四年来，赛维·加迪斯一直听着评论家们的评论。他们说他受了伤不会反弹，而且他有一双坚硬的手。在同一时间段里，当印第安人在比赛最后没能取得胜利时，他也在场。所有这些负面的经历让加迪斯士气高涨，这位五年级的学生已经准备好带领美国橄榄球联盟自1993年以来第一次重返碗比赛。上个赛季，加迪斯，一个5-10岁，190磅的接球手，突破了他职业生涯最好的一年。加迪斯在去年秋天完成了35次633码的接发球和3次触地得分。从比赛一开始，加迪斯就下定决心要产生影响，在赛季揭幕战对阵球州的比赛中，他在81码处触地得分。恩格迪斯上个赛季的成功让很多人感到惊讶。在比尔·马洛里(Bill Mallory)的带领下，加迪斯在大学一年级时表现出了一些希望，但1997年，他因为膝盖受伤而不得不缺席。从很多方面来说，1999年是他迫切需要向自己和他人证明自己能够踢球的赛季。“对我来说，终于可以走出去，放松一下，感觉很好，”加迪斯说。“我从大一开始就没有这种感觉了。在我从伤病中恢复后的那一年，这仍然在我的脑海中挥之不去。 (Last year) I felt so free. I just wanted to go out and help my team and that's what I did."\nDespite producing solid numbers, coach Cam Cameron criticized Gaddis and his fellow receivers for dropping some passes they needed to catch in critical situations. Gaddis takes the comments as constructive criticism.\n"There have been times where we have struggled," Gaddis said. "We appreciate (criticism). That tells us what we have to work on."\nGaddis was an integral part of the offense last year that averaged 405.9 yards and 26.5 points per game. Even though the Hoosiers offense was very prolific, Gaddis still sees room for improvement.\n"We're not satisfied with what we did last year, even though we put up big numbers at times," Gaddis said. "Hopefully we can improve on that."\nWhile the offense had a good year in 1999, the defense struggled mightily. Despite the fact the pressure seemed to consistently be on the offense to score large amounts of points, Gaddis said the offense holds no grudges.\n"We understand things like that happen, but we'll get it together," Gaddis said. "They want to get better and they want to improve and I think they will. We know the defense will take care of business."\nThe defense is aware of the pressure it put on the offense last season and is looking to improve upon that. \n"When your offense puts 30 points or more on the board a game and you're not winning, something's wrong," defensive end Paul Mandina said. "We're not going to let that happen again."\nThis season will see Gaddis serve as a co-captain on the team. From his leadership position, he wants to make sure his teammates expect to win games in the Big Ten, even though the skeptics might not think so.\n"I just want the underclassmen to understand that, even though in the past our records haven't shown that we are one of the toughest teams in the Big Ten, we can play ball," Gaddis said.\nAfter a second-consecutive 4-7 season, Gaddis represents a prevalent attitude of all Hoosier fans. Gaddis has had his fill of playing good teams well into the latter stages of the game only to see things fall apart.\n"It was very disappointing because my whole career it seems like we have been real close every year in those big games," Gaddis said.\nFrom his point of view, Gaddis thinks IU was lacking a killer instinct last season that prevented them from doing the things they wanted to do. Gaddis won't let that happen again.\n"We were more expecting it to happen and not really going out and forcing it to happen," Gaddis said. "This year we are going to go out and try to take what we want. We want to win games this year."\nBeyond just winning games, Gaddis expects the Hoosiers to win a lot of big games.\n"We can get some things done," Gaddis said. "But its not going to get handed to us. You have to go out and earn it. We have some great teams in the Big Ten and we can compete with them. We can win a championship"
