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You're listening to the back 
home network. 

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Presented by Home Field Apparel.
Welcome back to Crimson Cast, 

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GAIL and Clavio joining you. 
Here it is Monday, December 16th

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and folks, it is playoff week 
round one for Indiana as they 

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get ready to take on the Notre 
Dame Fighting Irish this coming 

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Friday up at Notre Dame Stadium 
in South Bend. 

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IN's first ever playoff bid, 
which duh, but also really you, 

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you got to go all the way back 
to the Rose Bowl appearance in 

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1967 or technically 1968. 
I guess that was that was New 

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Year's Day to see Indiana in a 
postseason game of this 

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magnitude. 
And that is that is the truth. 

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And so we've been trying, if you
missed our podcast earlier with 

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Mitchell Page, go check that out
as he had some great thoughts to

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get things started. 
We've got some extra guests 

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booked throughout the course of 
this week that we're going to 

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try to tackle, but we wanted to 
start things off with Taylor 

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Layman from Bite Sized Bison, 
who has been our constant 

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companion throughout the course 
of the year as we have been 

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doing previews and talking about
what's going on with this team. 

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Taylor, good to see you and 
happy playoff week, man. 

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It's hard to believe it's 
actually here. 

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Yeah, Yeah, yeah, there. 
Yeah. 

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First of all, thanks for having 
me on. 

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But also I, yeah, it's been 
weird. 

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Sometimes I ask myself, you 
know, in my in like some 

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somewhere like simulation, like 
what's going on here. 

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And then also like I was raised 
a reversible jacket fan. 

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And so this is a really, really 
in like a lot of my family, like

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my grandfather and my my uncles,
they're all like Notre Dame 

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fans. 
And so this is like a really 

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interesting matchup for me 
personally. 

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But I will say I have talked to 
some of them and a lot of them 

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are pulling for Indiana, which 
is, you know, really it it. 

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It's a fascinating phenomenon. 
And you know, the reversible 

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jacket thing. 
I mean, I've never really cared 

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that much about it. 
It's funny to me, mostly because

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it's like the one thing that 
Purdue fans think is an insult 

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when it really doesn't resonate 
with most of the fan base. 

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But. 
A lot of the the reversible 

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jacket thing. 
Has been because these two teams

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never play, you know the the 
fans have never actually been 

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confronted with the idea that 
they have to choose between the 

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two. 
And so as a result, now that 

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they're having to choose, I 
think you're starting to see 

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some people being like, you 
know, actually I like Indiana a 

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lot. 
So that's been fun to watch that

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evolve. 
And I mean, where you're from, 

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you're from, you know, Northeast
Indiana, that's, that's very 

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common. 
And, and, and it's one of those 

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things where I think ultimately 
what we're seeing from Indiana 

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this year in terms of program 
building and whatnot, this is 

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how you get some of those folks 
to, to finally maybe turn the 

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way that they're thinking about 
things. 

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And so we'll see what happens. 
Obviously this game could go a 

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long way towards that, but it's 
just the first step in a much 

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longer, you know, set of things 
that will happen, including a 

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series between these two teams 
that we think is going to happen

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in 20-30 and 2031 and hopefully 
beyond that as well. 

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But yeah, I. 
Don't think it takes that much, 

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you know, and it just takes, you
know, for them, them knowing 

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people who went, who went to one
of the schools, you know, like 

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it doesn't, it doesn't take that
much. 

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Yeah, but no, you're right. 
It it's, it's just a really 

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interesting dichotomy, I guess. 
It is and and we're gonna talk 

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about not so much that, but 
we're gonna talk about the 

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dichotomy between these two 
teams. 

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Really interesting match up and 
kind of a Rorschach test from A.

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Not not just a statistical 
perspective, but also just from 

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a general like perceptional 
perspective, you can kind of 

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look at what these teams bring 
to the table and create whatever

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narrative you want and, and be 
able to point to statistical 

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factoids that will support what 
you're thinking. 

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And, and so we're going to talk 
about that certainly as we go 

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through things. 
But First off, just to remind 

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our folks that we are here part 
of the back Home network and 

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that includes assembly call, 
includes the Doing the Work 

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podcast, includes Bison Chat, 
which has been on Tuesdays 

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throughout the course of of the 
week or the year. 

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I guess all of those brought to 
you by Home Field apparel.com. 

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Your place to go for the finest 
in college fashions, the softest

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fabrics, the coolest designs. 
Home Field apparel.com just 

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launching their knit sweater 
collection, which has been 

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interesting to a lot of people. 
But I think for most. 

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Most of the people in our 
audience, what you're really 

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looking for is Indiana College 
Football Playoff apparel. 

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And, and this is, you know, it's
one of those things where like 

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this was immediately ordered. 
I'm going to pop it up on screen

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here you can see those beautiful
Indiana versus Notre Dame. 

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Like what a collector's item, 
Taylor You know what a, what a, 

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what a way to commemorate this 
by getting a a hoodie or a crew 

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neck or a heavyweight tee. 
And it's not just red. 

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One right there. 
Yeah, that, that red one has, 

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has attracted a lot of 
attention. 

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I like the black ones. 
I got a lot of red hoodies. 

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But I, you know, I do. 
I like the black College 

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Football Playoff for Indiana 
one. 

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I think I got a crew neck 
actually, 'cause I just got, at 

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this point I've reached hoodie 
saturation. 

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Like I need a second closet just
for the hoodies, but so much 

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other awesome stuff, these long 
sleeves, these retro kind of 90s

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style crew neck designs, so many
cool things. 

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And and you just this is what 
home field apparel does. 

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They come up with this stuff all
day every day. 

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So what I would like you all to 
do is go to 

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homefieldapparel.com, use the 
code home 23, get 15% off your 

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first order and be sure to 
follow them on the socials. 

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They do an awesome job across 
all of their different social 

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channels, particularly on 
Instagram and on Twitter. 

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Again, home field apparel.com, 
proud sponsor of the back home 

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network. 
Also a reminder that we're all 

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on Substack. 
We're all part of one big happy 

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Substack family. 
Although different Substacks 

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taylor@bitesizedbison.substack.com
and one of the greatest deals in

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subscriptions in media where you
can actually pay Taylor and in 

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exchange he will write detailed 
statistical analysis about 

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what's going on with IU 
football. 

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I can't think of a better than 
deal than that, especially 

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Taylor at the price point that 
you're offering, which is what 

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again? 
It is $8 a month or $50.00 for a

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year. 
Yeah, and and that that's that's

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a great deal, you know. 
And, and so get over to bite 

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sized bison.substack.com. 
You can check out all Taylor's 

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written work and he'll keep you 
up to date not just throughout 

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the season, but in the offseason
as well. 

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There'll be some cool stuff 
coming out with that. 

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We've also got a sub stack at 
crimsoncastcrimsoncast.substack.com.

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Join the over 1100 subscribers 
now that have joined us. 

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Get podcasts delivered right to 
your inbox. 

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And if you want to help support 
the podcast, we've got a 

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00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:55,280
mechanism for you to do that as 
well. 

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You get a couple of VIP videos. 
That's the only place right now 

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that you're hearing me talk 
about basketball is in the VIP 

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videos. 
Put one out this weekend and, or

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I guess it was, yeah, it was 
this weekend because today's 

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only Monday and we'll we'll have
more content coming relatively 

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soon on that front. 
So we'd love to have you folks 

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joining us there. 
One last thing, if you're 

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listening to this and you're in 
the Bloomington area, or even if

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you're an indie because it's not
that long of a drive now, join 

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us for the first of multiple 
live appearances throughout the 

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course of this upcoming week as 
Crimson Cast will be at the 

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Upstairs Pub at 8:00 on Tuesday 
night. 

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We'll be previewing IU versus 
Notre Dame. 

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And if you're there earlier, 
which you should be, Upstairs 

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pub is having their 40th 
birthday bash and they've got 

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some absolutely ridiculous 
specials available. 

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Go to their Instagram page, 
Upstairs pub or you can go to 

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Twitter. 
They've got the information 

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there and you'll see just how, I
mean, we're talking about like 

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adult beverages under a dollar 
is one of the specials. 

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It's, it's nuts, man. 
I mean, they got $1.50 

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cheeseburgers. 
They it's, it's, it's crazy. 

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I I can't the FCC, it doesn't 
regulate podcasts, but if they 

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did, they wouldn't allow me to 
talk about the great deals at 

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upstairs. 
Like that's how hot they are 5 

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to 8 Tuesday. 
And right after that you get a 

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live version of Bison chat here 
from Crimson cast as we'll be 

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joined by Joe Cronin. 
I think Austin Platt's joining 

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us, Zion Brown's joining us some
other special guests as we'll be

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talking about IU, Notre Dame and
everything to await us in that 

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one. 
So we'll also be up in the South

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Bend area. 
We got a couple of live events, 

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IUAA event at Corby's, IU Alumni
Association at Corby's at 7:00. 

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It's actually 5:30 to 8:30 is 
the event. 

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I'll be getting there around 
7:00 if you want to meet and 

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greet. 
And then on Friday at noon, join

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us at Social Cantina in 
Mishawaka. 

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Be there from 12:00 to 2:00. 
And then we'll just be out and 

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about and seeing what happens in
South Bend after that. 

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Maybe we can, maybe we can hang 
out. 

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So come up, join us at that. 
We'd love to have you. 

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And so many great events already
scheduled to go on throughout 

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the course of the day in South 
Bend. 

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It's big IU territory, Taylor, 
as you know, it's it's there's a

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lot of IU people. 
There's even an IU branch campus

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in South Bend. 
So this is definitely IU land up

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there. 
So keep an eye on that. 

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We'd love to see you out there. 
So hopefully those of you making

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it up to the playoff game, we'll
see you there. 

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Yeah, I, I will say the, I'm I 
that sweet that was going around

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about how there won't be a red 
wave. 

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You know, I'm not, you know, 
predicting a red wave or 

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anything like that, you know, 
but like I, I really do think 

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there will be a lot of Indiana 
fans there. 

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Yeah, it's, it's, I really do 
too. 

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I mean the number and the ticket
prices have dropped quite a bit 

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here over the course of the last
couple of days. 

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And now the get in price, I'm 
looking at SeatGeek. 

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Well, it jumped back up this 
afternoon. 

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It was as low as like 380. 
It's back up to 533. 

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It's going to ride that wave a 
little bit here over the next 

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couple of days. 
But I've heard from so many 

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people who are like, I'm going, 
I'm going to be there. 

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I'm, you know, and, and many of 
them bought tickets here in the 

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last day or two. 
I've probably, I was talking to 

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somebody yesterday. 
I've probably heard from 200. 

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People that I know they're going
to be at the game in South Bend,

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I know, I know other people who 
aren't going to go to the game 

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but are going. 
To South Bend just so they can 

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be there. 
It's going to be a blast. 

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It'll be a big party and 
everybody will be incredibly 

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happy afterwards as we're 
celebrating Indiana's victory in

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in this game. 
So let's talk about it, Taylor, 

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as we get into this one, Indiana
taking on Notre Dame. 

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This is a match up between 2:11 
and 1:00 teams, two teams that 

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share a lot of DNA in terms. 
Of how their season has gone and

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to some degree what they do and 
how they do it. 

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And you and I have been kind of 
going back and forth on text 

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about this over the course of 
the last week and 1/2 or so. 

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I guess a little over a week 
since we found out the the match

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up this when we were talking 
about potential match ups, this 

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was a match up that you were 
excited for Indiana to 

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potentially draw as compared to 
say Georgia or Tennessee or some

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teams like that. 
I'm would you explain to the 

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audience why that was your 
reaction even before you heard 

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the announcement of the draw? 
Let's just start with that. 

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Yeah, I, I think it's a, it's 
kind of for the same reason that

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a lot of people look at Indiana 
and they're like, you know, I 

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want to play that team because 
the schedule was, you know, it 

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was fairly light. 
And, and I, you know, for Notre 

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00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:42,200
Dame being able to pick their 
schedules is kind of ridiculous 

222
00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:46,840
that it was that light. 
So, you know, I, I think that 

223
00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:51,360
that was a primary reason why 
there are definitely some 

224
00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:54,840
vulnerabilities and I'm sure 
we'll get to those as well, 

225
00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:57,400
particularly Notre Dame's run 
defence. 

226
00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:00,040
And that is very foundational to
what Indiana does, right, 

227
00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:03,440
including the passing offense. 
They need to establish the run 

228
00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:05,000
and Notre Dame is happy to 
oblige. 

229
00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:09,840
And you know, special teams is 
not very good for Notre Dame 

230
00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:15,160
really at all. 
And and you know, for Indiana, 

231
00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:16,800
field position is incredibly 
important. 

232
00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:19,320
We saw how difficult it was for 
them to play Ohio State when 

233
00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:22,440
they couldn't get out of. 
So they said it felt like they 

234
00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:24,320
were down on that side of the 
field forever. 

235
00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:28,720
So field position is crucial. 
And there are other things that 

236
00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:35,600
that we'll talk about as well, 
but mostly just the, the, the, 

237
00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:38,440
the light schedule I think was, 
was the big thing for me when I 

238
00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:41,360
was looking at it. 
And, and, you know, their 

239
00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:43,520
strength of schedules are, are 
pretty comparable as far as the 

240
00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:45,840
metric goes. 
But I was looking at a lot of 

241
00:12:45,840 --> 00:12:50,840
the, the matchups and it just 
doesn't seem like there, there's

242
00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:54,000
some things where it's like, OK,
there's a lot of overestimation 

243
00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:58,680
between these two teams. 
And Notre Dame failed to reach 

244
00:12:58,680 --> 00:13:01,040
overestimation against a pretty 
light schedule in a lot of 

245
00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:03,040
different ways. 
And I think some of those ways 

246
00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:05,880
can favor Indiana. 
But I will say between these two

247
00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:09,640
teams, there is overestimation, 
which which Indiana fans have 

248
00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:13,120
seen in in in in the way that 
Indiana has played Michigan and 

249
00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:15,240
Ohio State. 
There is of course some 

250
00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:17,520
overestimation. 
The same thing applies in Notre 

251
00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:19,000
Dame. 
So any of the strengths that 

252
00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:22,480
Notre Dame has, there's a lot of
strength on strength happening 

253
00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:23,960
in this matchup. 
And they're going to meet 

254
00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:26,280
somewhere in the middle. 
And if that's going to determine

255
00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:30,120
who wins this game and, and it's
going to it's, it's, it's 

256
00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:32,960
honestly, it's super interesting
to me the the match up. 

