You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cascade
and Clavio Scott Caulfield joining you.
It is. Well, it's being recorded on
Monday, the 16th of December. I don't know when you're
listening to it. This might come out Wednesday
morning. I think we've got a like a
string of podcasts coming out here over the course of the next
couple of days. You probably already heard the
preview with Taylor and we're gonna have a couple other cool
guests coming up here before the end of the week.
But Scott and I wanted to get together and talk about the game
before the game happened. Indiana, of course, taking on
Notre Dame, it's. So much I feel like we have to
talk before this. Game no, we do no question.
I'm excited about it, you know, excited to talk with you about
it. It's it's one of those things
though, where it's just kind of like I, I'm a little worried
'cause, you know, we don't normally do preview podcasts and
and now we're doing one, but this the cause is sufficient
here in Indiana for the first time in a College Football
Playoff game, and this is an order of magnitude greater than
anything we've seen in Indiana football team participate in in
our lifetimes. So it's exciting and Scott it
you know, the, the standout thing is just a ton of people
appear to be going from Indiana, including you, including me.
We're going to be up there. It's going to be I think, just
an amazing array of IU fans from all over the state of Indiana.
I've got people coming in from outside the state of Indiana.
This is the target. South Bend, I don't think will
have seen this type of an invasion quite this way with
with, you know, this type of a game.
Certainly they've had teams come in from outside.
Georgia's been up there, Ohio State's been up there, but it's
a little different here because A, it's a College Football
Playoff game and B, it's an in state game.
And and they're like, that is a really fascinating script to
think about all the way around. It, it feels similar to a little
bit like going to the UCLA game, like a lot of people I knew
like, Oh, I'm going to that or I know someone going to that.
But, but I'm with you. There's an order of magnitude
here where we were going to have some friends over and then it's
like they're like, we're actually going to the game.
We got tickets to the game. And then like we normally sit
with our friends, Jeff and Carol and like Jeff was like, I got
tickets to the game. And then I have AI have a great
friend who happened to get his hands on 4 tickets and he was
like, I, I can't go. I'd love for you to have two.
And what's funny is leading up to it, I, I coached, as you've
heard of, coached my son in, in rec league basketball and we
hadn't won. We won last week, which really
helped. But I was I was kind of only,
hey, look, I couldn't get tickets.
It's like I just got to be there for my son.
I can't imagine missing his first game, like, you know,
missing his first win. That would be off.
Like, I couldn't live with myself.
And then my buddy calls, like, I have two tickets.
I'm like, great. All right, sorry, James.
Can't make a game. Like all of that went out the
window. It's like, well, I could.
I could be a 98% good dad. I'm going to the game.
My wife has taken off work early.
We are busting out. Yeah, I'm with you.
It feels like everyone I know is going to the game and they
obviously we're not taking over Notre Dame Stadium.
But you know that even the UCLA thing, that was a a high
proportion of fans. And I'll say you and I were at
the Gator Bowl. There was a lot of IU fans even
compared to Tennessee, which Tennessee is a blue blood.
So it's I I expect to see a pretty good showing in South
end. I just want to note like my
parents never came to my youth sports games like I I and I I
turned out fine. I still like sports like I I
don't feel like I lost a lot. I think all of you who are like
oh I couldn't possibly because my 4th graders basketball team
is playing like they'll be fine. Like seriously, send the
grandparents. I know, I know.
Well, we're, we're, I was coaching.
But yes, yeah, every, everyone, everything's fine.
I think it'd be right. If if Division One coaches can
can get suspended and miss games and their teams can continue to
operate, I think you're you'll be fine that.
I should have had a kid spying on other games and just taking a
board. Ball where it's like I was in a
hotel room. I just couldn't make it to the
game. Sorry.
Yeah. Just like, you know, just write
like, insulting letters to whoever's organizing the league.
Get yourself suspended today sprung your Scott free like, you
know, two weeks of like, you know, wearing the khakis and
standing on the sideline. Yeah, with the yeah anyway.
All right, anyway, before we get started, just a reminder we're
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That's CFP. I, I think I ordered like two or
three of those things, Scott, like, I mean, what a collector's
item. It's it's not like this
particular matchup or Indiana being in the playoff for the
first time is ever going to happen again.
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Helps keep the lights on here and maybe pays for a ring light
for Scott at some point. Is that is that in the future at
all? I mean, yes, I could probably
work it's yeah, I might need to get a little more lighting here.
It's it's. You're kind of in the at night,
you're kind of in the shadows. I get a little.
I'm worried that I have like windows facing out that normally
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All right, Scott, let's talk about this matchup more
generally as we get into things. Indiana at Notre Dame, 8:00 PM,
ABC first College Football Playoff game of the season.
