You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast,
Galen Clavio, Scott Caulfield joining you on another
victorious Sunday for IU football.
The Hoosiers are four and O as they wax Charlotte at Memorial
Stadium. Yesterday we're going to talk
about that game and talk about where the team looks like they
are here at the third waypoint of the season. 4 games down,
eight regular season games to go.
And Scott, we again find ourselves in the position of
trying to put into words what we're experiencing with this IU
football team in a good way. We we've had plenty of seasons
where we've had to find words for things not going our way.
And it thus far, everything's kind of gone Indiana's way so
far. It's a refreshing change.
Yeah, I let's not talk about it as we'll just end the podcast.
I don't want to drink anything. So thank you guys for joining
Upland beer, home of home field apparel.
We're a little bit nervous. We'll just we'll see you guys
next week. No, it is it's it's I've it's
wild. It's not only good, it's that
they're confident and it really feels like there's better times
ahead with this team because it feels like they're really trying
to clean up mistakes and all of these wins are things that we
just haven't seen in a while. No, it's, it's, it's unreal.
We're about to hit some rarefied air.
We'll talk about with the schedule and what could be
happening. But it is, it's, it's
unbelievable. And I, I knew I was part of the
problem. I mean, our kids have like 3
soccer games this weekend. We could not make it down.
We're being down there next weekend.
So I had to watch the game on TV, but it was like a
second-half Signeti love fest. Like they were just showing all
of these stats, all of these clips.
Like his winning percentage among college coaches is like
right up there in the top. It was just like all Signeti all
the time. And it was awesome.
I was mainline, dude. It was fantastic.
I'll have to go back and watch that.
I'm looking forward to it. Yeah.
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by Upland Brewing Company Scott, let's dive into the fun.
Indiana wins this game 52 to 14 over Charlotte.
We talked a little bit, well, not you and me, but we talked,
you know, with other people this week about the idea that you
know, it's a good thing coming off that big emotional win in
the Rose Bowl that I you had somebody other than a Big 10
opponent to play the next week. Like it was really you worried a
little bit about a let down. You worried a little bit about,
you know, a situation where maybe the emotion isn't quite
there after as well as they played.
And that was kind of how it played out early.
Like Indiana looked a bit flat. Yeah, they they go out to the 10
nothing lead. You never felt like Indiana was
ever in danger in this game. But it did feel like kind of a
stodgy game for about the 1st 25 minutes or so of game action and
a little bit of concern, a little bit of buzz in the stands
when Charlotte scores to make it 17 to 14.
But then Indiana scores 2 touchdowns in the last, what, 5
minutes of the first half? And from there it's just off to
the races. Just a really, you know, after a
bit of a slow start. And Curt Signetti even noted
that it wasn't a it wasn't like a an awful start in the post
game press conference, but that they were a little bit slow and
maybe not as detail oriented, but a very professional way for
this team to address the shortcomings they had out there.
They put together a basically a complete second-half where they
scored 21 points and Charlotte scored nothing.
They end up almost actually they they've almost doubled them up
in total yards and and just a really nice kind of team
performance without a whole lot of great individual statistical
performances from this IU team. Yeah.
So two things off of that, you know, the the with Charlotte,
you know, if you take out their two drives where they scored
touchdowns, that's 150 yards, it takes their yardage from 1:56 to
like one O 6. So you know, you're and not that
you can, you can start cherry picking the stuff, you know, you
take this out, take that out. But it's like that that was
those two drives were kind of the outliers.
And then the rest of you know, when you look at the drive chart
for Charlotte, it's like 8 yards, 15 yards, one negative
2152, but then four -2 negative 437.
So for the most part, Indiana's defense held straight.
This had two drives where things didn't work correctly.
And then you you see like the course correction, the other
pieces, you know, in your preview podcast this week, you
were talking about kind of how interchangeable some of the
pieces are. And that's what I was thinking
about going into this game. And then as you said, like
there's not really an individual stand out again.
Do you know the the yardage for rushing is kind of all across
the board. The yardage for receiving is all
across the board. And and I don't, you know, I
don't want to be too hyperbolic here because it's like we are
just starting this out. But as I think back, you know,
it is, it's interesting how many IU teams that I can think of
that were good or not good seem to be built around kind of
singular stars, which is such an odd way to do it in Indiana
where you're just not going to get a lot of hot.
You you get some talent, you get some things that fall through
the cracks, but like IU football isn't going to get there with
like singular talent. Like we're not going to get the
Michael Vick. But you think back to like we
have the Antoine Randall L era in when you and I play when you
and I went there, it's like that's all kind of we had.
And then, you know, some of those teams under Hefner and
Lynch, like they were good. But then Lynch kind of got like
you have James Hardy as the receiver.
Even those Kevin Wilson teams that were good.
It's like Kevin Coleman or Jordan Howard.
You know, even the good Tom Allen teams, like you have
Michael Pannick's. And this is not to disparage
anybody on the team or to say Roark's not at that level.
It's just it is we're playing a system.
It's like everyone's within that system and everybody's
interchangeable and it it looks so much better and eat, you
know, so harder to stop, whereas before it's like, all right, can
we just bottle up Tevin Coleman? It's like, oh, we did that great
like that, That's all. And then, you know, even, you
know, you saw this under Allen where if somebody, you know, one
of those good players goes down, that's like, oh, we have to
fundamentally change how we're running our entire offense
because now we don't have the threat that was, you know, XY or
Z. It's just here kind of in a good
way. Next man up is like, no, we're
just going to keep running our system.
So I, I was struck by that going in.
And then during the game, it is just, it's unbelievable how
everybody's kind of able to do everything and not that we're
totally unstoppable. And it makes this team so much
better. And you take a step back, it's
like, yes, this is how A-Team like Indiana football and needs
to give. That's what Iowa does.
Iowa does normally have standouts.
They just kind of build a program.
And it's amazing that Signetti was able to do that with the
ashes of a, you know, 3 and nine team and the transfer portal and
and get it done seemingly so quickly.
He made a comment in his post game comments about how, you
know, he felt like the team, I'm paraphrasing here, but you know,
I kind of felt like the team had had really learned lessons.
He he made a particular comment about we certainly have a lot of
high character guys on the team, which is interesting because you
know, one of the things that we heard a bit during during summer
was there were some guys that maybe weren't buying in to to
the system. And it doesn't seem like that's
a problem. And you know, he he really seems
very satisfied with where the team is at overall so far
through four games. And, you know, obviously you've,
you've yet to play like a, a, a dominant opponent, but most
teams in the country have not played a dominant opponent.
And I have been really impressed with just how consistently this
team plays. I talked about this when I was
talking with Rhett Lewis a couple of days ago.
It's like this team just doesn't get rattled.
Now they, you know, and again, they haven't really been rattled
too much or they haven't played teams that would rattle them.
But even in this kind of a game, you, you find these miniature
moments of, of adversity. I hate adversity in sports.
It's one of the most overplayed things, but you have this pocket
where it's like, hey, we're only up three and it's the second
quarter and the Charlotte team's on their third string
quarterback and it's like there's no panic.
They just they go back out, they go down the field, they drive,
they score a touchdown, they score another touchdown.
And then it's like, what were we worried about again?
So it is it's, it is refreshing. It's also weird for us as IU
fans, 'cause I think you really bigger up a good point.
