You're listening to the back home network, presented by home
field. Apparel,
welcome back to Crimson, Cask ale, and klaviyo, Scott
Caulfield Journey here. Once again, it is the last day
of August Scott word. It August go.
Just absolutely vanish on us. We blinked and now it's time for
football season to start is Indiana back on the Gridiron
coming up here in just a while depending on when you're
listening to this, maybe a day, maybe less than that.
If you waited and are listening to this while driving down to
Bloomington, but the Hoosiers, back in action in football, it's
good to see you again Scott. You've got your 83 special
home-field shirt on. I've got my Steve the Bison.
HomeField shirt on life is good. Where may be optimistic a little
bit, just slightly about the start of the Season, maybe not.
But we're going to talk through, not just the upcoming game, but
the whole schedule as we normally do in our last podcast,
prior to the start of the Season, Scott, good to see you.
How are you doing? It's time.
It is time to start this Odyssey of a weekly podcast talking
about IU football, to there's Dewey to weekly podcast.
That's who it's gonna be. E upstairs, gonna be downstairs.
Gonna be downstairs. Going to be Downs.
No, we are excited. It's football, time.
I'm fired up to drive down Friday, night for the IU,
Illinois gaming. It's fun that we start games
with the Big Ten every single year.
Be nice to maybe start one of these one of these years.
We just get a nice, you know, Idaho first.
But it seems like the Big Ten wants to always schedule us on a
Big Ten game every single year. So I mean on the one hand, you
know, I complain a lot about college football, not having
anybody in charge. Judge and and you know how it
almost feels like the sport is popular in spite of itself, a
lot of times but it I will say, if I was in charge I would
absolutely start the season with IU playing against a big 10 team
and with big games where people would want it, not until
Illinois, Indiana does not qualify as a big-game.
Know, that's like that. Me, like the NFL starting off
the season with, like the Vikings vs, the bride cars or
the Well, maybe not that bad. I mean, it's, you know, but it's
still it's like, let's pick two like sub mid-table teams and
figure out a way to get them together on the first game of
the season. I probably avoid that.
But, you know, I will say, you know, back in 2019, Indiana
started with games against Ball State and Eastern Illinois.
That was a nice soft start to the year, they have three
non-conference games to start the season in 2018 and they want
all three of those. So maybe you're onto something
just from a Winds perspective. I don't know.
We're also streaming live on Twitch.
We're not going to do this every time, but we are going to do it
sometimes actually, shy Town, jj-just shouted out, love that
you're on Twitch, thank you, we appreciate you watching.
We're going to try to put this on more on Twitch rather than on
Twitter because Twitter to stuff gets lost and I don't know I let
go it's time to spread our wings a little bit.
We've been doing Twitter for 12 years, let's get out and see
different neighborhoods for a little bit before we get started
just to remind Under that. We are part of the back home
network in the back home network is brought to you by home-field
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Just just a huge array of t-shirts hoodies crewnecks.
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Potentially at least in the evening which is going to be
nice. But look, here's my ears.
A home-field plugs that I know we're we always have to struggle
that we talk about them, we've said it all before, I will say
this over the weekend we took we have the wire mesh closet and
our master closet. Took everything out, rip that
out. Got the alpha system from clot
from a container store. I installed it super easy to do
but I think there's a moment yet.
Take a look in the mirror, taking all of my hooded
sweatshirts out and it's like I have a lot.
I got a lot, the greatest compliment that I can give
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in like I was very like, I have three bags full of stuff going
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but I will say that none my Tulane sweatshirt, my rice
sweatshirt, my beloved Marshall sweatshirt, my to bison,
sweatshirts, my Indiana oatmeal, they all made it back into the
new closet. They're loving the new digs, not
a single home field. Apparel item was injured in my
closet move. I mean, Ralph Lauren.
Got booted, you know, Old Navy got booted, her postel got
booted structure, got booted? Yeah.
Scott he doesn't tell you this, but Scott doesn't clean out his
closet since 1999, you know. So there's there's, it's been a
while. Yeah.
Tommy Hilfiger cross Colours. Yeah, they're all out.
But, no, it literally all the home-field hoodies are back in
and that's the highest praise that I can give say.
They made the Scott closet. Switcheroo.
Well, that is about as High, Praise as one can get.
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their stuffs worth the money. I mean it really is and we don't
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So anyway, home field apparel.com, be sure to check
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You'll get all that stuff early on and that's the way to go
anyway. What we're going to do today,
we've talked with various people, Scott posted a very nice
podcast with Martha. The mop lady, which I have not
listened to yet, but I'm sure it's delightful.
I had a podcast earlier this week with Olivia Ray.
We've got plenty to talk about still, we've got some leftover
Twitter questions that we're going.
To we have to do our normal thing that we do every year at
this time and go through the schedule and give you are on the
record predictions. They are guaranteed to be
something you can reliably bet. Against last year, I picked nine
and three. The team went to and 10.
The previous year, I think I picked maybe actually.
Those let the previous year I was actually right.
I think I said, six and two. They finished sixth in one, but
most of the time, I am entirely Off the Mark Scott.
I don't remember what Your predictions are like, but I also
remember that you suck at this too.
So you know the 2020 I was under a Last Rose.
I think I was predicting nine wins or something.
I definitely predicted a win in Iowa.
Last year if I've ever been good.
I sucked last year. The, the absolute inescapable,
gravity of the Triumph of Hope over expectations, is
essentially, the story of crimson cash trying to pick.
I you games so we will continue that streak.
I'm sure but let's talk overview.
We've gotten through all of fall Camp.
We've, we've seen a lot of stories, and we've seen a lot of
people saying. We had to be optimistic about
this team. There's a lot of things to like
and then you read the Indy star this morning.
And they've got Zach, Osterman and Dustin Dopey rack giving
their projections and I think they both pick four and eight
and essentially said, like be ready.
There might be worse. Stuff that happens, you never
know. So, a lot of the experts, I
think now that they've actually She had to put their cards on
the table of not been particularly sanguine about.
I use chances this year to do great things or maybe even good
things. What's your overall sentiment
before we get to the individual games?
Right now, Scott about this upcoming IU football season,
what's your temperature on things?
You mentioned your podcast, Olivia and there's some good
stuff in there but I want to hit on something.
You were talking about with the coach's eye.
I just want to let you know that you know, I have four tickets to
the game. To take my son but I have two
extra tickets. I'm not going to release my
depth chart of who I'm taking to the game.
So I'm just letting you have Tom Allen wants to know that I'm not
going to let you know. I'm not gonna tell you which son
either I have two sons. They're battling it out its
competition. We're not going to release which
son? No I think it's funny all the
key which which of you which of your son's transferred from an
SEC family. I'm curious what?
That's totally not answering your question but that's fine.
That's the Thing. This quarterback battle thing is
driving me nuts because either if you know base lacks your
starter then you're just being cute because you don't want
Illinois off the scent. Like you haven't shown the
ability to like just focus on winning games as I said before,
if if it is really a battle then like we should be very concerned
and you know, I'm not sure how much this stuff does rollover
but like it's not a fantastic look.
If you're another SEC quarterback, who's like, hey I
might want to transfer to it. Anna, you know, the place where
I go and have to do a court, you know, battle out a walk-on to
get a starter spot like that. Maybe I'll just go to Michigan
State. Like I, none of this is good.
I'm very curious who's going to start out, you know, the under
Center on Friday night, you know, the overarching thought
that I will come back to as I've listened to all of this and it
is, you know, people have tried to be positive.
I appreciate the positivity as you know, by listening to like
Zach and Dustin. Do their their podcast, trying
to kind of look at the positive way to do this, you know, is
there a way you can be playing for a bowl, you know, into into
November whatnot? I come back to this, like we
talked about before, there's just so many question marks
across so many parts of the ball, but the thing that really
hasn't been mentioned in anything that I've listened to
that, I kind of come back to is, we always hit this in October
and November is, you know, quarterback play, which we've
talked Ad nauseam about, but the other one that I feel like you
bring up Lat, I talked about and that we all kind of.
Look at the end of the year is like, man, we're getting killed
on the line, you are lying, just, you know, can't protect
you, we don't have time. It's like it's not we have a
quarterback issue, but the court doesn't have time.
It's like the RO line is just looking in depth compared to
these bigger lines than injuries happen.
And then we talk about, you know, guys switching around and
that's thing that hasn't been talked about as if I'm always
question marks, the one coach who shown an inability to have a
successful offensive line is the same.
Inator, who's still there? And so the one area it's like I
can guarantee. I'm pretty sure we're not going
to have a great offensive line this year.
And that's something that every single year as we get deeper
into the season is always the thing that we look at is like
man this is really what's separating us you know because
we don't have time to throw or not able to get you know, holes
open to run. And so the more I thought about
it the more I look at that as like, we're not talking about it
maybe just because people want to try and focus on other things
and try to be able to Positive but I, you know, I think our
lime play, there's no history that shows that you're going to
get good line play Under the, you know, coaching staff that
you have. And so if we're going to have
the same, if not, you know, the same lamp.
Oh, we've had the last two or three years.
I'm not sure how any of the other pieces really matter
whether it's a culture of winning or a guys have, you
know, they're not used to having you last season.
The aberration are used to winning, it's like, well, if the
line plays bad, we're going to have a struggle to be.
Good. And that always seems to be what
happens when you get in the meat of the Big Ten schedule.
So I don't mean to pick on just one thing, but it's something
that I've really been thinking about.
I have a hard time seeing a lot of W's when, when that's the
case, when you're surrounding that, with question marks all
over the place, I go on these long. 45-minute walks with my
dogs most days. It's my primary, it's good
cardio, it's easy on the joints and the dogs enjoy it.
So, you know, it really is serves a bunch of purposes, but
I've been going back and listening to some of our From
last year, not because I want to hear myself talk, but because I
sorry, I want to get back into the mentality and also hear some
things that I've forgotten about IU season last year, because
let's be honest, a lot of what happened with I use season kind
of it. Almost has gotten forgotten
because we've concentrated on the big picture items, and it's
interesting because I was listening to the post Cincinnati
podcast. And first of all, we were
actually in a better mood after that podcast.