257
00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,120
I, I think they did a really 
good job. 

258
00:13:36,680 --> 00:13:40,360
I'm really happy that it's on 
Friday night and that's the only

259
00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:42,600
game featured because I think it
is going to be a really 

260
00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:45,760
interesting night as far as, you
know, just gameplay. 

261
00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:49,360
I just don't see Notre Dame, you
know, they have more 

262
00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:52,280
athleticism, of course, but I 
think, you know, Indiana's 

263
00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:56,440
coaches have been as effective 
as anyone this season and that 

264
00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:59,320
that's just it is they're 
they're just like, like you 

265
00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:02,320
said, it's a Rorschach test. 
Like you can, you can really 

266
00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:04,360
spend any type of narrative that
you want. 

267
00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:07,280
Statistically, it's just what do
you pick? 

268
00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:09,800
Yeah. 
It's it's going to be really 

269
00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:11,080
interesting on a number of 
levels. 

270
00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,440
And I think so much of it really
comes down to a couple of things

271
00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:16,400
in particular that you've 
already drawn attention to. 

272
00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:21,760
Like, one of them is what 
exactly are we going to get out 

273
00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:27,560
of two teams who are clearly 
good, but we don't know how 

274
00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:31,280
great they are? 
But in a college football season

275
00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:33,360
where that kind of applies to 
everybody. 

276
00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:37,080
And when you look at what, you 
know, the way Notre Dame has 

277
00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:41,000
played so far this year, what 
what leaps off the page is the 

278
00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:44,080
margin of victory that they've 
been able to maintain in most of

279
00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:47,080
their games. 
And you just go down the list 

280
00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:52,040
like, you know, 66 to 7 over 
Purdue, 49 to 7 over Stanford, 

281
00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:55,520
51 to 14 over Navy, 52 to three 
over Florida State. 

282
00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:58,280
Now you know, the, the, the 
common thread through three of 

283
00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:00,240
those four teams is that they 
aren't very good. 

284
00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:02,640
Like Navy, Navy seemed like a 
legitimately good team. 

285
00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:06,200
They beat Army 4 or Notre Dame 
beat Army 4914 as well. 

286
00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:11,200
But what's also interesting to 
me is like the the way when you 

287
00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:13,880
look at Notre Dame's schedule, 
there's a couple of head 

288
00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:17,240
scratchers, like if a team was 
really that dominant, like, why 

289
00:15:17,240 --> 00:15:19,760
are they only beating Louisville
31 to 24? 

290
00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:23,200
Why are they only? 
Beating Virginia 35 to 14. 

291
00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:26,720
Why did they struggle against an
ASA Southern California team 

292
00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:29,240
that's just essentially 
dedicated to shooting itself in 

293
00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:31,840
the foot all season and really 
needed like a couple of pick 

294
00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:33,880
sixes? 
To to give them the margin of 

295
00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:36,440
victory in that game. 
Now, that doesn't mean that 

296
00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:38,200
Notre Dame isn't a formidable 
opponent. 

297
00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:42,080
They certainly are. 
And when you think about like 

298
00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:45,520
the stand out stat for them, 
it's it's again, it's scoring 

299
00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:47,920
margin. 
And yet a lot of the teams they 

300
00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:51,200
played have been clearly 
outclassed by Notre Dame. 

301
00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:54,920
And I don't know that Indiana 
falls into that category. 

302
00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:58,040
And you look at Indiana and you 
could kind of say a similar 

303
00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:01,120
thing in that, well, they 
outclassed a bunch of opponents.

304
00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:05,440
But when you look at the way 
that Indiana like the particular

305
00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:08,560
opponents, they outclassed the 
most, Nebraska being a great 

306
00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:11,800
example of that. 
You know, Michigan State, I 

307
00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:13,320
think is another good example of
that. 

308
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:18,000
Like, I would probably stack 
those teams up fairly favorably 

309
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:22,320
against most of the teams that 
Notre Dame really beat the crap 

310
00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:24,000
out of throughout the course of 
the season. 

311
00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:26,120
Both teams have a blemish on 
their record. 

312
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,440
Indiana loses at Ohio Stadium 
and, and in a game where they 

313
00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:33,760
frankly shot themselves in the 
foot a bunch of times, Notre 

314
00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:37,200
Dame loses at home versus 
Northern Illinois and then kind 

315
00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:39,520
of changed the way that they did
things a bit after that. 

316
00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:41,360
So, you know, it's like, how 
much can you take out of that 

317
00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:42,880
game? 
How much is that representative?

318
00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:47,240
But you know, when when I look 
across the the board with these 

319
00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:49,960
teams, I guess the first thing 
that that comes to mind is, is 

320
00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:53,480
very similar to what you said, 
which is if you're going to try 

321
00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:56,960
to figure out exactly how strong
these teams are, it's almost 

322
00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,720
impossible to do it because 
there really aren't common 

323
00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:03,040
opponents except for Purdue. 
And they beat Purdue by almost 

324
00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:06,960
the exact same margin. 
And even the types of teams that

325
00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:10,040
they beat, either in Indiana's 
case, we're really 

326
00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:12,680
underachieving, or in Notre 
Dame's case, we're just. 

327
00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:15,960
Kind of very mid or worse than 
mid throughout the course of the

328
00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:18,240
season with the exception maybe 
of the service academies. 

329
00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:21,800
Yeah, yeah. 
The way that I've been kind of 

330
00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:23,960
been framing it to myself as 
I've been thinking about it is 

331
00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:27,359
that Indiana is the best team 
that Notre Dame will have played

332
00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:30,280
at this point, but Notre Dame is
not the best team that Indiana 

333
00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:33,320
has played at this point. 
And so that experience that 

334
00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:36,480
Indiana has as going to Ohio 
State is really going to help 

335
00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:39,160
them in this. 
And honestly, Galen I, I don't 

336
00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,680
like giving Michigan credit, but
like that Michigan team, it was 

337
00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:43,480
getting better at the end of the
season. 

338
00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:47,280
Like I, I think, I think that 
that after that, after they beat

339
00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:50,560
Ohio State, that looks a lot 
better for Indiana than the 

340
00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:53,200
people were framing it. 
Like if you look at some of the 

341
00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:55,760
look at the way that Michigan 
kind of finished out the last 

342
00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:59,080
like quarter of their schedule 
or so, they, they were getting 

343
00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:01,200
better. 
And so, you know, even though 

344
00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:02,640
they did fire their offensive 
coordinator. 

345
00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:08,480
So, you know, there's, there 
are, there are a couple of 

346
00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:10,600
points in, in the, in the 
schedule where you're like, OK, 

347
00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:14,680
you know, like that's, that, 
that is going to help them in 

348
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:17,200
this matchup. 
And it is really hard to go 

349
00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:20,880
undefeated in college football. 
So like Notre Dame, you know, 

350
00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:23,040
they they absolutely, they're a 
good team that deserve to be in 

351
00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:25,720
the playoff. 
But when you're picking from the

352
00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:28,440
teams that are in this field, 
especially if you're picking 

353
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:32,680
from a certain class of team 
like this is probably the one 

354
00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:35,520
that you want. 
That's not, it's not very 

355
00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:40,600
frequently that like a team that
is supposedly a higher class, it

356
00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:42,440
has not played A-Team as strong 
as you. 

357
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:45,400
So that's that, that's that's 
huge for Indiana. 

358
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,120
Yeah, I mean, you know, the 
closest you would probably say 

359
00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:51,520
realistically speaking would be 
Texas A&M, but Texas A and MI 

360
00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:54,720
mean they were they were so up 
and down. 

361
00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:58,480
They're clearly a talented team.
But you know, losing it, losing 

362
00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:01,440
the game to Auburn at the end, 
losing the home game to Texas, I

363
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:04,920
mean, they they kind of deserved
their their final lot in the 

364
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:06,640
season where they finished eight
and four. 

365
00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:11,840
And then, I mean, it's just it's
hard to army's a tough one to 

366
00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:14,720
get your head wrapped around in 
as much as like what, you know, 

367
00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:18,480
how good are they really versus 
just, you know, how much are 

368
00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:21,080
they just very well organized? 
You know? 

369
00:19:21,120 --> 00:19:23,760
And and so for Indiana, yeah, 
it's interesting because, you 

370
00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:25,960
know, certainly Ohio State was a
better opponent. 

371
00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:29,360
Certainly playing at Ohio 
Stadium was a tougher test than 

372
00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:31,680
anything that Notre Dame dealt 
with. 

373
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:35,280
Even if you want to try to argue
winning at Texas A&M was hard. 

374
00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:37,520
It's like, well, it's not as 
hard as winning at Ohio Stadium,

375
00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:40,200
especially given the relative 
strength of the two teams. 

376
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:43,160
So I, I'm with you on all of 
that. 

377
00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:46,360
A lot of it then is like, well, 
look at the individual things 

378
00:19:46,360 --> 00:19:47,760
that make these two teams 
strong. 

379
00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:51,520
And I'm going to go ahead and 
call up your, your, your file 

380
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:53,480
here for those of you watching 
along on YouTube. 

381
00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,240
If you're not, I would recommend
going to bite sized bison going 

382
00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,480
and checking this out. 
So, you know, we start off by 

383
00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,200
kind of looking at the, the, the
key strengths for both of these 

384
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:05,640
teams. 
First of all, you know, we 

385
00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:07,560
talked a lot of this year about 
strength of record. 

386
00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:11,920
And both of these teams, you 
have to give them credit as much

387
00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:16,200
as we gave Indiana credit this 
year for playing a subpar 

388
00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:18,920
schedule, all things considered,
but they took the most advantage

389
00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:20,320
of it. 
Notre Dame did the same thing 

390
00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:22,960
slightly better. 
I mean, we're talking margins of

391
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:24,760
like a couple of of percentage 
points. 

392
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:28,560
Notre Dame 5th in strength of 
record, Indiana 8th in strength 

393
00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:30,440
of record. 
And then you start to go down 

394
00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:33,360
some of the individual items. 
You know, Notre Dame's offense, 

395
00:20:33,360 --> 00:20:40,360
according to to FEI, is slightly
worse than Indiana's. 

396
00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:44,560
Their defense is better by 
probably 1 order of magnitude, 

397
00:20:45,360 --> 00:20:48,920
and they're both about the same 
in terms of FBI, in terms of S&P

398
00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:52,160
Plus, Notre Dame is 9th, 
Indiana's 11th. 

399
00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:55,440
And a lot of that is, you know, 
Notre Dame's better in terms of 

400
00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:57,800
their offense and defense, but 
significantly worse than special

401
00:20:57,800 --> 00:20:59,600
teams. 
Indiana's a little more even 

402
00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:02,760
across the board with top 15 
units in each of those 3 

403
00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,960
categories. 
So, you know, the, if you're 

404
00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:10,520
looking for specific things in 
terms of the macros that 

405
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:13,240
highlight most of these teams 
are really even like they, they,

406
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:18,760
they both have, you know, really
successful overall approaches to

407
00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,240
the game. 
Indiana's a bit more efficient 

408
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:23,320
in terms of their offensive 
success rate. 

409
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:25,680
Notre Dame has certainly 
struggled with that a little 

410
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:27,880
bit. 
But then again, Notre Dame has 

411
00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:30,240
been. 
You know I would. 

412
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:33,640
I think you could say they've. 
Been kind of more consistent in 

413
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:37,760
terms of being able to, to, you 
know, to, to, to hold opponents 

414
00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:40,760
to, you know, not scoring that 
much that often. 

415
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,040
Indiana's been better in 
turnover. 

416
00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:48,160
You know, they haven't lost as 
many turnovers, but Notre Dame 

417
00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:50,920
has been ball Hawks like all 
across the board and and they've

418
00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:53,960
done a really good job of of 
generating turnovers. 

419
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:57,400
So then you start to dive into 
the individual matchups between 

420
00:21:57,400 --> 00:21:59,120
these two teams. 
And as you mentioned earlier, 

421
00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:01,760
it's strength on strength. 
So this is your chart. 

422
00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:05,440
What you know, what jumps out to
you the most in terms of the 

423
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:08,520
strength versus strength and 
where are you looking for the 

424
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:11,480
biggest potential difference 
maker as we go into this one? 

425
00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:17,880
Yeah, I think it doesn't exactly
show in this chart really, but 

426
00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:22,600
the the Notre Dame's offensive 
rushing attack versus the run 

427
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:26,440
defense for Indiana, Indiana's 
rushed defense since and then 

428
00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:29,280
the back half of the season 
since the Nebraska game has been

429
00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:31,560
according to EPA, the best in 
the country. 

430
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:35,560
And, and they had, they actually
were tested in that second-half 

431
00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:38,040
with Ohio State and with 
Michigan too. 

432
00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:41,400
You know, Michigan wasn't super 
successful throughout the 

433
00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:43,280
season, but that was their 
offensive identity. 

434
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,960
And, and Indiana really, I mean,
holding Michigan from getting 

435
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:49,640
into their offensive identity is
really impressive any season. 

436
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:54,920
So you know that that's, that's 
one because it doesn't really 

437
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:58,520
show here because the success in
rush, Notre Dame has 30, they're

438
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:01,840
right 35th for their rush 
rushing success rate and 

439
00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:04,640
Indiana's 11th because they, 
they got off to a slower start 

440
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:09,120
against the rush. 
So I think that's that's the big

441
00:23:09,120 --> 00:23:10,480
strength on the strength on that
side of the ball. 

442
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:14,360
And then the other side of the 
ball is it's going to be passing

443
00:23:14,360 --> 00:23:17,280
versus pass defense. 
So Indiana's passing attack 

444
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:18,760
versus Notre Dame's passing 
defense. 