Like, so, so much of Indiana's history has depended on stars
kind of exceeding their their station in college football and
dragging the rest of the team with them.
There's only been a couple of circumstances where it's felt
like that wasn't the case. You know, the, the 2016 team
kind of felt that way in that, you know, 2015.
It's like, well, if Nate Sudfeld is not the quarterback, like we
saw what that team look like. And it was the previous year's
team that went four and eight, you know, and, and so I just
look at it and I say Indiana has always struggled to recruit
complimentary pieces, depth pieces, pieces that are, you
know, solid BS that you can plug in on both offense and defense.
And that seems like exactly the type of player that Kurt
Signetti went out and got. And I think the guys that stuck
around deserve a lot of credit because, you know, there was
clearly latent talent on this roster and it needed augmenting
by having new people come in. You know, it's just it's
interesting to watch this alchemy happening.
And it's interesting, as we talked about at the beginning of
the year, before any games are played, like this team finding
its legs, finding its identity. And I don't think any of us
thought, Scott, that the offense was going to be the identity of
this team. But I mean, the offense has been
incredible. Like what are your thoughts
there? I, I think the, I mean, I, I
think the defense has also been good, but no, I think the
offense has been unbelievable. I mean, you look at the offense.
Well, the last thing I do want to hit with your discussion with
Rhett in, in relation to this game too, is you.
I'm stealing your line from that podcast.
But you're talking about how like just how many times we're
going to keep moving the goal posts with this team where you,
you even, you mentioned, you know, like the, the the
competition has been somewhat subpar.
And that's that's the feeling. But it's like you go and look
and like, well, you know, yesterday UCLA is putting up a
real fight against LSU in LSU and they ended up losing, but
it's like they were up 1714 for most of that game.
It's like, all right, maybe LS the UCLA doesn't suck.
Like if they had, I mean they didn't, but it's like that
changes to me, the view, I mean of those games swap the way that
they happen. If we had that UCLA game first
and then we played UCLA, it's like going into the UCLA game,
like man, I'm scared of them 'cause they almost beat LSU and
LSU, You know, it it, it does feel like just the people keep
and I guess it is what it is, just keep kind of, you know,
minimizing everything that we've done.
But no, when you look at the offense, you know, I know I
always screw up the name of the game, but you know, like the
name, the chart name, the drive, the drives.
Come on. Drive and I'll get it in five
years, my memory will get better.
You know, you you start the game with touchdown, field goal,
touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown.
And then you get a punt and by that time you're you're up and
you have backups in you know, the offense has been electric.
I think, you know I'm going to screw up the numbers we've
scored so far this year. We get the right one here.
We've scored what, 231 points 2. 102 two. 102, yeah, Sorry,
sorry, sorry. Wow.
OK, at 202, to give you an idea, like in 20 I had the wrong year
up 2020 the entire year and eight games we scored 231.
Like my wife was adding up like the last time we scored this
many points. Like in a season.
We've outscored seasons pretty close in just four games.
And. You know what The thing is for
as electric, we can come back to the offense as electric as it's
been and how it's been so spread out everywhere, I still kind of
feel like the the calling card of this team might be the
defense because the defense has also been really good.
You know, you give up 14 to Charlotte, that's not awesome.
But you know, you look around college football, you know, Ohio
State beat Marshall 49 to 14. No one's like, Oh my God, does
Ohio State have problems like this is I continue to always go
back like these are the kinds of scores and games and the way
things look when a team is really, really good, you know,
and you know, I mean, Penn State won 56 to nothing Like that's a
a bit of that, but we had one like that too.
That was Kent State. That was, you know, we had a 77
to 3. But it's like I look at that
Ohio State Marshall game. It's just like it.
These are scores like other teams are going to get some
stuff done. But no, I the the offense has
been unbelievable. And again, you know, Curtis
Rourke is awesome. He really stirs it.
And if he wasn't there, I think it would not work as well.
But that's that's life in football, man.
Like you need a quarterback and that's just the way things go.
But everything else, it feels like it really is anybody's a
threat at any time and there really is this push and pull.
But I haven't felt with IU football in years even, you
know, under Wilson, it was always kind of running was the
attack. And then under Alan it was
definitely throwing was the attack.
This is the first time where it feels like, you know, with UCLA
they were stopping the run. It's like fine, we'll we'll
start passing. And then this gaming of Charles
feel like they opened up a lot of the passing plays and a lot
of that. And it's like, but we still have
this run that can come in and average 4 yards of carry.
It feels very multidimensional, of which I I can't remember the
last time I felt like Indiana really had that going.
I know to give you an example, you and the listeners, an
example of some of the stat breakdowns that are really
fascinating. So you mentioned like so far
this season, Indiana has scored 202 points and they've allowed
37. Last year through four games,
Indiana scored 87 points and it surrendered 78.
Through 4 games 2022, Indiana scored 115 points but had given
up 117. So, you know, the the again, I
don't know what to do with all this competence through four
games. Through four games, Indiana has
scored 18 running touchdowns or 18 rushing touchdowns, depending
on what you want to say. So the.
Year, we didn't score any of them.
Remember that year in the Big 10 we were like keeping track of?
That well, hold on. So 18 touchdowns on the ground
through four games last year through through the entire 12
games, Indiana scored 13 touchdowns on the ground.
The previous year, they scored 15 touchdowns on the ground the
previous year, 2021, they scored 13.
Like you got to go back to 2019 to have a whole season where
Indiana scored that much on the ground.
They had 24 rushing touchdowns in 2019 feels like.
We're going to break that in two games.
So, you know, you just, and everything that you look at or
everything I've seen so far has really just the, the difference
that we're seeing in terms of how well Indiana's playing and
what they've been able to do so far really on both sides of the
ball is it's just, it's again, it's one of those where it's
hard to get your head wrapped around it.
And yeah, the, the, the goal posts moving.
I get it. We're kind of pre programmed as
IU football observers and fans to keep thinking that what we're
being shown is in some way fraudulent because there have
been situations like that in the past.
But you know, what I would say is that we, you know, when you
point to other programs and you're looking at, you know,
the, oh, this team's for an hour, this team's, you know,
played really well, It's like, well, your team's doing the same
thing against the same type of competition and, and, and
arguably doing it better. I mean, you know, I think
Indiana was the first FBS team to eclipse the 200 points scored
mark of any team in FBS this year.
That's the kind of thing that you need to take into account.
You know, it's fine to say, well, let's, let's see what
Indiana does against like big level competition.
But frankly, when you look at the schedule, there aren't a
whole lot of teams like that. And if Indiana wins, you know,
891011 games and then loses one game against a good opponent,
that doesn't mean that they weren't good.
It just means that, you know, OK, they maybe they're in,
they're in an echelon now where you don't have to keep making
excuses or finding ways to not enjoy what's happening.
My message in all of this to myself, to you, to the people
listening is enjoy this because this is such a rare set of
occurrences to watch IU football being this dominant in in all
phases of the game. I mean, we we may not see
something like this again for another decade.
So I would just say enjoy while you can, regardless of what the
competition level is in your mind.
Again, I agree a million percent.
Like I was thinking back to like, you know, the was the 95
Northwestern team that went to the first team for them to go to
the Rose Bowl in years. You know, do you remember where
their strength of schedule was in the Big 10 last season?
Like, no, like you remember they went to the Rose Bowl and they
had a fantastic season and it kick started things and you went
from there. And I mean that this is what
I've been telling people who can give me that schedule talk is
just it's like, who cares? Like, hey, don't.