And, you know, there was so much talk and back and forth, does
Indiana belong? Like, where do they belong?
They were clearly in. We talked about this after the
Michigan game. Like one of the reasons why that
was such a relief was it's like, OK, they're in the playoffs.
Like they unless they lose to Purdue, which seemed unlikely
and and as it turned out, was very unlikely.
Even if they lost to Ohio State, they were going to be in.
And, you know, there were some anxious moments there as
everybody kept trying to say, well, no, Indiana doesn't
belong. Well, they clearly belong.
They were not the last team in by any means.
And to take on Notre Dame of all teams to start this playoff
journey, it's, it's really fascinating and I'm starting to
see some interesting articles about it.
There was a good article in the Herald Times about the, the fact
that these teams don't have a rivalry.
They, they don't really have much of A history.
Most of the history is way, way back, like pre World War 2.
It's 2 fan bases that are very alike in a lot of ways.
Not so much the people that went to Notre Dame, but as we know,
that's not a lot of the Notre Dame fan base because Notre Dame
was so successful. And it's like when you talk
about reversible jacket fans, which has been talked about a
lot this week, it's really like people who affiliate with
schools because they're very successful as Indiana basketball
was in the 70s and 80s and 90s. But the people are pretty much
the same, you know? And this is, I think this is
something we talked about a little bit with Taylor, but I
want to talk about more with you.
The number of people who traditionally root for Notre
Dame in football and are now kind of confronted with this
interesting choice where it's like, well, I went to Indiana or
I really like Indiana. And now Indiana's good and
they're playing Notre Dame. And Indiana's kind of the
underdog story here. Like they're the team that no
one thought was supposed to be here.
They're they're not Notre Dame. They don't carry themselves with
this aura of invincibility. And that has made Indiana, I
think, maybe more of a sentimental choice amongst some
people, though there's still a ton of people who are, you know,
the big Notre Dame football fans are going to remain that way.
Certainly understand that. But I do think it's interesting,
like this match up, the way that it's going down makes for a
fascinating dichotomy in terms of how people look.
At themselves if they're in anywhere in Indiana and they've,
you know, had any kind of flirtations with these programs
or these athletic departments before.
What I wonder for people who are not in Indiana is is how many
like people in you know, South Carolina or something do they
realize this is an in state match up?
Like I think for some people Notre Dame is just kind of it is
like Notre Dame just exists in this other plane where where
it's like this is in South Bend, it's in Indiana.
These are two Indiana schools. I'm, I'm sure some people will
TuneIn from other parts of the country.
It's like, I didn't know that. That's interesting.
No, you, you are right. The, the fan bases probably have
more in common than they, they like to think about.
You know, I, I, I'm going to take a step back.
I, what I think, you know, people should do for the next
couple of days is just enjoy this moment because we, we kind
of got so worked up in the, you know, do we belong?
Do we need to be there all the CFP thing?
And you kind of, you know, you took the, the, the bows and
arrows from the SEC folks. You know, this is the moment you
just never get, I keep on saying this, you never get to go up the
mountain twice. So we might be here again.
We might be in another College Football Playoff.
It'll never be this. And it just feels so perfect
that we're playing Notre Dame. Like it's just, it is almost
like the ultimate. It's a great match up for us.
But it's just like it is one of the premier schools in college
football. But it's, it's close.
It's it's touchable. And while there is no
connection, there's not a ton of connection.
Like there's some and and versus.
Like if we were playing Alabama, it would just be like, no idea.
Different. We're playing.
We're playing a team from another country, essentially,
yes. We're playing Uruguay or
something, so, you know, but I, I, I was thinking about, you
know, we've both been trying to kind of put into words how just
surreal all of is, but I'm just, I really want to try and enjoy
and we're talking about kids. This is an odd, odd relation,
you know, odd thing I'm thinking, but it's like, you
know, I, I think back to those first couple weeks when we
brought our son home for the first time and it's like those
were crazy times. But it in a, in a way, it's like
I kind of wish I could go back. You can never go back to that
moment again. And just the, the wonder of
that. And that's kind of where I feel
like this week is for me. It's just the God.
We're about to play a College Football Playoff game on Friday,
and I want to just enjoy all the moments because after it's done,
it'll be done. And and if we win, that's
awesome. But it's like you're moving on
and suddenly the stakes get raised.
If it's over, it's over. And this ride gets to an end.
Like you're talking to Mitchell on the last pot.
It's like, I don't quite know what I'm going to do for the
next nine months without football.
So sorry. Just taking a step back on that.
Just kind of like we should all just enjoy this moment because
we will really never be here again.
