Welcome back to Crimson Cass, GAIL and Clavio joining you once
again as we get ever closer to game day.
Here it is, College Football Playoff week in Bloomington as
the Indiana Hoosiers taking on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish
and we've got Rhett Lewis back with us.
We've been trying to get Rhett back on the show since the start
of the season. Timing hasn't worked out, but
I'm glad we were able to land them this all around.
Rhett, great to have you back on.
And man, I, I still can't believe that we're in this this
phase of things right now. It's, it's just awesome.
The anticipation grows on a daily basis.
It's just great to be talking about IU football the week
before Christmas, you know? I mean like it's and it's not.
It's not a coach firing right? Yes, correct, correct.
And it's not the red box bowl, you know, like we, we, we are in
uncharted territory for sure. And that is without a, without a
doubt, the, you know, most frequent question, you know,
that I have gotten is like what, you know, what is what, what,
what does this feel like? What is what, you know what?
And I, I struggle to find the words as you can tell, like it's
just, it's so different than anything that I've ever been
accustomed to, you know, in my lifetime, you know, outside of
maybe the, the flashes of it in 2020, but it just it, it didn't
feel like this obviously. And, and so I just, I have this
tremendous level of excitement and I I can't even explain how
different the expectation change has been, not even like within
the program, but like just from my perspective, you know,
obviously I haven't been in the booth with Don the last two
years. You know, prior to this one, it
was like, you know, offense comes back onto the field and
you're like, all right, when's James Evans coming back?
You know, like, and unfortunately that's just,
that's just how it was And and it obviously it got better, you
know, the final few games of of the 23 season, but there was
just this kind of like impending doom that you felt every time.
And now it's like we get into third and 14.
You're like, oh, oh, Curtis is probably just gonna hit Sarat
for a back shoulder that'll go for 20 and Drive will continue
and probably score a touchdown and will probably go up by 14
points and probably gonna win by 30.
And like that's it's just, it is an expectation now that that
Indiana thrives in the face of adversity.
Yeah, I think the the overriding emotion for IU football was
dread for a long time. And and it's a completely
different. And I think that's why so many
people who have either followed the program closely, like myself
or, or like you have been involved in multiple different
ways officially. It's why it's so hard to put
into words because it's it's it's like, it's like the the
best possible version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers
where like I, I don't know, I don't know who replaced your
personality, right? It's amazing soul, but here we
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Get 15% off your first order. All right Rhett, so I want to
talk about the match up first. Yeah.
And then we'll kind of talk about the overarching things.
But I have noticed as we've gotten through the past week and
into this week, this is the game that people either like, they
feel definitively that Notre Dame's better and that they're
just going to walk, or they see something in the match up that's
giving them pause. This is probably the match up
where I've seen the most variability in terms of the
predictions. I mean, what from what you've
seen looking at both teams, like what's your evaluation and where
do you think that confusion's coming from in the pundit class?
Yeah, look, I think most people feel like Notre Dame's going to
win based off reputation. I mean, like I in in most people
that just have have kind of put Notre Dame through to the Sugar
Bowl probably haven't watched a whole lot of Indiana this year
and they maybe haven't even watched a whole lot of Notre
Dame, you know what I mean? So I've watched a ton of both
and I do feel like, you know, the, if you're looking at ways
that Notre Dame would defend an offense like Indiana, you know,
I think you look at the USC game, I think you look at the
Louisville game a little bit in terms of, you know, formations
and personnel and the way they want to throw the ball, the way
they can run the ball. I think for that, you can kind
of look at Georgia Tech too, a little bit in the way that they
played. There's other games out there as
well. But I, you know, the, the one
thing that occurred to me is that, you know, USC threw the
ball on Notre Dame and outside of the two pick sixes in the
last three minutes of the game, which were incredible to have
one go for 99 and one go for 100.
I don't. Think I've ever seen that in
football before. That is, is nuts.
Like US CS receivers got open and US CS receivers, you know,
look #0 Xavier Watts for Notre Dame is an absolute star.