Care at this point. I put this on Twitter last
night. If Indiana was Michigan, if
everything was the same, the performances were the same,
everything. It was Michigan's uniforms on
Indiana's bodies. They would be a national.
Championship, they would be ranked like, yeah, they would be
ranked. I said ranked 9th.
They'd probably be ranked higher than that.
Like, that is, yeah, this is how football works.
And and IU has been kind of on the bottom of the barrel for so
long, like fighting and clawing to get to a point where they're
playing really well. And I mean, we saw like, you
know, Nebraska's a great example.
I put a kind of, it was, it was kind of a joke post earlier up
this week. But it's like, well, compare
what Nebraska's done and compare what Indiana's done in terms of
the quality of the opponent, the the level of the victories, in
terms of margin, the way that they played.
Like, there's really no argument going into this week for
Nebraska to be ranked and Indiana not to be ranked, other
than Nebraska has a brand that voters are dying to rank and
Indiana everybody is suspicious of because Indiana is Indiana.
Now Nebraska turns around and loses at home to Illinois.
I mean, will they still be receiving votes?
Probably will. I mean, if Indiana were to do
the same thing, they probably would drop completely out of the
poll and never be seen again. On the one hand, I don't care
about those things and I'm and I'm not really worried about it.
But I did want to note that if you're, you know, don't grade
your own team on a curve, Indiana fans like don't, don't
grade your own team based upon this perception that they're not
achieving something when the, the, the, the salutes that we
give to other teams who are three and O, four and O having
these good statistical performances are coming against
the exact same types of opponents in most cases.
So just give, give yourself some grace if you're an IU football
fan and give your program some grace as well.
Well, it's also been so long that we've had a schedule like
this where we're playing a full big 10 schedule and it it, it
still looks like smooth sailing for quite a long time.
Like you keep saying, you know, top level opponents and you look
at our schedule like I don't know where that is.
Like, I mean, it's definitely Ohio State.
It's probably still Michigan. They they look like they have
some life left outside of that it it doesn't look like there's
a lot of teams that, you know, would be favored to beat
Indiana. And I think that's also what's
at play here is people are so useless.
Oh, you get the big 10. It's just it's brutal.
It's like, well, it can be, but every so often that the chips
can fall in such a way where it's not brutal and it's not
brutal this year. I think your point about, you
know, the uniforms is totally, totally valid because I continue
to go back to saying that, you know, like the way we beat UCLA,
that's what a good team does. The way we just beat Charlotte,
like it's almost the exact same score as Ohio State had this
weekend. But everyone's going to view it
differently. But I I am with you.
You know what this team is doing.
It's very Workman like. You hear the way Signeti talks
about it and it's exactly the way I want my coach to to talk.
You know, he in both the halftime interview and the post
game on TV broadcast, it was like, you know, at halftime he's
like, man, we got some things to work on.
Like, you know, it's all right, but we're we got a lot to work.
Even after the game, he's like, hey, it's OK.
Like that wasn't great. We had the two drives we lost.
Like it, it is very, you know, I'm striving for perfection and
I'm not super happy with where we're at.
I'm not going to be excited about it.
And that's that's also a place we haven't been in a while.
You know, the, the rarefied air that I'm I'm looking at is, you
know, it's wild to think this the last time we had a 5 and O
start. And you know, we've played
hundreds of seasons and a lot of those seasons we've played
garbage opponents, good opponents.
You know, I know that you know the answer to this.
But Galen, I'll just ask you this.
How many seasons in the history of Indiana football has Indiana
gone 5 and O? Oh geez, I'd actually believe it
or not. I don't know this one off the
top of my head, but I'm going to guess that it's like Four
Seasons in history. So I, and if I'm wrong, I, I was
scanning through the the data pretty quickly this morning.
I have 371945 and in 1910 and like I didn't do the math.
There's probably more seasons than not that we haven't won
five games. Hard stop.
Like no, no starts. Like that is what you know, this
is where it's like, OK, you can talk all you want about soft
schedules and bad teams. Like we've played, you know,
division two or whatever it's called now.
Like every year we've played a lot of, you know, there's been a
lot of years we've had soft schedules that that's over 100
years of football. To be doing something only for
the 4th time is pretty unbelievable.
And that's what's the precipice that we have right now is having
a 5 and a start, which is like, that's where it's like, all
right, we're doing something that's only been done 4 times.
You can't just start saying like, Oh well, this and that.
Like no, like every year there's all those, all those things are
still there. And we have been able to do this
for so long, we are really in kind of rarefied territory,
which is kind of wild to think. Yeah, I mean, I'm looking
through and I, I think you've nailed it.
I there was one season and it doesn't count 'cause it wasn't 5
and O, but in 88 they went five O and one in their first six
games, but they were four O and one in their first five, which
again, a a tie is not a victory. I learned that in math class at
one point. I'm.
Thinking like 02020's got to be in there.
It's like, no, they were four and O and then lost to Ohio
State. Yeah, So, so, yeah, that's I, I
think that's the message, you know, from, from me and and
certainly from you. It's just like there's a chance
to do something really extraordinary here.
And, and look, the, the, the competition does ramp up.
This is a different level Signetni rightly talked about in
his post game press conference. Like we've got to maintain
focus, you know, can't avoid, can't afford distractions at
this point. We've got to maintain focus.
And that's going to be ultimately kind of the message
here over these next few games, you know, and and this next game
against Maryland is going to be a really fascinating one because
they're two teams that look relatively even in terms of the
statistics. You know, Maryland has been fine
so far this season. You know, they've, they've,
they've been, they, they obviously they had that loss at
home against Michigan State, but they, they bounced back and
played really well on the road against what I think is a decent
Virginia team, you know, but they, they have not been as
dominant as Indiana has so far. And so it'll be a really
interesting case 'cause as we talked about with that UCLA
game, and as we saw with UCLA, you know, in this game against
LSU this week, like that's, that's not a, a complete
dumpster fire of an LSU of a UCLA team.
Like they have talent, they can play hard, You know, So what I'm
really fascinated with is like, OK, now you've got a group of
guys on this IU team who have demonstrated that they can play
at a high level and they've been able to maintain a focus and a
consistency in all of these games so far.
Like the one exception is the first game, the FIU game, which
is you go back and you think about it, you're almost
disappointed that they didn't win by more.
But it was clear at that point, I think.
And you and I talked about this even in the post game press
conference for that one, that this team was trying to figure
some things out about itself. And they really do look like
they figured out even more like this game will look like a, a, a
team that after they got over some early struggles, really was
hitting on all cylinders. And I'm really excited about the
fact that there, as we've talked about many times, there does
appear to be a another plateau that this team can hit.
You know, they've been they've they've been very effective.
They haven't used a whole lot of the passing game.
They used it in the UCLA game, but they've reverted back to the
run when they've needed it. They've got this kind of
rotating committee of backs that seem to do very well.
They have a central figure in defense and Aiden Fisher who's
leading the team in tackles. But then they've got like a
bunch of guys who are right behind who have done a really
good job. And you know, I think overall as
as this IU team continues to hone itself and starts to get
against better competition, it really is going to be about a
focus thing at this point. Because on paper, both in terms
of the talent levels and in terms of the results, their next
4 opponents, you know, Maryland is next week, Northwestern the
week after that, and then Nebraska and Washington in
back-to-back weeks. It's all, they're all winnable.