Cast then I remembered us being. We weren't like it wasn't like
happy action fun time or something like that or peanut
butter jelly time, or whatever you want to call it, but it was,
it wasn't. We weren't like, we weren't
downtrodden, we didn't sound like we've been run over by a
truck, you know, and a lot of the comments were well, this
team just not as good as we thought it was and there's
problems and it's interesting because listening to that
podcast dovetails exactly what you just restated, which is that
that game And actually you go back and watch the game.
You'll see the same thing. The play calling wasn't that
bad, the execution was bad and it was you know some of it was
receivers dropping balls or Michael penix not being able to
get the ball where it needed to be, but a lot of it was the
offensive line. A lot of it was not being able
to block and weirdly as much as that was a big picture story and
you know, go back and listen to your podcast that you did, you
know, with, with the pot, John punt folks earlier that was
something that they brought up at the time.
I'm it's something that was brought up by think it was
Danny. We're talking to in when the
podcast a couple of weeks ago. As much Focus was placed on the
fact that Darren Hiller and the offensive line have been
inadequate, it's fascinating that that was essentially
treated as a non-story throughout the course of this
off season and into fall camp and it is inexplicable as
consistently pours. The offensive line has been over
the entire tenure of Tom Allen, How you don't make a change,
there is a lot of pressure specifically on that phase of
play for Indiana because it does it is essentially the glue that
either holds everything together or dissolves and causes
everything to fall apart series by series throughout the course
of the year and it was the most consistent problem for the first
half of last season before the lack of a competent quarterback,
became the problem for the second half for the last third
of the season. So, I'm with you on that.
And I do think that That I'm actually a little disappointed
that it more of a bigger deal. Wasn't made of it.
Now it's water under the bridge, whatever.
And certainly you always see a lot of positive stories focusing
specifically on will gosh. This walk-on wide receiver who
came out of nowhere now. Looks like he might start or hey
this linebacker is really tackling hard or hey this former
quarterback is looking really good at wide receiver.
Like you always get those kinds of stories with fall ball and
with the lead up to a season and I get that but I just Have to
wonder in a program that got a lot more scrutiny.
How you know, would this have been a story every single day of
that, there was a press conference and what will it be
covered as if I, you continues to struggle on the offensive
line. That that really does end up
being a big question. Now, if the offensive line comes
out and blocks adequately and gives the quarterback, whoever
it is, I think it's going to be kind of Basel II, but whoever it
is time to throw. If it gives running backs holes,
where they can actually he gained a decent amount of
yardage and move the ball. Well okay, then then perhaps
there were internal lessons being learned that are going to
result in something more, positive moving forward.
What else anything else? Stick out to you.
As far as like your overall feelings about this team?
Is there anything you feel better about now versus how you
felt when we started picking this whole topic of football
back up in Late July? Anything I feel better about, I
mean, II will say, you know, I hit on this a little bit with
with Martha that you know, when you go back and look at some of
the nice streaks and Tom Allen's, you know, the 2020
season the 2019 season, you know, Alan has shown, and I
don't want to rehash where I talked to two.
I've mentioned a couple different times.
I talk to Martha about that, you know?
I really think a change happened after that.
Wisconsin game we Take the New Year's Day six, Tom Allen got
pissed which is the Big Ten off our logo, but he coach from a
place of anger and it didn't work and something changed.
I mean, it's I'm not saying it's just one thing that happened but
you know where Tom Allen has been successful as coaching from
a place of love. And I know it seems cheesy, but
it's also team that has Elio written on everything.
So it's, you know, it's I'm taking a cue from from coach
here, but when he coaches with that passion for a positive
place, we do really well. You saw it in 2020, they wanted
to run but As I mentioned in the other pod you in 2019, they also
had that you know for game stretch my granted was against
you know lesser opponents but they won you know at Rutgers at
Maryland at Nebraska wait no not all those are our ATS.
Sorry sorry they won Rutgers at home and mess it up at Maryland
at Nebraska and the Northwestern at home.
But, you know, and it's like, all right, it's not the best,
the Big Ten. It's like that's for I forget
exactly where the That's four straight Big Ten wins, we
haven't done that like in 15 or 20 years after that point to on
the road, that's a great stretch and that propelled us to the
Gator Bowl and we, you know, we played the Penn State team at
the end of that very, very tough.
He's shown that once he gets a little bit of momentum and he's
coaching from the right headspace that he can get this
team to kind of go through places where maybe they, you
know, are ahead. And that's when you look at the
beginning, part of this schedule will get to Illinois in a
second, but you Illinois, Hello, Western Kentucky.
I'm not saying it's it's a soup you know, automatic 3 and 0 as
we'll get to we look at each game but you have a Runway there
where you could get a little bit of positive momentum, you know,
at Nebraska isn't easy but it's also not the toughest Putt in
the Big Ten. It's maybe one of the better
Road games. I wouldn't mind taking right
now. Like you have an opportunity
here where the schedule lines up where you could you could get
some nice momentum and and that's where I feel a little bit
better that, you know, if Tom Allen can get, Of that positive
vibe going getting the team to kind of play better as a, you
know, some, you know, the the whole than the sum of the parts.
I think they're, I think, they're in a good spot.
And that's what I feel has been the positive change that I've
made, although I will say, overall, I'm probably as - as
I've been, you know, the entire time like, I'm, I'm just, I'm
nervous about this season, I'm curious about it, but I'm
nervous. So, I will say I disagree with
what you just said in as much as this.
I think this is interesting cause I think a lot of people
have latched on to this idea that, you know, Alan needs to
coach from a positivist perspective as opposed to a
negative is perspective, but I think honestly like 2019 is
largely explainable by one factor, which is that he hired a
competent offensive coordinator, who ran a good offense, that
regularly scored more than 30 points, a game and I don't think
anything else mattered, you had Kaelyn Deboer and you go down.
You look at the list of games from 2019.
Beat Ball State. They score 34 points, they
scored 52 against Eastern Illinois.
They got crushed by Ohio State, but whatever they be
Connecticut, 38 23, they scored, 31 points against Michigan
State, and probably should have figured out a way to win that
game, but then they score 35 against Rutgers 34, against
Maryland, 38 against Nebraska, 34 against Northwestern 27
against Penn State on the road, and they scored 44 against
Purdue, they lost to Michigan who was just had a superior team
that day. Like they did, they were really
good offensively. Yeah.
And I think 2020, yeah, you don't have kale and Deboer but
you had as a kosterman is pointed out a lot of opt-outs
for other teams that Indiana didn't have to face.
And as we pointed out, everybody was under as unprepared as
Indiana. Normally, looks in games in 2020
and Indiana had some Spirit to them in that season.
And so, I don't know the, I guess if I'm pessimistic and I
am about this season it's mostly because You got to be
optimistic. The question is would make you
optimistic? Well I'm saying if I'm Pat I'm
getting to okay, say if I'm pessimistic it's because there
are so many things that have to go right in order for this
season to turn around to a degree where it's a really
successful year. If I'm optimistic, it's that
there is something that you should be able to count on this
year and that is a really stalwart defense.
This is Tom, Allen's bread and butter is a coach, he's got a
Experienced group of players, he's got a talented group of
players. He's got a group of players that
was riddled by injuries last year to a large degree and much
like we saw in, you know, like Kevin Wilson's last year, it may
be a season where you have to lean a lot on the defense and
hope you get just enough out of the offense.
But that may be enough, you know?
Because I think one of the things about this schedule for
IU this year, as we get into it is there are a lot of teams who
Appear to be good but you don't necessarily know.
And and and they may actually be average to bad.
And I mean, this whole first stretch of the schedule with the
exception I think of Michigan is full of teams that a really good
defense. Might be able to stymie.
You know, you've got, you've only got two ranked teams in the
first nine games that you play. And one of those games is at
home, and the other game is against the team that may not
actually be anywhere close to as good as their ranking indicates.
Yes, we said that last year. About Cincinnati, but it may be
actually the case this year because they lost a lot of the
guys that led them to the college football playoff, you
know? So you look down that list and
you know, Illinois, I do Western Kentucky, Nebraska, Maryland,
Rutgers and even Penn State a really good defensive
performance, a defensive performance that can generate
turnovers and that's calling plays in the right order might
yield some success that last year's team couldn't yield for
one reason or another. So that's that's where I get, I
guess. Potentially Optimist.
I don't have actually going to be anything that we have to pay
attention to because I think this team has a lot to prove.
The offense is a lot to prove the coaches, both new and
returning have a lot to prove and the players especially on
offense are just unknown quantities.
And it's almost, it's probably been the single hardest thing.
For me, Scott in talking about IU football going into the
season. Is I want to be - to some degree
because I was burned. Last year, I want to be positive
because Is, I'm naturally a positive guy about IU football,
even if it doesn't always sound like it.
But I do I know. So little about what we're about
to see on Friday and beyond that.
It's almost like I'm just you're just kind of inventing things to
talk about and support or oppose.
Its, you know, it's like trying to get excited or angry about a
concept car, you know, I mean if you just see, you know, the
model on the floor, in Detroit at some Auto Show.
So I mean it may look nothing like that.
By the time it actually gets released to the public.
What I mean getting upset about that is that's something that
magazine writers do not like serious podcasters like you and
me. Yes, master.
I mean, it is wild like a someone just two people don't
stumble into it, you know, 20 minutes into an IU podcast,
they're not listening to it. But it's if you know, of an
Alabama fan, just stumbled in and, you know, heard people
talking about, you know, our wide receiving Corps, you know,
McCullers pretty. It's always looking pretty good
out there. They'd stop that.
Whoa, be the guy. It quarterback for the last year
I guess who you're talking about a quarter and it's like and by
the way there's a part, I'm joking, this is total joke but
it's like with with how little is we know?
Maybe McCoy is gonna play quarterback.
I don't know. Like maybe he'll start as
course. That's actually that's actually
the big secret with the starting quarterback but it's not basil
act. It's not Tuttle, it's actually
McCully. Who's been, you know, there's a
whole thing with wide receivers, it's been a huge subterfuge so
just that you would be breaking news.
It's Alan wanted to have Have fun.