And it's like I'm wearing the sweatshirt from the the Rose
Bowl team and it's so funny. I would be at IU and I would
think about, man, what would it be like to have gone to IU when
they went to the Rose Bowl? Or like what would it have been
like to be there in 7576 where you had back-to-back teams that
lost one game? And like that was God, It's like
we we, we knew about the history of it.
And like you, you could touch like, oh, that's Bob Knight.
Like there's Quinn Buckner, like those are people who are on that
team. There's Kent Benson.
But like I, you just read about what it was like.
It's so crazy to think that 50-60, seventy years from now,
like we're going to be so many metaphors here, like we're going
to be the Hickory poster on the wall that the kids shooting
baskets at like from the movie Hoosiers.
But we're living it right now. And it's just that's that's the
part of having a really hard time wrapping my mind around is
like right now, we are living in a a moment in 50 or 60 years
that people will be looking back on.
And McMahon, what was that like to to live through and like what
we're doing it? Yeah, it really is fascinating
to think through that aspect and we've talked about it a little
bit in previous episodes, but it's like we're not really well
equipped as human beings to think about how momentous things
are in that space, in that temporal space that you're
experiencing them, which is, you know, I think I was probably
supposed to be like, you never realize you're living in
revolutionary times and until the revolutions already stopped
to some degree. And and yet here it's I think
it's been the coolest part of all of this.
And, and especially this last week and 1/2, as I was reflected
on the bit I've been putting together, like some Instagram
reels that kind of I go back and look at the pictures and the
videos that I took from the various games and reliving
internally what that felt like and what this whole ride has
been like. And you know, it's I think you
can be like Kurt Signetti says IU is and say we're not
satisfied. Like we feel like we've got more
to go. And I think you can feel that
way as fans. And I think, you know, I think
you can feel really good about Indiana's chances statistically
in this game. I, I think Indiana matches up
pretty well with Notre Dame in a bunch of ways.
But you can feel that way and still take a step back and
acknowledge the, the momentous nature of what IU is looking at
as they move forward here into this game.
And, and I think really the fact that it's Notre Dame you're
playing, as you mentioned at the beginning of that factors in
even more. It's because it's, it's like the
one big school in the Midwest that you never play.
You know, it, it'd be different if you were playing Ohio State.
It'd be different if you were playing Michigan.
It'd be different if you were playing Penn State.
But it's Notre Dame and I, I don't know about you.
And, and maybe this is different for folks in the audience.
You know, I, I've, I came of age like right at the tail end of
when Notre Dame was like a legitimate superpower.
Obviously I remember like the 93 season when, you know, they were
going back and forth that, you know, obviously a couple years
earlier they won that national title.
But you know, you you start to get into the mid 90s and a lot
of the luster of Notre Dame as a invincible brand that they built
up for decades kind of went away.
And I enjoyed that a little bit in as much as I was really
tired. I remember I wasn't really a
huge college football fan until about 1990, but I was surrounded
by a bunch of people who were Notre Dame fans, and they were
just as obnoxious about it as Indiana basketball fans were
during that time. And I did enjoy to some degree,
you know, in a, in a schadenfreude a sort of way,
watching Notre Dame struggle the way not quite as bad as Indiana
had struggled, but it was like they always seem to regress
back. They hired the wrong coaches.
They did a bunch of stuff that felt like that's what mortal
problems did or mortal programs did, not Notre Dame, But still,
you know, they went to a national championship game.
You know, they, they kind of regained their mojo under Brian
Kelly. They they did a lot of things
right. And here they are once again in
the College Football playoffs. They've got a really good coach
and Marcus Freeman. And and yet, you know, it's like
for Indiana, it, it feels like another rite of passage.
You know, getting, getting into the College Football Playoff is
a rite of passage in and of itself.
It's kind of means, you know, you're going to be in that club
and that's a really exclusive club.
It'll be come slightly less exclusive, but it's still a
pretty exclusive club as we move forward.
But then to play Notre Dame where I, you know, it's like
there's not that much enmity between Notre Dame and Indiana.
It's not there's not a lot of bad blood because there's been
no blood spills, which which gives us an almost, you know,
it's an in state thing. It South Bend, despite having
Notre Dame in it, probably has more IU grads in it than Notre
Dame grads. That whole region.
And you take Chicago, which probably, you know, you have
more IU fans there. Then you have Notre Dame alums,
probably, probably more Notre Dame fans, I would guess.
But it just makes for this really fascinating mix where
it's like, I don't hate Notre Dame.
I, I, I resented their place in college football to some degree
because it always felt like they they held themselves above the
state a bit. But I understand why because
they are certainly a national brand in a way that most of the
other teams in the Midwest are not.
