You're listening to the back home network, presented by home
field apparel. Welcome back to Crimson, Cask
ale and clavijo here as it is. New Year's Eve.
If you're listening on the day that this gets released.
It might be New Year's Day, might be a couple of days after
that either way or any way. Happy New Year, and we're
looking forward to bringing in 2022.
It's an exciting time for most of you who have been asking for
2021 to be over with. And I think that that number of
people has increased pretty consistently over the course of
the last couple of months. It's just from a living
perspective. So we're going to try to sign
off 2021 the right way. And we're going to do so by
talking some food, and some drinks, and some music.
And things of that nature, not a very Sports heavy edition of
crimson cast this time around. But many of you might still find
it interesting. So hopefully you stick around
this will not be an overly long podcast either.
I appreciate all you folks who wrote in last week with
questions that didn't have anything to do with IU Sports.
We're going to try to get to some of those today.
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Happy to have them as the presenting sponsor of the back
home network. No Scott today on the podcast.
So sorry if that is a disappointment to his fans, but
I wanted to tackle some of these questions individually and see
what what thoughts I could spread around to all of you out
there. So we had a couple of questions
that I'll jump on right away. So our friend Mark Kate, you
know, for actually first of all before I To that question.
I did want to send out a big congratulations to longtime
friend of the Pod and occasional host of the Pod or, or
interviewer call screener back in the day, but Matt Blasco
getting married today on New Year's Eve in Bloomington.
So biggest, congratulations to Matt and his new bride Cheyenne.
As we're looking forward to helping them get married today.
So really exciting times in the, the Crimson cast extended.
Mele congrats to Matt and shy and we look forward and wish
them all the very best in the future.
Let me jump on this first question from Mark.
Katie good friend of the podcast as well best leftover recipe for
rib roast. So, you know, there's a couple
of different directions. You can go with this.
I know many of you have gone to the rib roast from a Christmas
dinner perspective or something around this time of year, you
know, many of you have been doing it for years, but I think
More people are hopping on the rib roast train or some of the
other larger roasts, whether their pork or beef.
So, I think the biggest thing with these is you have to
approach the different parts of the rib roast differently.
One of the things, and I introduced this to mark this
week actually and I think he was a fan of it.
What some people for whatever reason?
Don't like rib roast bones. I don't understand those people.
I don't get what their philosophy on life is, but I
would recommend that you embrace the bones as a source of some of
the best tasting meat on the rib roast.
And honestly, you know, my perspective on on rib bones off
of the rib roast is rather than worrying about keeping them at a
medium rare temperature or even eating them the day of
Oftentimes, quite good once you've finished cooking the rib
roast, but they go incredibly well in the airfryer.
I know that's probably not what you expected me to hear, but you
take those rib bones. Let him sit in the fridge for a
couple of days, maybe lightly, seasoned them or not.
It really doesn't matter, and then pop them in the air, fryer
at about 350 degrees. Let them go for about 10
minutes. Let, the outside get singed, get
a little bit of the maillard reaction going on on the fat and
you pull, Those out. You let him cool.
Just a little bit. That is, that is a delightful
treat because it's normally one or two of those is enough meat
for, you know, a good lunch or maybe a light dinner and you get
different flavor profiles that you're not going to get just
with the main rib roast. I think that, you know, the big
thing with rib roast is if you're going to have a bunch
left over and almost everybody does, you know, figuring out a
way to turn that into a slightly less elegant version of what you
just It is important. So sliders good example here.
And this was a, the contribution that Mark brought to the table
when we were talking about this offline, utilizing a combination
of keys and sauce and small rib roast pieces on slider buns, you
know heating those up a little bit.
That's that's a really nice way to handle this.
I also think if you want to go a little bit on the other side of
things, chopping up some Some of the rib roast really finely and
making essentially a hash or using that in omelets is is a
really good way to utilize some of the meat.
That's the problem, with all those methods is you're probably
still going to have a lot of rib roast left over.
So the other key is, if you can figure out how to slice the rib
roast in a way where you can get the outside singed, a little
bit. This is where, you know, cooking
on a griddle or cooking on something.
That's got some real. Services at a really high heat.
You don't want to overcook the interior, depending on the width
of your slices, but getting a little bit of char, getting a
little bit of texture, differential between the
different parts of the rib, roast pieces.
Always a good way to go and that goes great, either with
sandwiches or not with sandwiches.
So there's a bunch of different things you can do there.
But I tend to get creative a little bit further into the
lifespan of the rib roast all the way down to.