I mean one play is not going to ruin it like just come out and
have Bay's lack and Tuttle wind up at wide receiver and McCully
is quarterback. Just one play just to screw with
everybody, of course, knowing I used to, you know, with I use
luck, you know, he gets sacked, eras ACL throat of, you know,
Bay's lack, and he'd get, you know, crushed and, you know,
break his arm or something. That would be it.
Well, I know you, you have new coordinators, you bring back
like, literally, no production at any of the skill positions.
Ins. And then on defense, you're
bringing a lot of people back, but it's also a defense that was
completely anchored by Mike McFadden and whenever he was out
the defense look completely unmoored and I'm not saying they
can't figure it out, but he was such an integral part of that
defect. Get just to the question marks
in such an integral part of that defense.
And, you know, it's there's even at the play calling point of
view. Like you mentioned, Alan is best
when he has very Qualified coordinators around him.
And I think that him moving to the defensive side is really
good and it should sure up the defense.
But as we've said many times in the past, we've had good defense
has where. But if you're, you know, but if
your offense can't do anything, if your offense is going three
it out in, you know, 28 seconds of Gameplay at some point, your
defense is going to break and then, you know, they'll break,
it'll be seven, nothing then it's 7 to 3 then it's 14.
Rihanna's 2:39, it's like the defense completely.
I can't specifically think want to stop ahead.
We've had games, the defense for like they played pretty well we
lost 6:32. It's like they just they
couldn't stop 18 drives in a row from Michigan when you're
starting at the 50-yard line and that's what also concerns me.
It's just, there are so many question marks.
Well, across the way and this is what I kind of, you know, got
onto Martha a little bit on the Pod is like I keep on saying
like hope is not a plan. Even get the Hope tracker with
him because he like he was describing how things are Go
well and it's like use the word. Hope nine times that
explanation. It's like because there is
nothing else to say. Because we haven't seen these
guys, they're all question marks and honestly, your, you're
hoping that things happen that really, I you does not have a
history of doing, which is having high level transfers come
in going from a to intense season, and rebounding, to 6 and
6. Like, you're asking for things
like that. I want to ask you one more
question for you dig into the schedule.
Yeah. Along these lines because I
think it was Olivia but you maybe it was even Dustin or Zach
on the spot and listen to a lot of preview pods, just kind of,
I'm curious your high level expectations for this year.
You don't need to pin down like number of wins and all this, but
you know, it's the idea of people kind of are like, you
know, to make a bowl or not. I personally think a bowl is
that's a very, that's a very little aspirational goal.
But there is this kind of feeling of either, playing for a
bowl or just winning a big game. And if you don't do either,
Either of those things is, you know, if you go for wins you
don't really win. Any of the big games is that
anything? I'm just curious your thoughts.
Like what are your? You can you know, high level
expectations for the year. Not asking for a win total but
just like, what do you what do you see as a successful year?
Yeah. The, you know it's tough because
this was something we talked about Olivia and I did on the
podcast and I think so, my perception versus what people's
perception might be, is probably a little bit different.
So. And I say that from this
perspective like I I look at it, I think the way that people will
look at it is if you get a big win against somebody and you
know and then maybe you you don't make a bowl but you beat a
Michigan or you betta at Ohio State.
I think you know that you couple that with Even a for win season
or a 5 Wednesdays. And I think people would be
satisfied with that. They'd say, okay, hey look, I
mean Indiana's competing. I've seen some people say well
gosh, I think it was it was destined to appear actually in
the Indy star piece today who was like, well you know, if you
win four games but you're just a pain in the ass to play every
game and you're in every game until the fourth quarter.
That might that'll probably be satisfying for a lot of people.
And this is where I think it gets dangerous with IU because I
think there's a certain segment of the fan base, who is, that's
what they want. They're perfectly satisfied with
IU losing, as long as they gave their best and I think that that
is a seductive and often very dangerous thing.
As far as what the expectations of the program should be because
ultimately for me, This is a program that can't really afford
two straight years of negative momentum, you can afford to kind
of be in neutral for a little bit because that happens in
college football because it at least puts you in a position
where you're in the minds of recruits.
You're in the minds of the national media, you're in the
minds of your opponent's is as a difficult team to play against
it, to some agreement. That ended up being the way to
Kevin Wilson era ended up where it's like well, you know,
Indiana didn't really beat any of the big teams they beat
Michigan State. I think once.
It's under Wilson, they beat a couple of other teams that maybe
were surprised and ever beat Wisconsin.
But they, you know, they, they were competitive in a lot of
games, not against Wisconsin because we're never competitive
against Wisconsin. But but that, you know, Indiana
was at least a team that people paid attention to and, you know,
they come close against Ohio State, or they come close
against a Michigan. Whatever.
I think that this year, Indiana has to, at least get to five
wins regardless of what else they do.
For it to be considered a successful season relative to
the overall state of the program.
You know. I don't think you can look at a
five and seven season in a year where you play in FCS opponent.
And you've got, you know what looks like a relatively weak
group of five team at home and say well gosh you know you're
only gonna win two more games, you know I like you need at
least when three more you need to win a couple of games in the
Big 10 you've got. Opportunities there.
I don't think you could look at a 3 or 4 wins season, even
though that would technically be better than last year and say,
oh, that was an improvement. That was, that was sufficient
for this year. I think I you and I think Tom
Allen especially not NATO certainly for the fans but
definitely on the recruiting Trail have to be able to point
back to this season when they're on the recruiting Trail and say
see that's a lot closer to what. I you football is not 2021 which
was a blip on the radar. It was a bottoming out that
nobody expected. There were a bunch of bad
things. It happened.
But hey, look, we got this thing back on track quickly.
So for me personally, think a 6 win season is got to be the
floor for IU because that's what had been established.
The previous decade for it to be considered a successful season.
For me, I think, a lot of you fans will look at a five wins
season or a for win season, where you knock off a big team
and say, that's that's successful.
But for me, it's like, at this point you're playing for For,
you know, for trophies, you know, relatively speaking you're
playing for like the Little Caesars Bowl, you know?
But you're playing for the opportunity to further the
program, even if it's just incrementally and that's, I
guess where I'm at with things now.
I don't think that I use going to get there as you're going to
hear in a minute, but I do think that that needs to be the bar of
expectations and anything below that, it's hard for him to sell
me on the idea that the program has shaken off, what they dealt.
Last year and actually has forward momentum at this stage
and this is the part another larger.
Big picture thing. I know I keep saying until we
get to the schedule. But you know, this was kind of,
you know, the analogy. I always had with the Archie
Miller era is that, you know, you mentioned like it's you
know, getting the six wins is the floor and then getting to a
Little Caesars Bowl, but it's like there's also the lingering.
You also got to win a bowl at some point too.
And this is this is the Archie, Miller problem, is you kind of
were just like mediocre but you know, the The issues of not
getting these, you know, these certain checkpoints done, they
do start to stack up and then you get to a point where it's
like, alright, you gotta win like it maybe the team and the
schedule and things aren't lined up for you now, but you by not
winning a bowl in six years or as a Le but, you know, in 20
years as a program, for not making a bowl for doing two, and
ten, like all these things stacked up and I am with you,
I'm not sure. We're going to get to a bowl, I
don't think we, if we got there, we'd win one, but it's like that
still has a goal that needs. Accomplished like this, still a
boss in the video game, you've got to get through and just
because you had a bad year last year in the schedules and break,
right? Or you have a lot of question
marks. Like we don't just get to now,
push off, winning a ball five more years.
Like that is still stacked up and I think that is where I'm
concerned about this year. Is that, as you said, if you
just kind of go for winds, don't want don't beat a big team.
Don't make it to a bowl. It's like all of these
expectations, all these things people would like to see, done
are now going to continue to be stacked on top of each other and
it's like, at some point. You're going to You have to have
a season where you do at all, which is asking a lot of this
program. But at some point, we have to
ask for that, or we're just going to be watching a program.
That's not going to win a bowl. Like this is not going to win a
bowl in the next 15 years or even make it to a bowl.
And so you know this is where you kind of get to atone for
last season by doing knocking a couple of these things off.
I mean that's that would be you know, beating Michigan or
beating Ohio State. Getting like you said to the
Little Caesars bowl and then winning that ball.
If you did that, well, would be a phenomenal season.
But I think you're asking too much for the problem is you just
you continuing to stack these expectations well and they're
not going away. What?
And one of the things I find fascinating about the narrative
that has suddenly popped up this last couple of months about IU
is that o last year was a fluke. You know like oh there was
disconnecting the coaching staff Allen and War and didn't get
along. And you know, there were guys
that maybe weren't totally bought in and we heard Mike
McFadden talk About guys on the team that weren't bought in and
there were all these unnamed people on the roster who weren't
bought in who checked out at some point during the season
who, you know, all of that. Okay.
So if that's the case, if that's really the case, if it really
was a fluke with all this bad stuff that happened, the culture
fell apart that quickly. The two questions come to mind,
the first is culture was supposed to be Tom, Allen's big
thing like May not have the best players but we have the best
culture and we've got people that love to play for him and
for each other and for Indiana University.
So it does call into question. How good the culture was if it
was able to fall apart that quickly in a season, when
everything seemed to have lined up in favor of Indiana playing
really well. And having a chance in a
starting with a national ranking, having a chance to be
in the National conversation from day, one, but the other
thing is I don't think I have one.
Inside of your mouth, you can say 2021 was a fluke and you
can't take it as an indictment on the Tom Allen error because
it was so clearly out of step and then on the flipside, say
well we can't expect that much how to the team this year.
And if they win three or four games, we see we need to be
positive because that essentially means if last year
was a fluke, then they should be able to just get right back to
where they were in 2019 and 2020.
You know, it should be something that if it's that much of a
fluke can be stepped. Over and get you can get back
into your lane. And so I do think to some degree
their narrative guess for from last year, the other narrative
or we're talking about there is from last year that is, that is
also kind of grown out which I really don't like and has not
been given a good answer to me, is when you start digging in or
asking people about her, people talk about, you know, like the
lost to Rutgers, you know, 38, 23 or the Purdue lost 44 27,
there's kind of this. Like, oh yeah, well, that's what
the team just gate. Like at that point, it seemed
already given up and it's like, well we can't just gloss over
like okay, so we're just, you know, The last four games just
like we can't really get pissed of them.