But it just, the whole thing is just kind of an odd confluence
that it's happening in the College Football Playoff, you
know, the same year that Indiana kind of finally arrives on the
national stage in college football.
I don't know if I summarized all of that, but that's a lot of the
threads that I've got running through my head on this thing.
Yeah, I've, I've, I'm with a lot of that.
I mean, I was, we're almost the same age, like a year apart.
You know, I, I, I think the movie Rudy has done more for
Notre Dame than almost anything 'cause that was that, that was a
pivotal time, 'cause Notre Dame had kind of slipped off.
And then, you know, I was also getting I remember the Lou Holtz
team in well, the 88 that won. But when that movie came out, I
was like, oh, wow, Notre Dame's got a lot of history.
People really care about this school.
That kind of isn't that good. And then, you know, but he's
like, you also have something similar with like, again,
Indiana, like Hoosiers wasn't about IU, but it definitely was,
you know, like Hoosiers kind of gets connected with the Indiana
basketball at large and kind of like coach Dale is a
representation of coach Knight. Like, but but and they both kind
of fell off in the 90s and Notre Dame football kind of found a
way back. Indiana basketball didn't.
But no, I'm, I'm, I'm it, it's like the perfect team to play.
I'd rather probably be playing Arizona State, but it wouldn't
have the same gravitas of like, we're going into Notre Dame.
We're playing a night game. Like it's not a lot of night.
Like, you know, there's, there's the fame of like, you know, Matt
Lyard getting the push when he's playing for USC in the night
game against Notre Dame. Like there's you have an iconic
moment in a night game in Notre Dame Stadium.
It becomes an iconic college football moment.
And and that's like, that is what is at the feet here of this
Indiana team. And it's it's really cool.
And what I also really like is, you know, it's we're still
getting you. You're still listening to stuff
where, you know, you still get the people like, oh man, you
know, Alabama, like they should be in over SMU.
Like hell, they should be in over Indiana.
Like you're still getting like arrows from people out there.
You know, you play this game tough and you win this.
Like it just all that goes away. And not that it matters.
And if you don't win, it's not in the world, but.
I don't, I don't think they go away.
I think immediately becomes, oh, Notre Dame must have been
fraudulent, which is that's the, that's been the script that
Indiana's dealt with all season. Indiana was going to face good
teams. They're going to beat them.
And then they beat the crap out of those teams and those teams
suddenly weren't good anymore. That's exactly what will happen
with Notre Dame if Indiana goes. Title.
It's like this 12 team format was wrong.
Like it was wrong, wrong champion.
We got to go to an 18 team format, like we'll put an
asterisk on that. On that title, it's.
I I hear you, but I do think national, like that's how you
shut up the narrative of, you know, you just you go out there
and win, but it's that what I to me is like, that's what's again,
I take a step back and you don't have to win, but I'm just saying
that's what I think it's so cool here is unlike some of these
other matchups, even a game at Tennessee, it's like guys,
that'd be cool, like that'd be fun.
There's really something very special about Notre Dame and,
and it is a cut above and it can be annoying, but it's like they
are something different in college football and night games
there. The helmets like you do
something special there. It can be a big moment.
And it's really cool that Indiana has that at their feet
and it's not, you know, when we played there in 91, I, I
vaguely, I mean, I was kind of into football.
I vaguely remember. It's not like we thought we had
a real chance to win. This feels like we have a real
chance to win and you're playing for some unbelievable stakes.
It's the it's the first game of the college football play off.
Right. You know, so as we think about
the, I guess some of the items that you want to consider going
into this game, you know, we're not going to talk a whole lot
about XS and OS in this one per SE.
But you know, a lot of it is this is another big moment for
Indiana and and it's a moment that Indiana has to essentially
raise the bar. Of what you could expect out of
them. And, and I, you know, as much as
we defended Indiana's schedule and you know, you can only beat
the teams that you you have on the schedule.
And Indiana did that really well.
It's a fair criticism to say that Indiana really didn't get
tested that much. Now it is interesting like
Indiana actually played four Rd. games this year.
Notre Dame only played three. Yes, they played some neutral
side games, but you know when when one of those Rd. games is
against what, Purdue? I think they yeah, they one of
the road games was against Purdue.
It's like they really played two Rd. games this year.
But but all that said, when you hear all this this talk about
like, you know, strength of schedule and like Indiana gets
pulled and always like do Notre Dame, please, like somebody
please do Notre Dame because like they yes, maybe we don't
match up to like our strength of schedule is as great as
Alabama's. But like do Notre Dame like
Notre Dame seems to just kind of float above this because Oh
well, they're good. Like, they're Notre Dame and
it's like. Are they?