He's super to me. He's, he's their best player on
defense and an absolute baller. He's like, he's just, he does
not miss tackles in the open field.
He does, he takes on offensive lineman and you know, when he's
trying to go after running backs in space, like he is a baller.
But I think that their corners on the outside can be had
particularly #29 you know, I, I watched him, you know, a bunch
kind of they don't run a lot of this is a man team, which and is
a big challenge for Indiana. You got to win your one-on-one
matchups is what you love is a wide receiver.
I talked to Elijah Serrat about that this week and he was, he
was fired up about this challenge to go out there and
win. And then, you know, like even if
he doesn't get on top of ADB, let's say, running to go route,
that's where that back shoulder with Curtis Rourke that's been
lethal this year comes into play.
So I think there's real opportunities for Indiana to win
one-on-one matchups to Createspace in the past game.
I look at guys like Miles Price and Keyshawn Williams in
particular as guys who've got real wiggle at the top of their
routes to create some separation in the slot.
That could be a big match up factor for IU, especially if
they're in man coverage. But look, let's let's let's
understand that this is a very big and physical team up front
defensive line. They're they got three dudes
with NFL bloodlines. They got Roman Obin's son, they
got Howard Cross's son, Kurt Heinich's little brother plays
on this team all on the defensive front.
So like they are big and physical upfront.
It'll be a challenge for the, you know, for Indiana's
offensive line to kind of open up some space in the run game.
But I think the running backs and, and maybe even Zach Horton
can find some match up problems in the past game against the
line backing core. I'd love to get #34 out in space
for Notre Dame and and kind of test them that way and see what
they got. So I think if Indiana's finding
ways to beat man coverage, they're going to be in a great
position to put up points in this game.
And then it's about stopping the run, right, Stopping the run and
forcing Riley Leonard to beat you.
So to me, the pathway to victory is defense gets some stops
early, offense puts some points up on the board, 1014 points
early. And now you're kind of starting
to force Notre Dame to think about throwing the ball with
Riley Leonard. Yeah.
And and I'll just say the last point on the match up part that
way is I love Riley Leonard. I love the way he he competes.
I love his joy for the game, his passion for his teammates, like
the way that he plays is the right way, man.
It's fun to watch. He is tough on but I will take
Curtis Rourke as a passer every day of the week and I think
that's where, you know, Indiana's got an advantage.
Yeah, it's really, it's a really fascinating thing because I
mean, it's to some degree it's like, Oh yeah, just stop Notre
Dame's running game, which very difficult for everybody to do
that so well. But, you know, most of the the
success pathways for Indiana run through that.
And and this is where it's going to be interesting because even
though Indiana clearly didn't play very well at Ohio Stadium,
they did do a good job of stopping the run.
They they did a good job of, of playing in that mode.
And, you know, they really forced Ohio State to move the
ball through the air. And even that Ohio State wasn't
as successful as you might think of the final score.
Yeah. You know, against Michigan,
Indiana did the best job of anybody all season and stopping
the run. And these are teams that are
physically and talent wise very similar to what Notre Dame
brings to the truth on that front.
So a lot of it is schematic. And I think looking back and
seeing you know what, who has been successful against Notre
Dame? USC, their offensive success
probably should have led to a victory, if if not for those
mistakes that they made with the interceptions and letting Notre
Dame kind of establish early that they were going to try to
control things. So, you know, for me, a lot of
it with Indiana is you've, you've got to get off to a
faster start offensively to give your defense some some wiggle
room because you know, Notre Dame's really good with
explosive runs. You know, they they've they've
been able to get some long runs pretty consistently throughout
the course of the season. I would just, I worry a little
bit because Indiana's offense has gotten off the slow start.
Even in the Purdue game, it wasn't like they came out and
just started rattling points off immediately.
In this kind of an environment, it's going to be interesting to
see, you know, can you get success in the first quarter,
get 714 points on the board and establish that this is going to
be a ball game. Yeah, I think that's a great
point. And that's that again, that
comes back to, you know, the way that I see the path to victory
here, you know, going it going, you know, 3 and out or, you
know, 5 and out. The the first couple of
possessions is not going to put you in a great position.