You can make some really really Silent tacos using nothing, but
really finely sliced rib roast may be thrown into the skillet
and given just a brief sear just to get a little bit of heat on
it. Maybe throw some additional
flavoring in on that front. So so there's some different
ideas that you could play around with.
I think all of them are good and a lot of it just depends on how
many carbs you want to consume while you're eating the leftover
rib roast, so hopefully that's helpful.
We had a couple of questions. That related to food in general.
So Andy stop asked my top five pizzas in the state.
I actually don't feel comfortable, giving a top five
pizzas in the state because between covid and having young
children, it's really been six or seven years since I've been
able to go around the state on Pizza pilgrimages.
Like I used to, so, I don't really feel like I'm doing Pizza
in the state of Indiana, a service.
If I'm going around and trying to give ratings on Things that
might be five or six years old. I will say some things that
stuck out. I think I mentioned this on a
couple of podcasts earlier that the tavern style pizza.
A daredevil is really really good.
And I'm talking about the Daredevil Outlet in Speedway.
That was that was excellent. I had that a couple of weeks
ago. I'm always agree.
So I grew up as I think some of, you know, I grew up in the
Lafayette area and if you grow up in the Lafayette area, you're
growing up with our knees pizza. That's That's one.
I wish we had closer to Bloomington quite frankly.
There's one in Columbus. There's one in Greenwood.
So it's about a 45-minute drive for me.
Either way. It's to me the Pinnacle of that
Indiana style pizza for lack of a better term, the the very flat
dough and the crumble sausage and pepperoni and so forth.
So that's always up there for me.
And then I'm going to get to some of our Bloomington options
here in a minute, but I'm actually looking forward if we
ever ever get out of this pandemic to going around the
state and starting the pizza sampling tour.
Once again, I hear great things about places all over the state
and I want to start experiencing those a bit more.
So I'm looking forward to getting back to that.
It's been too long quite frankly.
So that'll jump us over to Dave's question, which is hit us
with your top b-town. Food stops.
I'll make it easy. Best burger best pizza and best
overall, so I'm not going to make it that easy because first
of all, With very few exceptions.
I actually enjoy pretty much everything in Bloomington.
There's always something at every stop that I can enjoy and
we'll be happy to try out. It's one of those things where
I'm I'm a little bit. Hesitant to pick favorites
because a don't want people's feelings to get hurt and be my
favorites. Change on a regular basis, you
know, my favorite sushi place might change from, you know, one
month to the next, depending on how things taste at that
particular spot. So I always think of this as an
evolving list, but I will give a couple of shout outs in
different categories here. Maybe that will satisfy the
question. So let me start with burgers in.
Bloomington, there's a lot of places that serve burgers.
A lot of people have their particular favorites.
We've had some local Publications that have put out
some, like, best burgers in Bloomington stories.
However, when I read those, I question, if anybody under the
age of 60, like, filled out the survey because what you one of
the problems you get in Bloomington, and this is
something that I noticed living in Bloomington.
And, you know, I've had an association with Bloomington for
E 5 years at this point like I moved to school in Bloomington
in the mid-1990s and with a few years accepted where I was
living somewhere else. I've been in Bloomington
basically since then and so it's been interesting living here and
watching things change. When you see people come back
from you know, wherever who went to school here and then went off
and got careers in Chicago or New York or whatever.
Everybody wants to come back and just basically do Bloomington.
From when they were in school, they want to play the hits, you
know, so it's always we're going to Nick's we're going to Mother
Bear's and that's essentially it.
And as I've talked about, I think on this podcast before I
go to both of those places on a pretty regular basis, but
there's so many other great places that don't get talked
about because people don't really want to stretch their
repertoire when they come back, they want to go to the places
that they really liked when they were in school and I get that.
But I feel like part of my job as As a, I guess, a Bloomington
evangelist is to let people know about other options that are out
there. And so let me start with
Burgers, the three burgers that I really like, right now in
Bloomington and that I would recommend everybody try to of
them are of the Smash Burger variety and one of them is of
the more traditional Burger variety.
So I'll start off with the Smash Burger variety and and I'll come
right out and say there's one. I haven't had a chance to try it
which is it Southern Stone. Looking forward to trying that
at some point. It just the fates of not aligned
for me to get over there and try that, but two that I really
enjoy and that we have ordered on a pretty regular basis.
One is at Hive, which is over at 10th and the bypass at that old
shopping center, which they've actually given a facelift to.
