You're listening to the back home network presented by home
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here, happy Saturday morning or maybe early afternoon depending
on when you're listening to this it is the first of October happy
October. Those of you people that
celebrate that kind of thing, and I guess Happy official,
pumpkin spice, latte season, and happy, Big 10 football for real
season. As I you and the rest of the
conference, pretty much entirely locked into conference opponents
from here on out. Yeah, couple of exceptions here
and there, I'm guessing. But overall, this is where stuff
actually starts to happen with football, and this is where I
use season. Is really going to be made or
broken in what happens here. I think over the next four to
five weeks. So we're going to talk a little
bit about some IU football stuff.
We had some lingering questions from earlier on, in the week
that we wanted to tackle and we'll give you a preview of this
game. Today is Indiana, takes on the
Nebraska Cornhuskers, a really weird game from a matchup
perspective, given where these two teams are at right now.
And you know what, sorts of things they're both facing and
really I think for both teams how important this game is so
we'll talk about that will answer some of the questions
that you folks have asked here over the course of the last few
days. First of all, just a reminder,
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home field apparel.com. Alright, Indiana, football comes
into today's game with a three-on-one record on the
season disappointing, but not shocking loss.
Last week as they fell on the road to the Cincinnati, Bearcats
and, you know, life on the road for IU in general, not really
great. Overall there.
Not a team that is historically performed well on the road,
although it is interesting thinking about that.
If you think about the way that I you is played on the road,
historically, there's a lot of reason to kind of duck your
head, you know, for instance, from the year 2000 to the year
2009 IU, football won a grand total of four Road games in
conference. And two of those happened in the
same season 2001, that was that bizarre year where they went on
the road and beat Michigan. Dayton Wisconsin.
And then, of course, lost at home to Utah and a couple of
other teams, that they shouldn't ended up, missing out on a bowl.
But, I will say this, you know, we go back and forth sometimes
about Tom Allen, and his overall contributions and, you know,
where he's at, in the success levels of IU coaches in the
past. But, you know, I think it's
important to keep in mind that this is a guy in Tom Allen who
has won eight games on the road in, Conference since he started
his head coach and that is just really a tremendous
accomplishment. Overall.
I mean, Kevin Wilson who coached for about the same amount of
time, only managed four wins on the road in conference.
And, you know, you've got other coaches out there.
I mean, Bill Lynch one, once on the road in conference Cam,
Cameron 13 times, but as I mentioned two of those wins
happened in the same year. So you do have to tip your hat
to Tom Allen and this IU program over the course.
For the last few seasons, they won three games on the road in
2019. They won three games on the road
in 2020 and while they didn't win any on the road last year,
you know, the obviously it's a new season and, you know, it's
going to be fascinating to watch with this IU.
Team is how they handle a situation, where they went out
didn't play particularly well in the first half, but then came
back. Tom Allen was asked about that
in the one of the press conferences during the week.
And, you know, he claimed he was going to be changing up practice
and they were going to be doing more best offense versus best
defense. Sorts of practices to try to get
themselves more in the mindset. It's weird.
I mean, this IU team has not started any of their games,
particularly, well, this year, I mean, that an OK beginning to
Illinois, but I think that was artificially inflated by the
fact that Illinois didn't start very well.
And that game either, which you would expect in a week, one kind
of contest, but, you know, I use Not a good enough team that they
can come out and be disengaged or not fully engaged in.
What's going on? They really have to come out and
hit things from the beginning especially against a team like
Nebraska who, as I mentioned on the podcast, earlier this week
with Taylor Layman is they're not good but they're not as bad
as people think that they are. This is a Nebraska team that yes
you know they've lost three out of their four games.
Games and they haven't looked terribly impressive on defense
and that's really been their big issue.
But offensively, this is a pretty good team.
And, you know, I think Indiana specifically on defense is going
to probably have to withstand an early Onslaught from this
Nebraska team. They're, they're not, they're
not a team with a huge amount of play for at this point.
And I think you could take a look at this Nebraska schedule,
and you could say, you know, Nebraska's got real problems as
they head out of this game and into the rest of the conference
season. Already so far on the season,
their own 1 in conference, and that Northwestern loss that they
had in Ireland, really looks worse.
Every single week. Now, after Northwestern lost two
games at home, you know, consecutively to Missouri Valley
team in a Mac team. But you this Nebraska team like,
they play Indiana at home this week later, they're coming off
there by then next week. They travel to Rutgers, that's
somewhat winnable. But is, you know, I mean, In
real life on the road in the big tennis tough, they travel to
Purdue also somewhat winnable. Then they get Illinois at home,
then they got Minnesota at Michigan, Wisconsin, and at
Iowa, and so Indiana. I think of that group, I think
you'd argue because it's at home is probably the most winnable of
those remaining games. I certainly would hear arguments
in favor of at Rutgers, but I also think Rutgers at home is
probably going to be a tougher proposition than people think.