Losing you 38, 23 at home to Rutgers because like don't
forget everyone quit at that point.
It's like well the fact that we're all just agreeing that the
team had quit and just stop playing is like that's not that
it's kind of mind-boggling that we just were kind of just that's
that's what happened and that we're going to assume that
you're going to go from a team that we all disagree.
Just kind of basically gave up and was just riding out the
stretch and just knew they were going to get boat race by Purdue
and we're just going to turn on a dime.
I'm and make that a 75-year. It's like I still haven't gotten
an explanation to that, right? No.
It's I mean, the last four games, this team scored a total
of 31 points. A total 44 total games for what
is that? 240 minutes of play?
They scored a total of thirty one point.
I think it's a very good point and it look, I think you can be
supportive of IU football and you can ask some very serious
questions, not just about that stretch but about the entire
narrative. Out of that, we have been pushed
over the course of this offseason which is that, you
know, Tom Allen's team needed to find humility again and Alan
native. And it's like, my God.
I mean, you had like two good for IU seasons and suddenly you
need a dose of humility that required a too intense season
where the team just stop playing for five of the last six games.
I mean, that's, that's a heck of a, of a bill of sale that people
are being asked to pick up and look who Maybe it's right.
And and that's going to be the big interesting question about
this year is, is there going to be enough demonstrable evidence
on the field that last year was a total fluke, but if it is,
then we should see this team win six games this year.
That, that that's ultimately my point.
If it was, it was truly a good point.
If it was truly an anomaly, we should see the team, win more
games and and not just two more games.
But for more games anyway, let's go ahead and get to the
schedule. We're going to hold the Illinois
game. Until the end so that we can
talk about the Illinois game in like as the lead out rather than
talking about it first and going through the rest of the
schedule, this is an editorial decision that I have made.
So, let's talk about the Idaho game.
This is a game Indiana has to win, certainly, but I will, the
one thing I'll say that, and I think they will win.
And I'll go first, you go second and then we'll flip the order.
But I will say one thing and this is going to sound odd.
I feel like it He had a one last year, fifty six to 14, but the
lingering feeling out of that. Idaho game was that they weren't
dominant enough and it felt like a dumb thing to say, with a team
that won a game by 42 points. But it really did feel like
Indiana should have won that game like 73 27 and they didn't.
And so, oddly enough, this is a game.
I feel like, regardless of what happens in week, one Indiana
needs to just step on their their throat from the moment
that the the opening Whistle sounds not let up have a lot of
offensive Firepower demonstrated throughout the course of the
game. By that point, hopefully they'll
be a depth chart. So there won't be anything to
hide and you'll know who the starting quarterback is because
he throws like eight touchdowns, you know.
So I think I do think Indiana has to win this game, but I
think Indiana needs to win it in convincing fashion more so than
they did last year. Because even though the score
looked convincing, I don't know that necessarily the game they
played was I love the idea of no depth chart again for Idaho,
Turtle yelling for you here then.
Yeah, I mean, this is your thrown me for a loop on the not
feeling. Talk about Illinois.
Now, this is a, is a must win. I mean, like this is if you lose
the Idaho at home pack it up and let's talk about basketball,
like the really then let's, let's have really bad
discussions. The rest of the year I think
will shut down. Crimson Castle.
Catch in 2023. You have to win this game.
I disagree with you. Like I just I don't think you
can win by, you know, it can't be a close, you know,
three-point field goal at the end of the game, but I think as
long as you're winning by, you know, 14 to 21 points, I think,
as long as the defense looks relatively good in your starters
or kind of holding their starters down.
I'm, we've had games where he'd beaten bad teams by a lot.
Not, it hasn't done much in the season.
We've had Seasons where we had close ones.
I just think from a perspective of the fans, you've got to win
this game by pretty large. Reginald even has to be more
than last year, but yeah, you, you have to win this game.
You have to win this game. Let's move on to Western
Kentucky as well. Check would say, alright, so I
you want to know in both of our books, Western Kentucky.
I'm gonna let you start. Go ahead again.
I think this is a game that you, you have to win.
Western Kentucky is a kind of an interesting team, you know, it's
funny. I listened to dust it.
We referencing all is Dustin and Zach everybody else, but I
listened to their podcasts. It was great and I think it was
A costume who brought up the point, which I hadn't fully
thought about that, you know, Alan.
And we always talk about the defense of this team and last
year, you know, yes, Western Kentucky has this weird Kirk
Corky offense, but it's like that's kind of the way.
Allen's defense should be able to stop a team like that and
wasn't able to. So again, I think that, yes,
Western Kentucky is quirky, but I believe their offensive
coordinator is gone. They have some new pieces there.
You know, this is a team where again, if Alan is truly going to
have this At the level that we expect it to be at, you should
be able to be a Western Kentucky at home.
I'm not even sure where they are.
Madhu us very quickly where they are and like SM P plus.
By, I can tell you, on Pro Football Focus, they are
projected to have eight point six wins and an 88 percent
chance of making a bowl. So I don't know.
I don't know where they are in Sp plus, but I can tell you that
they're not, they're not poorly regarded, when it comes to PFF,
I think it's the game that you you need to win and this is the
point where I will say, this is a game that Indiana will get.
And if you get, if you don't win this, your path to even Four
Winds is really going to be suspect and so I will give
Indiana this wind. I have a mitt to know I'm a
little, I'm a little edgy on this one.
You know, Western Kentucky in Sp + going into this upcoming
weekend is a 16 point. Favorite over Hawaii and
expected to cover that come from Hawaii.
We saw got obliterated by Vanderbilt in week zero so
that's not much of a test, but, and maybe it is a good thing
that Western Kentucky is traveling to Hawaii.
Because that's a long flight back and then they got to turn
around and play at Indiana a week later, so the name of that
disrupts him a little bit. I think it's gonna be really
close game, just very similar to last year and, you know, I think
in the end is going to have potentially some Growing Pains.
Early on offense, as they learn to play with each other.
This will probably a gate, be a game that they squeak out in
similar fashion to like the Florida International game, that
they played down there a few years ago or Western Kentucky,
that they played a few years ago or last year for that matter.
I'm with you I think it's game was going to be closer than
people think like people are just been penciling Western
Kentucky and is an automatic W and I do worry about I use
coming into that game, perhaps not taking Western Kentucky as
seriously as they should, but I'll give them a win in this.
I don't want to be overly - at least this early in the
prediction string. So, okay, so that we both have
them at to know which I, you know, that's a, that's a
positive thing certainly. So, let's Jump Ahead, then to
the next game, on the docket, which is Indiana traveling to
nippert Stadium to take on the Cincinnati.
Bearcats, obviously, this, this was the game last year.
Are you really felt like I you left a golden opportunity on the
table this year. It's one of those situations
where you look at Cincinnati. They lost a lot of pieces but
they are still. It's not just that they're
ranked. The ranked 23rd in the AP, poll
22nd the coaches, pull their projected by Pro Football, Focus
to win nine games. You know they have a 5% chance
to make the college football playoff again this year, I think
that's probably a bridge too far.
The American is a Bit better than it was last year but this
is still by all accounts a pretty good Cincinnati team and
as we know Scott picking Indiana to win on the road period,
whether it's in conference or out of conference is a dangerous
game and much as I want to pick Indiana in this one, I don't see
it happening. I think Cincinnati will not
struggle particularly much at home as much as Cincinnati
struggled in the first half last year against Indiana.
That's probably not going to happen this time around.
I'll take the Bearcats in this one.
Yeah. I mean they're projected for
nine and a half winds are nine point nine wins this year, still
ranks 16th at sfp+ there. They lost a lot but they're
bringing a lot back coming. They have a deep, very deep
roster for a, you know, for a team, not in the power 5, again,
I was going back and looking like, you know, it's been a
while since don't even 2019. But, you know, we haven't won a
true Road game. I guess last year was Western
Kentucky, but this is going to be a real true.
True Road game. The likes of which we haven't
played since like 2019. I think this is where the rubber
starts to hit the road and you have some muscle memory that
hits in maybe a bad and maybe a bad way.
And so, yeah. I like, I would say Cincinnati
is going to win that game. I was a two-on-one Well - the
Illinois game that we've decided not to talk about yet.
So 200 + 0. + 2. + 1. Yeah, so Indiana, then.
It's faces off in the next game against the Braska Cornhuskers
who have certainly had quite a start to the season already.
They go to Dublin, they lose to the Northwest.
What's that what their head coach depth chart look like for
that? It's well I think if there's one
thing that we're pretty certain of is that regardless of what
happens in the next few games, Scott Frost is still going to be
coaching that game only because immediately after the game,
Scott Frost buyout drops by a significant margin.
You know. So you're going to see a
situation here where one of two things could potentially be
happening with this Nebraska. Team either a they're going to
be the figure their next few games.
Are you talked about the the, the yin and the Yang?
They play North Dakota FCS team at home.
They played Georgia, Southern and then they play Oklahoma at
home. And Oklahoma will probably smash
them into tiny tiny pieces, so what's likely and then they get
to buy that following week. So what you're going to get is a
two weeks of like Nebraska licking their wounds after
getting obliterated by Oklahoma with a two and two record.
And they're only FBS victory in that stretch coming against
Georgia. Southern I imagine the heat is
going to be on about maximum and Scott.
I guess the question is is that a scenario where Nebraska
rallies around Scott, Frost and goes out and plays a great game
at home against Indiana, or is that a game, where the players
are looking around the locker room saying, you know, He might
be gone after this week. It doesn't really matter how we
play, I don't know. What do you think?
This is a game that has an absolute.
It's funny. Every team were playing with a
bunch of question marks at Cincinnati after team is gone.
And this is a team where I knew, I loved betting against Scott
Frost last year because you just knew like they, they weren't
going to beat a good team. Because Scott Frost would make a
ton of mistakes at the end. He roll that over to this year
and kept it going. Again that said, you know,
Lincoln's not an easy place to play.