And this is a Smash Burger. That's actually part of a ghost
kitchen secret menu. Sort of thing.
You have to order it online, but it's worth it.
It's really well done. It's really We put together the
taste is very good and add some fries from hive with that.
You've got a really good combination, one a little bit
closer to downtown that I'd recommend everybody.
Give a shot to, I'm sure many of you have seen it now walking up
and down Kirkwood, but maybe don't know what it is, but it's
fat dams, which is located in the Old.
Isan Tie building at fit. Excuse me, at Kirkwood and
Lincoln right across from The Graduate Hotel.
So their burgers, they have several different.
Topping setups with the burger. My favorite is is the is pretty
much just the straightforward one run through the garden as
they say, the burger the meat tastes probably, it has probably
has the most pop of any of the meat that I've had with the
Smash Burgers in town and the ingredients all tastes so fresh.
It's a really remarkable take on a very simple concept with the
burger and it's presented in a very unpretentious style.
So that's a big recommendation. For me right now.
The third is the and this is admittedly an expensive
category. But the the burger at C3 is one
that I would recommend getting, it is close to $20, which makes
it. I think, for some people
something that they're not willing to do and I certainly
get that. But if you're, if you're
thinking about at least giving it a try, I would encourage
checking it out. It's always really well-crafted.
And C3 is a great place to go in general.
It's a nice kind of upscale place that's away from the
action on the These side of Bloomington.
So that's my thought process on the burgers in town right now
Pizza, you know, there's there's really three, maybe four that.
I'm a huge fan of right now and that I'd recommend people give a
shout-out to one of them is the pizza at switchyard, which a lot
of people I don't think are familiar with the fact that
switchyard is selling pizza or that it's something that's
originating from them. They're there was a period where
the old King do restaurant had moved into switchyard and was
making pizzas and selling them. But that I believe that
relationship ended and switch yards now making their own
pizzas and they're all excellent.
They've gotta get a bunch of different varieties.
I'm a big fan of, I think the old north east of the Blue Ridge
is also very good and that's got a special place in my heart
because I used to live in the Blue Ridge Neighborhood.
The breadsticks are also excellent as well.
So you get you get some Breadsticks at switchyard.
You pair it with a beer. That's a pretty good evening
out. And it also carries out very
well. Also Cafe, Pizzeria and old
favorite one that I kind of feel like Cafe Pizzeria has had a bit
of a Renaissance from a recognition Factor over the
course of the last five or six years.
I often times felt like I was one of maybe 2 or 3 people total
that. I knew that that liked Cafe
Pizzeria and went to it regularly.
But to me, it is as good of an Exemplar of the Indiana style of
pizza that Bloomington has. It's got its own kind of unique
Twist on it, but it's consistently good.
Our good friend of the Pod IU artifacts is a big proponent of
the double do order which I highly recommend checking out.
I am still myself a single do guy, but I also like the double
do variety. Just like a little bit of a
thinner crust. So, you know, you The other
trappings of the traditional Indiana style, the crumbled
sausage in particular, switcher or excuse me, Kathy Pizzeria has
that in Spades. So I would recommend checking
that out the other one and this is a new entrant is DaVinci
DaVinci. And and I'll also throw Austria
Rago in there as well. If you haven't been to either of
those locations, I'd recommend those DaVinci is located at 3rd
and Washington and they have a nice menu in in total that
focuses on a variety of different.
Current types of Italian food, but their pizzas really well
done. It's not big.
These are, you know, probably I would say nine inch pizzas,
maybe 10, inch pizzas, there. They've got the Wood-Fired Brick
Oven set up which makes for a really tasty pizza and it's a
different type of experience from the more traditional pizzas
that you've probably ordered in town and Austria, same sort of
deal. There crust is a little bit
puffier and I'd say they're topping setup is More
conventional but it's still done in a Wood-Fired stove.
And again, it's a little more personal size.
Although it's gonna get pretty big when you try to eat the
whole thing. So any of those options are
really good in town. It's hard for me to pick an
absolute favorite because they're all a bit different and
what they bring to the table and I'd recommend you check them all
out. One other category.
I wanted to hit. Is starters in town.
We go back and forth. Sometimes about what our
favorite starters are in Bloomington.
So a few that have been either consistent favorites or have
become new favorites here. Over the course of the last year
over Big Woods, the pulled pork nachos.
That's to me, that's become almost like the signature dish
at Big Woods whether you're here in Bloomington or whether your
Nashville or whether you're up in Indianapolis.