Yeah, I know. But, you know, but so much of it
really does come down to, you know, in college football,
especially the the where you're playing and and overcoming the
environment is such a huge aspect of what you have to do.
And this is it's not as big of a stadium as Ohio Stadium or the
Big House or or Beaver Stadium, but it's Notre Dame Stadium and
it's one of the more iconic venues in in the entirety of
college football in terms of just the imagery around it and,
and what it's meant and how much success that there's been there.
And, you know, for Indiana, you know, you, you've, you've got to
be impressed with the mentality that they've had throughout most
of the season in terms of not letting that stuff trip them up.
You know, even at Ohio Stadium, it wasn't so much the the moment
that overcame them as much as it was the rain and the crowd
noise, neither of which I think they're going to have to deal
with in this game. But but that emotional aspect of
we are in this game and we're going to have to do XY and Z and
there's a lot of pressure on us. I am interested, you know, how
much does that affect Indiana directly?
There was a comment from Fred Glass.
I don't know if you saw the comment from Fred Glass, but
essentially, you know, if Fred, Fred's enjoyed unworking some of
these things on people since he retired.
I give him credit for it. But he was like, all the
pressure's on Notre Dame, you know, because Notre Dame's got
AI mean they're expected to win there.
There are a few people that have picked Indiana to win in this
game. I don't think anybody's
expecting Indiana to win this game.
Now, that can be a positive or negative.
Notre Dame is certainly expecting to win this game.
How does Indiana deal with having to come into that
environment and perform? And can they do so in a way
where they keep their nerve and are are not bothered by the
surroundings and the things that they're dealing with in the
game? Is is an interesting question to
me. I was thinking about this.
I have a couple things I want to highlight from your podcast with
Mitchell Page, which was really, really good.
But one of the things you talked about was this, this idea of,
you know, there's all of this hoopla around the game.
You know, game day is going to be there.
And it got me thinking, it's like, this is wild to say.
It's like, well, but if you're IU, it's like, well, it's our
third. This is the third time we'll be
in a game day game. Like like that's wild to think.
Like normally that's like a that would be like, Oh my God, like
it's game day, like game day is going to be there like Kirk St.
like that's going to throw the guys.
Now. It's like, Oh, this is the third
time. Like we we're used to game day
like big noon kick off like the the amount of times like yes,
you you had the one game at Ohio State, but the other way to look
at it is there was a lot of build up before the Nebraska
game. I mean you, you had big noon
kick off. That was a a week, a bye week of
just kind of this team like, Oh my God, you're 6 and O like this
is really something like can they really do it?
You got to play a real team that that would have been a moment.
You could have easily stubbed your toe as a team.
Then you have the Washington game.
You're coming off of that same week, even more hype game day is
there. It's you know, you're you have a
backup quarterback playing a game that is a very easy spot
where the the hype could have been too much and it wasn't
there. Even the Michigan game, you
know, that's like, all right, this is the real test.
This is the bar you got to clear, because that's at least
what we thought. We didn't realize the bar would
they we didn't realize they would all suck after we play
them. But you know, that was a game
that you you came out and you played really well and you
started well you and again, even the Ohio State game, it wasn't a
win. I, I really bristle to side
note, hearing people talk about like, oh, you know, Indiana got
blown out of Ohio State. Like we did not get blown out
like Purdue got blown out when we played them, like we lost in
Ohio State. It wasn't awesome.
I wouldn't say we got blown out, but you know, you come out
there, it's not like we were scared.
We, we went up 7 nothing. We held them on a goal line
stand like we, we came out and had a very good start against
Ohio State. We didn't look like we weren't
ready to go. We made some mistakes and as you
said, a lot of it might have been snap count and just some of
the noise and the weather. But every other time this
season, even the Ohio State game for the beginning of it, when
that moment got magnified and the light really got bright on
this team, This team is delivered.
And and that's what makes me very excited about this is, you
know, there really isn't a moment again, outside of I think
there's a couple ways you can look at the Ohio State game.
I I tend to look at it as like, if you have a couple of those
mistakes taken off the board, it's probably a much different
game or at least a much closer game.
All that said, you know, most of the time when you've had these
moments come up and you have all the attention and like suddenly
everyone's talking about Indiana, they've responded.
And a lot of times they've responded big.
Yeah, no, it's true. I mean, it's one of those where
you can kind of talk yourself into whatever narrative you
want. And and I, I struggle back for
and back and forth with that. Like I talked about it on the
podcast with Taylor. If they don't drop the punt and
it's a tie game going into half, like how different does the
second-half look? Maybe it doesn't look different
at all. Maybe Indiana loses by the same
amount. Maybe Indiana's in the game a
lot longer. That game felt like it spiraled
out of control, but there's a non zero chance that Indiana was
just an inferior team. And you know, that's that
becomes the big question mark with Notre Dame.
