cameron to deliver excellence throughout the Indiana squad. He could never quite pull it off, particularly on defense.

Indiana never won more than five games a year in Cameron’s five seasons. By 2001, Randle El’s final season, rumors were circulating that the Hoosiers had to have a winning record for Cameron to continue as coach.

“I can’t worry about all of that other stuff,” Cameron said before the 2001 season. “Overall we had our best offseason and brought in our best recruiting class ever. Now we just have to turn those positives into victories.”

However, Indiana started the season 1-5, including a season-opening loss with Tommy Jones at quarterback and Randle El playing his future NFL position at wide receiver. Though Indiana rallied late, the 5-6 season put Cameron on thin ice.

On Dec. 5, 2001, athletic director Michael McNeely ended the Cameron era. Cameron was 18-37 in his five seasons inncharge.

“We have not achieved the high level of success on the field that we should and do expect. Further, there is not compelling evidence that the current direction of the football program will yield a higher level of competitive success,” McNeely said.

It was back to the drawing board for Indiana.

Enter DiNardo

McNeely was in his first year as Indiana's athletic director. As a one-man committee, it was a mystery what direction he might go in.

On Jan. 8, Gerry DiNardo accepted the job. Was it a surprise? To outsiders, perhaps it was. However, McNeely was committed from the start, having worked with DiNardo when both were on Colorado’s football staff in the 1980s.

“Gerry was our first choice and the only one to get an official offer,” McNeely told the Columbus Republic. “Gerry’s a builder. We will gather the resources at hand and get him focused.”

DiNardo developed that reputation as a builder in the 1990s. He led chronically poor Vanderbilt to respectability in his stint in Nashville from 1991-94, winning SEC Coach of the year in 1991. While he never had a winning season with the Commodores, he also never failed to win at least four games at a program that had only reached that win threshold twice in its previous eight seasons.

Oct 3, 1998; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; FILE PHOTO; LSU Fighting Tigers head coach Gerry DiNardo against Georgia Bulldogs at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: RVR Photos-USA TODAY Networkgarry Dinardo / RVR Photos-USA TODAY Sports

LSU turned to DiNardo to revive its flagging fortunes starting in 1995. The Tigers had suffered through six straight losing seasons, but in his second year, DiNardo led LSU to a 10-2 record.

His winning ways didn’t last, however, and he was let go after the 1999 season in Baton Rouge. Apart from one season coaching in the XFL, DiNardo hadn’t been a head coach since.

Indiana was hoping to tap into DiNardo’s turnaround magic.

“I believe you can win at Indiana or I wouldn’t have taken the job. This is a great university and the Midwest is a great region to recruit from,” DiNardo said in August.

Year One

For the first time in DiNardo’s college head coaching career, his team won fewer games in his first season than it had in the previous campaign.

The Hoosiers never got off the ground in 2002. Two wins came against FCS William & Mary and Mid-American Conference foe Central Michigan. The Hoosiers’ one surprise of the season was a 32-29 home win over No. 23 Wisconsin to lift Indiana to a 3-3 record.

Perhaps it was the turning point for yet another revival season under DiNardo? What it was instead was a false dawn. Indiana would not win again, and it gave up a massive amount of points.

Indiana football coach Gerry DiNardo speaks during an on-campus pep rally during the 2002 season. On the far right side is then-Indiana president Myles Brand. / Indiana University archives

In its six losses to end the season, Indiana opponents scored more than 40 in four of them. Michigan State and Penn State topped 50 in two straight homes losses in November.

All the while, DiNardo cleaned house. He had just 65 players on scholarship to begin with and that number was whittled down to 40 by season's end.

Off the field, the man who hired DiNardo didn’t make it to the end of his first season. McNeely resigned under fire on Nov. 8 after less than two years on the job. In addition to an athletics department deficit of $3.2 million, in the days before Big Ten Network money flowed in, morale in the athletic department was low as McNeely fired four coaches, including Cameron.

With no quick turnaround and with the man who hired him now gone in a popular move, DiNardo was on a bit of an island not even a year into his regime.

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