Just a really Solid and very consistent, appetizer that eats
like a meal. I've, in fact, I will order that
sometimes as just a meal sticking in the chips category,
a very simple delivery, but one that always hits the spot at
Social Cantina. The chips played a used to be a
chips and salsa flight and it still kind of is.
But instead of getting for Salsas now, you're getting a
queso and guacamole along with a green sauce and a red sauce, and
the seasoning that Goes on those chips is always like they eat
very well by themselves. Let's say so you can either eat
them by like that or in tandem with the sauces.
The other one I'll mention is the dirty tots at fat Dan's
which are a and an accomplishment every time you
actually finish those they are my wife just walked in from the
kitchen and bow down to those. Those are those are her favorite
in town. But if you like tater tots and
you like pulled pork and you like, Hot sauce and you like
cheese all at once. That's definitely the order that
I would recommend. One other thing.
I'll throw in, probably the best individual meal that I had this
year is actually a tie in Bloomington.
The first is the the Fried Chicken and Waffles at Southern
Stone. That was we saw that pop up on
the Bloomington Foodies Facebook group and we were immediately
intrigued because it looked it had the right look to it.
You kind of you get it used to seeing the pictures of these
things. You're like, yeah.
I think that's going to check out flavor-wise and wow, did it
ever just just an excellent Ensemble of the chicken and the
the hot honey that goes with it. So I would recommend that if
you're a fan of fried chicken at all.
It's not something I eat every day, but a good fried chicken.
Is a hard thing to find. Sometimes something that isn't,
you know, just mass-produced. This is really cooked with care.
So big thumbs up to Southern Stone on the Fried Chicken
option there and then the other one, the to me the most
consistent restaurant in Bloomington, and the one that I
think has, maybe the best array of small touches that make the
overall experience. Great for our anniversary dinner
this year, my wife and I went to Uptown and they had Add a new
steak on the menu item scene, which was the they'll Monica,
which is a ribeye essentially, and just prepared excellently.
And we both had the same steak order and just cooked to
Perfection really done in a proper manner.
So that was, those are the two meals that stuck out to us the
most throughout the course of the year in town.
So hopefully that helps some of you in terms of if you've,
you're not living in Bloomington, but you're
traveling back at some point, perhaps, these will give you
some options that you might I have not thought about
otherwise, so thanks for the question.
Dave at some point. We will do a food like a drink.
I got beer and and cocktail podcast and talk a little bit
more about that space but we'll save that for the new year.
Another question this one from Andrew Elliot any new album
recommendations and and actually Andrew and I saw each other
outside of concert in St. Louis about five years ago.
So I appreciate him writing in I gotta say this was kind of a
weird. Year for me and music.
In terms of, it takes new music. Some time to hit me sometimes,
and, and I try not to make any Final determinations on albums
after until like about a year sets in.
So, I'm still honestly digesting a lot of the newer music that
came out throughout the course of twenty, twenty one.
So maybe I should be giving my 20 20 reviews.
Now that we're at the end of 20 21, I should have thought of
that ahead of time, but a couple of albums that did stick out the
new War on Drugs album, it's different from the previous War
on Drugs albums, by a pretty significant margin, but I really
enjoy the creativity and the overall sound that, that group
is able to get. And so I'd recommend checking
that album out and just it's a different kind of experience.
And many of you, maybe never listened to War on Drugs before
period, so would recommend them and then on more of the rock,
kind of indie rock pop side. The Ducks limited another
interesting album that I like that style of music almost like
a power pop or sort of thing in places.
So those would be the two things that I would recommend now, but
they'll be a lot more as we go through.
I think these next couple of months, as I'll finally have
some time to really form. Final, conclusions on things.
Let's see, a couple of other questions that we had just over
all of Craig Davis, asked making pork.
Ellie burnt ends. When do you typically pull off
the heat? So if you haven't had these
before, I'd recommend it pork belly, chop it into small
pieces, and there's a whole array of things you can do.
But you can put these, you can actually do these in the oven,
or on the stove top. You don't have to do them in the
smoker. But if I think doing them in the
smoker, probably makes the most sense.
And if you going to do them in the smoker, I normally aim for
about four to four and a half. Hours.
And it's a it's an interesting process because you need to
season the the pork belly cubes basically first.
And then you want to make sure you've got some wood in there.
You're going to you're going to smoke for a couple of hours and
then you're going to coat and barbecue sauce and then smoke
for a couple more hours. The nice thing about doing these
is they're going to be done kind of whenever you want.