It's like the hallmark. These these two teams have
different things that make them good.
Notre Dame is is a legitimately talented football team.
You know, they're probably not as talented as your average SEC
team. They're probably not as talented
as Ohio State, but they're a really talented football team
and they're well coached and they've they've been very, very
good at grinding their opponents into dust.
Indiana has been good for different reasons.
Indiana's Got Talent, but not the same caliber of athletic
talent that Notre Dame's got. Their, their effectiveness has
been in their efficiency and in their game planning and in their
ability to be very, very relentless and just kind of
gradually do the same thing that Notre Dame did in a lot of their
games. It's just that I think you can
make the argument down the stretch, Indiana played tougher
competition than Notre Dame did. Like Indiana had to play
Michigan and Ohio State. You know, Notre Dame didn't play
anybody close to that caliber. And you know, Army is not in
that caliber. I'm sorry, Navy is not in that
caliber. You know, the, the, the one, you
know, kind of potentially impressive and they weren't that
impressive, all things considered.
Power Five team that Notre Dame played down the stretch was AUSC
team that went six and six. And you know, that game was a 7
point game with USC on the goal line before they threw a 99 yard
pick 6. So that's that's a really
fascinating thing to think about.
As far as I'm concerned, it's like the, you know, Indiana is
not going to out talent Notre Dame, but they could out execute
Notre Dame. It's at Notre Dame.
And I think Notre Dame, you know, they're, they get the
credit and the the benefit of the doubt in playing at home.
But you look at the statistics, you look at the the way that
Indiana has played over the bulk of the season and you can make
an argument that Indiana has a lot of things going for them.
And then it wouldn't be a surprise if they won.
That is not something you would say out of a team that doesn't
belong in the playoff. And, and I think that that's
going to be interesting. And, and whether or not Indiana
pulls it off, I think it's fascinating that if you look at
the statistical profiles, they're very they're even with
each other. It's very much strength on
strength. As Taylor said in his podcast
with me, there's a lot there to be really interested in.
Yeah, I mean, that's in one of Taylor's previews, the bite
sized bison that that's what I took away is it's really going
to be strength on strength that, you know, Indiana is really
their defensive, their defense against the rush is one of the
best in the country and Notre Dame gets the majority of their
offense with the rush. So so you have a lot of these
two, you know, 2 pieces coming together and, and how's how's
that going to play out? And it's it's really going to be
interesting. You know, I think I, I think the
question is going to be the the other lingering question for me
is how I thought Curtis Rourke threw the ball a lot better
against Purdue than I had seen him throwing it against Ohio
State and Michigan. I'm not saying I'm actually
talking about the the spiral, the way the ball looked out of
his hand. Obviously the things were wide
open against Purdue, but even in some of the games, you know,
against Michigan and Ohio State, when he when guys, even Michigan
State a little bit, when people were open, the ball had a little
bit of a flood. You could tell, you know, maybe
the thumb injury like that. That's kind of my question is
how healthy is Rourke's thumb and then how much did the
offense get right with Purdue or how much of that was just Purdue
being a complete garbage of a team?
And, you know, are Ohio State and Michigan going to be able to
muck up our offense as much? I'm sorry, is Notre Dame going
to muck up our offense as much as as as much as Michigan, Ohio
State did? Because that's really, that
really seems to be how you stop this Indiana team or really slow
it down is as we've said all season.
To me, the power of this team is when we get to play, recite the
drive where the the offense just starts to put the screws to the
entire team, where it's like we're going to score, we're
going to score, we're going forward on 4th, we're going to
kick a field goal. Like we are getting points every
time we touch the ball. What are you going to do?
And that puts a lot of teams in positions where they're doing
things they don't want to do. And then Indiana capitalizes on
it. Michigan and Ohio, sorry,
Michigan and Ohio State, we're able to kind of slow that down.
And Michigan, especially in the second-half, stop that.
And when that doesn't happen, our defense is still really
good. But it it, it becomes a much
different type of team. That's what I'm curious to see.
Can Indiana continue that pressure that the offense is
putting out there by scoring and can they get the offense kind of
mojo back that they had pre Michigan?
Yeah, it's, it's a, it's an open question and you know, I think
you, you brought up a lot of good points there.
I mean, you know, Rourke it, it isn't just his yards have been
down, but his completion percentage has been down.
