This is the next in a series of how Indiana football coaches fared in their first year in Bloomington.
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.
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. 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.
“Bill created some of his problems. If you’ve studied Indiana football, we had always been in that lower third . Bill got us above that,” Doninger said to the Indianapolis News. 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.
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.
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