A lot of, it's just a personal preference on how cooked the
meat is and what the overall. Consensus on the texture is, as
far as the people that are eating in your house.
I like mine a little bit more on the having a little bit of a
tougher exterior because it contrasts well, with what is
normally a pretty loose, you know, mouth feel on the inside
with things. But you might want yours a
little bit on the, the less cooked side.
You might want them even more cooked than that.
So, I would say start checking out about the four hour mark,
never be afraid to take a sample or two and just make sure that
it's where you want it to be. And if you're doing them through
an alternate methodology. It's kind of a similar sort of
deal. I just think the smoker is
probably it gives you the best flavor and it's honestly kind of
the least amount of work. There's a little bit more prep
at the beginning, but all things considered that's probably the
easiest way to go about it. Couple of other questions that
got tossed, our direction, we did have some additional
questions that came in. As far as the way that
everything is set up from the standpoint of football.
Not a whole lot has changed on the football front since we
talked last week, and we've had a couple of other questions
about, you know, what is a reasonable record for next
season for an expectation perspective.
This was Evan deal asked his question.
And, you know, I think look as our friend Martha, the mop lady
posted on Twitter. It's, it's hard unless you're
just one of those people that's given over to unbridled optimism
at every opportunity, with your sports teams.
It's hard to look at the offseason, it Indiana's had and
say, oh I'm expecting them to jump right back in and have
seven or eight wins next year. They've certainly made a lot of
good strides in recruiting. Is anybody that's debating that
At, but the idea that those recruits are going to be ready
to contribute. Right away is probably overly
optimistic. I would say.
And I just haven't seen enough transfers in the key areas where
the team had trouble last year to feel like anything more than
maybe a 4 and 8 or 5 and 7, season is a realistic record
because I just again, you could see freshman having an impact,
but I always worry about freshman having to deal with the
physical. Pounding of being in the Big Ten
that that's where you get injuries.
That's where you get guys realizing that, wow.
They've got a lot more learning to do.
There's a lot more film study to do and if you look at the roster
that's coming back. It's a lot of question marks in
a bunch of different areas. So it's an easier schedule.
But you also get the sense, you know looking at the way that a
team like Maryland went out and wipe the floor with their bowl
opponent for instance and you're like, you know, that's that's
going to be a problem potentially.
Year Rutgers is going to potentially be a problem next
year. So at this point, you know,
maybe things will change, but as I end 2021 for the football
team, my emotions on them. I'm not very optimistic about
next year. Hopefully that changes.
I'm sure. I'll I'll dope myself up on
optimism before the before Summer Camp starts and we get
back into the swing of things leading into the season.
But right now, yeah, not so much.
Evan also asked Big Ten record, expectations.
And also how does Indiana suddenly have a pipeline of
School talent. I covered the record question
last week. I said I think twelve and eight
maybe 13 and 7 was a reasonable expectation.
I still feel that way. Big Ten is just a mess.
There's so many imperfect teams right now.
I mean, you need look no further than Michigan losing last night.
Not just losing by a little bit but losing by a pretty
significant margin to University of Central Florida.
That Michigan teams got problems and you.
Look up and down the roster of things with the Big Ten and the
various teams. I think everybody expects the
Purdue Boilermakers to be good. I think they're not going to be
as good as many people are expecting just because I while
they're certainly a very good team.
I don't see them being a team that's going to threaten to go
like, you know, 18 and 2 or 17 and 3 in conference.
So, you know, I look at Indiana and I say they are so they're
firmly in the middle. Of the the overall set up in the
conference. And I think they'll be slightly
better than average because I think their schedule will play
out as such and I am to some degree still.
Keeping my fingers crossed that they figure out a few additional
things and they get, try Galloway back and he's healthy.
I think there's a really good chance of this team may be
slightly. Exceeding my expectations.
But as of now, I'm going to stick with the 12 and 8 in the
conference because I think that will easily get them back into
the NCAA tournament. And that's ultimately the most
important thing for this year. All right, a couple of other
quick items here, before we wrap things up.
So first of all, we didn't really dive into the numbers per
se. But we normally do and I Sports
podcast and just a reminder that if you are interested in numbers
and you're interested in the way that for instance, the bowl
games are playing out. And who do you think is going to
win a game either for wagering purposes or not?
You need to check out the power rank.
The power rank is sponsor of the back home network and And of
course Crimson cast and our friend, Ed Fang uses data
analytics and a mathematic approach to things to help to
understand and explain what's going on in sports.