445
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,080
They have some really effective 
defensive backs. 

446
00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:25,680
They have a really effective 
interior pass rush, which is 

447
00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:27,960
something that's a little 
unusual for Indiana this season,

448
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:30,480
except for maybe Michigan 
because they have Mason Graham 

449
00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,400
on the inside. 
So that is that's something that

450
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:36,840
I'm watching for. 
So Indiana's ranked number one 

451
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:41,080
in an offensive passing success 
rate and Notre Dame is ranked 

452
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,080
8th in the country and defensive
passing success rate. 

453
00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:46,840
Those, those are the strengths 
on strengths. 

454
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,520
But when it comes to Indiana's 
offense, I'm watching them 

455
00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:52,800
running the ball because Notre 
Dame is ranked 101st in a loud 

456
00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:58,240
rushing success rate. 
And you know, there's there is a

457
00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,600
conception that because they 
played two service academies 

458
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:03,040
that this this would be 
influenced. 

459
00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:05,640
So you would you would assume 
that the service academies would

460
00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,360
would find a bunch of success on
the on the ground because that's

461
00:24:08,360 --> 00:24:09,840
what they do. 
They don't really pass. 

462
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:12,040
They're not very good at it. 
They're like Navy and Army are 

463
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:15,040
in the bottom 3 in the nation 
and passing attempts. 

464
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:19,160
So, but that actually doesn't 
affect this these statistics as 

465
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:22,720
much as you would think because 
Army didn't really have a great 

466
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:27,440
rushing game against Notre Dame.
Navy had a pretty good rushing 

467
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:30,760
game, but but neither of them 
had a very good passing game. 

468
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,280
And there are several opponents 
too that ran the ball just as 

469
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:35,040
much as Navy did against Notre 
Dame. 

470
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,640
So. 
Just just just to throw this in 

471
00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:43,440
like Navy carried the ball 43 
times for 222 yards against this

472
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:48,000
Notre Dame defense, Army 58 
times for 207 yards and even 

473
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:49,840
USC. 
Who I wouldn't. 

474
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,920
Really think of as a running 
team carried the ball for 197 

475
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:57,120
yards and 28 carries that ran 
for seven yards a carry in that 

476
00:24:57,120 --> 00:24:58,040
game. 
Sorry, go ahead. 

477
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:01,240
Yeah, no, yeah, that, that 
bridges exactly into a, a, a 

478
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:03,680
point that I've kind of been 
there or a drum that I've been 

479
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:08,160
banging throughout the week, 
which is, you know, USC actually

480
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:10,360
has been sneak. 
Like according to analytics, 

481
00:25:10,360 --> 00:25:12,640
their rushing attack has 
actually been sneaky effective. 

482
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:18,040
And so they actually have on on 
Notre Dame schedule. 

483
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:22,240
USC had the highest rushing 
success rate of any opponent 

484
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:23,880
that that Notre Dame played 
throughout the season. 

485
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:26,480
And they're the only ones that 
are higher than Indiana. 

486
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:29,520
And USC averaged 7 yards a 
carry. 

487
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:34,880
So, you know, I think Mike 
Shanahan is really going to be 

488
00:25:35,120 --> 00:25:37,560
looking at getting some 
effective scheme in the rushing 

489
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:39,440
attack. 
I don't know if I don't know if 

490
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:42,480
Indiana could beat Notre Dame 
simply by running the ball, 

491
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:45,280
which is something that we could
talk about when it comes to the 

492
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:51,240
weather, but but it's really 
going to affect how Notre Dame 

493
00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:53,960
can defend the pass, which is 
their strength on defence 

494
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,600
causing havoc from defensive 
backs in this in the College 

495
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:01,560
Football Playoff field, Notre 
Dame's defensive line is pretty 

496
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,200
ineffective when it comes to 
creating havoc. 

497
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:06,960
Riley Mills on the inside 
creates a lot of passing 

498
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:09,880
pressure. 
But overall they're different. 

499
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:11,960
They're they're individuals on 
the long the defensive line are 

500
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:15,960
are not as good comparatively. 
So that is something that is in 

501
00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:18,800
Indiana's benefit. 
But I mean, the defense for 

502
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:20,920
Notre Dame looks it. 
I mean, it really is kind of 

503
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:25,040
similar to some of the things 
that Michigan and Ohio State 

504
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:29,800
did, which was, you know, 
sending linebackers on blitzes 

505
00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:32,360
or stunts along the defensive 
line. 

506
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:35,000
I think the interior offensive 
line for Indiana is going to 

507
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,440
have to really step up. 
But but yeah, I mean, that's the

508
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:39,240
big, that's the big thing, like 
establishing something on the 

509
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:45,320
ground which they can do to 
attack Notre Dame's strength on 

510
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:47,600
defense. 
But I mean, then Galen, you 

511
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:51,400
could also say that, you know, 
Notre Dame hasn't seen a passing

512
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:55,280
attack like Indiana, right? 
And, and it's not even close, 

513
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:56,960
really. 
They got, I mean, they kind of 

514
00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:03,040
got torched by, by Georgia Tech 
and by Louisville and, and, and 

515
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:05,800
those two teams are, are, I 
mean, they have like 

516
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,680
analytically have effective 
passing attacks, but not like 

517
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,960
Indiana and, and then USC, they 
averaged 7 yards of carry and 

518
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:14,920
then got into the passing game 
that way. 

519
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:18,920
So the, the two teams, 
Louisville and USC, they like to

520
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:21,240
run to get into the pass this 
season anyway. 

521
00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:25,120
And Indiana also likes to do 
that. 

522
00:27:25,120 --> 00:27:26,920
And both of those teams found 
success in the air. 

523
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:28,880
So there, there are ways to get 
there. 

524
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:30,680
I think that's the way the 
Indians going to try to do it. 

525
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:37,000
It's gonna be, I think, very 
fascinating to watch as the some

526
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:39,000
of the different elements come 
into play that you just 

527
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:40,760
highlighted. 
And sorry, that was a lot. 

528
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:42,760
No, no, no. 
I mean, and where to where to 

529
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:43,800
begin? 
Well, you know, one of the 

530
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:45,200
things that I think is 
interesting, you talked about 

531
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,360
Indiana's rush defense. 
I wanted to to touch on that 

532
00:27:47,360 --> 00:27:49,080
real quick before we moved off 
of it. 

533
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:53,280
But, you know, Indiana's rush 
defense has been really 

534
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:54,920
effective. 
The only team I think in the 

535
00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:59,120
last six games that Indiana 
played against that that, you 

536
00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:02,160
know, was maybe really effective
on the ground was probably 

537
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,640
Washington. 
Even even Ohio State, all things

538
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:09,360
considered, didn't have that 
good of a day on the ground. 

539
00:28:09,360 --> 00:28:14,240
They were under 4 yards of carry
on, 115 yards and and 29 

540
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:15,880
carries. 
Washington was about the same. 

541
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:17,800
Was a little more impressive 
because that was at Memorial 

542
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:20,600
Stadium. 
But, you know, 13 yards allowed 

543
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:24,240
on the ground versus Purdue, 69 
yards on the ground on 34 

544
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:30,320
carries versus Michigan -36 
yards on 32 attempts at Michigan

545
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:34,280
State, 70 yards given up to 
Nebraska, even only 93 yards at 

546
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:35,720
Northwestern, which is a game I 
see. 

547
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,720
I keep seeing people highlight 
as well, This is why Notre 

548
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:40,240
Dame's gonna cause Indiana 
problems. 

549
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:42,000
And it's like, well, that's the 
kind of problems they're gonna 

550
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:43,440
cause. 
All right, I'm all for that. 

551
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:47,440
But you talk about the passing 
game, and I think this is where 

552
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:49,080
we probably need to talk about 
the weather. 

553
00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:53,120
So right now when you look at 
the weather forecast, it really 

554
00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:54,960
depends on what app you're 
looking at. 

555
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:59,320
So a lot of the issue in this 
game right now looks like it's 

556
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:03,520
going to coalesce around, you 
know, how hard is the wind 

557
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,640
blowing and how are the gusts 
within that? 

558
00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:10,640
And what looks likely is it's 
going to be about a 10 to 12 

559
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,840
mile an hour wind coming out of 
the northwest. 

560
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:18,000
Will we get heavy gusts? 
AccuWeather seems to think so. 

561
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:20,600
I haven't seen that same level 
of forecasting elsewhere. 

562
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,880
But it's going to be cold, 
similar to the Purdue game, and 

563
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:27,760
Indiana's got some experience 
playing in those conditions very

564
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,400
recently. 
I am interested to see, like, at

565
00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:35,120
what point would heavy wind or 
hard wind be something that 

566
00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:37,200
would cause significant problems
for Indiana? 

567
00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:39,680
But a lot of this is also gonna 
come down to, like, how does 

568
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:42,080
Indiana decide they're gonna try
to attack the passing game, 

569
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,800
which goes right back to or, or 
how do they attack the past 

570
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:48,680
defense, which really goes back 
to one of the larger questions 

571
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:51,920
we've had about how does Indiana
handle that interior pass rush 

572
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:53,560
that you were talking about 
earlier on? 

573
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,360
You know, so much ink has been 
spilled and so many words have 

574
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:59,400
been spoken about how Indiana 
struggled in that Ohio State 

575
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:01,320
game. 
We heard Kurt Zignetti talk 

576
00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:03,720
about it in the press conference
immediately after the draw. 

577
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,120
He talked specifically about the
silent count. 

578
00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:08,720
He talked specifically about, 
like, you know, just the rhythm 

579
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:11,240
that they had to get into and 
that that gave Ohio State a lot 

580
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:13,480
of possibilities. 
Probably not going to be the 

581
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:17,280
same type of experience here, 
given that it's as much smaller 

582
00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:19,560
stadium, there's going to be IU 
fans in the building and much 

583
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:22,200
greater numbers. 
But it's also about like 

584
00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:25,880
Indiana's now experienced that. 
How do they adapt what they're 

585
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:29,840
going to do in the passing game?
And now it's not just the line 

586
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:31,800
and the blocking and the 
protection, but you also have to

587
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:34,560
take into account the weather. 
That probably leads to a shorter

588
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,720
passing game, at least 
initially, as you try to get 

589
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:40,160
some pressure off of the 
offensive line and off of Curtis

590
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:43,800
Rourke. 
Yeah, no, absolutely. 

591
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:46,840
And I think what I think what we
saw against Purdue is that 

592
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:51,680
Indiana, I don't, I don't think 
Indiana's going to be scared out

593
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:55,000
of throwing the ball and the 
cold and, and I mean even the 

594
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,760
wind because they threw 31 times
against Purdue. 

595
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:02,760
I, I think, yeah, I think you're
right, GAIL. 

596
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:06,880
And I think it it, it really 
gets into what you were saying 

597
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:08,880
about a short passing game. 
I would, I would just like to 

598
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:12,720
see more from that from Mike 
Shanahan anyway, because we know

599
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:17,080
that interior pass rush is 
coming and and they're half you 

600
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:22,720
have to find ways to keep them 
from like obviously Ohio State 

601
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:25,400
and Mitchell Page talked a lot 
about this on on your podcast. 

602
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:28,080
I thought it was really good 
about how Ohio State was able to

603
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:32,160
time their, their blitzes and 
not even just the blitzes, but 

604
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:35,120
just like getting the first step
off the line because of that, 

605
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:39,760
you know, silent count. 
And I think, I think he, he also

606
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:41,920
made some good points about how 
you can complicate the silent 

607
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:43,720
count. 
And I think they'll probably go 

608
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:45,120
some, somewhere in that 
direction. 

609
00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:49,160
And and honestly, they might not
even need the silent count, but 

610
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:53,680
the I think, yeah, I would like 
to see. 

611
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:58,280
And OK, yeah, sorry. 
I the Notre Dame does a lot of 

612
00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:02,320
man to man coverage and their 
coverages and in probably the 

613
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:04,280
most that Indiana will have seen
this season. 

614
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:07,400
And the slot receivers are going
to be really important 

615
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:08,800
encountering something like 
that. 

616
00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:11,800
I think the I think Keyshawn 
Williams and Miles Price are 

617
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:15,120
going to be really important in 
this game because of that short 

618
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:18,800
passing game that's necessary. 
The Mike Shanahan likes to use 

619
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:21,600
Miles Price in the screen game. 
That's pretty much the only 

620
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,080
receiver he really likes to use 
in this in this in the screen 

621
00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:26,480
game. 
So that's that's crucial. 

622
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:29,720
And I think, you know, the 
screens will be important in 

623
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,520
keeping Notre Dame from, you 
know, getting too fast in the 

624
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:36,640
pass rush and, and then and 
then, yeah, and then just using 

625
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:41,160
Keyshawn Williams and and mesh 
concepts and, and then, you 

626
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:43,160
know, eventually take shots to 
Omar Cooper. 

627
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:48,920
And so I think the the passing 
game already has to be short 

628
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:49,880
anyway. 
Right. 

629
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:53,400
And so I don't know if the like 
you were saying, I don't know if

630
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:58,480
the weather will really affect 
that as much, but but yeah, like

631
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:00,280
you were saying, there's no way 
to guarantee that that's the way

632
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,200
that this they're going to 
choose to attack Notre Dame 

633
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:03,000
defense. 
Right. 

634
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,160
And that, and that's that to me 
is one of the most intriguing 

635
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:07,560
things about this because like 
you look at Indiana's offense 

636
00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:10,560
and they can run the ball. 
We've seen them do it. 

637
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:12,520
They and and and run it very 
effectively. 

638
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,040
You know, so much of it is going
to be like where are the points?

639
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,400
Like all I've heard all week 
really for the last week and and

640
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:24,040
and day, I guess is how great 
Notre Dame's defense is. 

641
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:26,160
And it's just kind of that 
that's it's like, Oh well, they 

642
00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:28,640
they can stop the run and they 
can pass rush and they also 

643
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,040
cover you know really well. 
And it's like well, they they 

644
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,840
they don't do all of they can't 
do all of those things. 