They're not. They like the the I watched that
whole Nebraska game like that is not an unbeatable Nebraska team,
as Illinois very deftly showed. And that's going to be in
Memorial Stadium. It is going to take one.
More of that the at at Michigan State after Washington.
So like, yeah, so. So now, will Indiana win all of
those games? I don't know.
They could. And that, I mean, and if you
look at what the computers look at, again, they're going to
project Indiana to win all five of those games, which is pretty
wild to think about. And you know, Indiana football,
I mean, you look right now Indiana.
So Bill Connolly just updated his S&P Plus rankings.
Indiana's 30th in S&P Plus now after four weeks.
And this is a team that started in, what, the 80s, right?
And this is still at a point where some of the yet last
year's stuff is still being factored in.
You know, so it's a tight, like, it's a very tight world in
college football right now. But if you look at Indiana,
they're ranked 43rd in offensive S&P Plus, they're 33rd in
defensive S&P Plus, and they're 6th in special teams, largely
because they haven't used the special teams.
And when they do have to use them, they've got really good
guys out there to do it, whether that's James James Evans or
whether that's the kicking group.
And you know, you look up, you look up and down at this point,
like Indiana looks like one of the more balanced teams that's
out there. And that is going to, I think
play very well. Like if you look at the combo of
them and Maryland coming into this next week, what's
interesting is like Maryland is is not that far away in terms of
their S&P plus ranking. I think Maryland is like 35th.
So they're right behind IU, but they're a couple of points below
them in the ranking. Their offense is only 65th in
the country. Their defense is 28th.
So the defense is slightly better, but their offense is
worse. Like that's the kind of balance
that Indiana's going to be able to strike.
I think moving forward will really serve them well because
they're not going to lean too much on one or another phase of
the game, which, you know, you go back Scott, to some of the
previous years, you know, those Kevin Wilson teams lean so
heavily on their offense to do everything and kind of carry the
defense. And that's not exactly what's
happening here. It feels like both sides of the
ball can kind of carry their own weight.
With this stuff, yeah, I totally agree.
You know, the the thing that I thought was interesting, the the
play that I'm going to kind of highlight from the Charlotte
game, I think, I think it kind of makes this point is there's a
catch by Sam West, who had his first catch, I think of the
season. But it was this like nice play
that opened up and he ran like a little hook, like a wheel route
on the side and was just wide open, tons of free range to go.
Had one catch for 37 yards. And it's one of those were like
in previous years, I think we would have had that and like we
would have talked all about it in the podcast.
Like where does he fit in? Like can we start getting him
more touches? And we haven't talked about any
of that. And it's it's not against Sam
Westman. I hope he has does a great, has
a great season, but it's not like, Oh my God, we got to feed
that guy more, do more. It's like, no, it's just that's
a that's a functional football program.
We have a wide receiver out there who's, you know, when he's
open, he's open, he'll get a couple touches and he's growing
into his role. And it was a beautiful play.
And that's that's the thing from this offense that I still kind
of keep going back to and it's very hard to quantify, but it
just feels like there's a lot of the playbook we haven't seen
because there are these moments where you see these plays where
it's like, holy crap, that was a really nice play to really get
somebody open. And then we'll kind of go back
to like, you know, 5 or 6 RPO's and not a bad way because it's
working. Whereas in previous years I felt
like we would do that, but go back to like run up the middle
and then it's like second, nine, third and seven and then we
punt. This is like we kind of go back
to the vanilla offense, but the vanilla offense is leading us
with touchdowns and field goals. And it's just something that I
feel that like I I really feel like there's a whole second
playbook. We haven't been touched yet.
That's kind of like, let's just wait until things really get
hairy. And you see it in these moments
of these games where it's like, you know, Charlotte has 14
points, like, all right, let's make sure we score the next two
times and we do. And it that's something that
I've not felt. And then the defense the same
thing. It has these moments where, you
know, they don't lose judgement, but it's just, you know, the
other team is able to do some things like, all right, let's
immediately make some adjustments and come back and
then you can kind of feel the defense just kind of boa
constrictoring out these things. And I know we bitched everybody
for caveat and you know, I'll caveat like, yes, the opponents
have not been the highest level, but I mean, we did against UCLA
and that's all we can say. We've done it against.
And I'm with you. You look at Maryland, like when
you look at like Pro Football Focus, you know, they're right
there. You know, the overall teams,
Illinois highest ranked in the Big 10 and then Indiana and then
Iowa and Maryland. So, I mean, you know, they they
seem to be right kind of where we're at.
I think it's going to be a really interesting test.
And anyway, yeah, that's my thoughts, yeah.
Some interesting notes. Excuse me a little too much
yelling at the game yesterday in a happy way.
So Colin McMahon from Indiana Rivals had an interesting tweet
IU. So we just got the betting line.
So they just opened as a 5 1/2 point favorite for for the
Maryland game. Wow, OK.
Vegas, by the way, all of us not taking note, like Vegas has
taken note. Vegas is like, oh look, I mean
the spread was what, 29 I think yesterday?
We're a favorite on the road at UCLA.
We're opening the five and a half point favorite.
I mean, like Vegas doesn't. This is why Vegas doesn't lose
money. They they actually noticed these
things in teams. Yeah.
It's it's gonna be really. Fascinating watching this the
momentum build on this because as you mentioned, like so.
Indiana right now 5th. This is again from Colin
McMahon's tweet. Ranked 15th in FPI which is ESP
NS metric. They have the 14th best chance
to make the playoff of any team at 27.4%.
Indiana's fifth in average points per game scored and 7th
in points allowed per game in FBSI mean this is nuts.
Like all of this and, and again, it's like this is Indiana's got
to play up to that level now they're, they're not going to
sneak up on people for much longer and people are going to
take them more seriously. The execution's going to be more
and more important, you know, but, but again, you know, we
went through another game with this IU team where they didn't
commit a turnover. You know, right now, Indiana's
turnover margin on the, on the season is +7.
They've, they've, the last time they had a + 7 turnover margin,
I think again was 2020. They had a they had a + 8
turnover margin that year and and it's, you know, they only,
they only forced one fumble for Charlotte.
But what I'm most impressed by is they continue to not make
like self owns they they they're not, they're not putting
themselves in a position where they provide the other team with
a lot of great momentum. You know, they're not killing
their own drives with with turnovers.
Now that will end at some point and I'll be curious to see how
this team handles that. But you know, I just I know it
just sounds like we're just showering the team with praise
here over and over again. But I feel like that's deserved,
Scott, at this point. And I'm just really excited.
Like you run down the list and you see what Indiana's been able
to do. It's just it's been really,
really heartening that they've been able to move the ball as
well as they have and then their defense has been able to shut
down opponents. I mean, again, it's just like
you can we see teams that have really good defenses that don't
score a lot. We see teams that have good
offenses that have a hard time, you know, keeping the other team
from scoring. There just aren't a lot of
teams, even against poor competition, that do both of
those things well so. The two things are, you know, I
feel like we've spent the last couple of we we're allowed to do
this because we spent the last couple of years, you know, 2021.
We were both excited and I think you and I both pretty mid early
season. We're like, something's wrong
here. Like we, we tried to bring that
on the podcast. The last two years we've been
kind of fighting this, you know, like very early on, the
statistics have been awful for Indiana.