You know, you, you go back and look pre injury, 76% against
Northwestern, 81% in that first half against Nebraska and then
65% against Michigan State, 60% against Michigan, 44% against
Ohio State back up to 74% completion percentage against
Purdue. Now again, Purdue not nearly as
good as Notre Dame defensively. But I think you bring up like
the last thing we'll say here, which is a continuation of what
I was talking about with Taylor, which is that both of these
teams are used to kind of being a freight train on offense and,
and scoring a lot of points. And yet I think it's both teams
defenses that ultimately are going to be the key in in a lot
of ways. Because you know, for Indiana,
it's like you've got a stymie Notre Dame's rushing attack.
And if you can do that, you're going to make it hard for Notre
Dame to move the ball down the field.
If you're Notre Dame, like can you 'cause as you said, the same
level of problems versus Indiana's offensive line that
Ohio State and Michigan did? Because if you do that, Indiana
hasn't shown an ability to pivot in the passing game.
They haven't shown a commitment to the run that would allow them
to avoid some of those pitfalls. So that's really my thing.
It's like if you can, as, as we said with Taylor, one of the
great things about this matchup is not the not just that it's an
in state matchup, not just that it's College Football Playoff
with all of that on the line. But you can look at the stats
and the numbers and you can draw whatever conclusion you want to
draw in terms of what the narrative's going to be and and
who's got the chance of being the most successful in the game.
If you want to say Notre Dame's been a wagon on offense and
they're going to run over Indiana, I I see the evidence to
support that. If you want to say Indiana's
passing games back on track, they're going to throw for six
touchdowns in this game. They're gonna they're gonna put
Notre Dame on their heels. There's evidence for that as
well. That's that's really gonna be a
fascinating thing. And the, and the great thing,
Scott, is we don't really know until the game actually gets
underway what we're going to see out of both of these teams.
That's that's probably my favorite aspect of it is it is
absolutely like it's a present that you haven't unwrapped yet.
I have no idea what's in the box at this point.
Yeah. And, and I also think there, you
know, it'd be better to be at home, obviously, but but of all
the teams we had to play, this is probably the going to be the
least hostile environment again of all the other options that
are on the table. And you know, there is something
to be said that if you can, you know, it's it's College Football
Playoff, it's a bigger game. You know, if you can come in and
get a lead, same thing against Ohio State.
You know, you come in and get a lead, it, it can get tense and,
and there really is going to be pressure on.
I'm I'm with Fred Glass like there, there's more pressure on
Notre Dame to get this done than Indiana.
And and so I think that, you know, if you can get after that,
that that start and you can hold it a little bit longer than you
did against Ohio State and not make those mistakes and continue
to keep the pressure. It's going to be really
interesting to see what that crowd could be like.
You know, again, you go down 14 nothing, it's a different story.
But I, I, I think there's a world where if you can keep the
pressure on Notre Dame. You know, it does feel like
they, they theoretically have more to lose here.
Yeah, theoretically. But look, but at the end of the
day, they're also going in, I think, expecting to win the
game. And I certainly understand why.
It'll be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to seeing
it. I'm looking forward to seeing
all the IU fans up in South Bend.
It's just it's it should be a party for the next couple of
days, like Thursday and Friday. I'm really looking forward to
that. I I have one last thing for you,
something that that you and Mitchell Page talked about a
little bit. He said something that, that
really made me think, because I, I've been thinking, I was going
to ask you like, you know, this, this has got to be the most
important game we've ever played at IU.
And, and his, his point on the pod was that we've already
played the most important game, which I, I like, I like that
thought process. And I think I, I would probably
rephrase the adjectives a little bit like I, I think maybe it is
true. We've played the most important,
some of the most important games this season to get us to this
point. I, I do think that this, this
future, the gaming of snooterday might be the most impactful or
maybe has the most potential upside for us.
I mean, it's obviously a huge game.
It, it probably is the most important game if we win.
I don't know. I just, I, I'm, there's not
really a great question for you in that.
I just, I thought it was an interesting way to look at it,
but it does feel like there is, you know, we, we knew it before
the Michigan game. Like this is, this is a game
that you step on this, you are in a different threshold of a
university. We are really here now, man.
Like, I mean, this is something I just, I want to play in the
space with you for two minutes. Because if, if you win this
game, if Curtis Rourke has a great game, that there's,
there's some really cool stuff that you, you just, you take
another step as a program in a season where you've already
taken more steps than I think anybody thought.
What was, I mean, we are in the fever dream territory.
The idea of winning a game in the College Football Playoff,
Going to play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on what?
Is it, New Year's Eve or New Year's Day?