And I include Anna in that as well as Rutgers is played pretty
good defense. So far this season, and they
didn't look later look great against Iowa, but it wasn't
like, Iowa went in and blew them out or anything like that.
I mean, it's it's so Nebraska, I think comes into this game,
trying desperately to get themselves a little bit back on
track. You know, they win this game,
they're two and three and they, at least have a shot at, you
know, getting themselves closer to bowl eligibility.
If they were to pick up a few wins on the trot.
Not but this game really is the linchpin for this north of this
Nebraska team. If they don't win this, the
seasons essentially over, they may lose out.
If they lose this game Indiana's in a similar spot.
Indiana, if they win this game, they are now only two wins away
from Bowl eligibility and it really takes some pressure off
of having to win the Michigan game and having to win the
Maryland game, you know, simply because those Home games and you
really rapidly run out of winnable games once you get past
those two, yes, you've got at Rutgers and yes, you've got
Purdue at home and certainly. Michigan State hasn't looked
awesome. But I, you know, my concern,
with all of those games is, you know, if you line up all of
those teams, you know, I think you could certainly say some
things - about Rutgers in terms of their overall play, but I
don't think they're necessarily on balance that much worse than
Nebraska is and my concern is if Indiana can't win at Nebraska, I
have a hard time envisioning being than being able to walk
into any road environment that they've got moving forward and
be favored. The, you know, they are
according to fpi a, they are an underdog against Rutgers just as
they are against Nebraska on the road here.
So, you know, this, you that's kind of where I'm at with
things. Is this idea that when you get
down to it, if Indiana can show that You can go into a Nebraska
environment that is probably going to be more hostile
certainly than what you would find with this IU team, going
into say a Rutgers or a Michigan State.
It's still a game that on balance.
I think Indiana has to figure out how to win.
They've got the offensive Firepower if they can keep
blocking to take care of business and their defense
certainly has the talent to be able to perhaps timing Nebraska
a little bit. From what they would like to do
that. The big question of course is
going to be, you know, will either of those things actually
be able to suss out? I don't know if that's actually
the case because this Indiana team so far has given up 20, 20
to 30 and 45 points in order over the course of the first
four games, and Nebraska has scored a lot of points in the
games that they played so far this season with the exception
of that game against Oklahoma. So a lot on the line for both of
these teams and this One of the more winnable games that
Indiana's got on their schedule, the rest of the way coming into
the game fpi, gives Nebraska a 60 point seven percent chance of
Victory. And, you know, looking at the
overall team rankings setup Nebraska right now is
essentially estimated to win by a score of about 30, 1227, or
3228, the consensus pick. Just barely right now.
According to the numbers is, Aska minus five and a half, five
and a half points is a decent amount of money.
The line started lower. I believe the line actually
started out at, like two and a half or three, and then moved up
pretty quickly to where it's at right now.
Indiana Nebraska over under, right now, 61 points.
So you know, sounds like Vegas is expecting a pretty high
scoring game and I don't blame them because neither of these
teams is really shown a tremendous ability to defend the
teams playing against. So you know, a lot of things to
think about with this. Name.
And a lot of items that I think you could be as we've talked
about with this. I you team, there's a lot to be
positive about in terms of, if you want to be positive, you can
say, well look, Indiana keeps finding ways to win.
Indiana keeps themselves in games and then gives themselves
a shot in the fourth quarter. And the case of the Cincinnati
game, even they, they play well enough, that they can get
themselves back into a game. And they get a couple of bounces
that go their way and, and maybe things are different.
There's also plenty of room for negative thoughts and feelings.
Things about this IU team because you could very easily
look at the performance that they had over the first three
games and say, yes, they won. But they really didn't play
well, the power rankings, you know, the metrics really do not
like this Indiana team and the way that they are performing so
far this season. And why would this game
necessarily be any different than that?
The problem here is, of course, they're on the road and playing
a team that you know, while they have certainly underperformed is
also I think Certainly purely on numbers a more talented team
that me no more talented athletes and just has been
coached very poorly over the course of not just this piece
this year, but previous years as well.
So, a lot of little things to think about, with all of this,
some questions that you all had from earlier on in the week that
I wanted to tackle. We wanted to kind of, you know,
you know, kind of walk through a few things that we didn't get to
on the last podcast. The first one that I wanted to
touch on is a question that came in a little while ago, which is
basically a question about where Indiana belongs in the hierarchy
of college football. I get this question a lot and I
wanted to read it and and, you know, I think there's a clear
answer here, but I do think it's important to give some
explanation as to why there's a clear order.