And their fan base is We're going to look at this stretch at
the Heats going to be on, but I think they also look at this as
they're playing Indiana. There at Rutgers at Purdue home
to Illinois, home to Minnesota. You know, if you're at a
Nebraska fan, you're thinking. All right, we could
theoretically go for and one in that stretch and we need to.
And if we can do that, we can right the ship.
And that starts by beating Indiana and to them.
This will kind of almost be a Rubicon because they can't beat
Indiana. I'm not sure.
They, you know are going to be Illinois or Minnesota, or at
Purdue. So be there, for one, could turn
into one and four very quickly if they can't beat Indiana.
And this is where I want to be optimistic.
But there are just so many question marks that it seems
full-hearted to say. All the question marks we have
on the offense. Like I don't even know whose
have a quarterback is going to look like, I really want to
reserve judgment until you this Saturday morning.
But from what I see now and what, I know It sucks because
this is probably one of the most winnable good Marquee games that
you could have versus like not playing at, you know, at
Illinois like an actual real, big ten road win, it's there.
It's gettable. You have a coach who is going to
try and hand it to you. I think we're going to lose.
Okay, I think it's gonna be close, but I could see us losing
this one like 28 to 24 or something.
So by the time this game starts Over a full football season in
2020 on and a partial football, season of 54 games up to that
point. There's a distinct possibility
that in that season and a half. Essentially Nebraska will have a
total of 5 wins and those five wins leading into the Indiana
game. Will have come against Fordham
Buffalo, North, Western North Dakota and Georgia Southern.
That's, that's the so I to some degree.
I hear what you're But your argument like that Lincoln's a
tough place to play. I think that used to be the case
but I don't know that that's necessarily the case now and
we've seen not just good teams going to Lincoln and win but
average to poor teams going to Lincoln and win.
You know whether you're talking last year with Purdue went in
and beat them and you know you had I mean, Iowa beat them at
the end of the season, they were really good, but even in the
previous year, you know, they lost at home to Minnesota who
wasn't that great? They lost it home to Illinois,
who certainly wasn't that great? I think it is going to win this
game because I think that this team is going to quit on Scott
Frost when they lose like 63 272, Oklahoma and have to lick
their wounds for two weeks. And here, everybody, and Lincoln
talked about how bad they are. So I'm going to give value the
win here. I think this is the exactly the
type of game that Indiana can win.
Especially Really good defense on the road who has got
experience playing in tough environments and isn't going to
be rattled by a crowd at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln,
that's likely going to be pretty rattled themselves.
So anyway, let's move on next game in the last got frosting.
Just the oh yes, one stat that I heard that even from right now
if he wins 50 games in a row as a coach he will still have a
worse record than Bo Pelini had when they fired him.
Which is just if you're a Nebraska Fan, you're just like,
I'm, I'm done. I'm out.
Lex next game. Next week for Indiana noon
kickoff. We think homecoming, they play
Michigan, Michigan. I mean, this there still is
next. Okay, yeah, Marilyn.
That's you know, that's the thing.
There's not much to say about this one.
I mean, the question here is kind of lost like damage control
more than anything else. It's not just will Indiana lose.
Can Indiana. Get out of this without losing
three or four starters for the season two like season.
Injuries because that it always feels like that happens when you
turn into October and you got to start playing these really top
team. So yeah, we both have that one
as a loss, all right? But I will say this yes
piggybacking very quickly off of what you said about.
You know, if last year was a blip, it's frustrating because
the thing about 2020 that I liked so much was our win
against Michigan where we really just manhandled them.
I know, it's a, you know, covid year, no fans all that, but on
the field we were pushing them around.
Like we were getting The extra true yards like you watch that
game and you'd be like, oh, the team in red is the historically
good team, like, and to go from that to now, where you and I are
just back to the, oh yeah, we're going to like a treating them,
like Ohio State that's frustrating like that, really?
I just want to take a moment, take a breath and say that's
where I'm pissed because that was the moment in 2020 where I'm
like, this feels different. And if we are at the point
where, you know, our lines and everything we're doing is at a
level of In and were able to kind of not just win on like a
weird fluky. You know, we had a couple of
weird plays and they threw three interceptions.
We had to go crazy reach and over time, but like we actually
beat the hell out of Michigan. That game would have gone 5/4.
We would have beat him by more. The fact were there within 18
months. We go from that to like, all
right. Yeah.
They're they're they're two laps ahead of us.
It's that that's bothersome and something.
People should just take a breath and be like that.
Something that sucks. That's all I'm saying.
On the flip side, I think that 2020 game was about the, the
most abnormal of games. I mean that Michigan won two
games that year, they beat Minnesota and they beat Rutgers,
I think was the other team that they beat like, that was, that
was a bad Michigan team, that was very much like a game.
You're reading scores from the night, early, 1950s and
lightweight Indiana, beat Michigan, and still went to and
7. Like what happened?
That kind of I think we're gonna people are going to look back,
50 years, like we're going to be sitting here when were 90 email
Yeah, I was has a great. Give me a grandpa like Michigan
suck that year. Like why are you even mentioning
this? So you know I just I don't I
don't I don't I don't foresee it anyway.
All right, Maryland at home. This Maryland team is rated
pretty well in the conference there they're projected on PFF
college with six point seven wins it.
Obviously, last year, kind of felt like Maryland's
breakthrough year to some degree under Mike locksley as much as
we've Lampoon them. They went to a bowl, they
obliterated Virginia. Tech in that bowl.
They they had a, you know, it was one of those that seat the
season last year that Marilyn had is the kind of season that
we want Indiana to have eke out a bowl.
I mean, Maryland wins last year, we're going to West Virginia
Which give them credit for that Howard Adeline oil which was a
surprise I've ever watching that Kent State Indiana by three at
home and at Rutgers to close the season but they got waxed by
Michigan, they got waxer. By Michigan State.
They got waxed by Penn State, they got obliterate, like
absolutely destroyed by Ohio State and they lost by double
digits to Minnesota. So, you know, and they also lost
5114 to Iowa. So, this is a team when they
lost last year. They lost big.
This is a kind of a fulcrum game because they're probably going
to be better, because there's a lot of talent.
Mike locksley is done. A really good job recruiting
their the question is, can they go on the road and beat?
Indiana is Indiana going to be good enough that they avoid.
The Fate that Oi had last year where they lost to Maryland at
home. So to me, I think this is the
game where, you know, being at home helps.
And I think that again, in my scenario, you know, we've we've
won at home and Idaho, we've won at home at Western Kentucky.
We've lost now three in a row in my world and your world.
We had a win at Nebraska, you know, II, hope that most fans
are at least understanding that a loss to Michigan is not the
end of the season, but I think this is where the fans can rally
a Bit help, pick you up and and like you I think Maryland's a
little bit overrated, this year, their SP, I think in the 50s
which seems a little bit high. And so I think this is a, you
know, a nice spot for Indiana. Yeah we'll win go in the hole.
Wow. Okay I'm I'm kind of Maryland
and Rutgers I think we're going to go 1 and 1/2.
Be honest like I'm not sure which one we're going to win,
which one we're going to lose. It feels like we might lose the,
the home game, and win the road game, which is kind of, yeah,
we're eiu waved, it which is, which is where I was, I was
going with it, but I'll just have, I want.
I want fans to show up. I want to be positive for home
games. We're going to win the home.
You know, I look, I think that's a reasonable thing.
And I do think as you said Marilyn's, been overrated, And I
think that even if they are around as good as what people
think, if there are six win or like a projected 6 to 7 win
team, this is a game that they could very easily lose and not
have it ruin their season. I mean, Maryland schedule, is
they a buffalo Charlotte Southern Methodist, they're
going to win all three of those games.
They got Michigan. Michigan, stay.
They're gonna lose those two. They got Purdue Indiana
Northwestern, they probably go to and one in those games that
get some 25, and then they still have Rutgers at home to close
the season. So there's an easy path.
Two to six and six for this Maryland team, you know, even if
they lose this, Indiana game. And I think at this point, I'd
feel comfortable picking Indiana to win, just because this is a,
these are two programs that are very similar to each other and
talent level in overall execution and in predictability
or reliability. And that is to say neither of
them are particularly reliable at all.
So, I like Indiana in that game. Barely, I don't think it's, I
think it's one where Indiana probably doesn't cover but I
think they can. In okay, our Rutgers at Rutgers
the following week, I'll go ahead and say, I think they're
going to lose this game and look, I think Rutgers the what
they did to Indiana last year. Probably, should be illegal in
several States. It's but an Indiana deserved it
that, but but I do think the what gets lost is Greg, Schiano
is a really good coach. And yes, I think his team's
going to take a step back this year, on the offensive line.
They still don't really have a good quarterback.
Yeah, but I also think that much like I think Indiana will win at
home against a Maryland team, that's not particularly
reliable. I think Rutgers is going to beat
an Indiana team at home. That is not particularly
reliable, you know, when in Piscataway against Indiana, team
is not particularly reliable. And, again, it's a must-win game
for Rutgers because they just, they don't have a lot of
opportunities to pick up wins in the Big Ten.
And they've got a golden opportunity in the middle of
October because they get Nebraska at home.
And it might be Nebraska with a brand-new coach.
They get a bye and then they get Indiana.
That's a really tough setup for Indiana.
I don't like their chances in this one so I'm going to pick a
loss. Yeah, I'm also going to pick
Indiana to lose them and take the under on, whatever the
over-under is, because she on has a great defensive coach
Allen is going to have it. This could be a seven-to-three
game. This could be like a Xander
diamant special. So, yeah, I think that, like I
said, I Indiana's history, probably means we lose Maryland
and when truckers and have just a weird flip-flop, but I already
picked us to win the Maryland game.
It's like I said, I think we're going one-on-one in the stretch
and so I will also have is losing to Rutgers and then I get
to buy the following week. Then they get Penn State at
home. I mean, feels like that game in
2020 gets further and further away every single day, which it
does actually that's how time works.
I've learned, but it just, and Penn State is kind of an
interesting spot because they just signed James Franklin, to
this big contract extension and to some degree.
Often wonder why Penn State right now is picked sixth in the
conference in terms of overall wins their projected for?
I think so, Seven point two wins right now on the season which
for Penn State is pretty bad. You would think, okay?