And you and I have kind of been playing, you know, danger Will
Robinson most of the season the last two seasons just kind of
being like, hey, I don't know how this gets better.
And, and we were really pessimistic the last two years
and took a lot of grief for it. And I feel like everything is
reversed this year. It's a complete 180 where, you
know, I still talk to a lot of people.
People go to games. They're just like, I don't know,
we'll see. It's like they're kind of
waiting for that moment. And it, it's like it's all
there. And it, what's weird is we're
like, we're a stat darling. Like we're one of those teams in
like Ken Palm. It's just like, man, this team,
it's like they figured out the analytic system and they're,
they're the great, they're the great.
You know, darling, I would say this, you know, and and again,
soccer games last week, I apologize for not making to the
game yesterday, but this is the moment I do feel like where, you
know, we've always had this push and pull of, you know, fans need
to show up that, you know, the team has to show up first for
the fans. Like, I feel like we are at that
moment now where this team has done enough and justified.
Like this game against Maryland is should be a complete sellout
and it should be people fired up.
Like this is the moment where it's like, all right now you
have a real Big 10 opponent. You have a team that has some
real things that they could do in Indiana.
You're about to hit some pretty historical benchmarks.
We start winning and continue to win.
This is the moment where it feels like, you know, things
should turn. So that that's that's my push to
any fan is like, you know, now's the time to get in for students
like these are the games to start staying the whole time to
show up early. Like this is where we we need to
step up and bring Memorial Stadium at 100% capacity.
Like this is the moment. And look at, you know, the, it
was disappointing. I thought the crowd yesterday,
people just got to, they got to show up.
I mean, there's always and look, I get it.
No one has been on this IU football train longer than than
you and I have just in terms of like fan that there are older
fans, certainly. But I guess my point is we don't
keep hopping on and off as a lot of people do.
And you know, we've seen seasons where people were not that
excited or the team wasn't that exciting.
There's just a weird kind of hesitancy it feels like amongst
a lot of people, like I, I, it was hot yesterday at the game.
It was not blazing. Like it wasn't that bad.
I mean, I've, I've, as I was saying to somebody, like I used
to go to games in the Orange Bowl when I worked at Miami.
I mean, that was hot. You know, it was, it was 10°
hotter and 20% more humid at LSU yesterday and.
The Big 10 network though, because the way they showed the
the coach Biff, which is just like the greatest coach name,
like he looked like he was hot, like the sweat running down the
little. Air reader like.
Every time they showed him I was like, man, that looks brutal,
but I think it was more more Biff problem than anybody else.
Yeah, I know that was I, I the pictures from that particular
situation defy a lot of mental items that I have in my brain
right now, but I'm. Wearing like a hat that was too
small, with a beanie with a cord coming out.
It's like Biff let's. Very odd, but but you know,
look, there's plenty of people who can't come to games because
they don't live close enough. And we appreciate you folks.
This is 1. And again, it's like I'm not
paid to get people to go out to go to the games or anything like
that. But I just don't know what
people are waiting for. Like you.
It's like, Oh well, what to see you play a real team, as you
said a few weeks ago, it's like part of the fun is going in and
watching your team like really dominate.
I mean, this is part of the process.
This is what you say that you want.
And you know, I think to some degree I, I remember like this.
This is a, it's a problem with the IU fanbase that doesn't
happen often, but because obviously Indiana's rarely been
good. But it's almost like when the
novelty of the football team being good wears off, people
decide that they're going to not come.
And we saw this actually even at the height of Indiana's biggest
string of success in the late 80s and early 90s.
And, you know, this is one of those things that people forget.
But like, you know, the the attendance went through the roof
in 87 and 88 and 89. And then it slowly started to
drop off. And, you know, there were games
at the start of the 93 season when Indiana, you know, they
went eight and four that year. They were in the hunt for the
Big 10 title. They were coming off a season
where, you know, they had they had barely missed a bowl, but I
think they had won like eight games, five games, seven games
and five games and four years is a good team.
Attendance dropped to like 30,000 at the beginning of that
season and they didn't have a sell out that year.
It dropped further in 94. I can remember listening to Don
Fisher and Max Skirvin on broadcast at the time, and bowl
games were like. Kind of put off from IU because
there's like, well, their fans don't travel anymore.
Now we know that that's not the case now, but it's interesting
going back and looking at those attendance numbers and how
quickly everything fell off. As soon it was as it was like
old hat that the IU football team was good.
Here. It's like the opposite issue
where it's like they haven't really gotten people into the
mix yet with IU football and I'm just waiting.
Like, is there going to be a trigger where people are like,
yes, this is actually a really fun team.
It's a dominant team. It's a team we're gonna go to
watch. I mean, on paper, the attendance
was fine yesterday. It was about 1000 less than FIU
in person. There were clearly not that many
people there. And given that it was a noon
game and it was a beautiful day, a little bit hot, but still a
beautiful day outside, that was disappointing.
I just, you know, you're probably right in that it, you
probably will have a lot more people at this Maryland game.
I think the get in price last night for the game was something
like $43, which is a generally a pretty good sign that tickets
are getting harder and harder to come by.
But then today the get in prices dropped to $34.
You know, so it's like there's there's clearly not the demand
yet on the on behalf of of IU fans to go and watch this team.
I just wondered, does that get triggered?
It feels like it should have triggered by this point because
are people really going to be that much more fired up for
Maryland than they were for, you know, just going to a game in
general? I mean, that's not exactly a big
name opponent in the big scheme of.
Things my hope is that it's a big, you know, being a Big 10
team always does seem to raise attendance.
Even a bad Big 10 team, you know, Rutgers normally brings it
a little bit more than some of our, you know, bad non
conference opponents. But, but I'm with you.
I've, I've kind of look at this moment is like, this should be
the triggering moment. And it's also because of the
runway you have ahead of us, you have ahead of you.
It's not like, all right, this is a mirage where now we got to
play Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan.
It's like, no, we're about to hit a stretch of maybe the best
weather you're going to have in Bloomington and three of the
next 4 games are at home and your opponents are Maryland,
Northwestern, Nebraska and Washington.
And it's like you could be going three and one of those games.
Hell, they could go four and O in those games.
Like this is, this is the moment, I think where it has to
be triggered. You know, this is where you need
to show up. And like, this is the moment for
this team where you know, this is just a, This is why you have
a new coach. Like all that talk of manual
2020 and they just, you know, you know, shit the bed the next
year. It's like, OK, but that was
like, that was four years ago. That's a different coach,
different scenario. Like that's why you have new
coaches. Like this is all new and it it
takes time to change how you know how the ship goes.
But it does feel like I I think of like the Zach Osterman always
talks about, you know, college football program is like a a
battleship or aircraft carrier just takes forever to turn.
It feels like we're not there. Feels like we just like Signeti
just grab the guys like we're getting on this cutter.
We're just going to have a quick turn to the right.
And it, it does feel like this is a different team and you know
what, you know, if things are the same as before, let's let's
go in and try it and get hurt. Like, I mean, I'm, I'm so in,
but it just does not feel that way because of all the things
that we've talked about and how all across the board this team
is, how professional they look. And maybe the only thing that I
could say that I would love to see cut out as we're still
getting some some penalties, not as bad as it feels like in the
past. We're still racking up more
penalty yards and we would like think like 290 for the season.
So getting 3 or 4 penalties a game, it'd be nice to clean that
up. But but everything else has been
just so Workman like in these wins.