645
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:36,440
I think to the degree that one 
might think now if. 

646
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:38,040
They do, obviously. 
The game's going to be over real

647
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:40,600
fast. 
But as you say, like a lot of it

648
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:44,840
is hard to parse in terms of 
like how good is Notre Dame's 

649
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:48,680
defense versus how bad have the 
offenses that Notre Dame's been 

650
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:50,800
playing against. 
And, and I don't think we really

651
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:54,120
know because even even though 
like the really hyper efficient 

652
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:59,960
offenses that they played, like 
Army, there is a clear talent 

653
00:33:59,960 --> 00:34:03,400
disparity there that Notre Dame 
was gonna be able to take 

654
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:05,800
advantage of. 
And you look across like the 

655
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:08,600
rest of what they did. 
And, and again, it's like it's 

656
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:12,000
hard to take USC that seriously.
They didn't even average 30 

657
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,840
points a game this year 
offensively. 

658
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,400
You know, they played Texas A&M.
Texas A&M barely averaged 30 

659
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:20,440
points a game. 
You know, the, the, you know, 

660
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:24,360
Georgia Tech scored, you know, 
they only scored 13 points 

661
00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:27,320
against them, but they, it was 
again, Georgia Tech averaged 28 

662
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:30,239
points a game. 
So I again, Notre Dame's defense

663
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,400
might be amazing. 
I don't think we've really seen 

664
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:36,880
it against higher caliber 
competition, particularly team 

665
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:40,280
like Indiana, which has been so 
hyper efficient and has enough 

666
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:42,320
talent that you just can't take 
them lightly. 

667
00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:48,639
Yeah, yeah, exactly. 
And and I think that kind of it 

668
00:34:48,639 --> 00:34:53,639
kind of points to. 
So, So, yeah, like you were 

669
00:34:53,639 --> 00:34:59,520
saying, you can look at these, 
you know, unit wide performances

670
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:02,840
against various opponents, but 
then when you look at, you know,

671
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:05,880
how these teams are actually 
structured and where their 

672
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:10,320
strengths are and, and like, so 
Indiana's strength is one of the

673
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:12,800
real strengths is the depth of 
wide receiver. 

674
00:35:13,240 --> 00:35:15,080
And that's something Notre Dame 
has not seen this year. 

675
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:19,280
They have not seen four wide 
receivers like Indiana has that 

676
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:22,160
that can attack a secondary. 
So, yeah, Notre Dame can play a 

677
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:25,840
man to man until they see a wide
receiving core like that. 

678
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,800
Like then, you know, then you 
get Zach Horton involved in the 

679
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:32,520
passing game and yeah, like, 
like, good luck and also 

680
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:33,600
stopping the run at the same 
time. 

681
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:38,000
It's like you were saying they 
can't they can't do it all. 

682
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,120
And no team has been able to do 
it all against Indiana. 

683
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:44,720
Indiana has found success some 
way on offense even in in their 

684
00:35:44,720 --> 00:35:47,360
worst game against Ohio State, 
the rushing attack, you know, 

685
00:35:47,720 --> 00:35:50,560
looked like they didn't stack up
a bunch of yards or anything, 

686
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,600
but because they kind of got 
away from it. 

687
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,920
But, you know, they they they 
looked effective in the rushing 

688
00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:59,120
attack against Ohio State. 
The game script also didn't help

689
00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:02,000
that. 
But you know, like you were 

690
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,880
saying this, this this Notre 
Dame defense is not 

691
00:36:05,240 --> 00:36:07,720
all-encompassing. 
They're they're they're going to

692
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:11,320
surrender success to Indiana's 
offense. 

693
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:13,080
It's just where exactly would 
that be? 

694
00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:18,720
Yeah, it's, again, there's just 
a lot of really, really 

695
00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:21,240
fascinating little things going 
on in the mix here. 

696
00:36:21,720 --> 00:36:25,680
And, and, and again, I think 
what makes this such a a unique 

697
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:29,480
and interesting match up is we 
don't, I feel like both of these

698
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:33,240
teams were kind of grown in a 
laboratory and and we haven't 

699
00:36:33,240 --> 00:36:36,160
really Rd. tested them that 
effectively yet. 

700
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:39,720
And that's, you know, I think 
you can look at Notre Dame and 

701
00:36:39,720 --> 00:36:42,680
you could say, well, I could see
slight, you know, slight reasons

702
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:45,760
why Notre Dame would be the team
that you might think would be 

703
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:47,920
you have a better chance of 
victory, even taking out the 

704
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:51,000
home field advantage, you know, 
because of how effective they've

705
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:52,960
been in in certain aspects of 
things. 

706
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:56,040
But then it then it comes back 
to, well, they've been effective

707
00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:59,560
in that perhaps because they 
haven't played teams that can 

708
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:01,320
effectively defend them in the 
running game. 

709
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:02,920
You know, and you, you go 
through and you look at like 

710
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:05,680
Notre Dame's rushed for almost 
2700 yards. 

711
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:08,320
They're averaging 6.3 yards per 
carry. 

712
00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:09,920
They've rushed for 40 
touchdowns. 

713
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:11,160
That's kind of their bread and 
butter. 

714
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:15,320
And you know, nobody held them 
under. 

715
00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:18,600
I think that the lowest rushing 
total that they had in the year 

716
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:22,000
was 117. 
That they they rushed against 

717
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:25,720
Louisville, they rushed for 123 
against Northern Illinois, They 

718
00:37:25,720 --> 00:37:28,280
rushed for 168 against Georgia 
Tech. 

719
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:30,720
It is impressive that in the 
last five games they played, 

720
00:37:30,720 --> 00:37:34,960
they rushed for 200 or more 
yards in each of those games, 

721
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:39,120
and including the game against 
Army where they rushed for 9.4 

722
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:42,600
yards per carry. 
But even that, it's like, can 

723
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:45,520
you pull that apart from the 
talent disparity? 

724
00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:49,120
You know, is that something that
a stout rushing defense like 

725
00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:52,320
Indiana is going to be able to 
thwart? 

726
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:55,400
Or is it a situation where Notre
Dame is just that overwhelming 

727
00:37:55,720 --> 00:37:58,160
on the ground that you can't do 
anything about it? 

728
00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:00,240
That is going to be a really 
interesting thing to watch. 

729
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:05,080
Just like IU, you know, as a 
hyper efficient as they've been 

730
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:07,680
on offense. 
Is that something that this, you

731
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:10,440
know, apparently from a 
statistical perspective, stout 

732
00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:12,320
Notre Dame defense is going to 
be able to stop? 

733
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:14,080
I just don't think we really 
know. 

734
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,200
And I and I am really fascinated
to see how that plays out 

735
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:20,640
because even even if you want to
take some of the games that 

736
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:24,200
Notre Dame played and and say, 
well, there's some reasons why 

737
00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:25,400
we think Indiana could be 
effective. 

738
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:27,440
A lot of their worst games were 
at the very beginning of the 

739
00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:29,520
year. 
And it appears that they have 

740
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:31,760
evolved quite a bit throughout 
the course of the season. 

741
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:34,560
Yeah, yeah. 
And like, like you were saying 

742
00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:38,600
Galen the, the, the, the, and 
this is just more this 

743
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:41,600
statistical comparison, you 
know, like we were just saying, 

744
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:45,880
but you know, Notre Dame has 
found a lot of efficiency on the

745
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:48,680
ground, especially in the last 
like 5 or so games. 

746
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:52,960
But I I was looking into like 
how effective are those 

747
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:54,400
defensive fronts that they're 
playing? 

748
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:57,240
And Florida State statistically 
is the best one. 

749
00:38:57,240 --> 00:39:00,160
They rank 79th and front 7 Havoc
Great. 

750
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:06,040
Like that's really not good. 
And and Notre Dame's entire 

751
00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:08,960
average, like the average across
their entire schedule was ranked

752
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:14,360
77th and in front seven had a 
great, but that's it's they 

753
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:19,040
haven't really played good front
sevens and and Indiana's has 

754
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:21,360
been the best. 
And, and and, you know, like, 

755
00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:25,400
like we were saying, though, 
fairly untested, you know, like,

756
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:28,680
like Michigan and Ohio State and
and then, you know, they had 

757
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:30,200
that rough game against 
Washington. 

758
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:32,440
And that's really, and that's 
really it. 

759
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:40,840
And so, yeah, I, yeah, I think 
this, the Notre Dame offense has

760
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:43,360
a lot of talent. 
Of course, Jeremiah Love is 

761
00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:47,080
incredibly talented. 
Jadarian Price is massively 

762
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:50,960
explosive. 
And Riley Leonard is he runs the

763
00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:53,200
ball better than any quarterback
Indiana has played. 

764
00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:57,240
And you know, you can point to 
the Northwestern game and I kind

765
00:39:57,240 --> 00:39:59,760
of broke this down in the in the
preview too, for by sized buys. 

766
00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:01,880
And you point to the 
Northwestern game because Jack 

767
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:04,360
Loush got 38 scrambling yards 
against Indiana. 

768
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:05,720
And that's that's that's the 
worst. 

769
00:40:05,720 --> 00:40:09,000
But you know, we're talking 
about designed yards here. 

770
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:12,440
Then I don't I don't know if. 
And, and I like Brian, Brian 

771
00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:15,800
Haynes's comments about it today
where he was saying, you know, 

772
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:17,800
like. 
When the quarterback runs, he 

773
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:22,280
gets hit. 
And I was like, whoa, OK, I that

774
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:27,200
that that explicit, that 
explicit sentiment is something 

775
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:28,760
that you don't really hear that 
often. 

776
00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:31,560
And so I was like, OK, you know,
they're OK That that's the 

777
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:33,880
attitude that this defense is 
coming into this game with. 

778
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:37,240
And that if I'm Notre Dame, 
like, I don't know, that's 

779
00:40:37,240 --> 00:40:39,640
that's a little frightening to 
me because like this, this 

780
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:42,520
offensive line, it could be, you
know, it's graded great. 

781
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:45,480
But who have they played? 
I mean, not really anybody 

782
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:48,680
fearsome. 
So this is the best front that, 

783
00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:51,280
you know, that Notre Dame has 
played. 

784
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:54,840
Statistically, this is the best 
front and this is not the best 

785
00:40:54,840 --> 00:41:00,080
offensive line. 
And well, I mean, it is the best

786
00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:03,280
offensive line, but but it's an 
untested offensive line in a way

787
00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:06,360
that, you know, in Ohio State's 
offensive line is it was already

788
00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:09,640
tested. 
It was tested by Oregon and and 

789
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:14,120
other teams before that. 
So you know, like, is this the 

790
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:15,680
best offensive line Indiana 
scene? 

791
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:19,840
I personally don't think so, but
you know, we'll see. 

792
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:21,480
We'll see how they play on the 
Friday. 

793
00:41:22,680 --> 00:41:26,200
Yeah, I'm, I'm really very 
curious to see how that plays 

794
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:29,360
out. 
And and you know, the, there's 

795
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:31,480
just, there's all these little 
things like you said, where 

796
00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:36,200
where I, I think you can, you 
can highlight evidence one way 

797
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:38,280
or another. 
And there's a lot of like both 

798
00:41:38,280 --> 00:41:40,200
these teams have some 
interesting statistical 

799
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:41,720
anomalies. 
Like when you even when you're 

800
00:41:41,720 --> 00:41:44,800
comparing some of their 
individual stats, like I was 

801
00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:47,400
looking up earlier, like if you 
look over turnover margin, you 

802
00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:50,280
know, Indiana's generated 23 
turnovers, Notre Dame's 

803
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:52,800
generated 28. 
But eleven of the 28 Notre 

804
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:54,920
Dame's generated came against 
Navy and Virginia. 

805
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:59,480
But then on the flip side, you 
know, 10 of the 23 that Indiana 

806
00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:01,520
generated were against Nebraska 
and Purdue. 

807
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:04,640
And, and so, you know, these are
these are the kinds of things 

808
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:06,440
even even sacks. 
Like if you look at their 

809
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:10,560
defensive performances, Notre 
Dame sacked their opponents 30 

810
00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:13,760
times this year, but eight of 
those came in one game, and that

811
00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:16,160
was against Florida State, who 
had pretty much given up by that

812
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:17,880
point. 
Indiana sacked their opponents, 

813
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:21,880
34 * 7 of those came against 
Michigan State, you know, which 

814
00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:25,840
is a team that you know, that's 
why they had -36 rushing yards 

815
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:30,320
in that game. 
So again, it's just kind of like

816
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:33,000
you, you look at all of the 
different factors and you look 

817
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:36,840
at where these teams are AT. 
And you can, again, you can 

818
00:42:36,840 --> 00:42:38,640
paint whatever picture you 
really want to paint. 

819
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:43,040
I, I do think ultimately there's
a few things as I look at both 

820
00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:46,400
teams and the way that they've 
performed, if Indiana's going to

821
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:49,520
be successful in this game, it 
feels like they have to get off 

822
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:51,760
to a relatively quick offensive 
start. 

823
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,680
You know, what we've seen from 
Notre Dame's schedule so far 

824
00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:59,280
this season is that when their 
offense gets going, it doesn't 

825
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:01,440
stop. 
And a lot of their opponents 

826
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:03,800
have just not gotten their 
offenses going throughout the 

827
00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:07,000
course of the season. 
And I think with Indiana, if you

828
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:11,040
look at the Michigan game, the 
Ohio State game, even the 

829
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:14,040
Michigan State game, if we want 
to be honest, like Indiana 

830
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:18,480
started to really have problems 
and they all kind of started 

831
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:22,320
with Curtis Rourke's injury and 
you and even you could really 

832
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:24,680
throw Washington there as well. 
Like Indiana's hot offensive 

833
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:28,000
start there came on a pick six 
that you know, that that 

834
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:32,040
happened early on in the game. 
So we asked Mitchell Page about 

835
00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:35,720
it on Sunday and he was like, 
well, it's a timing thing with 

836
00:43:35,720 --> 00:43:39,400
Rourke and his receivers. 
And but it's also how are you 

837
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:41,520
gonna commit offensively? 
And I think one of the things 

838
00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:45,080
that was frustrating about the 
Ohio State game was, you know, 

839
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:47,120
they figured out how to do 
things on that first play on the

840
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:49,840
scripted Dr. and then they 
seemed to run out of ideas a 

841
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:52,320
little bit in terms of how to 
keep the offense going. 