So a clear answer. So this was from from new East
beast on Twitter and his comment was the following Made the
playoffs last year. Averaging less than 40,000 fans
and a fraction of I use media Revenue would I you be better
off being the best team in a non power five conference instead of
perhaps the worst team in the Big Ten East and this is a more
common sentiment than one might think.
Because I think a lot of people look at the success of a
Cincinnati and they say well why can't Indiana do that?
Or they look at the struggles Indiana as had in the Big Ten
over the course of Ever. And they say, well, you know why
is Indiana even in this conference?
Why wouldn't they put themselves in a position where they could
win a lot more games by being, you know, like, always drop down
to the Mac or let's go to The American or Conference USA.
And I think, first of all, from a purely Financial perspective,
that that really makes no sense. Yes, I know that, you know, it's
hard to look at Indiana's, bad performance over the course of
time and say, gosh this. Worth, you know, all of this
money that's coming in but that's essentially an accurate
statement. There is a key element of being
a part of the Big Ten. That doesn't necessarily bleed
over into productivity or performance which is that you're
just in a completely different economic Stratosphere and from a
standpoint of specifically, the football program.
Yes, Indiana has consistently lost, but dropping down a
division, isn't going. To change the reasons.
Why Indiana constantly losses in football or comes up short, or
isn't able to compete at the same level as some of these top
teams? Ultimately like the reason
Cincinnati has been as successful as they've been going
to the playoff last year and you know, getting ranked in, you
know, they were in the early to mid-2000s when they're in the
Big East. You know, they get ranked in the
top 10. There are pretty impressive
program, overall, Cincinnati has Tired really well.
They've hired excellent, coaches.
You know, they, you know, Mark dantonio coach there and Brian
Kelly coach there. And obviously, Luke fickle has
been a tremendous coach. There Butch Jones before things
fell apart, for him at Tennessee, was an excellent
coach there. They have done a tremendous job
of hiring the right people and building an effective
infrastructure around their football program and doing an
excellent job of developing talent.
And that you know I mean honestly Hate to say it.
But, like, Indiana could do the same thing.
There's nothing keeping Indiana from making a transformative
higher in football. There's nothing intrinsically
wrong with the Indiana that they couldn't do that.
Now I, you know, the one issue is there's not really much of a
football infrastructure in terms of, you know, a long-standing
recruiting Bastian that they just lean on all the time or
anything like that but Cincinnati doesn't really have
that. Either.
And I really do think that you're Cincinnati's success.
Has not been because they're in the AAC because they were
successful. When they were in the Big East,
their success has come because they've really dedicated
themselves to having a top-notch football team.
They've made the right hires and they've managed over the course
of 20 years. To build up this tremendous
amount of momentum that bleeds through on the recruiting Trail.
You know, you see players going to Cincinnati.
T because they know that or they feel like at least they're going
to get the type of coaching and the type of development to get
to the next level. And so you know, it's easy to
do, I think look at Cincinnati's spot in the fact that outside of
the games against Indiana in order to aim last year, they
didn't play anybody. Look at the conference that
they're in and assume that the correlation there is, oh, it's
because they're in a week or conference and what if Indiana
did that? But I really think it's a
cultural thing. It's a dedication thing and it's
a Right hires kind of thing. And I mean you look around the
league, you know, there have been teams that have been have
struggled with success to the level that Indiana has over the
course of time who make good hires and then they blow up into
something bigger and better. Sometimes it only lasts a few
years. It's like, you know, when Ron
Turner was the head coach at Illinois, that was not a program
that I think a lot of people looked at before and said, wow,
Illinois. That's a, that's a program we
want to emulate and yet that team ended up, I think going
Into the Sugar Bowl one year, you know, they were a really,
really good team. You know, that didn't last very
long, but they made the right higher.
They did some good things in recruiting and it ended up
working out, Minnesota with PJ Fleck.
That was a higher that a lot of people were questioning looks
like a pretty good higher now and and looks like that'll
continue to pay dividends in the future.
Unless one of the really big boys comes calling and even
Purdue, you know, I mean Purdue makes a higher and Joe Tiller
that not a lot of people were excited about and he elevates
that program for a Gate your time Alan did a mini version of
that in the covid year and certainly deserves some credit
for it. But you know, there's this is it
has to be a longer-term process. And I think rather than thinking
about amusing, about the idea of how it Indiana fair, if they
were in a week or Division, I think the bigger thing is, you
know, think about, I always look at IU hiring Kevin Wilson and
say, okay, that was, you have to look at that as kind of the
starting point of Indiana, taking it slow.