But yet when they need to get exciting, they get exciting.
If it's not a boring team, it's a fun team to watch, but it's
also a team that like is professional and just takes care
of business. Yeah.
Well, it should be fun watching what happens here moving
forward. As you know, the the big thing
is it seemed like Indiana made it out of the game with no
injury issues and they continue to refine aspects of things and,
you know, to go on the run that they did to go from 17 to 14 to
50, you know, 1 to 14. But you know, the the other
thing that was really interesting was Indiana 52 to
14. Sorry, was the final Indiana had
a couple of of drives that probably should have resulted in
touchdowns that didn't. You know, you had the overthrow
from Taven Jackson on on that crossing pattern.
There was another one like that. It, it almost felt like Indiana
left a little bit out there and you know, they punted in the
middle of the, of the third quarter, I think it was.
And it was like, this is a shock.
I've, I forgot what our punching unit looked like.
So they continue to, to do little refinements.
They probably could have won by a little bit more.
And now they play certainly A-Team.
That's always been a good barometer for where Indiana's at
in the old Big 10. You know, you know, Maryland and
Indiana, it was like, only one of you can be good because
you're in the Big 10 E and you've already got 3 losses.
And you were seeing finally like, hey, that's the, the, the
teams who have been freed from those shackles.
Like there's two in particular, Rutgers and Indiana, both who
look like they are, you know, in a, in a, a mode where it's like,
wow, we no longer have to be locked into playing this awful
schedule. We've got some flexibility and
it would be great if both of those teams would be able to
take full advantage of it throughout the course of the
season. It's it's like it's like wow,
this is like letting a dog out in the in the farmland.
Like wow, That's what the big 10 W has been like.
So nice. All these teams you have to
play. I want to ask, let's play a
game. It's slightly not the Scott
fever dream game, but we're getting there.
If we keep on winning. I think I have my I think the
answer is pretty simple, but just want to play it through.
We keep winning. When do we get ranked?
I think I have my answer, but because I don't, I don't.
I look through it today like not enough teams in the lower 20s
lost. So I don't think we're going to
get ranked this week. And it's going.
So when we keep winning, at what point do you think we get
ranked? If we're not ranked this week, I
actually think we're going to cut be ranked like 25th this
week by the time by the time this comes out, we'll see what
happens. But, but if Indiana's not ranked
this week, I think beating Maryland would rank them for the
following week. That would be, that would, and,
and again, I it'll either be right at the very edge.
Actually, now that I'm looking at it, I think actually you're
right, 'cause I mean, Nebraska's probably going to drop out of
the rankings and I'm guessing perhaps Illinois is already
ranked. That's interesting.
I don't know. I mean, beating Charlotte by
that much probably didn't catch that many people's heads.
But I, I do think it's, I'll be fascinated to see what Indiana's
ranking is or their vote getting compared to say, Iowa and what
happens with all the votes for people that voted for Syracuse,
who of course then turn around and lost to Stanford on Friday.
You know, there's a bunch of teams where it's like this may
be good for IU, but there may be a little bit of a cap on it.
But I think if they were to beat Maryland, surely they'll be some
teams above them in the rankings that lost.
And so I think it'll be, it'll be right around either next week
if they beat Maryland or, you know, shortly afterwards.
I I don't think it's going to be a whole lot longer than that
though. I, I don't know, I kind of
looked at it as I, I think there's that national inertia
just kind of keep Indiana where it's at.
And, and if there's not a ton of losses ahead of us, I think it
could be as far as the Nebraska game and beating, beating
Nebraska. We do that at that point now you
know, you're 7 and O you have a win against Nebraska, which you
know, in the minds of voters, like that's actually something,
even though that may be one of the worst team that maybe not a
not the best big 10 team we're going to play in our stretch.
So I, I don't know, I, I think it could be that far because I
think this week we're still going to be in that others
receiving votes. And then if we beat Maryland, I
think that's, that's something for us.
But it's like, I, I think it's going to have to be beating a
team that is kind of a name. And I, I think we're going to
continue to fly, continue to be receiving votes.
You beat Northwestern, it's like, all right, it's
Northwestern. They're not playing a temporary
like there's a lot of ways you can push things off.
But I do think once you get 7 and O with a Nebraska win, it's
like then you're you're probably going to pop into like the 19
range. It's possible.
I don't know. I wonder sometimes how often the
pollsters or the OR the voters think about what they're doing.
I mean, you know, it's like the you, you look at the teams
received it like Memphis was 26th in the poll and they got,
they lost 56 to 44 at Navy. They they should not be getting
votes at all. Texas A&M, who was 25th in the
poll, Like they barely beat Bowling Green at home this week.
Why would they be getting votes at this point?
Like what? What have they done?
What have they accomplished statistically?
Nebraska, we already talked about Northern Illinois, who was
ranked. They turn around and lose to
Buffalo. Well, they should not be ranked.
That was an overreaction. So I do wonder.
That's why I think the perhaps in the AP poll, at least it's a
possibility even this week. It's just that you look around
the lower reaches of things and it's hard to really point to any
of those teams and say they are definitively more accomplished
than Indiana has been. All the statistics point towards
Indiana being very good and again, none of this matters.
I don't care. I would prefer that we weren't
ranked until later because I like flying under the radar with
this team a little bit right now.
But I could see the voters looking at it this week and
saying, you know what? Actually, it makes sense to rank
Indiana. I also want to just, we don't
need to do it right now 'cause it's totally unprepared.
Didn't prep you for this. But it's like, I feel like in
previous years, you know, we didn't want to be too negative.
But I think you and I both in talking about it, we're like we
were mentally and off the record kind of updating our season win
total projections. Like, all right, this looks like
it's going to be rough. I almost want to kind of do have
a redo of our win projections because it feels like 8 is a
pretty solid number. Like I feel like 9 could really
be in play here and it would be fun to kind of go through.
It's just again, this all goes to that feeling of I, I'm, I'm
willing to buy in and really buy in with this team because it
you're just seeing a lot of things that I've just not seen
before out of Indiana team and so much success and then so much
kind of confidence, like just so much quiet confidence and you
know, not over, over extension by the staff, but it feels like
there's something I don't know. I, I almost want to redo and
look and like see if I can get us to nine wins because it does
feel like now is the point where I could do a slight course
correction, basically moving to the goal posts, which is what I
was bitching about earlier. So maybe I shouldn't, Maybe we
shouldn't do that. Well, The thing is, you know,
ultimately, I, I, we actually, Zach Ostman and I were talking
about this earlier this week on the Indy Star podcast.
And it's like both of us independently felt like we
pulled a punch in picking the win total in that it felt like
if things went right for Indiana, nine wins was more in
line than perhaps the 8. And you know, the 8 was, well,
surely they're going to lose one of these in some way.
And they still might. And that's the thing.
It's like, look, there's a scenario where Indiana isn't
ready to play against Maryland and loses that game.
And, you know, there's a scenario where Indiana, where
Nebraska, you know, rides a, a, an awesome Dylan Rola
performance and, and gets a good defensive performance and, and
they beat us on homecoming. There's certainly a, you know.
We lose those games back-to-back.