842
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:55,960
They've even in the in the 
Purdue game, like they didn't 

843
00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:58,120
get off to a red hot start. 
I think they had to punt on the 

844
00:43:58,120 --> 00:43:59,920
1st possession or something like
that. 

845
00:44:00,240 --> 00:44:03,280
And so to me, that's a key for 
Indiana. 

846
00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:06,480
You cannot let Notre Dame get 
out to A2 score lead. 

847
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:09,560
You've got to put some points on
the board in the first quarter. 

848
00:44:09,720 --> 00:44:13,240
And I think you need to show a 
nice mixture of running pass so 

849
00:44:13,240 --> 00:44:15,800
that Notre Dame can't settle in 
on whatever you're doing. 

850
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:19,240
And defensively, I think you've 
got to try to force some stops 

851
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,040
early to try to get Notre Dame 
back on their heels a little 

852
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:25,000
bit. 
You know if the the the ideal 

853
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:28,680
like Death Blossom scenario for 
Indiana here is got if you could

854
00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:31,840
get 3 scores. 
On the board early Notre Dame's 

855
00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:34,920
not really built. 
To do that kind of a game, they 

856
00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:37,040
haven't had that all season. 
I mean, you know, you look at 

857
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:40,160
the the, the full extent of what
Notre Dame has been able to do 

858
00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:43,640
in terms of their schedule. 
And as I mentioned, like they're

859
00:44:43,640 --> 00:44:46,360
averaging getting up about 13 
points a game. 

860
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:50,640
The only teams that have scored,
you know, significant amounts of

861
00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:52,800
points by significant, I mean 
like over 20. 

862
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:55,600
Those were the close games that 
they had outside of the Northern

863
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:57,400
Illinois game. 
You know, Louisville was within 

864
00:44:57,400 --> 00:45:01,640
7 and Southern Cal was within 
14, and both of those teams 

865
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:05,000
scored above 20 points. 
But that's been the exception. 

866
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:09,120
So how does Indiana take what 
they did and put that into what 

867
00:45:09,120 --> 00:45:11,320
they're trying to do in this 
game is a big question mark for 

868
00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:13,000
me. 
Yeah, that's a good that's a 

869
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:14,840
good point about about Notre 
Dame. 

870
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:17,160
I mean just their general 
offensive philosophy as run the 

871
00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:21,720
ball and and if you you know, 
they can pass for sure, but it's

872
00:45:21,720 --> 00:45:25,640
not one of those like volatile 
passing attacks. 

873
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:29,000
It's more like, you know, we 
have all of these capable pass 

874
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:32,040
pass catchers and you can't 
cover them all while also 

875
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:34,280
covering the run. 
And so that's the way that they 

876
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:36,320
approach it. 
But if they get into pass like 

877
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:39,040
obvious passing scenarios, it's 
difficult for them. 

878
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:42,840
They're they don't have the top 
end talent that that some of 

879
00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:45,560
these other teams have. 
And so, yeah, that that's a 

880
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:47,400
really good point. 
Galen, if they can get up there,

881
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:50,560
if they can just put 3 scores on
the board, it's hard to keep up 

882
00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:53,000
with something like that. 
And, and like we've seen and I 

883
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:57,480
think like what some folks 
probably forget from earlier in 

884
00:45:57,480 --> 00:46:01,120
the season, given the way that 
Michigan or Ohio State went, is 

885
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:03,880
that this Indiana team can put 
up some points pretty 

886
00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:06,960
effortlessly. 
And so they, you know, if they 

887
00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:10,960
if they can, if they can 
establish precedent on offense 

888
00:46:10,960 --> 00:46:14,240
and then break that precedent, 
you can get some explosive 

889
00:46:14,240 --> 00:46:16,400
plays. 
And Mike Shanahan loves to do 

890
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:18,840
that. 
And if if it's just a matter of 

891
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:24,000
getting into those situations 
and you know, yeah, it it it's 

892
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,560
going to be, it's going to be 
you kind of like round 3 of that

893
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:30,120
for Indiana, because Michigan 
and Ohio State, you know, they 

894
00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:32,600
they made Mike Shanahan really 
work for those things. 

895
00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:37,080
I expect Notre Dame to too, but 
maybe just not to the extent 

896
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:41,600
that that an Ohio State might. 
And so, so yeah, yeah, that's, 

897
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:42,800
that's a, that's a really good 
point. 

898
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:45,840
And also like stop being Notre 
Dame earlier in the earlier in 

899
00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:47,960
the drives, that's where they're
most susceptible is early in the

900
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:48,440
drives. 
Yeah. 

901
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:51,040
I mean, you know, you look at 
like, again, like go back to 

902
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:53,200
that Notre Dame USC game, USC 
out game. 

903
00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:59,120
Notre Dame in that game, 557 to 
436, they got six more first 

904
00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:01,240
downs. 
They actually beat them in time 

905
00:47:01,240 --> 00:47:03,600
of possession. 
You know, you look at the box 

906
00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:07,280
score of that game and you know 
Notre Dame ran for 258 yards. 

907
00:47:07,720 --> 00:47:10,680
They only threw the ball 23 * 
178 yards. 

908
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:15,840
You know Jayden Maiava from from
USC passed for 360 yards. 

909
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:17,560
They had 200 yards on the 
ground. 

910
00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:22,560
The problem was they threw a 99 
yard pick 6 while down seven in 

911
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:24,800
the fourth quarter and then 
followed that up a couple 

912
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:28,120
minutes later with 100 yard pick
six that finished the game off. 

913
00:47:28,720 --> 00:47:32,640
But, you know, the part of it is
US CS got a higher caliber of 

914
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,120
talent and can go head to head 
against Notre Dame. 

915
00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:38,320
Indiana's not going to quite 
have that capacity, you know. 

916
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:41,200
But if you go back to the 
Louisville game, you know, the 

917
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:43,720
the, the story is, is not that 
different. 

918
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:48,000
Louisville out gained Notre Dame
395 to 280. 

919
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:51,280
They had eight more first downs 
or Notre Dame only had 11 first 

920
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:54,320
downs in that game. 
They actually out rushed Notre 

921
00:47:54,320 --> 00:47:59,920
Dame 1:31 to 1:17 and Notre Dame
only threw the ball 23 times. 

922
00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:02,920
You know it. 
It was one of those situations, 

923
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:06,560
though, where, you know, Notre 
Dame made the plays they needed 

924
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:07,720
to make. 
I mean, I'm not taking the game 

925
00:48:07,720 --> 00:48:09,440
away from them. 
But if you're if you're Indiana,

926
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:11,760
I think you look to some of 
those games and you're like, OK,

927
00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:14,960
what was the secret sauce here 
that allowed those teams to out 

928
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:17,400
game Notre Dame? 
I don't see a scenario where 

929
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:20,800
Indiana beats Notre Dame without
out gaining them by a fairly 

930
00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:24,520
significant margin. 
But you know, I think those 

931
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:27,000
games at least tell you like 
there's a because I would put 

932
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:29,960
Indiana's talent level around 
Louisville's talent level, maybe

933
00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:33,720
slightly higher. 
It probably lower than USC, but 

934
00:48:33,720 --> 00:48:36,160
Indiana was more efficient than 
USC all season. 

935
00:48:36,800 --> 00:48:39,200
And it's not like Indiana 
doesn't know how to play 

936
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:41,560
offense. 
And if Curtis work and his 

937
00:48:41,560 --> 00:48:43,680
timing is back with his 
receivers. 

938
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:47,320
And as long as the the, the, the
conditions there aren't bad, 

939
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:49,880
this is going to be a different 
caliber of offense than what 

940
00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:52,440
Notre Dame is really used to. 
And that is a really intriguing 

941
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:55,280
thing when you combine it with 
the caliber that we know the 

942
00:48:55,280 --> 00:49:00,000
Indiana defense is. 
Yeah, yeah, exactly. 

943
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:05,480
And and, and, and at the same 
time, I don't, I don't know if 

944
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:07,920
we've mentioned this either, but
in Indiana's defense has not 

945
00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:10,560
really played a lot of 
high-powered offenses either. 

946
00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:14,200
And, you know, they, they 
haven't exactly played an 

947
00:49:14,200 --> 00:49:15,920
offense where the quarterback 
can run. 

948
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:19,560
They haven't played an offense 
with a playmaker like Jeremiah 

949
00:49:19,560 --> 00:49:22,720
Love. 
You know, that that is, those 

950
00:49:22,720 --> 00:49:26,680
are, those are very real things.
And, and not necessarily that, 

951
00:49:27,240 --> 00:49:31,760
you know, not necessarily that 
USC is, is a better defense than

952
00:49:31,760 --> 00:49:33,320
Indiana is, because they clearly
aren't. 

953
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:39,840
And you know, and Louisville, 
you know, they, I, I would not 

954
00:49:39,840 --> 00:49:42,320
say that that Louisville is 
really in the same category as 

955
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:45,720
as Indiana defensively either. 
So I, I think, you know, Indiana

956
00:49:45,720 --> 00:49:50,320
could, what we see from 
Indiana's defense will probably 

957
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:52,600
be similar to what we see 
against Notre Dame. 

958
00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:55,960
And, and if it's anywhere where 
it was against Ohio State, I 

959
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:58,400
think, you know, this, this is a
very close game. 

960
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:05,440
But yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I
think you know, when again I 

961
00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:11,800
was, I plotted all of the in the
preview, I plotted all of Notre 

962
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:15,400
Dame's opponents offenses by 
total EPA for passing and 

963
00:50:15,400 --> 00:50:19,800
rushing. 
And, and the ones that like 

964
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:24,000
Louisville and Georgia Tech, 
they had successful games. 

965
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:27,200
They were closest to the to to 
the efficiency that Indiana has 

966
00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:31,280
achieved and EPA on pat and 
passing and, and both of them 

967
00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:37,240
had great passing games. 
And, but what a lot of them had 

968
00:50:37,240 --> 00:50:41,440
was a bit more efficiency and, 
and rushing and, and over the 

969
00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:45,760
course of the season. 
And so, you know, I think that 

970
00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:50,440
kind of pulls back to Indiana's 
offensive line performance. 

971
00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:53,320
And I think that's kind of where
it's always started and, and the

972
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:58,040
entire season. 
And so, you know, if, if, if the

973
00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:00,520
offensive line doesn't look 
better than it did against, 

974
00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:04,040
against Ohio State, against 
Michigan, frankly against the 

975
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:06,960
Purdue in the beginning too, 
like there was some rough plays 

976
00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:11,920
in the beginning too. 
If it doesn't look better, it 

977
00:51:11,920 --> 00:51:14,720
might be a struggle to to get 
that timing like you were 

978
00:51:14,720 --> 00:51:17,000
talking about when in the 
passing game and then, you know,

979
00:51:17,160 --> 00:51:18,760
in the Russian game, I think 
there might be a bit more 

980
00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:22,040
cushion. 
But yeah, that's that's 

981
00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:23,800
something that I just keep 
coming back to is just that 

982
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:27,040
interior offensive line and, 
and, and how that can really gum

983
00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:29,280
up some of the things that we're
talking about here, right. 

984
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:31,600
Yeah. 
I mean, ultimately, it's one of 

985
00:51:31,600 --> 00:51:39,080
those big things like the the 
Indiana's offensive line becomes

986
00:51:39,080 --> 00:51:42,200
like the key to to so much. 
And it's really been the key to 

987
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:44,200
a lot of the season when you get
right down to it. 

988
00:51:44,200 --> 00:51:47,840
And if they can't, if they can't
protect Curtis work in the 

989
00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:52,200
passing game and they also can't
open up holes for Justice 

990
00:51:52,200 --> 00:51:56,120
Ellison and Tyson Lawton to run 
through, It's it's a real tough 

991
00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:58,160
sled. 
Because, you know, ultimately, 

992
00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:02,840
if Indiana can't move the ball, 
you don't feel good about 

993
00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:06,080
Indiana's defense being able to 
keep Notre Dame from moving the 

994
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:08,760
ball, just given how much muscle
memory they have with having 

995
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:12,200
moved the ball. 
And and yet by the same token, 

996
00:52:12,440 --> 00:52:15,680
Indiana's like got to figure out
early, like, can we actually 

997
00:52:15,680 --> 00:52:18,440
stand up physically to this 
Notre Dame defensive front? 

998
00:52:19,120 --> 00:52:22,520
If you can, well, that opens up 
a lot. 

999
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:25,360
But if you can't, you're going 
to have to change the game plan 

1000
00:52:25,360 --> 00:52:27,960
in a way that is more effective 
than what they did against 

1001
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:32,000
Michigan and Ohio State, who are
frankly, I think the two teams 

1002
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:35,360
talent wise that Indiana's 
played that are the closest to 

1003
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:37,120
what they're going to see in 
this Notre Dame game. 

1004
00:52:37,120 --> 00:52:38,840
Now. 
I would expect there to be more 

1005
00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:42,200
contingencies in place. 
I'd expect Curtis work to be, 

1006
00:52:42,240 --> 00:52:45,160
you know, hopefully fully back 
to where he was before in terms 

1007
00:52:45,160 --> 00:52:48,160
of of his his thumb health and 
just you know, where that is. 

1008
00:52:48,400 --> 00:52:52,160
But you've got to have an early 
feeling out period. 