Football program. Seriously, not that Wilson was a
perfect coach, but Wilson was a different kind of Coach higher
than we'd seen Indiana make in the past.
And, you know, he brought a different attitude and mentality
and unfortunately, for IU, and to some degree for Wilson.
I think that project kind of got derailed after four or five
years. It didn't really culminate.
The way that one might have hoped it would, but it was at
least a step in the right direction.
And I think Alan is a continuation of that.
But this isn't something that's going to happen overnight.
This is something that, you know, you almost have to look at
Indiana football. I I've gotten to the point where
I kind of look at its history as kind of being divided by The
completion of the North End Zone facility because that was really
the first time ever in the football program's history.
At least since the late 50s that someone said we need to make
some Capital upgrades and Facilities.
We really need to start investing in the program.
So but you know that the weight room that came with it and you
know, the overall budgeting of football, it just was much
different in that higher than it had been in the previous four
and, you know, while you did have obviously that period of
That's with Bill Mallory, in the late 80s, early 90s it.
That was a, that was more of an exception than it was the rule
for IU football, in the way that things were.
And so I think that, you know, I you as slowly slowly climbing a
mountain. It's possible very much so that
they're at a plateau ratan right now because of a variety of
factors, but I think those really contribute more than any
conference affiliation might plus as I mentioned earlier,
just the financial Elements of it would make it basically
impossible for a Deanna to not be in the Big Ten.
Let's see, Alex G asks, what's the likelihood of the Big Ten
expanding to Ten Conference games next year, when USC and
UCLA join? And if so does the conference
adopt, a pod based scheduling system.
Imagine I you football would desire, Purdue Illinois.
Northwestern is its yearly opponents.
But obviously, a lot of moving pieces and 16 teams to consider.
I really hope that they don't do that.
I mean, I think to some degree, You're going to have to have
some other considerations beside.
Let's play each other as often as we possibly can with these
scheduling setups and I think for Indiana the real
consideration that you would hope is that you still get the
opportunity to pad your schedule with games against lesser
opponents outside the conference.
I mean, that is a key element. Overall, in terms of how Indiana
is going to continue to get two bowls and I think continuing to
get them to bowl. Is a just, an absolute necessity
for this Indiana team to maintain whatever momentum
they've got within the recruiting structure that's out
there right now. I mean, it's going to get
harder, not easier for Indiana to consistently, get to the
postseason with the addition of USC and UCLA because, you know,
however, much you want to look at California teams and success
or failure and you know, whether or not, it's a zero-sum game.
The reality is that's two more brands that are just
automatically going. Owing to be viewed as Superior
to IU football wise in the Big Ten and you know just pushes I
you further down in the pecking order and and look ultimately
I'm just of the opinion that conferences scheduling only
games against themselves, doesn't help.
But you know I think what we've seen over the course of time now
is that the nine game schedule has hurt the Big Ten in terms of
its competitiveness on the national stage for the playoff
because teams just beat themselves up too much.
And it ends up being you're almost you're putting too much
of strength upon strength and not keeping in mind that at the
end of the day, then the football playoff committee is
going to be looking almost entirely at wins and losses and
even a good loss is going to resonate negatively more than a
win against an average report team and you can argue all you
want about whether or not that's right or wrong.
What doesn't change is that that's still how it's going to
be looked at whether or not you think it's right or wrong.
And so, I hope that I would think tank goes the other
direction. Honestly.
I think they should schedule. Eight games.
Not nine. I do think a pod based system
would make a lot of sense. I think the chances of them
dropping back to to an eighth game is almost almost.
It's basically not going to happen.
Like there's no way that they would let it at this point, but
I do think that that's the direction they should go.
And certainly, if the choice is between 8 9 or 10, I would opt
for eight and then nine and then way down the list, it would be
10. So that was an interesting
question, though. And I do think that it's going
to be interesting to watch this. I you team as they kind of move
through this new formation of the Big Ten, how they fit into
the equation. You know, the whatever
scheduling they have to switch to is going to be better than
the current system. I feel Almost 100% certain in
saying that and so that's that's just That's My Hope.
Anyway, some other questions. We some from From just some,
bro. Why is it so hard to build a
credible offensive line? It's not, it's not like there's
ways to build credible offensive lines.
There's there's ways to do this, you know, you see it all over
the country and you're, you know, you're always going to
have lines that underperform you know in a given year.
But IU has had a subpar offensive line under the entire
Tom Allen tenure there's really no way of getting around that.
At and it's been subpar in Divergent areas.
You know, some years it's really bad in pass blocking and it's
okay and run blocking some years.