Penn State, that's a team that should be like right up there
with Ohio State and Michigan, but they just don't have a lot
in the hopper. They're not ranked coming into
the season. Michigan state is projected with
slightly more wins. Even though I think they're a
big regression candidate and it just looks like I think Penn
State is going to struggle against big teams, but this is
also a Penn State. It's very physical, they're very
well, put together, they're very solid and I can easily see Penn
State losing a bunch of, you know, they got a, they got to go
to Purdue, they could lose that game.
They got to go to Auburn. They got to go to Michigan.
They got Ohio State of the home, they got Michigan State at home.
They could lose all of those games, but they could win
literally every other see game on their schedule, because I
think they're just better than all of those other teams that
they're playing, but, you know, not just the Indiana's, but the
Minnesota's, and, and the Maryland's in the Rutgers.
So, I I think Indiana could be competitive in this and, you
know, if Indiana gets some momentum, if they somehow beat
Maryland and Rutgers, you never know.
I mean, they get a week off, they could roll in.
I just don't see that happening here.
So, I'm gonna take Penn State in this one, the Penn State Penn
State's weird because when you look at the Big Ten eith, I'm
going to say, we're going to lose but I'll just talk.
Expertise lie for a second, Ohio State and Michigan are in a
different category and people normally lump Penn State into
that. With them, but it's like, Penn
State has been to one big ten title game, they always recruit
pretty well, but it's like, it never seems to lead to enough.
And yet, we always play them, you know, tough.
But we never, we have a tough as tough a Time, beating Penn State
and like things net outside of the penix play and the game in
2020, which maybe is Kismet every other time we play them
lines up where it's like, oh, like, you know, they have the
huge scandal with Ski everyone shut off its like oh that's the
year. We have standards him on as a
quarterback and we lose Lily 2:50 you know every time we have
an opportunity to get a couple on Penn State.
Something happens on our side too, they've never been a team
that frightens me, we play them way tougher than we should yet.
We never beat them outside of 2020.
I know we did, but it's like we're always.
We're just always really close and can't get it done.
They don't scare me. It's not a team.
They shouldn't be the In the world, like lumping in with Ohio
State and Michigan is like this threesome.
It's not there. Not there.
We every time we lose them it feels like it's only a
seven-point game all that said you know, we're not beating them
this year. They're just there isn't enough
there. We're not going to beat him this
year. So yes, we're losing to them
next week. Indiana.
At Ohio State, not in the face. That's about all I can say about
that one. Just just I mean almost a is
that Notre Dame is a top 10, ranked team?
Yeah they are playing at the Horseshoe Notre.
Dame is also a hugely public tedious that people put money
on. That Vegas knows.
They are a 17 point Underdog. I will say James that I recorded
a podcast today. I never hit record if you like
such an idiot, but we are talking about this, I think The
goal for this game is not winning, is that you would like,
to go into that game and not be a 30-plus point Underdog to Ohio
State, like, you'd like to keep it at 28.5.
Like just, let's not be a 30-point, dog at Ohio State
going into the game. I just don't want to lose by 40
points. Plus, I mean, I don't care what
the spread is. I would just prefer to cover it
even if it's by one point look Indiana's.
Play-Doh. Hi.
Yo, State at times in the last ten years, pretty competitively,
it hasn't always shown in the final score.
Last year's game was an absolute Abomination.
Like, if you sat through the rain at Memorial Stadium and
watch that game, you know, watching Indiana, Just
systematically Surrender in every phase of the game.
Is it went on was one of the more embarrassing parts of the
Year, despite the fact that everybody will have state was
awesome. But watching that happen was
really disappointing and you gotta go to the horseshoe.
Maybe you capture, Ohio State looking past you as they should,
but I just want to see Indiana compete a little bit in this
game. And if compete means only losing
by 28, instead of 42, so be it. But I mean, there's, they're not
winning this game so it's not even worth talking about.
All right, at Michigan State, penultimate game of the season
for Indiana. So, we've talked a lot in other
podcasts about Michigan State, probably being a little
overrated, their 15th coming into this season, and yet, there
are pro I'll Focus projection is only seven point Four Winds.
This is a team that looks primed for some degree of regression to
the mean. And you know, you look, you look
at what they did last year. Obviously, they deserve a huge
amount of Applause for going 11 and to that, you know, they'll
really only had one bad game all year.
They like many other teams got obliterated by Ohio State, but
they did so much good the rest of the season.
If only they hadn't lost to Purdue, I mean, who knows what
happens? You know, down?
Stretch with them in terms of, you know the new year six bowls
or stuff like that. But the sneaky thing about them
last year is kind of a sneaky thing about Indiana.
The previous year which is that they made hey against a bunch of
really bad teams. You know, you look at their
first ten games of the season, they did beat Michigan and I'm
not going to take that away from them.
But it's a rivalry game against a Michigan team that they just
seem to own you. Look at the rest of the teams.
They beat Northwestern, Youngstown State Miami.
Team that ended up firing their coach at the end of the year.
Nebraska Western Kentucky. Rutgers Indiana Purdue Maryland
like that, was there, that was there wins, you know, and yes
they did beat Penn State at the tail end of the season.
I don't take that away but like most of their wins came against
pretty subpar competition and even struggled against Indiana
who was on on Vapors at that point.
Like they barely beat that. Indiana thing, go back and watch
that tape this year. The one thing that's really
interesting about them, is they they've got some sneaky
interesting games on the schedule, they got to go to
Washington for the Michael penix experience.
Hopefully, Michael is still starting by week 3, they got to
go to Maryland, they had Ohio State at home, Wisconsin at
home, and they're at Michigan and in there at Illinois, in a
four week span, from October leading into December or deceit
to November. I couldn't we play them in that
Illinois. Now, thought like I would love
to get him a oh, the Ohio state Wisconsin.
Michigan. And let me get him after that.
Yeah, I know, I know. But instead of Rutgers does but
but look, I don't think. I know that Michigan state is so
good that they're going to just cruise through all of that.
And I think they could come into that Indiana game with maybe a 6
and 4 record, or 5, and 5 record or something like that.
I think it's entirely in the cards for this Michigan State
team. That said, I mean, it's hard for
me to Envision, I mean, to 2019, Indiana team who was
significantly better. Lost at Michigan State against,
what was a, not a great Michigan State team that year.
I have a hard time seeing Indiana Waltzing in to Spartan
Stadium and knocking off Michigan State this year.
So I'm going to I'm going to mark that down as another L.
I do think if Indiana was playing Michigan State at home,
this year may be a different story but they're not agreed.
Maybe if they play him in a different, a different time of
the year they there. Unfortunately.
That that stretch is going to be rough for the on there at
Washington for Michigan State there at Washington like I said,
Ohio state Wisconsin, Michigan. At Michigan.
But then they get a little bit of get right playing at
Illinois, Rutgers at home, and then they get Indiana at home.
The home back-to-back. I don't like either.
So and again, what I will say is that to me, Michigan, state is
really the team that we got to keep our eye on as Indiana fans
and how we play against them. And this is a game that I think
is, is a huge game because, you know, I was joking about Penn
State, but, you know, you have Ohio State, you have Michigan,
you have Penn State, and then if If we get to a point where
Michigan state is just a bridge too far, and like I said
earlier, pods, you know, the last six years were three and
three against them. We have a second, second place
finish in the Big 10 East, they don't.
And a lot of our winds have been more lopsided toward us.
And a lot of our losses have been really close games.
I would say that we've been better in that series over six
years, in a lot of different ways.
If we let them kind of, you know, get ahead of us by a
furlong. So to speak in horse racing
terms, that's not good because We can't be at the bottom with
Rutgers and Maryland death fighting for one or two wins
every year and maybe, you know, they get rid of Divisions but
it's like Michigan, State's a great avatar for where we want
to be as a program. Where if things break, right?
You can win a couple of those games.
So it's just I'm very curious to this game.
I don't think we're going to win.
But if this is a game again where it's like a thirty eight
to ten, or just a complete beat down, I think I think you need
to throw some Sirens off because sure, you can get smoked by Ohio
State and gets poked by Michigan.
But if you're letting State get to a point where you can't see
them. They're taillights anymore.
You've got a, you've got a problem.
That means this is really gone off the rails in two years.
Anyway, Finally, the old Oaken Bucket game.
Anything can happen? It's true.
I say it all the time but it's true.
So two things about this. First of all, the level to which
Purdue fans act like they're put upon and football and then they
get this brown bunny of a schedule where they have, they
have one ranked opponent all season right now and it's
Wisconsin on the road, the rest of their schedule even unranked.
State team, Indiana State at Syracuse FAU at Minnesota at
Maryland, Nebraska at Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois Northwestern
at Indiana. I mean, good.
God honestly, it's an embarrassment.
If you're pretty, when you don't go ten and two against the
schedule and I wanted to write that down, put it in the on
letters. That's an embarrassment.
If you don't go 10 and to that, that is, that is a cakewalk of a
schedule for Purdue and it just, it's, it looks Prime for a
little bit of underachievement, but this is a Purdue team that
because of how much of it Cakewalk that schedule is is
projected to win seven point, eight games this year by PFF
college and I think it's worth noting unfortunately for IU and
the Tom Allen experiment that Alan's only beaten Purdue once
during his time at IU and it was you know that multiple overtime
game that they played up in Ross Aid in the 2019 season.
When Peyton Ramsey pulled the game out of the mouth of the
tiger a couple of times Managed to figure out a way to win it,
Purdue really right of the ship last year and they do deserve
some credit for that but this year it feels like everything's
lined up for Purdue to compete. I mean, action of an 8% chance
to win the conference there in the Western Division.
And you look at the teams over there, it's like I mean
Minnesota is favored to win a little bit more like half a
game. More Wisconsin's actually
projected have slightly fewer wins.
Is Iowa's projected to have slightly fewer wins.
I mean these are decimal points, we're talking about here but you
look at that that Division and you say you know, produce got as
good a chance as any of them to win that Division and get to the
conference title game, which would be disgusting.
And that makes this IU game very important for them and it may be
at a point where it's not that important Indiana.
This is the kind of game that if Indiana's within three games of
Purdue going into this game, this is a game Indiana.