1009
00:52:52,240 --> 00:52:54,480
And it would be great to be able
to do that while you're up by a 

1010
00:52:54,480 --> 00:52:57,480
few points rather than being in 
a situation where you're having 

1011
00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:00,600
to figure it out on the fly. 
You know, I, I, I think it's a 

1012
00:53:00,600 --> 00:53:02,760
legitimate concern. 
And it's where if we sound like 

1013
00:53:02,760 --> 00:53:05,320
we're equivocating here or we're
not like taking a stand, it's 

1014
00:53:05,320 --> 00:53:09,840
really, again, I'll go back to 
what we said before you can, you

1015
00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:12,240
can look at all of these numbers
and you could say definitively, 

1016
00:53:12,240 --> 00:53:14,080
Notre Dame's going to win. 
You could say definitively 

1017
00:53:14,080 --> 00:53:16,360
Indiana's going to win. 
I've seen pundits across the 

1018
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:20,360
country doing one or the other 
and I to a degree that I'm not 

1019
00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:23,080
seeing with the other games. 
Taylor, like people do not know 

1020
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:26,400
which way to land on this game. 
Has that been your impression as

1021
00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:28,920
well? 
Yeah, yeah. 

1022
00:53:29,080 --> 00:53:32,760
And that's where that's where 
like that's where when we were 

1023
00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:35,960
talking about, you know, you 
said these two teams are made in

1024
00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:37,560
a lab because they're they're 
untested. 

1025
00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:42,640
You know, that feels like this 
match up in general, because 

1026
00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:45,440
there is it's a lot of strength 
on strength, but a lot of 

1027
00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:48,040
strength that isn't necessarily 
as tested as other as other 

1028
00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:50,360
teams. 
And then also you just look at 

1029
00:53:50,360 --> 00:53:53,400
the look at the trenches and 
like Notre Dame strength is this

1030
00:53:53,400 --> 00:53:56,240
interior defensive line, while 
Indiana's weakness on the 

1031
00:53:56,240 --> 00:53:59,840
offensive line is the interior. 
Like, everything is like 

1032
00:53:59,840 --> 00:54:04,440
designed to have been playing 
each other to to face each other

1033
00:54:04,440 --> 00:54:07,720
at some point this season. 
And it just happens to be this 

1034
00:54:07,720 --> 00:54:09,520
playoff game. 
But that's where that's why I 

1035
00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:13,280
came back to like the the thing 
that is not really a strength on

1036
00:54:13,280 --> 00:54:15,240
strength and a thing that can 
actually really make a 

1037
00:54:15,240 --> 00:54:18,640
difference here is Indiana's 
rushing attack versus Notre 

1038
00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:21,560
Dame's rushing defense. 
And that's where that interior 

1039
00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:26,040
offensive line just really has 
to step up because like, like 

1040
00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:28,440
that's, that's where Indiana can
make that that sort of 

1041
00:54:28,560 --> 00:54:30,120
difference that we've been 
talking about. 

1042
00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:33,520
And where the statistical 
anomalies don't really exist in 

1043
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:35,480
the same way that they exist in 
other areas. 

1044
00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:37,920
Like, like they're starting a 
true freshman at cornerback. 

1045
00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:40,920
And, and like, how long is that 
going to last? 

1046
00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:42,680
You know, is that going to last 
against Indiana? 

1047
00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:46,680
Can they stay in man to man? 
Like I, I, you know, it's going 

1048
00:54:46,680 --> 00:54:48,440
to be really interesting. 
It's going to involve a lot of 

1049
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:50,720
great coaching at the end. 
Now that's what I'm really 

1050
00:54:50,720 --> 00:54:52,680
excited about in this because 
like you were saying, like 

1051
00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:55,600
Indiana has to identify if they 
can stand up physically against 

1052
00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:58,840
this Notre Dame defensive front.
And So what do they, what does 

1053
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:01,560
Mike Shanahan change? 
What is what does Bob Oostat 

1054
00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:04,840
change with his offensive line 
Like that is it's going to be 

1055
00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:09,440
really fun to like watch the the
the insurance and outs of this 

1056
00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:11,120
as far as adjustments go. 
Here. 

1057
00:55:11,240 --> 00:55:14,040
Here's some trivia, Taylor. 
Let's see if you can nail this. 

1058
00:55:14,040 --> 00:55:18,440
How many games this year? 
How many games this year did 

1059
00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:22,080
Indiana allow over 400 yards of 
total offense? 

1060
00:55:27,720 --> 00:55:31,240
You can play along at home. 
It was. 11 game can you name Can

1061
00:55:31,240 --> 00:55:33,800
you name the game? 
It would be. 

1062
00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:41,240
Was it Washington? 
No, no, actually, no. 

1063
00:55:41,240 --> 00:55:42,920
It was Maryland. 
They let 400. 

1064
00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:46,880
And one yards Maryland, yes, 
they let 4. 101 yards up against

1065
00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:50,280
Maryland and and the the next 
highest total that IU allowed 

1066
00:55:50,280 --> 00:55:53,200
defensively was 336 against 
Northwestern. 

1067
00:55:53,200 --> 00:56:01,720
Believe it or not, Notre Dame 
has only had 1234 games out of 

1068
00:56:01,720 --> 00:56:05,440
the 12 that they played where 
they had less than 400 yards of 

1069
00:56:05,440 --> 00:56:08,520
total offense. 
You know, so, so this is this. 

1070
00:56:08,560 --> 00:56:11,000
And the, and the last time that 
happened was the Georgia Tech 

1071
00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:14,480
game where they allowed 385 or 
they where they gained 385. 

1072
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:17,880
They've they're on A5 game 
streak where they've been I 

1073
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:21,880
think 436 yards or better in 
each of the, the last five 

1074
00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:23,440
games. 
And so again, it's one of those 

1075
00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:26,960
where Indiana doesn't give up a 
ton of yards, Notre Dame gains a

1076
00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:29,680
ton of yards. 
You know, how does that play out

1077
00:56:29,680 --> 00:56:32,920
in a game like this? 
And what's interesting though is

1078
00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:37,720
like if you flip that and you 
look at at total yards gained, I

1079
00:56:37,720 --> 00:56:42,400
mean, Indiana, they've had 
essentially 1 bad game, maybe 2.

1080
00:56:42,400 --> 00:56:45,720
I guess you could throw into 
Ohio State, they gained 151 

1081
00:56:45,720 --> 00:56:49,200
yards offensively. 
Washington, they gained 312. 

1082
00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:51,960
Indiana didn't have another 
game. 

1083
00:56:52,280 --> 00:56:55,240
I said, I guess mayor, I guess 
Michigan, they only gained 246. 

1084
00:56:55,240 --> 00:56:57,240
Those are kind of the three 
clunkers from an offensive 

1085
00:56:57,240 --> 00:56:58,920
perspective. 
And again, they all came post 

1086
00:56:58,920 --> 00:57:03,040
work thumb injury, but they've 
chewed, they've chewed up a ton 

1087
00:57:03,040 --> 00:57:05,400
of yards overall throughout the 
course of the season. 

1088
00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:09,800
Notre Dame's coming off of, you 
know, a a very interesting game 

1089
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:13,680
in my opinion. 
Notre Dame up until the USC game

1090
00:57:14,040 --> 00:57:18,440
had not allowed more than 395 
yards offensively in a game. 

1091
00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:25,840
They let they let they let USC 
rack up 557 yards in that game. 

1092
00:57:25,840 --> 00:57:28,280
And so I, I don't know what to 
expect. 

1093
00:57:28,280 --> 00:57:30,120
Like is that just was that a one
off? 

1094
00:57:30,120 --> 00:57:33,240
Was that like, well, we're on 
the road and we're playing, you 

1095
00:57:33,240 --> 00:57:37,560
know, a good offensive opponent 
or, you know, are there what 

1096
00:57:37,560 --> 00:57:40,960
what exploits have Mike Shanahan
and company been able to pull 

1097
00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:43,800
out of that that USC game? 
I need to go back and watch that

1098
00:57:43,800 --> 00:57:44,240
game. 
Now. 

1099
00:57:44,240 --> 00:57:48,440
I can tell between the time the 
game starts because it is really

1100
00:57:48,480 --> 00:57:50,800
especially in the passing game. 
And again, as you mentioned it, 

1101
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:54,200
that was the only game this year
where Notre Dame allowed over 

1102
00:57:54,200 --> 00:57:57,560
269 yards passing and they 
allowed 360. 

1103
00:57:57,760 --> 00:58:00,560
But they also allowed nearly 200
yards rushing in that game as 

1104
00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:02,520
well. 
So I am really curious if 

1105
00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:06,720
there's some things that IU can 
borrow from USC as they try to 

1106
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:10,520
figure out how to best game plan
against this Notre Dame defense.

1107
00:58:12,200 --> 00:58:13,680
Can I give you a trivia 
question? 

1108
00:58:13,680 --> 00:58:17,000
Please, I'm worse at this than 
you are so. 

1109
00:58:17,840 --> 00:58:20,120
I, I, I'm building this live 
here. 

1110
00:58:20,120 --> 00:58:24,520
So, so they have played. 
So I'm looking at this EPHR and 

1111
00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:31,040
so they they've played. 
Let's see 1234 Power four teams 

1112
00:58:31,840 --> 00:58:35,200
that have positive total EPA on 
both sides or in both phases of 

1113
00:58:35,200 --> 00:58:37,360
the offense. 
So passing and rushing, they've 

1114
00:58:37,400 --> 00:58:41,560
played four. 
And how many of them do you 

1115
00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:43,840
think that they have allowed 300
total yards to I'm? 

1116
00:58:46,280 --> 00:58:49,520
Guessing three of them. 
Three. 

1117
00:58:49,520 --> 00:58:53,280
Yeah, they they held Texas A&M 
under 300 total yards. 

1118
00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:58,400
And so after that, they allowed 
over 300 yards to USC, Georgia 

1119
00:58:58,400 --> 00:59:01,800
Tech and Louisville. 
And then the only other two 

1120
00:59:01,800 --> 00:59:04,600
teams that they played that had 
positive EPA in, in both phases 

1121
00:59:04,600 --> 00:59:08,200
were Army and Navy. 
And then Indiana is the next 

1122
00:59:08,200 --> 00:59:10,360
one. 
And so like when they actually 

1123
00:59:10,360 --> 00:59:14,880
play a decent offense that has 
decent attacks in both passing 

1124
00:59:14,880 --> 00:59:18,160
and rushing, they struggle. 
And, and so that, you know, 

1125
00:59:19,240 --> 00:59:23,280
it's, it's one of those things 
where it's, it doesn't all look 

1126
00:59:23,280 --> 00:59:26,840
the same, but it produces 
similar results. 

1127
00:59:26,840 --> 00:59:29,680
And so that's yeah, I'm also 
going to have to go back and 

1128
00:59:29,680 --> 00:59:32,040
watch and watch that USC. 
And that's the one that the one 

1129
00:59:32,040 --> 00:59:34,520
thing that I want, that I have 
left, that I want to do still in

1130
00:59:34,520 --> 00:59:40,800
my research for, for this team. 
But yeah, I, I, I find it, I 

1131
00:59:40,800 --> 00:59:43,600
find it really interesting. 
And, and that's why I think that

1132
00:59:43,600 --> 00:59:45,400
there might be some 
opportunities here for Indiana 

1133
00:59:45,400 --> 00:59:46,840
in the passing game at the very 
least. 

1134
00:59:47,200 --> 00:59:49,000
Yeah. 
So again, that's going to really

1135
00:59:49,000 --> 00:59:50,720
come back to like, what does the
weather look like? 

1136
00:59:50,720 --> 00:59:53,760
And then, you know, what is the 
adjustment that needs to be made

1137
00:59:53,760 --> 00:59:57,320
to make sure that Indiana is is 
being efficient offensively. 

1138
00:59:57,320 --> 00:59:58,120
They're going to have to do 
both. 

1139
00:59:58,120 --> 00:59:59,520
They're going to have to run and
pass. 

1140
01:00:00,280 --> 01:00:03,960
And, and ultimately, from my 
perspective, I think if Indiana 

1141
01:00:03,960 --> 01:00:08,040
can establish themselves early 
and if Indiana can not allow 

1142
01:00:08,040 --> 01:00:12,720
Notre Dame to get up by a couple
of scores early on, you know, I,

1143
01:00:13,080 --> 01:00:16,480
I always, I try to think about 
like, what's the, if the punt? 

1144
01:00:17,000 --> 01:00:20,520
Being dropped by James Evans was
the trap door that Indiana fell 

1145
01:00:20,520 --> 01:00:25,480
through in the Ohio State game. 
Like try to try to game theory 

1146
01:00:25,480 --> 01:00:27,800
out what would have happened. 
If that doesn't occur, you know 

1147
01:00:27,800 --> 01:00:30,600
they punt the ball. 
Even if you want to argue that 

1148
01:00:30,600 --> 01:00:32,480
OK, Ohio State might have gone 
down and scored, I don't think 

1149
01:00:32,480 --> 01:00:34,400
you can necessarily argue that 
with the way Indiana's defense 

1150
01:00:34,400 --> 01:00:35,480
was playing. 
But even you want to say they 

1151
01:00:35,480 --> 01:00:39,440
scored a field goal at the end, 
it's a 3 point game and it's a 

1152
01:00:39,440 --> 01:00:42,040
completely different setup going
into that second-half. 

1153
01:00:42,400 --> 01:00:44,400
You know, would Indiana have won
that game ultimately? 

1154
01:00:44,400 --> 01:00:46,320
Probably not. 
Would it have been close? 

1155
01:00:46,440 --> 01:00:48,560
Probably. 
And I would argue that talent 

1156
01:00:48,560 --> 01:00:53,560
wise and location wise, Ohio 
State better across the board 

1157
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:56,760
than Notre Dame, certainly more 
battle tested. 