So be sure to check out the power rank.com /.
AC. This is a free newsletter that
you can sign up for. There's a big March Madness
guide as we get a little bit closer to the NCAA tournament.
Go ahead and check that out. Again.
It's the power rank.com / AC, you can Check out that right
now. And so I'm I'm hoping you go
check that out. It's a really good newsletter
and some really good information whether you're wagering on
sports or whether you just want to understand how things are
going in the Sports World on the college side, especially so be
sure to check that out. Last question.
I want to tackle. I'm actually going to jump back
to a couple of questions that we got on Facebook.
We do have a Facebook account. By the way, if you want to check
us out you just search, Crimson cast on Facebook.
And you'll be able to locate us there, but we had a long
question from Jonas more who actually wrote in on Christmas
Day. Jonas, saying it's first time
reaching out, but he's been listening to the podcast for a
while. So he had some interesting
statistical observations that, we've maybe touched on a little
bit in pieces on the podcast before.
But I wanted to go ahead and you know, we'll we'll just kind of
lay them all out. In this case.
Ace. So to summarize.
From 2019 to 2021 with records of 8 and 4 6 & 1 & 2 and 10 and
that excludes bowl games on the 2019 and 2020 Seasons.
IU is 2 and 14 against teams with winning records or Bowl
eligible teams. So 6 & 6 are better and then
they're 14 and 1 against teams with losing records.
The two wins against winning teams were against Wisconsin
last year and then Western Kentucky this year.
They're only lost to a losing. Non bowl-eligible team.
During that time was to Rutgers this year, who finished five and
seven. And I have of course as many of
you know Rutgers actually ended up in a bowl.
It took a cancellation by one team and permission by the NCAA
to allow Rutgers to go to the Gator Bowl, but they're in it.
So they are actually, they technically will not count in
the statistic because they ended up in a bowl game.
So, anyway, he says, I thought that was fascinating and
curious. If you guys have any thoughts
with a really worse this year, or did they just not improve?
In the previous years. I think we'd all agree.
They were terrible. The last three games, but they
were competitive and all the other games even up to the the
game at Michigan, which could incidentally was where they were
knocked out for a Vulcan tension.
So interesting thought and you know, this has been bandied
about quite a bit. This idea that a lot of people,
the trump card for the Tom Allen era, not being a good one as
well. Tom.
Allen hasn't beaten any teams with winning records or they
beaten one team with a winning record.
Record as the case may be, I guess it's to now.
Well now there's now it's too so I'm I'm hoping that that
narrative kind of goes away because I think what you'll find
is for a lot of teams like Indiana, you frankly are going
to pick up the vast majority of your wins against teams that
don't have winning records and you're probably going to
struggle against teams that do have winning records and look.
I think that overall you take a team like, for instance,
Michigan State. This Here and you kind of go
down the list of games that they won and most of their wins were
against teams that had losing records or were right around
500. And most of the winds that they
picked up the, obviously, the Michigan game was a notable
exception. It wasn't like they had, you
know, of the, of the what 11 wins or ten wins that they had
on the season. It wasn't like of the tan.
Like five of them are, six of them were against top-notch
competition and five were against.
A mediocre competition. You generally pick up a lot of
wins against teams that just don't win a lot and this is why
scheduling so important. It's also why for Indiana being
in the Big 10 East is a constant challenge because you're always
going to have four teams, maybe five that are going to be at 500
or better. You do need to win those games.
No question, but I think the idea that IU or the Tom Allen is
somehow unique in that, they haven't won a lot of games.
Against top level competition. It's probably not that big of a,
of a finding. I think what you'd find again is
that that is consistently how it works across most of college
football where I think Alan needs to get better as they have
to start picking up some scalps, as our friend and co-host.
Got Caulfield says, because that's ultimately what gets
people excited about your football program and whether
that's scalps in the regular season, Talked about /, do a lot
with that, you know, they were able to beat Ohio State in that,
that big game a few years ago, or, you know, this past year,
they're able to knock off Iowa. And then, of course, they just
had that remarkable bizarre kind of silly Music, City Bowl,
victory against Tennessee. It's those sorts of wins that
really galvanized the fans and let you look at Indiana, you
know, the the winds that galvanized the fans, the most
during the 2020 season where the winner Penn State brand name and
the win against Michigan. Also a brand name.
I guess you could also say Wisconsin.