Be expected to win at home because it's the bucket game and
because they should be playing over their heads on this.
I doubt that will happen though because as we've seen so far in
the Tom Allen era they've struggled to play against teams
Purdue teams that were kind of at their same level, you know.
They they lose in that game that you.
And I went to in 2017. Indiana does up in Ross Aid.
The following year in 2018, Purdue wins by 2821 again.
This Time in Memorial Stadium. They did win in 2019 and that
rain-soaked game 41. Or 4441 was the final Indiana.
Didn't get to play them in 2020, which is a shame because I think
they would have beaten Purdue again, because pretty wasn't
very good that year. And then last year, obviously,
it wasn't even like those two teams weren't shouldn't even
know in the same field with each other.
That's how Superior Purdue was in that game.
I can't pick Indiana in this game.
Like the nothing that's happened.
The last year-and-a-half would tell me that Indiana's put
themselves in a position. To beat Purdue.
So I yeah, I think unfortunately, I got to pick
Purdue in this man. What about you?
I was thinking of that 27 game that we went to and you and I
were both frustrated because of the time and I can't, I can't
remember all, but I remember at a time we had the discussion
that, you know, Purdue didn't have more Talent than Indiana.
I think Indiana was coming off of the Pinstripe.
Bowl that the year before Purdue was coming off of, like,
horrible season and the Indiana was carved the Foster Farms Bowl
the previous season. That's right.
That's right.
But it's like, you know, we were like the Indiana.
His Superior Talent or just has a better level of town of
nothing else. Our talent is equal, but yet we
both were pissed in the third quarter because we're like,
Purdue is just the way better Coach team just not making
mistakes. Not making mental errors and,
you know, we've kind of always judged ourselves against, you
know, Brom, but to your point out Islands, only beaten them
one time. Again, 2020 probably would have
gotten a win, so it's a little bit unfair, but it is what it
is, but there's a lot of bad losses there.
And I would also say this That, you know, I'm still gonna have a
hard time getting the taste out of my mouth.
As I said earlier of how this team when things started to go
wrong, just completely quit on and everybody seemed to quit at
the end of last year and, you know, you and I both have us now
in our projections, losing four games in a row going into this
their own for there's not a chance of the bowl and
unfortunately going to have maybe again in our reality here
may be a tough loss at Rutgers a big loss to Penn A ass-kicking
at Ohio, State may be a tough loss of Michigan State.
Like, you have all the makings of another situation where all
the Alchemy is, right, for a team to kind of start quitting
again and does Alan. And this coaching staff does the
is there enough muscle memory to make sure this doesn't happen
again. I'm not sure.
And that would be my fear. Is that a team?
It's on a five-game or a four-game losing streak in the
Big Ten, hope of a You know, successful quote-unquote season
is gone and in our scenarios that we have here, we haven't
gotten that big win, we're not playing for a bowl, so you're
not really playing for much. Does this team have what it
takes to kind of, you know, circle the wagons and get it
done. And I got to go off recent
history and I didn't see it last year and they really, really
didn't circle the wagons and so I am with you.
I think they lose the Purdue. All right.
So let's jump back to the start of things.
This Illinois game, I'm sorry. I made you wait till the last
second here, but I think, actually, this helps because a
lot of times you can get you and me, both can get carried away.
It's like, oh, they're gonna win this and then this.
And I think I like to avoid that with the first game.
So let's talk about this Illinois game.
So this game at one point this summer, Indiana was favored by
six. Yep.
The sharps have jumped all over this game in the last 24 hours
and Indiana is now favored by one and a half was five and a
half before Illinois beat Wyoming.
And then it went to three. I didn't know.
To move down to one and a half. Yeah, I'm looking at, I'm
looking at PFF college right now.
And right now, Indiana is a one and a half Point favorite, as
of, this is where this 1058 on Wednesday night, money, line for
Indiana is minus 136. Illinois is plus 1, 13.
Indiana overall is grading out, essentially as I've been the
slightest of favorites, in terms of the overall game, this is
almost essentially a toss-up on a neutral field and, or excuse
me a toss-up at home for Indiana, which means on a
neutral field, that Illinois would probably be slightly
favored. Now, Illinois, I didn't look
awesome in that game against Wyoming.
They search, you know, they Wyoming is not very good.
So it's hard to take a whole lot out of that game.
But Illinois did look competent. And there's, you know, there's
the arguments either way, it's like, is it an advantage or a
disadvantage that your opponents haven't seen you?
You know, I'm sure Indiana would argue.
Well, it's an advantage because they don't know what we're going
to do. Illinois is going to be like,
well, it's an advantage because the more depth chart.
Right? Well yeah, you know, he's gonna
probably argue, hey, it's an advantage because we got to play
a game with each other and actually it's funny.
I think for Illinois it might be less of an advantage than it
would have been for Indiana. Because Indiana has a bunch of
guys that have never played together on offense before, you
know? So it almost wish that the roles
were a little bit reversed here but clearly, this is a game
between I mean two teams that aren't great or even necessarily
good. These are two teams that are
going to struggle for the course of the season to claw enough
wins together to get to bowl eligibility right now, Illinois,
with that win their projected at 6.5 wins on the season Indiana's
projected at 4.4, which is tied for last in the conference with
Rutgers. I think if I saw correctly, Bill
Connolly's sfp+ predictions. Actually have this game.
As a 23:23 tie which can't happen.
But it essentially it I think it rates out to Illinois winning by
one in his projections. So either way, you want to look
at this from an analytics perspective.
This is a game that the computers can't decide between
the two teams so I'll ask you first.
How do you see this going? And, you know, let's just let's
just kick stick with that. How do you see this going?
So be smarter than a computer. Right.
You're asking? Yes, I'm I will say this.
I want to give you a compliment happy.
You did this the way you did. Because I had some very big
thoughts about Illinois and I think it connects to, it would
have messed up my whole well done.
I'm saving this fast. So yeah, against what I do.
All right here, you're a pro. Here's my thought we talked
about the Idaho game. This is a must-win game like
this is because and this is where I would have gotten this.
All It. But I do believe this.
If you can't be Illinois and home, you're not going to beat
Nebraska. You're not get, you're not going
to beat Mario. You're not going to tell me as a
fan. That this team has what it takes
to beat Nebraska to beat Maryland to be truck.
Maybe Rutgers, but there's nobody else in the schedule in
the Big Ten that I think you can beat if you can't be Illinois.
And I've lived through so many seasons where we have, you know,
a really close loss. And then we have the post game
where it's like, man, we were so close and you were getting there
and we have a lot to build on And you know, to me it's like
that's all out the window. This is a results game.
You've not told us anything that's fine.
Last year was a blip, that's fine, go out and win a game.
Like I do not care how you do it, you can do it by 30.
You can do it by 3, and then we can discuss things later, but we
are now in a results business, with this team.
I'm tired of, hey, we're going to have four wins, we're moving
in the right direction. Like, no, no, we moved in the
right direction, five years ago, we are now in the Direction
Where We want to be and that's a team that wins.
At home against Illinois, a team that you're only four spots
below and SP plus not saying that's like the Bible.
But this is not a bridge too far, and if you can't beat this
team, Rutgers is the only other team you're going to play in the
Big Ten. That's, that's similar to this
team in a rankings scenario. So if you want any kind of fan
support this year, you got to win this game because you don't
win this. I mean, I'm still a fan.
I'll still go but it's like I'm not going to go expecting to win
any other game because it'll be based on literally, no evidence.
If you It win this game. So you have to come in.
You have to win this game. This is a great matchup for
Indiana. That needs them in so much
better. We're not playing like Penn
State or Michigan State, or Ohio State.
So, all it's so important. You have to win this game.
All that said, I think we're gonna lose.
I'll say all that. Like I do think.
I think we're going to lose. I think it's going to be tight.
I just, I will go back to To everything that we talked about.
There are question marks. You know, if we were going into
this season and we didn't know who the quarterback was and we
had a new defensive coordinator, I think you.
And I would both be talking. That's a lot of question marks
going in this year, we have that.
Plus, we don't know who our running backs are we don't know
who are our best wide. Receiver is a guy who played
quarterback last year. We don't know anybody else.
We have a new offensive coordinator.
Just tons and tons of questions on a hiss team that historically
has just not done. Well, with answering questions,
not done well coming back from Bad years and you can say,
alright, well things can be different but there's just
noodles of history on my side and just like we've been in this
scenario many times and the same thing happens over and over
again, and the seat feels like a team that's going to lose to
Illinois. Beat Idaho, beat, Western
Kentucky. And then be like, all right, and
we're kind of moving in the right direction.
And then we're just gonna have a bunch of losses.
After that, we talked about, you know, finding the right way.
We're so close and tough losses. Has and all that BS.
But I will say to the team, I'd love to be proven wrong.
I don't think it's going to be a blow.
I think it's going to be really, really, really close, but I
think we're going to lose. I think that's an eminently
Fair. I've really gone back and forth
on this one, a bunch. And I've I think that The one
thing about this game that I think might not be a Harbinger
one way or another, the rest of the season is I think there's
going to be a lot of residual. We want to go out and prove
something attitudes among the players because they've heard a
lot this offseason and for the people that were coming back
last season about how inadequate they are at the various things
that they're doing. And, you know, I think this
Defense does feel slept on and they've been pretty quiet on it
throughout the course of the offseason.
I think that the offense even though it is kind of put
together with duct tape right now.
In terms of the lineup, I do think that there's, there's a
different approach being taken, that's going to be better than
last year, and, you know, as long as they can get adequate
blocking. And this is probably a good game
for the, for this for this IU team because I don't think
Illinois is Is in the Personnel shape to really be able to
adequately test. The IU offense of wine in the
way that a Michigan or a Penn State or an Ohio state would.
And even if they are, I don't think that they got a very good.
Proving Ground game last week against Wyoming to some degree.
I almost wonder if that might have given them a little too
much confidence in their ability to stop an opposing offense.
So this is tough because you know, I know this is not me
being optimistic, this is me thinking.
All right, this is a game that is winnable because of the
opponent. It's also winnable because of
the circumstance, so I think Indiana again, like you said,
it's a close game. I do think that that they win
this one. And it's probably not that high
scoring of a game because I think Indiana is going to
struggle a lot on offense. I think Illinois is likely going
to struggle on offense because of Indiana's defense.
