The Crimson Caskey on klaviyo here, thanks for joining us once
again, folks, it is Friday, the 14th of October as we get ready
for the Indiana Hoosiers. Back in Action, again, this
weekend as they take on the Maryland, Terrapins, Home
mid-afternoon kickoff goes 3:30 kick.
I think it is as that's better than the new kicks is.
As you all know, from my perspective and should be an
interesting one, one of the winnable games left on Indiana
schedule. We're going to talk about that
for a little bit and kind of give a preview of what Maryland
does well and what, to expect as we head into this game on
Saturday before we get to that. Just a reminder, that Crimson
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Right? Are you versus Maryland and a
lot happened? Obviously in IU football land
this past weekend. Was the thing that we were
talking about and we ended up doing an emergency podcast on
it. On some day, finally came to
being as Tom Allen takes the somewhat unusual step of firing,
Darren Hiller the offensive line coach midseason.
Basically, if the halfway point of the year with the Hoosiers
standing at 3 and 3 on the campaign and really at a
Crossroads from a seasoned perspective, we do we've talked
a lot about the deficiencies of this offensive line.
And, you know, I think for most of us who have been observing,
we didn't think that there was any chance that a move was going
to get made. Once the season got started, we
were wrong. And as we said on this past,
Sunday's emergency podcast, you got to give Tom Allen credit for
seeing that a change, had to be made, and making that change.
And certainly a lot of emotional elements to that And you know,
we heard a lot this week about the offensive line, you know,
really having a great affinity for Darren Hiller and even the
incoming replacement for Hiller talked about that in his press
conference on Monday. Realistically speaking, you
know, this is it's a tough business and that's something
that I think we've talked about on occasion over the course of
the last several years and you do get people Who are doing, I
guess, what you would consider to be there.
The best that they can do and it ends up not being good enough
and people feel bad and that's certainly understandable.
The flip side of it is. It's also a sport that really is
very unforgiving. When it comes to the manner in
which your team and the individual components of your
team play. And, you know, that when you
think about the way that this all went down, I think the
Biggest shame in it. Is the change wasn't made over
the course of the last offseason.
And and that's honestly not even meant to be necessarily A
criticism of Darren Hiller or the offensive line as much as a
realization that things just weren't working out.
And yeah, I think that ultimately what gets lost in the
shuffle a little bit. When you look at the way that I
use offense, has performed over the last few years, really since
the departure Caitlin de bourgh. It's that when it's looked good,
you go back and look at the numbers.
You look at the underlying statistics for it and it hasn't
been even when it's been good as good as you might have thought
you know a lot of it in 2020 was due to the magic of Michael
penix or the magic of the defense generating turnovers and
getting excellent field position for IU.
You know last year everything kind of went wrong and It was
clear that something was trending in the wrong direction,
and I don't think that's entirely Darren Hiller's fault
or the offensive lines fault. I think Tom Allen in general has
really struggled over the course of his tenure.
If you look at it in the in the macro with having his offense be
a consistent regular contributor you take 2019 out of the picture
and it's a very different landscape if you're not looking
at that year too. Balance out the kind of stodgy
offense under the first two years with Mike deboard and
certainly the offense the last two-and-a-half Seasons so far
under Nick Sheridan and now won't bail so my hope is that
perhaps this galvanizes the offensive line a little bit in
the offense in general you know and hate to see that have to
happen. But the reality is sometimes
sometimes and I'm not saying that it's going to happen here a
shock to the system A jolt to the system by Will letting go of
a coach as an accountability tactic can kind of snap the team
into a position of focus. And they need that at this
point, as much as we hear from coaches about not hearing
outside distractions, I mean, whatever.
If I mean I had to me, the outside noise is rarely going to
be as important as how teams are actually performing.