Now you're inviting the crowd to get into this game.
You're inviting the elements to become a factor.
You're inviting the, you know, those little seeds of oh, man,
this feels like Columbus again, you know, type of thing to come
back in your head, even though they scored in the first
possession in that game. But I I, I do, I do think that,
you know, look, a fast start is important in every game.
And if really, if you go back and look at the season on the
whole, that has been one of Indiana's calling cards is to
come out with the pedal to the floor.
And that is a tenet of this offense.
They are like they want to be a thermostat, not a thermometer
team. Like they want to set the
temperature. They don't want to take the
temperature of the game. You know what I mean?
Like it's truly. I like I'm going to steal that
for future people. I like that.
And so like, that's that, that is something to where like, oh,
we're not just going to feel this thing out.
You know, it's a big game. Let's just kind of, you know,
let's kind of play it safe and see what they're going to do.
Like, no, no, no, we're going to come out and attack.
And that's why they've been so successful early on.
So the thermostat will be pretty chilly early on.
I think in, in South Bend. I'm I'm looking forward to it.
I'll be up there, but I'm going to, I'm going to have, I'm going
to definitely agree with you on on where this sets up nicely for
IU if they start to build that lead.
When you look at what Indiana tries to do offensively, like
one of the problems the last month has been, there's been a
clear lack of timing and sync between Curtis Rourke and his
receivers. It got better in the Purdue game
and that that was that was really exciting to see.
But I do, you know, I hope that that's largely injury related
and that you have something like that happened with Rourke.
It can throw off timing. Even the Michigan State game was
really more of a running attack game for Indiana than it was a
passing attack game. The timing could also be a
little bit disrupted by the weather.
Now, the weather's looking better now than it was when we
were looking at forecasts ahead of time, because I was looking
at forecasts where it's like, oh, yeah, we're going to have
wind gusts like 3840 miles an hour.
We don't want that. Wind dies down a little bit.
Now you're just playing in the cold.
How does that affect the passing game in particular?
Like you, you like, does it have much of an impact?
And, and for a team like Indiana, with the way that they
try to throw the ball, is that something they need to be
worried about? You know, I, I don't think so.
I mean, like the you saw the the way that they were able to
connect in that Purdue game. And you know, I don't think the
elements are going to be anywhere near that.
And now the cold is, is something right?
It's something to think about. I was never one to be like, you
know, hey, let's let's go shirtless, you know, shirtless
for warmups. Like let's RIP off the no
sleeves. No, no, no, no, I want to be
warm. I want to be a peak peak optimal
playing temperature and and I want to be, you know, like I
don't, I don't want to sit there and, you know, be miserable for
no Dang reason. So I I'm one of those guys.
I was one of those guys that would dress warm, you know, and
you can always take stuff off if you have to at whatever point.
But I think I think seeing the way that they were so efficient
in the past game against Purdue and those kind of elements
leaves me pretty confident now. Look, you go back to that Ohio
State and the Michigan game, like there were some
uncharacteristic drops that we hadn't really seen pop up all
year. I think they got a lot of
mistakes kind of out in those two games in particular.
You don't go back to special teams too.
I don't think you'll see that happen again.
Obviously it was a bad time for it against Ohio State.
But I, I think you, you get rid of the drops, you get rid of,
you know, the, the undisciplined stuff that has not been a part
of this program this year. I think they're going to be just
fine, yeah. One of the interesting aspects
of this match up for both teams is that they're kind of mirror
images of other of each other in a lot of ways in terms not so
much in terms of how they play, but in terms of the schedule
that they played against, their dominance against that schedule.
And you know, people have had questions about both teams.
Indiana more so because of the brand name, I think more than
anything else. But when I was talking to Taylor
earlier this week and we're doing our game preview, like,
it's amazing how strength on strength this match up is
between these two teams. But it's hard to know fully like
what level of greatness both teams have given the other fact
that they've accrued that largely through beating soundly
the teams on their schedule. Neither team has played like a
tremendously hard schedule, all things considered.