1158
01:00:58,280 --> 01:01:02,120
You know, so from the standpoint
of that Indiana had so many 

1159
01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:07,360
things go wrong in that Ohio 
State game that you almost have 

1160
01:01:07,360 --> 01:01:09,920
to, you either have to throw the
whole thing out if you're trying

1161
01:01:09,920 --> 01:01:12,320
to evaluate what Indiana will 
do, or you have to take into 

1162
01:01:12,320 --> 01:01:14,920
account that there were a lot of
things they did right in the 

1163
01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:17,480
game that got significantly 
overshadowed by how much went 

1164
01:01:17,480 --> 01:01:21,600
wrong in the game. 
On the flip side, you know, I do

1165
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:24,080
think from the Notre Dame 
perspective, it's a pretty 

1166
01:01:24,080 --> 01:01:27,080
straightforward script. 
If Notre Dame comes out and they

1167
01:01:27,080 --> 01:01:31,760
start gashing Indiana early in 
the running game, it's going to 

1168
01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:35,000
be real hard for Indiana to 
recover on that front because 

1169
01:01:35,000 --> 01:01:36,400
Riley Leonard can throw the 
ball. 

1170
01:01:36,400 --> 01:01:38,120
Like, it's not like he's 
completely incapable of 

1171
01:01:38,120 --> 01:01:39,560
throwing. 
Notre Dame's going to be 

1172
01:01:39,560 --> 01:01:42,680
watching for that kind of thing.
You you worry about Indiana 

1173
01:01:42,680 --> 01:01:46,280
loading the box so much, putting
a spy on Leonard, trying to 

1174
01:01:46,280 --> 01:01:49,600
account for all of these things,
like do they get burned on some 

1175
01:01:49,600 --> 01:01:54,000
some easy passes down the field?
The more success Notre Dame has 

1176
01:01:54,000 --> 01:01:58,520
and the the less answers Indiana
is able to provide of their own 

1177
01:01:58,520 --> 01:02:01,480
offensively, the more likely 
that Notre Dame starts to 

1178
01:02:01,480 --> 01:02:05,160
snowball just because of the the
various weapons that they've got

1179
01:02:05,160 --> 01:02:07,280
on offense and. 
You know, so it's. 

1180
01:02:07,280 --> 01:02:10,400
Really going to be about like 
can you get penetration in the 

1181
01:02:10,400 --> 01:02:12,560
running game? 
Can you make it hard for Notre 

1182
01:02:12,560 --> 01:02:15,240
Dame to gain first downs? 
You know, that's probably the 

1183
01:02:15,240 --> 01:02:17,040
other thing I've noticed that's 
been really interesting when 

1184
01:02:17,040 --> 01:02:19,000
looking at Notre Dame. 
And, and I just mentioned it in 

1185
01:02:19,000 --> 01:02:21,960
both the Louisville game and 
the, and the USC game, like we 

1186
01:02:21,960 --> 01:02:25,680
have seen teams out first down 
them at times. 

1187
01:02:26,120 --> 01:02:29,080
And you know, that's been 
something Indiana's been really 

1188
01:02:29,080 --> 01:02:32,400
good at picking up first downs, 
picking up first downs on time. 

1189
01:02:32,840 --> 01:02:37,640
And you know, if you can disrupt
Notre Dame enough in that phase,

1190
01:02:37,640 --> 01:02:40,760
maybe that gives you some help 
because you want Notre Dame 

1191
01:02:40,760 --> 01:02:43,480
obviously to to kind of be out 
of sequence on downs because 

1192
01:02:43,480 --> 01:02:46,800
it's harder to feel good about 
running it on 3rd and eight 

1193
01:02:46,960 --> 01:02:49,120
versus running it on 3rd and 
three or is. 

1194
01:02:49,960 --> 01:02:52,440
As as we've, as we've. 
Looked at, you know, a lot of 

1195
01:02:52,440 --> 01:02:55,680
Notre Dame, their success 
offensively has been, well, they

1196
01:02:55,680 --> 01:02:58,680
rush for a touchdown on 1st 
down, you know, you know, they, 

1197
01:02:58,760 --> 01:03:00,560
they're able to get out of 
sequence that way. 

1198
01:03:00,880 --> 01:03:04,360
So Indiana's got to try to keep 
Notre Dame like at or behind 

1199
01:03:04,360 --> 01:03:07,320
schedule. 
That's probably as key, at least

1200
01:03:07,320 --> 01:03:10,200
to the first half of success for
Indiana as anything going into 

1201
01:03:10,200 --> 01:03:12,960
this. 
Yeah, that, that brings up 

1202
01:03:12,960 --> 01:03:15,240
another point too. 
I, I don't think, I don't know 

1203
01:03:15,240 --> 01:03:17,360
if we're, I don't know how much 
special teams are going to see 

1204
01:03:17,360 --> 01:03:19,960
from Notre Dame in this game. 
Like I, I think, I think 

1205
01:03:20,560 --> 01:03:24,160
stopping them early, like in 
their own territory is very 

1206
01:03:24,160 --> 01:03:28,720
important because their kicker 
is not very good. 

1207
01:03:28,720 --> 01:03:32,320
They have the lowest field goal 
percentage in the country and 

1208
01:03:32,320 --> 01:03:34,400
their kicker missed 2 field 
goals in practice today. 

1209
01:03:34,920 --> 01:03:38,080
And so, you know, like it's, 
it's going to, that'll be 

1210
01:03:38,080 --> 01:03:39,920
interesting. 
I don't know how much I think 

1211
01:03:40,360 --> 01:03:42,560
they're going to try to stay out
of punting situation as much as 

1212
01:03:42,560 --> 01:03:44,880
they can and also kicking 
situations. 

1213
01:03:45,880 --> 01:03:47,120
And it's going to. 
Be windy. 

1214
01:03:48,680 --> 01:03:50,800
Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah,
exactly. 

1215
01:03:50,840 --> 01:03:54,720
And so, you know, and then, you 
know, there's some also like I I

1216
01:03:54,720 --> 01:03:56,680
think a couple, I think a few 
defenders for Indiana that are 

1217
01:03:56,680 --> 01:03:58,080
really important are the mid 
level defenders. 

1218
01:03:58,080 --> 01:04:00,520
And we were talking about 
defending like a rushing attack.

1219
01:04:00,760 --> 01:04:02,400
The mid level is the important 
thing. 

1220
01:04:02,560 --> 01:04:05,120
I think Terry Jones, he's 
already played a lot on the mid 

1221
01:04:05,120 --> 01:04:08,680
level, even like the first 
level, like he he he plays more 

1222
01:04:08,680 --> 01:04:13,320
snaps along the defensive line 
of any safety since he's, you 

1223
01:04:13,320 --> 01:04:16,000
know, took over at Rover. 
So I think, you know, Terry 

1224
01:04:16,000 --> 01:04:18,720
Jones, Aiden Fisher, Jalen 
Walker, those three guys in 

1225
01:04:18,720 --> 01:04:22,040
particular are very important in
this in this game and stopping a

1226
01:04:22,040 --> 01:04:26,120
rushing attack. 
And then, but I also think that 

1227
01:04:26,120 --> 01:04:28,160
they might take an approach 
where like they did against 

1228
01:04:28,160 --> 01:04:30,760
Michigan, where they're like 
kind of like bend, don't break, 

1229
01:04:30,760 --> 01:04:34,400
give up them passing, you know, 
but like, like, is this, is this

1230
01:04:34,400 --> 01:04:36,560
Notre Dame team going to beat 
you through the pass? 

1231
01:04:36,840 --> 01:04:39,720
Like probably not. 
And so if you really still have 

1232
01:04:39,720 --> 01:04:41,880
to stop the run, as long as 
you're not giving up too much in

1233
01:04:41,880 --> 01:04:44,720
the passing game like a like, I 
think that might be a solid 

1234
01:04:44,720 --> 01:04:46,520
strategy. 
Yeah, you mentioned the field 

1235
01:04:46,520 --> 01:04:48,920
goals. 
Notre Dame hasn't kicked a field

1236
01:04:48,920 --> 01:04:54,120
goal successfully since November
9th, and they've only made 3 

1237
01:04:54,120 --> 01:04:57,520
field goals since the start of 
October. 3 total. 

1238
01:04:57,520 --> 01:04:59,680
They've made three total field 
goals in that time. 

1239
01:04:59,920 --> 01:05:02,960
They made one against Georgia 
Tech, they made one against 

1240
01:05:02,960 --> 01:05:05,480
Navy, and they made one against 
Florida State. 

1241
01:05:05,480 --> 01:05:10,080
They're eight for 18 in in field
goal kicking so far this season.

1242
01:05:10,080 --> 01:05:13,080
That is a potential advantage 
for Indiana, even though we 

1243
01:05:13,080 --> 01:05:14,840
haven't seen Nicholas Radicich 
that much. 

1244
01:05:15,560 --> 01:05:18,560
And yeah, passing game wise, you
know, it's interesting, Notre 

1245
01:05:18,560 --> 01:05:25,440
Dame has has yet to eclipse, OK,
they eclipsed 250 yards once in 

1246
01:05:25,440 --> 01:05:27,080
the passing game. 
That was against Florida State. 

1247
01:05:27,080 --> 01:05:30,560
They had 252. 
And and many of their games 

1248
01:05:30,560 --> 01:05:33,560
they've been at or below the 200
yard mark. 

1249
01:05:33,560 --> 01:05:36,840
I think 6/6 of their games 
they've been they've been at 

1250
01:05:36,880 --> 01:05:39,560
AT2O one or less. 
And most of the time they're in 

1251
01:05:39,560 --> 01:05:41,960
the one fifties, one sixties, 
one 70s range. 

1252
01:05:41,960 --> 01:05:46,960
And so again, it's like, does 
Indiana have the horses to be 

1253
01:05:46,960 --> 01:05:49,240
able to stymie the running 
attack? 

1254
01:05:49,720 --> 01:05:53,920
Would Notre Dame really be 
capable of pivoting and throwing

1255
01:05:54,600 --> 01:05:57,080
the ball effectively enough? 
They've been very efficient. 

1256
01:05:57,080 --> 01:05:59,120
Like they're very, I think one 
of the things that you you have 

1257
01:05:59,120 --> 01:06:02,000
to give Notre Dame a ton of 
credit for when they throw. 

1258
01:06:02,360 --> 01:06:04,200
They've been pretty accurate 
overall. 

1259
01:06:04,680 --> 01:06:07,560
You know, the the last, like 
USC, they were 18 of 23. 

1260
01:06:07,560 --> 01:06:11,360
Army, they were 14 of 18. 
Virginia, they were 22 of 33. 

1261
01:06:11,360 --> 01:06:13,440
They didn't have a great game 
against Florida State, but they 

1262
01:06:13,440 --> 01:06:14,840
don't really need to have it 
there. 

1263
01:06:15,480 --> 01:06:18,200
Most of their games with that 
one accepted, they've been at 

1264
01:06:18,200 --> 01:06:22,960
66% or above at least at least 
since the beginning of October, 

1265
01:06:22,960 --> 01:06:25,080
which is kind of really when I 
start the clock on on how to 

1266
01:06:25,080 --> 01:06:28,760
look at that team now. 
So you know that it is there for

1267
01:06:28,760 --> 01:06:30,400
Indiana. 
They obviously need to be 

1268
01:06:30,400 --> 01:06:32,480
cautious of play action. 
They need to be cautious of 

1269
01:06:32,480 --> 01:06:35,800
situations where N.O.R.E Dame, 
you know, tries to get them to 

1270
01:06:35,800 --> 01:06:37,160
to completely sell out for the 
run. 

1271
01:06:37,160 --> 01:06:40,160
But I don't think it's, it's not
an impossible scenario to 

1272
01:06:40,160 --> 01:06:44,600
imagine Indiana is really 
effective in dealing with Notre 

1273
01:06:44,600 --> 01:06:47,720
Dame's rushing attack. 
And as long as Indiana can score

1274
01:06:47,960 --> 01:06:51,080
to go and compliment that, it 
does put Notre Dame in a tough 

1275
01:06:51,080 --> 01:06:53,160
spot. 
And it's interesting 'cause I 

1276
01:06:53,160 --> 01:06:56,600
think the one thing, even if 
that scenario doesn't work out, 

1277
01:06:56,600 --> 01:06:59,680
even if Indiana's having trouble
stopping the run, the one thing 

1278
01:06:59,680 --> 01:07:02,600
about Indiana that I would like 
still in that scenario is kind 

1279
01:07:02,600 --> 01:07:05,600
of what I liked out of USC 
statistically, which is that 

1280
01:07:05,600 --> 01:07:07,680
they can throw the ball. 
We know that they can throw it 

1281
01:07:07,680 --> 01:07:09,800
as long as Indiana can figure 
out a way to get enough 

1282
01:07:09,800 --> 01:07:12,560
protection to give time, they 
can nip. 

1283
01:07:12,560 --> 01:07:15,040
And, you know, kind of, you 
know, like that's what they did 

1284
01:07:15,040 --> 01:07:17,000
against Michigan. 
It's how they got the lead that 

1285
01:07:17,000 --> 01:07:18,760
eventually gave them the win 
against Michigan. 

1286
01:07:18,760 --> 01:07:21,880
That was all built up with short
passes that led to the Serat 

1287
01:07:21,880 --> 01:07:24,880
touchdown, you know, led to the 
Omar Cooper throw that allowed 

1288
01:07:24,880 --> 01:07:26,880
them to get down the field. 
That's what they've done all 

1289
01:07:26,880 --> 01:07:29,040
season. 
So effectively is nickel and 

1290
01:07:29,040 --> 01:07:32,400
dime you until they're half 
dollaring or dollaring you. 

1291
01:07:32,400 --> 01:07:34,440
That's a terrible metaphor. 
I'm not even sure what I'm doing

1292
01:07:34,440 --> 01:07:37,360
there, but you know what I mean?
Like they they've been smart 

1293
01:07:37,360 --> 01:07:40,880
about not going for the the home
run until they get some guys on 

1294
01:07:40,880 --> 01:07:45,080
base essentially. 
And I think that's if there's a 

1295
01:07:45,080 --> 01:07:47,720
success that that's the 
alternate path of success for 

1296
01:07:47,720 --> 01:07:50,160
Indiana. 
But I really do think 

1297
01:07:50,160 --> 01:07:54,560
ultimately, like so much of this
is going to come down to can 

1298
01:07:54,560 --> 01:07:58,520
Indiana's defense stop Notre 
Dame's offense from what they 

1299
01:07:58,520 --> 01:08:00,680
want to do the best and forced 
him into something else? 