It's to some degree. A bit of an accident that Penn
State ends up with a losing record in that season because I
think if they'd played a normal, you know, 12 game season, they
would have probably ended up as a seven or eight win team that
year, but the reality is that's not what happened.
And for Indiana, it becomes a situation where you have to
settle, you increase your talent and you have to be able to go
in. Ooh those sorts of games and
pick up wins, and I guess I'll push back a little bit on the
idea that maybe Indiana didn't get worse this past year.
Maybe just everybody else got better.
I think both happened. I think Indiana got worse and
the other teams got better because if you think about
Indiana's football season in totality, they had as we've
talked about on this podcast, one of the worst offenses in the
history of the 14-team Big Ten and just from a point scored
perspective from a yard. Perspective, it was a putrid
offense. That is a huge step back from
what they had done the previous year.
And defensively, they had a step back.
You know, that everybody was concerned about turnovers not
being replicable, but it wasn't just the turnovers.
It was also the inability to make stops at Key moments.
And then that evolved into right around the time that they lost,
the chance of Bulge ability that evolved into just not being able
to make stops period. And, you know, when you whether
it's the Whose game or the Minnesota game?
Or the Purdue game? Indiana looked absolutely
exposed the further that the season wet.
And I think if they're special teams in there as well, Indiana
just took a bunch of steps back and unfortunately, for Indiana,
this happened simultaneously to Maryland.
Taking a small, step forward, Rutgers taking a big step
forward. Michigan State, taking a big
step forward and Michigan, taking a big step forward as
well. So it's not nothing happens in a
vacuum. And I guess that's a key point
to think about, In, you know, but Indiana by any metric.
Just wasn't good enough and it wasn't a situation of well, we
stayed the same and everybody got better.
It was this case of everybody got better and Indiana got
worse. So that's got to be addressed as
we go into this upcoming year. So, anyway, I think that's gonna
actually wrap it up as that was a pretty long question.
We appreciate you writing in, like, is the last one, I'll
tackle. This was from Ghost of a ghost
and this something applies. I think to both football and
basketball, what has made you the happiest about this team?
And what would you ask for for Christmas?
For them? This was obviously written
before Christmas, but let's we'll set it up in a New Year's
resolution for both IU football and I, you men's basketball.
So, for IU football, what's made me the happiest about the Is
there does still appear to be a spirit of hey we're doing
something special and different here.
And even if the results on the field aren't showing it.
I do like how there is a positivity that has remained
among the coaching staff and and at least among some of the
players. I don't know if that actually
translates into anything tangible.
But when that works it is a it's kind of a special sauce that is
fun to see, and it does kind of warm your heart.
The however, my New Year's resolution for the football
team. The thing I would ask of them is
to stop thinking that that kind of positivity is going to pay
the bills. At the end of the day.
This team really needs to rethink how it approaches a
bunch of different areas. And I think you could make an
argument that 2019 and 2020 both had unique events that led to
them being better than they should have.
Been 2019 was a Really talented offensive coordinator.
Figuring out how to take some imperfect pieces and use them in
a way that generated a lot of wins and 2020 was kind of a
perfect storm, sort of situation that allowed Indiana to take
advantage of some teams being down the weird situation
regarding covid and their own ability to, finally, get over
the hump in a couple of games. But neither of those situations
is going to be exist in 2022. At least.
We hope that they do at least. The these though the covid thing
we hope isn't existing then. So what Indiana needs to do
football-wise is get a lot more serious about details.
Get a lot more serious. About the little things that win
games, the other one of the complaints early on in the
season. And I think something you could
point to the Syracuse or skews the G Syracuse game, the
Cincinnati game, the Michigan State game, even the Western
Kentucky game which they want, but it was very close.
Is this team is, is still in year.
Five of the Tom Allen era struggling with small details.
Whether it's penalties, whether it's blocking schemes, whether
it's technique, especially from receivers and, and, and things
of that nature, they're just there has to be more attention
to detail, and that's something that is as much on the players
as it is on the coaches. But ultimately, it's the job of
the coaches to get the players, doing what they need to do.
So need to see more of that and really need to see.
I think a full re-evaluation of game management.
From top to bottom, you know, when plays are getting called
and when timeouts are being used and things of that nature.
It's been, it's been loose for five years and it can make the
difference between winning, four games and winning six, or seven
games next year. In addition, to all the other
factors that are going on as far as what's made me happiest about
men's basketball. I think it's just that it feels
fun. But it also feels serious again,
you know, the is it Been a perfect start to the Mike
Woodson are obviously but it also has been a start to the era
where there's a different energy is an energy that I think for
old-time IU basketball fans. They look at it.