So when you look at this, you know, it's a little hard to try
to extrapolate like, you know, can can either team, given what
they've done against lesser competition.
How does that apply in a game like this where you're playing a
team that's finally like on your level across the board?
I and I don't know, there's a question in there per SE, but I
guess in your eye, you know, when I look at Indiana, what I
see is a team that's largely thrived on their execution and
their efficiency and they're, you know, they do everything
really detail oriented. Notre Dame has really thrived at
least in part, on their athleticism and the level of
talent that they've got. I'm curious, like how does that
end up playing out in a game where you've got you've got
superior athletes perhaps in certain positions versus A-Team
that really relies on doing things exactly the right way
every time? Yeah, I think it's I think when
you look at it and you look if you're if you're kind of
comparing match ups and you're comparing the way that Notre
Dame is played against certain teams.
And and then looking at that in like the, you know, the the
framework of what Indiana presents to them.
You know, I think you could take certain things from certain
games. Like, you know, look at the way
they defended the run against Georgia Tech against Navy, you
know, against teams that really, you know, like to be physical
with the football on the offensive side.
And and their defense was up to the challenge there.
But the the, the thing that I think, you know, again,
Louisville put up points and yards on them in the pass game.
Same, same with with USC the last time we saw him.
So I, I kind of look at this as, hey, you know, let's not on
offense, don't bang your head against the wall, you know, and,
and try to do what Ohio State did against, you know, Michigan
and just, you know, try to pound the rock just 'cause you want to
prove how tough you are. Like, let's, let's get out there
and, and, you know, let's go find the advantageous matchups.
And I think a lot of those are going to be in the pass game
early and that could turn to the run game later.
You know, it's I think a lot of people like to say, oh, you got
to establish, well, you know, establish what works right, Like
establish what what gets first downs and scores points.
And for IU in this game, I do feel like it is going to be a,
you know, a pass game type of situation from a personnel
standpoint. I think when you when you look
at it like they're going to appear probably a little bit
more like Michigan in in kind of like big burly type frames.
I don't know that they have the speed that Ohio State did on the
whole. So like, you kind of grab bits
and pieces from it. And, and I do like
stylistically, you know, the way they play, the the way they're
led, the way they, they focus. Like I do think there are
similarities there, even though they may accomplish it in
different ways. But the way they've executed it
has been similar. But look, personnel wise, I
mean, Notre Dame's been a top 20, you know, recruiting class
team for, I don't know, the last century.
So like, you know, like on paper, yeah, they're gonna have
better personnel. But I as we've seen time and
time again this year, that really hasn't mattered for
Indiana. I guess last thing, offensive
line, obviously other issues against Ohio State, no issues
against Purdue, but Purdue didn't really offer a lot of
resistance. A lot of that was focused on
crowd noise. We heard Kurt Signete talk about
that a bunch. When you look at this offensive
line, they've been so good all season.
They obviously suffered the the the loss via injury at the left
guard position. That didn't help.
But are you worried about Indiana's offensive line in this
game as they go up against especially Notre Dame's interior
line? And does Indiana, in your
opinion, need to change the way they approach the passing game
above and beyond whatever they're doing with crowd noise,
which we'll get to in a second to try to give both the
offensive line and Curtis Rourke a better chance against a pass
rush? Yeah, look, I think that was the
thing that started popping up against Michigan was that pass
rush, especially in the second-half, you know, and I, I
think Tyler Stevens, by the way, has done a really nice job.
I mean, technically he is the 4th guard, you know, because you
think Nick Kidwell was, was, you know, penciled in to start from
the from the beginning and, you know, never played it down,
unfortunately due to the injury. Then you get Evans in there and
he goes down kind of unexpectedly.
So, yeah, you're technically on your 4th guard there.
And the fact that Indiana's got competitive depth that way to
put that offensive line together is a is a big deal.
And, and so, you know, I'm thankful that obviously you've
got that that kind of luxury there.