Yeah, You know, everybody's been like looking at Michigan and
being like, oh, that Michigan game looks suddenly really
winnable. And it's like, well, the flip
side is Michigan's defense is still awesome even if their
offense is not. And who knows how Indiana's
offense is going to stand up or how their offensive line's going
to protect Curtis Rourke. You know, I mean, and you look
at the difference between Curtis Rourke and Tavin Jackson and
just the the boys and it's like you're one injury away, which is
why, you know, I've been hesitant to to dream bigger.
I guess not because I don't think Indiana, if everything
goes right, couldn't win 910 games, maybe even 11 games.
It's more that a, it's very difficult for everything to go
right in a season. And you know, we talked about
that with the 2020 season and how special that was.
And it's like, wow, everything went right that this season
almost except for Pennex getting injured.
You just don't get that that often.
And that's not just an Indiana thing.
Like that's just in general, like small thing goes wrong with
football teams as you go along. And so that's why I'm not, you
know, Indiana's four and O right now.
And the fact that Indiana's four and O right now means that they
are only, you know, two wins from being bowl eligible, which
is nuts, Which is we talked about that, you know, at the
beginning of the season. And it was like if you could get
Bo eligible, then you're kind of just playing with house money
the rest of the way. And it just feels to me like
expecting that to happen without a hitch, which it kind of has.
It's gone off without a hitch and then expecting IU to
continue to play better and better every week.
It's certainly possible. And I think Kurt Signetti and
his staff are figuring out or, or maybe already know, like
here's how we condition this team to think about a bigger
level of accomplishment than they think that they're capable
of 'cause we kind of saw that with James Madison last year,
you know, and, and the way that that, you know, they were in a
very short period of time able to take that James Madison
program and make them believe that they belonged in the
national conversation. The, you know, the foundation
has been built really nicely and and clearly what they did in the
offseason laid that foundation for this team, playing within
themselves, playing with confidence, achieving.
Where I just get really interested is, you know, how do
you manage that transition from getting your team to believe in
what it's doing to that next level where you go in expecting
to win games, not taking them for granted, but feeling like
you can play with anybody, which is such a huge part of what you
have to do as a football team and and what you have to do as a
coach. That's where, yeah, they could
win 9 games, 10 games, but I also just don't know quite where
they're at mentally. What do they do in that first
game against the team that really is throwing punches back
at them? How do they manage all of that?
Do they maintain the poise? What I've seen so far feels like
they'll be able to, but I don't want to take it for granted.
And at this point it's like, I'd hate to get myself, you know,
mentally thinking along the lines of, oh, of course we're
going to win these games and then be disappointed.
I feel like there's a bunch of people in the IE fan base or or
skeptics the the doubting Thomases of the IU fanbase who
the line has been. Well, gosh, you know, they've
just beaten bad competition up to this point and I'm waiting
for, you know, Indiana to get good to get ranked.
They maybe lose a game and people are like, we'll see.
We we told you they weren't actually that good.
And it's like you must be a great person to have around at
parties. You know, this is this is the
biggest straw man argument I think we've had on Crimson cast
historically, Scott But but you know, that's this is the kind of
thing where it's like I don't want.
To they'll get to like, you know, you're, you're right, like
they could, they could end the season like 7 and five and be
like, oh, this team was supposed to go 11 and one, like what'd
you guys do? It's like, no, like this season.
I think that is possible and that's exciting to talk about,
but hard stop after where we've been this season.
If you can make a bowl, that's a success, like just it is.
And if you can get to six wins, no matter when it happens, even
if you get to five and then you got to beat Purdue to get to 6
and it takes that long. If you get to six wins and this
team goes to a bowl, that's a great season.
And but I'm I'm with you, you, you, you do feel like we could
get to like 5 and O, 6 and O. And then if we, you know, lose
4-5 in a row to be like, oh, but what happened to this team?
You know you guys are going to win the Big 10 Now you're not.
It's like this is still a process of building a program.
It's exciting to think about because it it feels like it
actually is there and it's kind of possible to get there.
But it doesn't change the fact that this team's goal this year
is really just to make a bowl, and it feels like that is
unbelievably attainable right now.
Yeah, I mean, it is it is the the proof of concept for what
Signetti and his staff are building.
It's the thing that you're able to put in front of recruits and
ultimately it's the thing you put in front of fans and you get
fans excited. If the argument is what we, and
I've I heard this from several people about the attendance
thing. It's like, well, you know, we
just, we, we don't come because, you know, we've been told that
these teams are good before and then they haven't been good.
And I was like, that's your reason for not coming to the
Charlotte game where Indiana was liable to win by 30 points and
did. So look, there's I think there's
always going to be that moving of the goal posts.
And it's why I'm I still feel good about the eighth win
projection. It was above what the
projections were statistically the as Rick Bozich points out on
Twitter today, Indiana's projected win total is now 9.4.
And so look again, eight wins is right in that range.
That would be an awesome target. I don't feel like revising.
I think we, I would, I would say that us and Osterman, the people
that pick that many wins, you know, it was always the best
case scenario in terms of the team had to come together.
We were taking it on faith. But everything that we saw
coming in, it felt like this was the kind of team that we might
see. I have just been so impressed
with how consistently good they've been in so many
different areas. It's really gonna be fascinating
to watch moving forward. Yeah, just look to the weather.
Unfortunately it's gonna be like slight showers on Saturday, like
7857 at night. It's gonna be pretty, but it's
like a 50% chance of like some showers.
So hopefully that that blows over just but but just bring a
poncho and let's let's go have some fun.
That's right. I I think it'll be fine.
And never trust weather more than two days in advance.
Is is kind of the, that's the way we're open to Yeah.
Anyway, any final thoughts before we wrap up, Scott?
No, I mean we're we're now getting into the meat of the
schedule and and now is the point where I think a lot of
these straw man arguments will will fade away and I just all I
say is after four games, I'm just really impressed with what
I've seen and it's it's really nice to have signetti at the
helm and this team has really taken on his personality in a
very good way where it just feels very Workman like getting
things done. Next man up.
All the pieces are interchangeable and it for the
first time in a while, feels like we have a program.
And I don't mean that bad. We've had good seasons and, you
know, really high highs. But that always felt like it was
predicated on, like I said earlier, kind of individual
success that was very much focused on those people doing
well. This really feels like this is a
a program shift in a real program where it's like, all
right, we're playing Indiana. I don't know who the wide
receivers are, but I do. But like, I don't know who wide
receivers are. I don't know who the running
backs are, but like, I know what they're going to do.
And that's very much like how I feel about like Wisconsin and
Iowa. You know, we play them year in,
year out. It's like, I don't really know
who the next players are in Iowa, but I know I was not going
to be running a West Coast offense with five out.
Like I know what Iowa's going to run.
They know what they're going to run.
And it's going to be just a lot of people who are going to come
in and out doing exactly what Iowa wants to do.
And it's just like, it's so cool to see that here at Indiana.
And I think that's something that's really, really special so
far. It does.
And that's the thing. Like it feels sustainable in a
way that and and it's weird to say and it's it probably is a
little hyperbolic because it's only four games.
What you see in the four games you're like, this feels
sustainable. And we know that the talent
level on this team is not that you don't have the recruits that
most of the teams in the Big 10 have, but this particular
approach feels really sustainable.
And I think it's like you said, there's a there's a programmatic
feel to what has been established already.
And just even the way the team is carrying itself, the way the
coaches talk about it, the way the players talk about it, it
just feels so different. And you know, look, and, and
again, this is, it's an interesting contrast to the
previous coaches where like Tom Allen, the program was really
about him. I mean, you get right down to
it. The whole thing, the Leo thing,
that was him. That wasn't really an that
wasn't an organic thing. That was something he.