It's the opposite some years, it's bad in both and ultimately
you know, my all the people that asked that question, I think I
know exactly where you're going with it and you're probably
right. It's just not that hard.
I mean you we were we were talking with Our friend Taylor
Layman. We had been exchanging some
stuff for a couple of weeks ago about offensive line numbers.
And looking at how Pro Football, Focus rates the offense of wine
and you know, you look at IU overall, And since 2017, you
know, you can just go right down the list in 2017, which of
course, I you missed a bowl by one year, one game that year in
run blocking, I use overall rating.
For that year was 118th out of 130, teams pass, blocking was 96
that of 130 in 2018, where they also missed a bowl 54th and run
blocking 84th in pass blocking. So just very slightly above the
median level in run blocking that year, but worse and pass
2019. And they did go to a bowl that
year run blocking 114th little bit of a miss you know.
Well you can look at that and you can say why they were
terrible at run blocking. They also didn't try to run the
ball that off and that year because of caelin deboers
offensive approach, but even on that in that year past walking,
they were 67th, you know? So right around the median level
and that's really unfortunate the next year 2020.
Run blocking 61st pass blocking 124.
Earth and that was the year that Indiana had, you know, their
best year in the last 50 years. Last year, run blocking 67, pass
blocking 82nd and then this year so far run blocking 108 and pass
blocking 97th like it is it is a consistent issue.
And look I just we know you can go around and look at other
programs and other teams and generally speaking, some kind of
an alteration to the approach of the scheme with the offensive
line or the Development of the offense of wine is made.
When you have that many years of being, you know, at best, a
middling offensive line. And it's just unfortunate
because, you know, when you think about this Indiana team
and the amount of good skill position players, they've had at
quarterback at running back at wide receiver, the under
performance of the offense, almost in every case can be
traced back to the offensive line, not being able to do what
it It needs to do. And you know, if you look at,
you know, pass blocking for instance and you, you break it
down to Joe, just what's going on in the Big Ten.
You know what you find is? That Indiana's offensive line is
is just absolutely it struggles in pretty much every single
capacity, not just compared to others, you know, in the country
but also Scared to what you would get across the board in
the in the Big Ten. It's just it's not it's not a
good situation all around like so you will go through and look
at at the way the conference is performed.
If you look at pass blocking Indiana right now is 13th in the
conference. In pass, blocking rating on Pro
Football. Focus, Iowa is the only team
that has a worse rating in pass. Blocking, you look at run
blocking Indiana is last in the conference in pass, blocking and
biased. Any significant margin, like
their rating is forty. Six point nine, and run
blocking. The next worst is Purdue at
55.5, and that's its significantly behind everybody
else in the conference. And, you know, you can go back
and look at previous years and it's a similar sort of tail.
And it's, so it's really, it is not that difficult to build a
decent offense of wine. Unfortunately Indiana just
cannot seem to figure it out and, you know, they are
consistently 10th or worse. Conference pretty much every
single year in both categories and so a different approach
needs to be taken on this and it just does not seem to be
resignated resonating with the program.
How much the offensive line has held back.
The team over the course of the last several years and it's
again it's not any one person or even any one group.
This is just a very consistent thing that we've seen with this
program, you know, through a few recruiting Cycles.
Now is we're in the 2022. To season.
We had a question from Dave and he'd listened to the podcast
that we did earlier in the week. And his question was or more of
a statement a thought on Elio and Vibes are we only getting a
specific type of talent and isolating the rest?
I e0, you know, is there a love and loyalty pitch versus a winds
and visibility and growth pitch? And so this really related back
to this question that we had gotten from from Jared over it
assembly call about whether Elio was a Long-term strategy from a
wins and losses perspective. Could you build a winning
program on that? And you know, this is where
someone threw out like Clemson is built a program that's kind
of based on that. I still don't know if I totally
agree with that but I get where that person is coming from you
know. But I think the problem
ultimately the it's not the Elio thing, I think sometimes gets
too much attention and I think that it's a great rallying cry
for people who He's a very likable, football program, and a
very likeable coach and it's a point of derision for people who
just want a winning program and think that the Elio stuff is
kind of too cutesy or to Wholesome in a you know in a
kind of a Waltons sort of of way.
And I think that both of those perspectives kind of miss the
forest for the trees. You know, the Elio stuff I think
is a nice marketing pitch and and certainly it's an ethic You
know, I'm not saying it's just a marketing pitch but I think it's
when it gets down to the end of the day.
What wins football games? Ultimately is execution.
And that's really where, I think, Tom Allen's teams have
tended to fall down. We just talked about it with the
offensive line. I mean, you've got a unit there,
that is not executed over the course of time and all the love
for each other is not going to change that now.