I think he's played well. I think tackles, you know,
really in that second-half against Michigan, the edge
pressure started to started to really get after him a little
bit. And and then, you know, kind of
the same with Ohio State, but it was more of like a physical like
kind of beach up type of pressure with, you know, JT Tui
Molowow with Jack Sawyer. And then they brought pressure
and they brought pressure that bothered Indiana And and I think
that, you know, Bob Bostad, my guess has has been, you know,
going back for the last month now and working on those things
and how Indiana deals with those types of looks.
Often. I I don't think that they will
cause them that type of trouble. Now, if they get beat
physically, it's a different thing.
But I don't think you're going to see that type of, you know,
kind of confusion up there that that allows some mental
misassignments. The things that worry me a
little bit are like I Howard Cross coming back is a big deal
for them. I look at Josh Burnham, the guy
that plays their Viper. I think the dude that comes then
after him is kind of the rotation.
Junior Tui Halamaka is really good as well #44 Donovan
Heinich, 41, played a bunch when Howard Cross was it.
They they kind of go 8 deep and they're pretty good at it.
So like that's, that's the kind of thing like they can stay
fresh. So it's, you know, it'll be, you
know, staying power for that offensive line as you get into
the second-half where we saw it kind of breakdown against
Michigan. I think it'll be something to
watch. But I I do think that they are
capable of holding up and giving Curtis the time he needs.
He's not going to sit back there and read a book, but like
they're going to give him the time he needs because he is a
great processor of information. A lot of that dealing with
pressure does fall back on him. Get the ball out of your hands.
Let's go. Exactly.
Let's widen the lens a little bit as we wrap up.
So Indiana and the College Football Playoff, amazing story
by itself. Indiana playing at Notre Dame in
the first game of the College Football Playoff.
I mean, these are two programs that have not played each other
historically very much at all. Last meeting was in 1991.
I mean, when you saw this match up as an as an IU football alum
and someone's been tied to the program, like what was your
reaction when you saw that this was going to be the draw for
Indiana? Great question.
I will and I'm going to send this photo to you so that when I
hold it up to my camera here, you're going to have a you're
not going to see it as well, but maybe maybe you can find a way
to throw it in. I will throw this picture up and
and I will tell you this is our secret weapon and I'll see if
you can identify who this is in this photo.
I cannot identify who is that in the photo.
Well, it's a mock up of Matt Lavecchio, former Notre Dame
quarterback. Forgot about that.
Always forget about the Lavecchio thing.
Yeah, so two years at Notre Dame led him to a Fiesta Bowl, I
believe is a true freshman. And then kind of got got kind of
went back and forth with Carlisle Holiday, which by the
way, his name has been in the news because Riley Leonard had
back-to-back 100 yard rushing games this year.
And it was the first quarterback to do so since Carlisle Holiday
did it back in, in I think it was like 2002 or something.
But Levecchio, remember, old school, transferred to Indiana,
no transfer portal, sat out a year, was on scout team and then
became the starter for the final two years.
Obviously, it wasn't a hugely productive couple of years in
terms of wins, but had some fun moments.
He's been a great friend of mine.
And, and so, you know, I texted him, you know, when this matchup
came out and I was like, it's all cream and Crimson this week,
right? Right.
It's all cream and Crimson this week.
And he was like, oh, absolutely. Yeah.
So he's he's going to be up
there as well. And he's still got a lot of good
friends that that, you know, he played with at Notre Dame.
But I'm going to bring just in case, I'm going to bring some
extra Crimson for him, I think. So that's what I think of when I
think of this. Matchup.
Bring him a towel. Yeah, he needs an Indiana towel.
Are you? Coming by the way, are you
going? Oh, I'm.
Going to be there. I'm getting up there Thursday.
OK, so we're not enough camp. No, But yeah, the Lovecchio
thing's interesting because I remember when that happened, you
know, just being a fan. And it's like, this is
interesting because these two programs rarely cross paths.
And you know, and that that's is, it's an illustration I think
to some degree that that's kind of like the last meaningful
exchange between the two programs.
Oh, maybe JoJo Johnson, if you want to say.
But there was something there, yeah.