Imposed and that sound, that word sounds terrible, but it's
it's really meant like it was his way of trying to create a
culture. Yeah.
Even the breakthrough stuff in the early stages, you know, it
was about it it it was really a a slogan as opposed to being
like an endemic part of how we played football.
Kevin Wilson. You never felt that, like you
knew that there was a good offensive scheme somewhere, but
it was always struggling with execution it felt like.
Somewhere in there I see it, yeah.
And, you know, and the times it would emerge, you'd be like, oh,
that's what this is supposed to look like.
And it really. Under individual talent at
running back. Yeah.
You know, Bill Lynch didn't really have a program identity.
Jerry Denardo didn't really have a program identity.
Hefner's program identity was like, well, you know, I want you
to be part of the IU football program.
It was. It was it was not dissimilar to
what Tom Allen tried to do. And you know, Cam Cameron, there
was not really an identity there.
I mean, you really, again, you go back to Mallory where they
had a program identity and it felt like that was a sustainable
thing. And it was for several years.
That's the kind of thing I feel right now as we've watched these
first four games under the signet era.
And it's, that is probably the hardest thing to get my head
wrapped around is like, as you said, you know, whether it's in
Iowa or Virginia Tech or, you know, some of these programs
that have had clearly defined like here's what we do sort of
approaches. It just it's been so long since
Indiana had that. And we'll, again, we'll see how
it goes against better competition and in the
conference and how it stacks up. But it does feel like Indiana's
hit upon something here that could be really special moving
forward. I'm really fascinated to see how
it blossoms well. And and also, I mean, the last
thing I'll say is, you know, we've showered Signeti with a
lot of praise, but one of the graphics they showed in the game
yesterday was, you know, winning percentage by coaches with at
least five seasons. And it's like killing de Boer's
up there like 900%. And what's funny is we just all
assume, oh, yeah, of course he's good.
Like, he went to, you know, Fresno State and just had one.
Like, that's what good coaches do.
It's like, well, I mean, sorry, Signetti is like 2 percentage
points behind Stabo Sweeney. And like, it's like, you know,
Kirby Smart and like, it's like a list of like 7 people and
Signetti is right up there like winning percentage of like 773
or something. And you know, if, if, if we
weren't Indiana fans with all the baggage and everything we
had, if this was just another, this was just Northwestern or
Iowa State, you'd be like, Oh yeah, they hired a good coach.
Like the course, they're going to be good.
Like he'll turn around quickly. And so we saw with the bore in
other places, you know, I, I think that you just have to also
take into consideration the Sidney is just a really good
coach. He is and we have him, he's on
our staff and he's doing it with our team.
But this we're probably not going to win all the rest of our
games. We're probably not going to go
11:00 and 1:00 or 10:00 and 2:00.
But that doesn't mean this is smoke and mirrors, right?
That like something is being built here.
And no question, you know, I'm very confident being right now.
Like I, I think if we don't make a bowl at this point, it would
be very disappointing. I don't think that's going to
happen. And even if we're not going to
hit the rarefied air, it's like if we get to 678 wins, it's a
great season. But it's like you are seeing
something happen here. Insignetti is a really good
coach and everything, the numbers and the play and
everything backs it up. So that that's the thing that I
would tell fans who are a little bit hesitant is it's not going
to be a straight line to success, but it does feel like
we are on the right path because Signetti has done nothing thus
far that that tells you he doesn't know what he's doing.
Well, and the last thing I'll say on that and then we'll wrap
up is that this looks like a really fun place to play
football. Yeah, you're right.
This has been a fun team to watch.
You know recruits, you know and and.
And something you said earlier about how like how much Alan had
built the Leo thing, like this is a like kind of saying this is
a fun place to play. And it didn't, it didn't look
like it from the outside. And now you have this different
kind of more stern approach and kind of like, hey, we're taking
this seriously and we're going to coach you hard.
And as to your point, it now looks like it's a fun place to
play. You don't need to tell people it
is sorry. No, but that's my point is like
the the IT being a fun looking like a fun place to play.
It's not just recruits because I think recruiting, well, it's
still very important is not nearly as important as it used
to be because of the transfer portal.
And you look at you look at what Kurt Signetti was able to do.
He brought a bunch of guys in who have so far really executed
well at this level. What is that looking like when
you get to the next stage when players are looking for a place
to go? If you've got the NIL money,
which Indiana appears to have now, now it's not a matter of I
need to talk these players into coming and being part of this
thing that isn't working yet, but we think will work if we get
the right players. Now it turns into people want to
come play for you. Yeah, get on the train before
we're gone. Right, Because it's already
working. And it's like now you've got
competition, four people coming to IU, you're not having to take
the scraps and hope that they fit together.
And so it's what's gonna make this middle part of the season.
These you I, I keep saying the next four games, you I think
have more accurately classified it as the next five games 'cause
this five game stretch in the conference.
If you, if Indiana could come out of that having won four of
those games, yeah, that would be an an insane accomplishment.
Even if they only come out winning three, they will already
have won seven games in the OR in the in the season at that
point if they go three and two over these next 5.
And I think we can sit here and look at the FBI numbers and say
it would be disappointing if they only won three out of the
the next 5. But on the flip side, A7 win
season, as we have talked about many times is not a normal
occurrence in the history of IU football.
Like period. It's very similar to you.
It's very similar to the five and O start thing, which is
essentially a non existent thing in IU history.
Well, we're breaking this up into A5 game stretch.
Like everything we're adding. I don't want to get too far
ahead of ourselves, but it's like any number, you know, you
said, you know, with win 3 or 4, which gets us to eight wins.
Like you can always tack on the next one because we still have
Purdue in the bag And it doesn't look like, you know, again, the
bucket game things always crazy, But we we look like a better
team than Purdue, no question. So I, you know, can't guarantee
wins that game's Memorial Stadium.
So it's like after this five game stretch, if we're seven
wins or eight wins, it's almost like you can kind of put in
pencil a + 1 at the end of that. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing.
You know, you, you bring up a really good point about the
Purdue game and it's like you go if if you went, if you went
through two and three over the next 5, that would, you've still
got that game at the end where statistically you're just very
much better. So, yeah, I, I'm just really
fascinated to see how Indiana against more or less equal
competition from a talent perspective fairs here.
And I, I am really curious what else Indiana's got in the bag
that they haven't showed. So we'll see what happens as we
move forward with things. But Scott, this was a lot of
fun. Love talking game, love talking.
If Indiana wins, let's let's keep this going as long as we
possibly can. So I feel like we're we're
leaving some meat on the bone here with with Coach Biff, like
there there's a there's some kind of.
AI chat we could do, but we'll, we'll, we'll think about that.
We'll save that for next week. I, I, I feel good about let's
keep the focus on Indiana 'cause that's where it should be.
So that's how Coach Biff, that's right.
Anyway, thank you, Scott. Thank you folks for listening
in. Be sure to sign up for the
Substack crimsoncast.substack.com and
we'll be back later on this week.
We'll have more programming around IU football as the
Hoosiers get ready to host the Maryland Terrapins Parents
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I'm GAIL and Clavio catching you folks.
We'll catch you folks. On the flip side.
Bring back the Bison song, everybody and goodbye YouTube.