That doesn't mean that preaching Elio as an ethic and a way to
Run your program is bad. It just means that it can't, it
doesn't conquer everything. You know.
Love might conquer all in the animated Robin Hood movie.
But in football I mean love is a I think it's a welcoming aspect
and an unusual aspect and one that certain coaches are trying
to play up because there's this kind of counter Element of
football right now where instead of the traditional like Junction
boys, like we're going to go get our asses run into the ground
and get screamed at all the time.
You know it version of being a football player, you want to go
somewhere and feel valued as a person and I think that you
could even shrug or laugh at that but I do think that that
actually doesn't matter to a lot of younger players now.
And it should, you know, I think the, you know, I've always felt
the idea that you should go play football somewhere and be
treated like a piece of shit for four years.
By a coach because that's going to bring the best out of you.
I do think that's a very Antiquated thought process from
a psychological perspective and I think for a lot of players
they just they don't want. They want to at least be assured
that that's not going to be happening at the place that they
go. Now.
You know, you're not going to turn down a scholarship to an
Alabama or Georgia, you're going to want to go there because, you
know, they're going to make you better.
But I think there's a broad middle of College football where
they've got a bunch of options and they may not look that
distinguishable from one another.
You know what I mean? How do you really pick between
an Indiana? And I don't know, like, you
know, like a Wake Forest or something like that?
That may be a bad example but you get what I'm saying?
Like outside of that top Echelon of 10 to 15 teams
psychologically is a recruit, you know if it's not money, you
know, is it culture is culture, what you're looking for?
Is that You're going to make your decision about what you do
and where you go. And so I do think that you do
you get an honest, and you might get a different type of
recruiting, a positive way using Elio as a sales pitch, that you
might not get if you weren't doing that.
And there's no question that Tom Allen, if you compare his
recruiting successes in terms of raw numbers to what Kevin Wilson
was bringing in or what Bill Lynch was bringing in, it's
better. I mean, the numbers are better.
The rated the player ratings are better.
There's better overall Talent from an objective scale from
people who don't necessarily care about IU football.
And I do think that that demonstrates that that approach
and how Tom Allen and bodies it does resonate among players.
I think the bigger issue though is if you're bringing, you know,
a three star caliber player and you don't develop him enough so
that he's playing like a four-star by the time he leaves.
Well, that really wasn't better recruiting than the coach who
brought a two star player in and recruited them up.
Play like a three or four star player.
And that's where, you know, I do worry about the development on
this team long-term now that we've had several years to look
at it. And look at how players have
developed. You know, for every Mike
McFadden who obviously develops, you've got two or three
relatively highly regarded players who just never
particularly performed at the level you would have expected
them to after three or four years, you know?
And so I think to Dave's question ultimately You're
probably not getting as good at a quality of recruit without the
Elio pitch that Tom Allen's got out there but I also don't know
if the end result is necessarily equating to a whole lot
different than if you weren't getting those players in the
first place but you were approaching it from a different
way and really focusing on development and and really
seeing results from that aspect. So you know look I think
ultimately for fans they're going to be primarily interested
in. How does Tom And make me feel
about my football program up to a point for some, not all for
some that's all that matters. How does Tom Allen make me feel
about my football program for others.
They'll do that until they feel like Tom Allen isn't actually
moving the ball forward and their football program is
underperforming versus what they think that it should be doing
and that is ultimately the big question mark moving forward.
For Allen is, you know, can they shake off what?
I've seen here recently in the last year and and and frankly
kind of what we've seen over the first couple of games of this
year just in terms of overall performance and start to re
Elevate to for the program to where it was four years ago or
three years ago or three years ago and two years ago, I guess
it hasn't been that long A couple other questions real
quick before we wrap things up. One thing I will say not so much
a question, but Bill Connelly has been posting the box scores
for these IU games and it's great.
Like if you've never followed bills Twitter feed its at ESPN
underscore Bill. See Bill does a great job using
his SP plus ratings and looking at averages and breakdowns of
individual. Ox core elements.
And and you know that, for those of you who are out there that
are skeptical of IU football, this is a great illustration.
I think these box scores of why your skepticism makes a lot of
sense. Indiana, really struggling
offensively despite running a lot of plays in that.
Cincinnati game, only three point four yards per play, which
is real bad. I mean, that is really below
average rushing, I think something like 65 percent.
Point of I use Russia's were five or fewer yards. 44.7% of I
use rushes were 40 or scuse me 10 or fewer yards.
I mean this is a team that was just absolutely unable to run
the ball and passing wise as Dustin dope, Iraq has mentioned
in his pieces Indiana's, completing passes but not an
efficient rate, 47 percent completion percentage in that.