New. Day I mean it's you know, and
and then yes, people could say Notre Dame was overrated, but
it's like you can be like suck it like for everyone who thought
we didn't sort of be here, like suck it, suck on it.
We're in the second round. We got a puncher's chance to get
to the semi final of this thing like it is.
It's really wild, wild to think. It is, No, I mean, it is.
Look, as far as whether it's the biggest game, whatever, I mean,
I, I guess it just depends on your interpretation.
It's kind of like, you know, Most Valuable Player versus
player of the year or whatever you want to call it.
You know, it's I, I look at it like, of course, the College
Football Playoff game that you play in is the most important
game that you've played up to that point.
And, and there's no question what Mitchell was trying to say,
and I understood where he was coming from with the idea.
Well, look, the Michigan game was probably more impactful
because it got it got us here. Or you could say the Nebraska
game was more impactful because it packed the stadium in a
really fun environment. I mean, there's arguments to be
made for all of those, but in the way that we traditionally
understand how these games operate, this is the most
important game Indiana's ever played.
I think it's more important than the Rose Bowl in in a lot of
ways that they played in 1968 because you know you, you would
have teams that would rise up, They'd go to a bowl game that
they weren't supposed to go to. They'd have an amazing season.
They'd sink back into the background.
That's essentially what Indiana did.
It's a different game now. Like football, college football,
you have to be able to put something on the table when
you're talking to recruits, when you're talking to coaches, when
you're talking like when you're when you're trying to position
yourself within the landscape of college football.
For all of what we heard all of last summer and all of the
previous summer about, oh, Indiana's going to get relegated
out of the Big 10. Remember that talk?
Everybody was like, Oh yeah, Indiana's going to get kicked
out of the Big 10. You're next.
It's like, no, But you know, that was when Indiana was not
very good at football. And it was easy to say that.
And and yeah, you know, the win against Michigan that got
Indiana into the College Football Playoff was probably
more impactful in terms of like, you know, that that finished off
or got ready to finish off what was an amazing home season.
But to be in the College Football Playoff, to play that
game, to be this national spotlight game on a Friday night
against Notre Dame at Notre Dame, that to me, with the
implications and the chance to go to the quarterfinals and and
push yourself even further up the perceptional ladder of
college football, to be able to shut up all of the haters who
were like, why you didn't belong there in the 1st place.
To me, there's a tremendous amount on the line in this game,
above and beyond just even the competition aspects.
And that's not to take away from the quality of the wins before
or what they might have meant to the building of the program.
But to me there's there's no contest like this is the most
important game Indiana's ever played.
I, I agree. And, and again, I, I brought
this up on one earlier pod. I I think the timing of it also
really plays well for Indiana that if they win and if, if they
win in like a a really cool fast, even if they just if they
win, we are the story of the weekend.
Like I just it becomes going into Saturday morning.
It's like, Oh my God, this is fun.
Like remember that game last night?
Like in all halftime shows of all the games on Saturday, they
are showing all the highlights of Indiana winning.
If Indiana wins it, it becomes the Cinderella story of the
first weekend. Like we own the first weekend of
the College Football Playoff. Because even if something
happens wild in the second game, it's like you're in the on that
Saturday, you will have had just Indiana highlights all Friday
night. Like it's it is you are the
marquee game. Like it's just it is all you and
you're going to have a basically an 18 hour run of build up game
and then highlights of nothing but this game.
Yeah, a lot on the line and a lot to a lot to come here over
the next couple of days as we get ready for this contest.
But I don't even know how to get.
I. Did for a game I I don't
remember when. Honestly, no one knows how to
get ready for this, so just do what you do.
What comes natural is my message to you and all the IU fans out
there. That is certainly what I'm
planning on doing here over the next few days.
So anyway, that'll wrap it up for us.
Enjoy it. Well, you, you enjoy it as well.
And we'll see you up there. Absolutely.
And oh, we'll see you folks up there as well.
We'll go ahead and wrap up this show.
We got other shows coming up later on this week, so be sure
to tune in for those and we'll be up there.
Join us at Social Cantina in Mishawaka at noon on Friday.
I'll be there. I don't think Scott's going to
be able to make it up, but you'll find Scott somewhere in
the crowd, I promise. Just keep an eye out for him.
We're in home field. There we go.
All right, my thanks to all you folks.
My thanks to Home Field, our presenting sponsor.
We'll be back later on in the week with more podcasts as
Indiana gets ready to take on Notre Dame in the CFP First
round up at Notre Dame Stadium. And we'll be back one way or
another with a recap of all of what happened, probably that
following Saturday or Sunday. We'll see what happens.
Anyway, I'm Galen, this is Crimson cast.
We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the
Bison. Stay.
Never daunted. So long, everybody.