But it's really cool because obviously there's a big
crossover in the fan base as well for a lot of, I know, and I
and there's been a lot of talk about the reversible jacket
thing. But what what, you know, having
grown up in Indiana and having grown up around people who had
ties to both of these, like there's so much intermingling in
terms of like you got family members, like one went to Notre
Dame and two went to Indiana. You've got a ton of Indiana
people who live in and around South Bend.
You know, Chicago's kind of the home base for a lot of Notre
Dame, but there's so many more IU people there.
Oh yeah, don't forget about IU Chicago.
Now, Oh, no, absolutely. I mean, it's the, the, the IU
diaspora is so much bigger, but in the state of Indiana,
especially, these two programs have nobody's had to choose.
And now I, I'm, I'm seeing a lot.
I've had several people are like, well, I root for Notre
Dame normally, but I'm rooting for Indiana in this game.
OK, that makes me feel better because there is nothing,
nothing that I despise more on this planet than someone that
comes to Indiana and still roots for Notre Dame.
I lived with four. Of them that.
Were from Mishawaka and like up in up there and I'm like guys,
you go to Indiana. If you wanted to root for Notre
Dame, go the rooty route, go to junior college up in South Bend
and then try to try to find your way into school up there.
Leave us alone. OK, so yeah, this hopefully this
is the game to silence all that nonsense.
It would be nice and it would it's I just think it's cool.
It is the as ESPN just noted today, this is the first ever in
state CFP matchup. Now that that's been that would
have been hard to do before this just given that there were only
four teams, right. But it is cool that this is the
first one. And and I just it's so awesome,
like Indiana getting not just to go to Notre Dame Stadium, which
is a historic venue within college football, but it's the
first game of this year's college football playoffs Friday
night 8. All the eyes on that game,
college game day going to have a version of themselves up there.
You know, for a season that's been filled with all the
pageantry of college football that Indiana has never gotten a
chance to be a part of. This just feels like an even,
you know a a the the largest cherry you could put on on
absolute. Bonus Yeah, without without
question, Galen like it's it's just super cool.
Like, you know, stylistically to think about this, right, to
think about Crimson up in South Bend inside Notre Dame Stadium
and, you know, finally getting confirmation that touchdown
Jesus, you know, was actually just the tail end of going IU,
you know, up there in South Bend.
And like I there's there's so much history there.
And and now this new found kind of like rekindling of of, you
know, IU football history on this new era.
Like it's it's it's kind of like an old versus new, but still it
feels very kind of familiar. Like it's there's so many, so
many kind of odd and and fun and really intriguing storylines
between these two schools, which what haven't met since since 91.
And it has not been a particularly great history for
for the Hoosiers, But right, you know, neither has the last 20
years. And we're putting all that to
bed now. Last question for you, how
excited will you be after Indiana beats Notre Dame to be
able to kind of go back home to the show, buddy?
Buddy, I'm trying, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to
pull the Kurt Signetti here. I'm trying, hey, focus
day-to-day play to play Rep to Rep, practice to practice.
But yeah, I'd be lying if I haven't thought about that.
My wife is, is already, you know, tried to, to book a, a
ticket to come down with me if we're able to make that trip.
And man, that would be that would be incredible.
Because I know, I know that given a proper allotment of
tickets that IU fans will show up by the thousands on Bourbon
Street down, down in the French Quarter, down in the Warehouse
District and then inside the Superdome on New Year's Day for
a Sugar Bowl match up with Georgia.
So much to look forward to and it all starts this Friday as
Indiana takes on Notre Dame. Rhett, I hope to see you up
there. Yes, and thanks for taking the
time to join us as we continue to wide through our week of the
College Football Playoff as Indiana takes on Notre Dame this
Friday. We'll go ahead and wrap it up
here, folks. Thanks for joining us.
We got one more podcast before the game, so keep an eye out for
that. My thanks again to Rhett Lewis
from NFL Network for joining us here.
And my thanks to all you folks for listening in.
We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, I'm Galen
Clavio for Crimson Cast. Bring back the bison.
Stay. Never daunted.
Go out, you call everybody.