Cincinnati game, a 45 percent pressure rate, allowed a 0%
explosive player. Eight in the possessions
immediately surrounding halftime, which is not good 16
plays of third and seven or more.
We talked about that on the last podcast.
This is an offense, that's really, really struggling.
And this has been clearly on the mind of.
A lot of you folks out there because we've gotten a lot of
questions about, you know, what is, what is, what is Walt Bell?
Do, what is this Indiana team do?
Like, how do they overcome this? And yeah.
Are you hype man? Asked a bunch of questions
related to this? How do you feel?
About Walt bills. Offense is the o-line fixable
what's Darren Hiller's contract look like I mean I don't know
what the contract looks like. I assume it's a lifetime
contract at this point so I really am not sure what the
answer is on. That is the o-line fixable I
know I don't think so at this point, it Punk John pod had a
really nice series of tweets. It's nice to see them talking
about. Are you football again?
But one of the things that they mentioned was you know, for
large stretches of the Cincinnati.
It just felt like I you didn't even have its best five out
there and you obviously you lose your top offensive linemen to
injury earlier on this year and that does put you behind the
eight ball a little bit. But the idea that the line is
this bad really makes you wonder, you know, is this like
how like where's the where's the Improvement?
Going to come from. So you know, when someone asks
is the o-line fixable I don't know that it is.
I mean, this is already we 54 Indiana in terms of games.
So You threw a third of the Season already?
Like, why would game five be significantly better or
different than game four? And yes, you can say, well, you
know, they can improve during the season, but so, can the
opponents? And now, there is what?
240 minutes of game film on this IU offensive wine, obviously,
they haven't been out for the full 240 minutes of the games,
but there's four games worth of game film.
You're starting to really be able to hone in on where the
weaknesses are, you know? That you can really overpower
the center position. If you're an opponent and I just
I've seen nothing out of Indiana's.
Offensive wine coaching or developmental process over the
last six years that would make me think.
Oh, this line is going to get progressively better as the
season goes along. Hope I'm wrong.
I just don't see it as a situation where Indiana is going
to like magic. We start to get better.
And so it going back to the question of how I feel about
Walt bills offense, I think Walt Bell.
Is doing about the best he can with what he's got.
This certainly feels like a more thoughtful offense than what
Nick Sheridan ran out there. And it does remind me a little
bit of deboers offense. It's not as elegant as devore's
offense, but I also think Deboer had a better team to work with.
So it's hard to judge Apples to Apples, you know, I mean the
board is some degree. I think was cognizant of the
fact that the offensive line was Real problem at least in run
blocking and everything. Got shifted around to try to
accommodate that fact and I don't know that Walt Bell has
quite figured out how to do that yet, you know, even with that, I
think his offense has performed well enough.
Given the problems that they're facing from a scheme in
Personnel set. But I also say this, I really,
really worried right now the way that the offensive line is
struggling and the way that so much of the offense is
predicated Cheated on having to throw the ball the time I worry
about Connor basil, act being able to make it through the
entirety of the rest of the season healthy.
I mean, he's he's getting pressured constantly, he's
constantly having to make throws, you know, he's it's led
to some interceptions obviously and I don't think that's an
offense issue as much as it is. A you know you don't have time.
You got to get the ball out. What are you gonna do?
Take a sack, you know how to strip sack for a score for
Cincinnati in the last game and that was entirely due to the
offensive line crumbling at the wrong.
Time. It's just a consistent thing.
And when you get right down to it, I don't know what you can do
as an offensive coordinator. If you have that kind of an
offensive line set up and you don't have like God level play
makers at the wide receiver position that can help to
compensate for that. Certainly I think targeting the
tight ends more might be helpful.
That seems to be something that I you have struggled to do so
far on the season. But overall I think Bells
offense is oohing about as well as it can given.
What it's been dealt, we did have one other question.
I wanted to get to here and this one was from Daddy, who's your
XD? What should Tom Allen's intro
music? Be when he walks out of the
tunnel, this one I thought was pretty humorous.
We had a couple of kind of humorous.
Responses Darren Englehart, suggested, Burn It To The
Ground, by Nickelback. Someone suggested, Light Em Up
hope is not a strategy recommended.
You've got another thing Comin by Judas Priest, which I Really
enjoyed, I don't know. I thought about this a lot and I
keep coming back to one answer and it just kind of to me it
fits. I think it should be like a
rock. I feel like we've not heard that
song. It was, you know, it was
essentially omnipresent on every car or truck commercial in the
mid-90s for what, like six years, you know.