Because ultimately, the outside noise is a reflection of what's
going on with the team, not the cause of what's going on with
the team. And I think in this case,
ultimately, this IU team has just struggled with basic
execution and that was even something that was brought up
over the course of a couple of press conferences this week is
this idea that the execution thing Is the aspect that has to
be focused on. And that's really the only hope
at this stage that that IU is going to be somehow able to turn
things around and figure out exactly what it needs to do to
be better. I mean, there was a statistic
that popped up a couple of days ago, which looked at o-line run,
push and of the 66 power, five teams the worst team in in
power. I've football this year in
offensive line, run, push is Iowa.
Which if you've been reading any about Iowa's offense, that's not
surprising, but the second-worst is Indiana and they ranked below
Boston College, Kentucky, who struggled with that this year,
Virginia Tech, Iowa, State Northwestern.
I mean it's just really been a disaster on the offensive front
for IU. I don't know if that can be
changed, you know? There was, there was a lot of
conversation over the course of Of the year.
It's like Rod carry the new head, the new offensive line
coach and Run game. Coordinator essentially said in
a press conference and I'm not a miracle worker when it comes to
fixing the offensive line but you know, he's going to do the
best that he can and I think he realizes something that we
talked about on Sunday. This is not a simple fix and
this is probably a fixed. It's going to have to take
multiple years. I think expecting Indiana to
come out and have a completely different approach to the
offensive line, you know on Saturday against.
And or next week against Rutgers or even, you know, by November
5th when they play Penn State, it's just probably not
reasonable to expect that. What is reasonable though?
I think is for the offense as a whole to, they've got to figure
out a way to put some points on the board consistently and
figure out some different ways of doing the things that they've
been trying to do. Over the course of the first six
weeks of the season because it just hasn't been adequate and
ultimately Yeah, I think the reason the move gets made now
and the reason why you know, there's so much urgency to make
a move is that the season is still in the balance.
I you can still make a bowl game.
It it's not going to be a disaster of a season, even if
they get to five and seven. But there's still two wins away
from five and seven. And that is where Indiana's got
to figure out a way to make it work.
So they go into this game against Maryland and Maryland
presents. Some very interesting problems
if you Red bite-sized bison, the Weekly Newsletter by Taylor.
Layman I would suggest checking that out as he had some pretty
interesting insights into this Maryland team and what they do.
And what sorts of things I, you needs to be keeping an eye on,
you know, overall, you look at this Maryland team and they've
been pretty impressive over the course of the season, in terms
of, you know, what they've accomplished and even when they
fall in short, they haven't fallen short by huge amounts
they therefore and to on the Year.
And you know, this is a team that should easily get to boil
durability because they still have Northwestern and Rutgers at
home. That's, I mean, those are two
games. I think that they're going to
win pretty easily, they should have beaten Purdue last week.
The kind of let that one get away, they were very competitive
when they went up and played at Michigan, you know?
So this is a Maryland team that brings some interesting things
to the table. You know, you look at where
Maryland has been best overall throughout the course of the
season and it says Taylor said it is newsletter, you know,
they've been very impressive at times through the air.
And when you talk about Maryland's aerial attack, you're
talking about tala Title, VII Aloha who he's completing. 74
percent of his passes. This year, 11 touchdowns to five
interceptions over 1700 yards passing that is going to be an
interesting one for this. I you team because clearly I you
secondary has struggled when it has mattered in Center these
Particularly the Cincinnati game and the Nebraska game.
Now, they did play better last week as they took on the
Michigan Wolverines. But even that was to some degree
undone by a lack of support on the offensive side of the ball
for what the defense was doing. This is where ultimately, it's
been more of a systems failure for Indiana than anything else.
You know, you'll get go in. You look at the, you know, some
of the individual areas. Has just under water right now,
in terms of points allowed versus Point scored.
They're averaging 24 points a game.
They're letting up almost 31 Maryland's, the opposite they're
scoring 34 and they're allowing 22 and Maryland's gaining about
a hundred yards more per game than Indiana is while allowing
about 50 yards. Less.