And they say, you know what, this feels like something that I
recognize this, there's a vibe to this IU season, that is
special. And you know, the players are
not perfect by any means, but their players that appear to be
having fun with each other. Or to feel like they can win
games as opposed to feeling like they're going to eventually lose
games. And that's a big change of pace.
I think that's a positive and you know, the I really enjoy
Mike Woodson's demeanor. I enjoy what he says in press
conferences. I enjoy how he interacts with
his players on the floor and I think he's gotten some really
interesting performances so far out of several players that I
had some questions about coming into the And he's also gotten
some, you know, accelerated and advanced performance as out of
guys who I wondered if they'd hit their ceiling.
Like I didn't know if we were going to get more out of Trace
Jackson, Davis than we got last year and Mike, Woodson has
gotten that and I think that he deserves a lot of credit for
that for the way that race Thompson's played.
There's a lot of small Nuance details that just, you know,
you're still struggling with offense on this team and you're
still going to have moments. I think where this team's going
to not completely know what they're supposed to be doing.
And to me, that's just an artifact of a new coach, a new
coaching staff and new system, but there does seem to be a core
belief in what the team is doing.
And so that's what's got me. Most excited.
What I would ask for for them, for for New Year's.
What's the resolution there? You know, I think it's It's
both. I think the team needs to just
remain patient and realize that they're going to get
incrementally better as the season goes along if they keep
doing what they're being asked to do.
And I think my biggest ask is that everybody be more patient
with this team? I think there's a lot of IU fans
who have been burned time and time again over the last 20
years by false hope. And now the default reaction is
negative all the time, and there's still a lot of
information. Infighting between IU fans on
social media. There's a lot of recriminations,
the moment, the team loses a game or struggles in a
particular moment in time in a game and I understand where that
comes from because I think that the IU basketball fan base, has
been to some degree asked to believe and to perform all the
acts of supporting a top-level team, but what they've actually
gotten has been a second or third-tier team in many cases.
Over the last 20 years. And at this point I think people
are just tired of waiting. I think this is going to be a
team worth waiting for this, is going to be a program worth
waiting for will. They get all the way back to
where people want them to be this year or next year?
Probably not. But I think already this team
has performed at or slightly above expectations.
And let's be honest, that is better than what we've seen out
of IU basketball, for any of the last five years, so, That in and
of itself is some progress and I'm excited to see how Indiana
is able to continue to build on that progress.
And my hope is that there's just some additional patients as
people realize that you're watching a transformation taking
place with the basketball program.
And I think it's going to lead to some really good things down
the line, but it's not going to happen overnight.
Anyway, that's going to wrap it up.
I appreciate everybody who took the time to listen and ask
questions and will continue to answer questions.
As we move forward. We'll be back with Podcast,
probably at the beginning of next week.
As we recap, what happened with IU?
Basketball, obviously UNC Asheville.
That game. Got canceled.
Probably not the biggest loss in the world.
Would have been nice to get one more game in.
But Indiana going to just start off the Big Ten season with
about a ten day break. They'll take on a Penn State
team that will not have played since early December that game
taking place on Sunday of this upcoming weekend.
We'll talk about that and we'll cover.
Or any other materials that need to be talked about as well.
Be sure to check out our other friends on the back home
network. You can always check out the
assembly call as they do podcasts after every game.
They also do assembly call radio, which takes place every
Thursday. And so I would check all of
those items out and also check out Tony had Rania on Twitter
and go to IU film room.com., You'll find all of His material
and while you're doing all of that, you can also hop on the
premium communities that we have here.
Check out the Discord that that we have here.
You can always check that out through any of the links on our
podcast Pages, whether it's assembly, call or IU, film, Rome
or Crimson cast. So anyway, thanks to all those
folks and happy New Year, everybody.
Really appreciate all of the friendship and all of the
thoughts. And it's always a joy to be
talking about out IU sports, or food or whatever with you,
folks, and I'm always humbled and an honored by your continued
patronage of the podcast and your willingness to kind of
follow us through. As we talk about the things that
we find interesting, and it's always heartening that some of
you find those things, interesting as well.
So anyway, that'll wrap it up for us for 2021 on behalf of
Scott and on behalf of everybody, that's in the Crimson
cast and back home network communities.
I'm Galen. Klaviyo.
We'll catch you folks on the flip side, bring back the Bison.
So long everybody.