But I think that That's a classic Bob Seger song Ang and
it just feels like something that Tom Allen would vibe too.
And, you know, it's a mid 80s country song and IT, projects,
toughness, and stoicism and standing.
In the face of adversity, plus, it's called like a rock, which
would fit perfectly at Memorial Stadium for obvious reasons.
So, that's my choice would be Tom, Allen's walkout.
Music should be like a rock by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet
Band. I would be curious to hear
Everybody else has suggestions are on that but I think my mind
is made up. We have to ask Scott about this
on the next podcast and see what he has to say.
Last question that we had and it really came down to like how we
feel this game is going to go today.
You know, what's the prediction? And this is a really tough one.
I I've gone back and forth a lot about this game and what, you
know what, what makes the most sense in terms.
Zuv who we think is going to perform well and how it all
shakes out. Overall, I think Indiana, it's
hard for me to to really take Indiana seriously as a team that
can win on the road until they do it again.
Yes, you know, I rattled off at the beginning, they've won
several Road games in the conference under Tom Allen and
certainly deserves some credit for that.
But the last one was that Wisconsin game in 2020, you
know? Look at all the metrics.
I use defense has ranked 110th in the nation right now.
Nebraska's is ranked 97th. That's a cause for some
optimism. The problem is I use offense is
rank. 114th in the nation Nebraska's is ranked 30th, and
yes, Indiana has played a much tougher schedule, then Nebraska.
But, you know, Nebraska's got a much more balanced offense.
Nebraska is about a 49 to 51 ratio, run to pass.
Indiana is a 35 to 65 ratio. Pass.
And when you look at the way that I, you has performed up to
this point, it's hard for me, at least to see a route to victory
for Indiana because ultimately, the problems that Indiana has,
yes, Nebraska has, but I think Nebraska has definitely shown an
ability to move the ball better. And I really worry about the way
Indiana. Secondary has played over the
course of really the whole season getting torched.
For that of many points in the through the air against
Cincinnati was a real bad sign. And yes they tightened it up in
the second half but you know it's I don't know why you
wouldn't have been fired up to to play Cincinnati on the road
after what happened last year. And the fact that Cincinnati you
know it was a ranked team at the start of the season was ranked
coming into the game. It was an ESPN game or ESPN2.
I mean for the defense to come out that flat in the secondary
and struggle is As they did, the fact that they made adjustments,
that made it less bad in the second half time.
I'm not going to give them a lot of points for that.
So I just worry that there's too many things pointing in the
favor of Nebraska in this game to feel confident about picking
Indiana to win. I do think Indiana's got a good
chance to cover and I think five and a half is probably slightly
too big of a margin and I could certainly see this game ending
up as like a 31-28 game or a 34 to 30.
Gain as opposed to being one where Nebraska is winning by a
touchdown or more because this Nebraska teams got a lot of
psychological issues that they have to work through.
So I guess that's where I'm going to land.
I think Indiana will cover. I think Nebraska will win and
it's a shame because I think it's going to be one of those
games at the end. We're all sitting around saying
that was a game. Indiana should have won.
That was a game. They were they left it on the
table and again, I hope I'm wrong but that just feels like
the rhythm of this team. This year where A game like
that, you know, a 34-point game, they'll probably win those if
they have them at home but I think they'll lose them on the
road because I just don't think that they've got what it takes
at this point to go and win on the road, even at a place like,
Nebraska where, you know, there's there's a team that
struggling, but on the flip side, you've got great fans in
the stands. That's going to be a sold-out
stadium. And I think it probably a group
that's like, this might be our last hurrah for a victory, this
year at home. Home.
Let's try to make the most of it anyway.
That'll wrap it up for us here on Crimson cast.
Hopefully this got you through the afternoon a little bit and
hopefully Indiana proves me wrong and goes out and does what
they need to do and picks up their fourth win of the Season
as they take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers Indiana 1 and 3
against the spread this year Nebraska Owen for against the
spread. So something's got to give one
way or another on that. So we'll see what happens on
that. Aunt.
I hope all you folks have a good rest of the day be sure to tune
in. We will be back tomorrow morning
as we talk through what went on with the Indiana.
Nebraska game will talk through the upcoming game a little bit
that Indiana is going to have as they have to come back home and
take on Michigan during homecoming.
And we'll also talk a little bit about just, I guess the
beginning of Indiana basketball season, believe it or not.
It is coming up here. Very quickly, as Hoosier
hysteria is less than a week away at this stage.
Thanks to all you folks for joining me.
Once again, we'll be back on Crimson cast later on this week
with more information and talk about IU football and basketball
as well. We'll catch you folks on the
flip side, bring back the Bison. So long, everybody.