So right now, despite it being at home, Indiana is an 11 and a
half Point Underdog and You know, there's still you know
they played well defensively last week but the reality is
they're still going to likely be missing cam Jones, their
talismanic middle linebacker and they're likely still going to be
missing DJ Matthews on offense or at least he would be limited
due to injury. So where does Indiana, you know,
how do they win this game? What is it that Indiana has to
do in order to be able to be successful?
Ultimately for me, Indiana, has to play its Defensive game of
the year. They you know, until the offense
can get under against feet under it and until the offense can
figure out something consistently over the course of
multiple quarters, in terms of either getting a running game
going mean, I may be getting more jail and Lucas out there
may be getting more Josh Henderson out there you know or
until the defense is able to generate the turnovers that they
desperately need in order to flip field position and give
their offense, a shorter field. You know that goes those to me,
are the main areas where Indiana might be able to be successful
in this game. Maryland is they've yet to show
that they are able to stop opposing offenses.
Consistently in the Big Ten with the exception of Michigan state
who's got its own set of problems, you know.
But Purdue was able to able to find ways on the road against
Maryland to pick at their defense and put themselves in a
position where they were able to do have a lead at the But the
game and hold off what Marilyn was trying to do.
I don't know if Indiana can do that.
We, you know, we saw them to some degree.
Pull that formula off against Illinois.
They were able to stick around in the game.
They were able to make that drive towards the end.
You know, it is that a comparable game, you know, the
Illinois and Maryland are kind of comparable teams in terms of
what they've been able to accomplish so far this season?
You know, Maryland, I think it's clearly not as good as Michigan
state, but I think they're also clearly better than Nebraska and
they're probably about on Our with Illinois.
I just worry about the implications of when this game
is being played. I think Illinois to some degree
that win for Indiana. Give them all credit for it, but
they to some degree got caught, flat-footed Illinois.
Did without a lot of tape on IU or understanding what they're
going to do. That's gone Indiana's.
The other six games of Indiana on tape now and it's clear that
opposing defenses. Have been able to diagnose what
Indiana's able to do and where their deficiencies have been
Especially in the offensive line.
So all said, I mean it's not a whole lot else to say about this
because ultimately Indiana's going to have to play.
I think the best game that they played all year to be able to
have a chance at slowing down Marilyn and I think that that's
going to have to start with the defense.
So you know, I think if Indiana ends up with fewer than three
turnovers generated in this game, I don't if they can't get
to that I don't see a route to Victory because I just don't
think that this offense is Going to be able to generate enough on
its own to put. Are you in a position to win and
I hope I'm wrong. I hope this IU team is able to
figure out some magic sauce that, you know, puts them in a
position where they're in it in the fourth quarter and they're
able to pull out a victory. I just at this point, I'd be
surprised because Maryland really does feel like they're
putting together a season that is impressive by their standards
and impressive by Indiana standards.
So, I do think it'll be somewhat close for a little bit.
I think in the, an old play, fairly well at home early on.
So I'm going to say, you know, I think ultimately this game ends
up being a Maryland Victory by probably two touchdowns.
So we'll say 34 to 20, as the final score with Marilyn coming
away with the Victory. And, you know, if that's the
right, the scenario that happens.
Then that really puts I you with their backs up against the wall
for the rest of the season, as you know, I think any path to a
bowl or at least boils ability has to go through a win in this
game for Indiana and I just I'm having a hard time seeing it
right now, but we'll keep our fingers crossed that I use
actually able to pull it off. Anyway, quick preview, this
week, some unusual recording circumstances is some technical
issues have faced as the last couple of days.
But appreciate you folks, listening will be back on
Sunday. Talk more about what happened in
this game, so be sure to stay tuned here.
To Crimson cast is will continue to have our coverage of both IU
basketball and I you football left of my you basketball
coverage coming up later this week as we talk about some
preseason expectations and so forth.
And of course, get ready to preview Indiana traveling to
Rutgers to take off the Scarlet, Knights.
I'll talk to you folks. Later.
Catch you folks on the flip side, bring back the by C, so
everybody.