I think it could come down to some degree to special teams and
I think ultimately because Indiana is at home because it's
a night game because I think it'll be a fun atmosphere for
most of the game. I think Indiana wins this.
It'll be something like something dumb like 22:18 or
something. Like Bat where, you know, I
would take the under in this game because I think both of
these teams are going to struggle to score, and I think
it's going to be frustrating for both fan bases to watch.
But I'll take Indiana with the win in this one.
I don't feel good about it and I'll probably be eating my words
when we podcast. Inevitably this coming Sunday,
but I'll take it. If that's the case, you know, if
Indiana loses, it will prove a lot of the things I have in the
back of my head about where this team is really at talent-wise
and coaching wise and if they Win.
Then it gives me a glimmer of hope that perhaps they figured
some things out that they needed to figure out in the offseason
and I hope they win. I mean it would be a real shame
as you said to lose the fan base after the first game, because as
you said, if they lose this game, even though I don't think
it's going to be particularly well, attended at Scott, Dolson
said, you know, they're aiming for like the low 40s in
attendance and that's almost entirely a product of the fact
that this is a high school football weekend and a lot of
people that I know who would normally be, there are not going
to be able to be there because they're going to be a South of
the going to be it you know, whatever teams are playing but
it would be a shame for people to wake up on Saturday morning
or come home on Friday night, turn on the game and be like,
well that's what I expected and no wonder I wasn't excited about
things so so I do think Indiana wins this just to recap.
This means Scott ended up with a projection of 3 and 9 for the
season with Indiana, beating Idaho, Western Kentucky and
Maryland and that's it. It means Ins and I'm disgusted
in myself. This is some degree.
Means I finish with a five and seven projection because I had
Indiana beating Illinois, Idaho. Western Kentucky, Nebraska and
Maryland, but both of us basically had Indiana.
No, no longer winning after the 15th of October which when you
think about it, that's pretty much.
That's, that's our brand. That's an Indiana, that's it.
But look, I think honestly, I think that might be the, the
upper and lower bounds of what this Deanna team can accomplish.
I mean, I think a three win season would be a disaster.
I think that would really, would be very hard to look at a three
win season and say that things are going in the right
direction. And this is what, You Know, Dan
was talking about on the podcast you did with him.
That would be a real clear indicator, that the momentum
really has died out. I think a five wins season is
one of those where it's not a success, but it's also not a
failure, you know, you more than double your wind total.
You want a road game in the Big Ten?
You win three big. Ten games, you know, she go 3
and 6 in conference, you still don't go to a bowl and you
probably have games like yeah, you know, but you but, you know,
you're looking at that Purdue. Now, I will say this, in this
scenario there five and six going into the Purdue game
playing for a bowl. Yeah.
Which you know I think in the eyes of a lot of people would be
at least a move forward for IU and I moved back to somewhat of
the normalcy that they had established to the first four
years. So we'll see, you know that and
that's something I got onto with Martha.
Like to me that's I think in the end I think that would be a very
successful Seasons. We can be playing for a bowl in
the Oaken Bucket game. That would be great.
I think we're going to get, I don't think we have to win it,
you win the bucket. We beat Purdue and get to a
bowl. But you know when you look back
on Allen's ten-year-old, you talk about, you know, being in
the right direction. And again, if 2021 is a blip,
it's based on the fact that even the years we didn't make a bowl,
we were playing for a Bowl against Purdue.
And so that, that is, that does mean.
Nothing when you're you know, so close to the edges of Indiana.
You're really on that, you know, Mendoza Line I think that's
important. I think it's a big difference
being in that game with five wins versus Four Winds like that
that just makes a big difference because at least there's some
hope if you're going with four wins.
It's like, all right, well, we're not playing for really
anything. Yeah.
Well, we'll see, I mean look, there's a lot of intrigue, not
nationally, and probably not even with a large part of the
fan base, like a large part of the fan base is kind of written
off IU football. Which is a shame, but it was
bound to happen. Given what happened last year?
Like, it was, it was as predictable as the sun coming up
in the East. But, you know, for those of us
who have been in this thing for the Long Haul Scott, we know
we've been here before and it's kind of like, you know, I'm
curious what we see, because I just don't know, and I can't
remember like even though last year when entirely off the
rails, I I you know, I knew what we would get, it was exactly
wrong but I knew going in and I can't think of the last season
where we went into the year not having no clue what we were
going to get. Maybe Kevin Wilson's like third
season, where it's like they had to put this together or is it
going to be another like three or four win year and you know if
that was a weird year that they got was 2013.
That is the last time I can, it's been a decade basically
since I felt like I had no clue what to expect out of the team
and that's essentially where I've been.
All summer, and I don't even know if that's going to get
solved in the first three weeks of the Season.
Like it, I think it's really going to get to that Cincinnati
game before we really have a sense of what this team looks
like. I've never been as curious for a
season as I am for this one. Any I just projected three wins.
So I don't think we're going to be great but exactly to your
point you come in and previous years and at least it's like all
right I know I know what I'm envisioned.
A good Michael penix, I envisioned a bad boy.
Michael penix. I envisioned a good bench, apple
and vision. A good son failed.
I know the the offense that this team likes to run.
I don't know any of that and nobody does.
Like, I mean, and even with Walt Bell, it's like, all right.
Well he was an offensive coordinator.
But that was like, what six years ago, he was a head coach
for six years. Like he, and it seems like he
has all hands off at he could. I'm not saying it's gonna
happen, he could just be like, hey, we're gonna go air raid.
The core just, I picked up Western Michigan's Playbook last
year, we were there. We're just going to go nuts and
just, we're going straight deep routes all the time we could.
That we could go nothing but for yard runs.
We could go with no running backs and just we're going to
use the pass as a run. We're going to go no passing and
just go running 42 yards every single time.
Like, we could do, I formation, like, Wishbone.
Like I have no idea. It's all on the tents.
All the table. We could have flea flickers or
daughter than McCauley playing. This could be.
It's a little bit of like we got a tiny bit of this, in the Bill,
Lynch era where he would run some just wild plays the Middle
of games. Like what are you doing?
Like you're lining up. You'll five wide receivers on
one side and like it is the, I don't know who's going to play.
I don't know who the quarterback is, I don't know the style we're
going to play. I don't know what jerseys were
going to have fun. Like I just I do not know what's
coming out of that tunnel and for me that's that's interesting
because we just haven't seen that before.
I'm not sure it's going to result in a lot of wins, but I
am very intrigued and like we said in one of the other ones
you have this dichotomy of Was 20, 21, the blip, or was 2022
the 2020 or 2022 blip? And it feels like that might be
solved with a lot of these these questions.
But it's to me, it's this is a fascinating year and I'm I
wouldn't miss this one game for anything.
So I think it's going to be just a lot of stuff will be revealed
in my mind. I think I'm going to know a lot
more at the end of the Illinois. Gave him.
I could be wrong to where I just felt like I need two more games
to figure this team out but it's I couldn't even tell you what
the first four. Plays are going to look like.
Now, I or the first four quarters.
It's just like, the whole thing's a mystery and look, we
anyone noticed like we talked this whole podcast we really
talk about players too much because what do you say like?
I mean I think we're right. There's no depth, good point.
Yeah right. Can't blame us for that one of
anyway. So um anyway I think we've gone
long enough. Good to be back with you Scott
and talking about this. Again, we programming note,
folks, what we're going to do You even though there's a Friday
game we're going to keep our North.
We haven't talked about this Scott I'm just letting you know
we're going to keep our normal Sunday podcast schedule, not
Saturday. We're going to give everybody an
extra day off ruminate on the game a little bit.
Let's enjoy calm it down. Slightly watch watch all the
good college football that's going to happen on Saturday and
then we'll be back Sunday morning we may do that when live
we're still playing around with the live things.
It depends on how awful Scott and I look at 9:30 in the
morning. When we drag ourselves out of
bed and say, let's talk how you football, this town and get me
some coffee. You know?
It's sometimes it's not pretty. So we might have to shower or
something. Before we do we go live.
But if we do, check us out on Twitch, we're going to try to go
live on Twitch. As I mentioned, the, the channel
is Crimson cast live on Twitch. Subscribe, you'll get a
notification, and we're going to probably do all of our Lives
stuff there while still putting the podcast out on the feeds.
A couple of other quick programming notes.
Normally during football season. And we're going to keep this
this year. We normally tape tape, we
normally record. There's no tape anymore.
You know. I made a Maxwell.
Yeah, Jonathan Wilson's recording.
Our podcasts know. We're, we normally record a
preview podcast on Thursday night or Friday.
Sometime during the day, depending on when the game is,
if it's an early game, sometimes we'll, we'll do it Thursday
night and sometimes just not both of us sometimes.
Just one of the other. There's normally going to be at
least one other podcast that pops up during the week on the
feed. That'll be focusing on football.
Whether that's an interview or something else.
We try to bring folks in from around the IU Spectrum, to talk
about stuff. So we will have a decent amount
of content for you moving forward.
And if you have comments questions, whatever you can
always reach us on Twitter at Crimson cast right in anytime.
You know, we don't get to every there's still comments and
questions we have from a couple days ago.
We don't get to all of them but you folks are always generous
with your time time and your thoughts and we always
appreciate that. So please keep those coming in,
we'd love to see them and we will be with you all season,
we're not going anywhere. We podcast it, through all the
last year and got it. We did that.
We're going to we're going to podcast.
I mean, it can't be much worse than it was last year.
And well, I didn't say it can't be worse.
I just had a can't be much worse.
It could be worse, but we'll be around all season.
So hopefully you folks around as well.
Scott, any final thoughts for? We wrap up.
We've gone long. Let's go.
Are you? Let's do it.
Alright, thank you, folks, for joining us.
Thanks to home-field apparel, our presenting sponsor here on
the back. Home network will be back on
Sunday as we recap Indiana. Illinois.
Hopefully want to know start to the season for the Hoosiers for
Scott, I'm Galen will catch you folks on the flip side bring
back the Bison. So long everybody.