1300
01:08:01,440 --> 01:08:07,120
And can Indiana's offensive line
create enough of a barrier 

1301
01:08:07,120 --> 01:08:11,040
between what Indiana's choosing 
to do offensively and what Notre

1302
01:08:11,040 --> 01:08:13,480
Dame's trying to stop, that it 
gives them enough time to 

1303
01:08:13,480 --> 01:08:17,600
operate within that environment?
And and that's, you know, again,

1304
01:08:17,600 --> 01:08:19,880
I don't think we really are 
gonna know how that plays out 

1305
01:08:19,880 --> 01:08:21,800
until they get out there and 
they start playing. 

1306
01:08:21,960 --> 01:08:24,160
I think we're gonna know 
relatively quickly how these 

1307
01:08:24,160 --> 01:08:27,680
strengths actually match up. 
And I think that's what makes 

1308
01:08:27,680 --> 01:08:31,399
this so intriguing because it 
really does like you. 

1309
01:08:31,399 --> 01:08:33,800
You can do all the exercises in 
your brain, but it doesn't 

1310
01:08:33,800 --> 01:08:37,000
matter until you the the actual 
ball goes up in the air for the 

1311
01:08:37,000 --> 01:08:38,560
first time. 
Yeah. 

1312
01:08:38,560 --> 01:08:42,200
And I think there's one more 
player that is that is a factor 

1313
01:08:42,200 --> 01:08:44,720
that we haven't really talked 
about that much, which is the 

1314
01:08:44,720 --> 01:08:46,319
Notre Dame tied in Mitchell 
Evans. 

1315
01:08:47,279 --> 01:08:50,359
He's kind of coming back. 
He's he had a pretty bad knee 

1316
01:08:50,359 --> 01:08:53,800
injury last year and I think 
he's probably at 100% now. 

1317
01:08:54,760 --> 01:08:56,040
He had a preview game against 
USC. 

1318
01:08:56,040 --> 01:08:57,880
He's caught 3 touchdowns in the 
last four games. 

1319
01:08:58,240 --> 01:09:02,000
And he's not exactly like, you 
know, shifty, like a Colston 

1320
01:09:02,000 --> 01:09:04,200
Loveland or something. 
But he's really reliable, kind 

1321
01:09:04,200 --> 01:09:06,960
of like AI. 
Don't know if anybody watches 

1322
01:09:06,960 --> 01:09:09,920
the NFL, but like Mark Andrews, 
kind of a comparison that I 

1323
01:09:09,920 --> 01:09:12,920
would make and, and just really 
reliable. 

1324
01:09:12,920 --> 01:09:15,319
One of their probably their top 
target in the passing game. 

1325
01:09:16,160 --> 01:09:18,560
And but he creates some, some 
match up issues because if 

1326
01:09:18,560 --> 01:09:20,560
you're talking about trying to 
spy on Riley Leonard, well, 

1327
01:09:20,560 --> 01:09:22,920
that's a linebacker thing, you 
know, and if you're defending a 

1328
01:09:22,920 --> 01:09:24,479
tied in, that's also a 
linebacker thing. 

1329
01:09:24,760 --> 01:09:27,840
But then also if you want to 
defend Jeremiah Love, you know, 

1330
01:09:27,840 --> 01:09:29,120
that's probably a Jaylene Walker
thing. 

1331
01:09:29,120 --> 01:09:32,560
So like I I, you know, that 
that's where it also becomes 

1332
01:09:32,560 --> 01:09:34,880
very difficult and where we 
could see a lot of mismatches 

1333
01:09:34,880 --> 01:09:36,840
pop up and some bigger plays 
from Notre Dame through the 

1334
01:09:36,840 --> 01:09:39,319
passing game. 
Yeah, yeah, I know. 

1335
01:09:39,319 --> 01:09:41,279
Like you were saying, Galen, 
it's really hard to kind of plot

1336
01:09:41,279 --> 01:09:47,359
it out because, you know, we can
we can analyze statistically and

1337
01:09:47,520 --> 01:09:50,040
even on tape, I mean, you can 
analyze what they do. 

1338
01:09:50,720 --> 01:09:52,880
But until they're these two 
teams are out on the field 

1339
01:09:52,880 --> 01:09:55,240
against each other, it's it's 
going to be really hard to know.

1340
01:09:55,640 --> 01:09:58,320
So that's that's why, you know, 
it's going to be a huge coaching

1341
01:09:58,320 --> 01:09:59,800
game. 
And I think this is where like 

1342
01:10:00,320 --> 01:10:03,280
Mike Shanahan and Brian Haynes 
where they kind of where they 

1343
01:10:03,280 --> 01:10:06,680
kind of make their money and, 
and, and also, you know, Tino 

1344
01:10:06,680 --> 01:10:10,200
Cinceri in his last little, 
potentially his last game with 

1345
01:10:10,200 --> 01:10:13,640
Indiana. 
So yeah, I, I'm, I'm really 

1346
01:10:13,640 --> 01:10:18,280
looking forward to it. 
Should be quite a match up and I

1347
01:10:18,280 --> 01:10:20,480
still haven't even like I. 
I haven't got my head around 

1348
01:10:20,480 --> 01:10:23,320
even what score to predict on 
this but. 

1349
01:10:23,480 --> 01:10:26,200
Like SP Plus actually I thought 
they, I thought that was, I 

1350
01:10:26,200 --> 01:10:28,400
thought that was pretty fair. 
I don't know if you saw what SP 

1351
01:10:28,400 --> 01:10:31,600
Plus projected score was. 
I didn't. 

1352
01:10:31,600 --> 01:10:33,160
What was it? 
They have Notre Dame winning 

1353
01:10:33,160 --> 01:10:36,840
282438 percent chance for 
Indiana to win. 

1354
01:10:36,840 --> 01:10:39,160
I thought that was that was 
pretty decent. 

1355
01:10:39,680 --> 01:10:40,960
I thought that was. 
Fair, Yeah. 

1356
01:10:40,960 --> 01:10:44,360
I mean, I will say this, I, I 
don't think either team, you 

1357
01:10:44,360 --> 01:10:46,520
know, I think if there was, if 
there was going to be a blowout,

1358
01:10:46,520 --> 01:10:48,440
I think it could be more likely 
that Notre Dame would be the 

1359
01:10:48,440 --> 01:10:51,000
team doing the blowing out 
simply because of, of the fact 

1360
01:10:51,000 --> 01:10:54,760
that it's at Notre Dame and 
you're relying on a rushing 

1361
01:10:54,760 --> 01:10:58,120
attack that's got multiple 
proven AVEN news of success. 

1362
01:10:58,560 --> 01:11:02,120
But, you know, I think it's most
likely to be a relatively close 

1363
01:11:02,120 --> 01:11:04,080
game. 
I think both of these teams will

1364
01:11:04,080 --> 01:11:05,640
stymie each other. 
It could be a relatively low 

1365
01:11:05,640 --> 01:11:08,000
scoring first half. 
I don't think it's going to be a

1366
01:11:08,000 --> 01:11:11,560
low scoring game per SE in as 
much as I think both teams are 

1367
01:11:11,560 --> 01:11:15,680
going to get well into the 20s. 
You know, I, I, I do agree, 

1368
01:11:15,680 --> 01:11:18,920
though, I think if, if it, if it
is low scoring, it might favor 

1369
01:11:18,920 --> 01:11:23,160
Indiana a bit simply because if 
it's low scoring, that means 

1370
01:11:23,160 --> 01:11:26,560
they've managed to keep Notre 
Dame from doing what they've 

1371
01:11:26,560 --> 01:11:29,080
been doing for most of the last 
couple of months, which is 

1372
01:11:29,080 --> 01:11:32,920
racking up a lot of points. 
And so that's, that's going to 

1373
01:11:32,920 --> 01:11:35,000
be a really curious thing to 
keep an eye on. 

1374
01:11:35,640 --> 01:11:39,280
Ultimately, both of these teams,
they've had a lot of time to 

1375
01:11:39,280 --> 01:11:41,200
prepare. 
Both coaching stats are good. 

1376
01:11:41,440 --> 01:11:44,720
I think both sets of personnel 
are very capable and it really 

1377
01:11:44,720 --> 01:11:47,040
looks like a, a dynamite match 
up in the first round of the 

1378
01:11:47,040 --> 01:11:48,520
CFP. 
I'm really excited to see what 

1379
01:11:48,520 --> 01:11:51,160
happens with it all. 
Me too. 

1380
01:11:51,160 --> 01:11:53,400
Me too. 
All, all the athleticism of the,

1381
01:11:53,600 --> 01:11:56,920
you know, potential Heisman. 
Jeremiah Love had some Heisman 

1382
01:11:56,920 --> 01:12:01,840
buzz around him, which he he has
like a, it looks like he has 

1383
01:12:01,840 --> 01:12:05,040
like a knee issue of some sort. 
And in practice he was kind of 

1384
01:12:05,360 --> 01:12:08,200
he he didn't look like he was 
completely 100% in some of the 

1385
01:12:08,200 --> 01:12:11,360
videos I saw. 
But you know, yeah, absolutely. 

1386
01:12:11,360 --> 01:12:13,400
I think you want all the best 
players out there. 

1387
01:12:13,680 --> 01:12:16,960
You want this to be the, the, 
the highest powered matchup 

1388
01:12:16,960 --> 01:12:20,320
possible between these two teams
And and, you know, see who wins.

1389
01:12:20,320 --> 01:12:24,720
But I, I guess Galen, I, I, I 
know these aren't like bowl 

1390
01:12:24,720 --> 01:12:28,440
games, but if Indiana wins, is 
that like a bowl win? 

1391
01:12:28,880 --> 01:12:29,840
Like what? 
What do we? 

1392
01:12:29,840 --> 01:12:31,680
Call them. 
It's better than a bowl win. 

1393
01:12:31,760 --> 01:12:34,120
And you know what, you stick 
that right up in the stadium 

1394
01:12:34,120 --> 01:12:37,480
alongside what, you know, the, 
the alongside the, the Liberty 

1395
01:12:37,480 --> 01:12:40,600
Bowl and the Holiday Bowl and 
the Copper Bowl. 

1396
01:12:40,840 --> 01:12:43,160
It's I've heard a lot of talk 
about that. 

1397
01:12:43,160 --> 01:12:45,720
It's like, well, man, you know, 
I wish we were in a bowl. 

1398
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:47,800
And it's like, why this is so 
much better. 

1399
01:12:48,320 --> 01:12:52,000
And it, it's, I mean, it, it, 
this is where I think to some 

1400
01:12:52,000 --> 01:12:54,800
degree we got to get out of our 
traditional approach to college 

1401
01:12:54,800 --> 01:12:57,120
football and think more about 
like what, you know, where the 

1402
01:12:57,120 --> 01:12:58,560
landscape is and where it's 
going. 

1403
01:13:00,040 --> 01:13:03,840
Even losing this game is better 
than winning a bowl because 

1404
01:13:03,840 --> 01:13:05,280
you're in the College Football 
Playoff. 

1405
01:13:05,360 --> 01:13:09,000
And I think that that's, I will 
count it as a bowl win, 'cause 

1406
01:13:09,000 --> 01:13:12,480
it's a postseason win. 
And that's to me, that's all a 

1407
01:13:12,480 --> 01:13:14,320
bowl win is. 
It's a win in the postseason in 

1408
01:13:14,320 --> 01:13:16,080
college football, except it 
would be in a game that 

1409
01:13:16,080 --> 01:13:18,040
mattered, unlike a bowl in most 
cases. 

1410
01:13:19,520 --> 01:13:20,240
Right. 
Exactly. 

1411
01:13:20,280 --> 01:13:22,280
Yeah, Yeah, No, I'm along the 
same lines as you. 

1412
01:13:22,280 --> 01:13:23,320
I was curious what you were 
thinking. 

1413
01:13:24,160 --> 01:13:27,480
Yeah. 
So anyway, well, that we we went

1414
01:13:27,760 --> 01:13:29,400
pretty long. 
This is the longest I think 

1415
01:13:29,400 --> 01:13:30,880
we've ever done a preview 
podcast. 

1416
01:13:30,880 --> 01:13:34,080
But the cause was sufficient, as
they say, and we will be back 

1417
01:13:34,400 --> 01:13:37,040
later on in this week. 
We got more podcast coverage 

1418
01:13:37,040 --> 01:13:40,320
coming of Indiana taking on 
Notre Dame in the College 

1419
01:13:40,320 --> 01:13:42,800
Football Playoffs. 
So stick with us for that. 

1420
01:13:42,800 --> 01:13:45,800
Taylor, as always doing some 
great work at bite Sized Bison. 

1421
01:13:45,800 --> 01:13:47,840
Thank you for joining me on the 
show. 

1422
01:13:47,840 --> 01:13:50,200
As always a a pleasure talking 
through this stuff with you. 

1423
01:13:50,720 --> 01:13:51,800
Yeah, thanks for having me on 
it. 

1424
01:13:51,880 --> 01:13:56,400
It's sometimes, you know, I, I, 
I sit in my, you know, corner of

1425
01:13:56,400 --> 01:13:59,720
the world and then write these 
little data-driven pieces and 

1426
01:13:59,720 --> 01:14:03,160
it's nice to actually speak it 
out and and hear how terrible 

1427
01:14:03,160 --> 01:14:04,120
some of the takes are. 
No. 

1428
01:14:04,360 --> 01:14:06,280
No, no, no, no. 
You know, it's wait, wait. 

1429
01:14:06,280 --> 01:14:07,840
I do that all the time on the 
podcast. 

1430
01:14:07,840 --> 01:14:11,000
So it's, it's fine. 
I my takes are always terrible. 

1431
01:14:11,000 --> 01:14:14,320
No, I'm kidding, no Taylor 
Layman from Bite Sized Bison 

1432
01:14:14,840 --> 01:14:17,240
joining us on the show and thank
you so much. 

1433
01:14:17,240 --> 01:14:19,160
Thanks to all you folks for 
watching or listening. 

1434
01:14:19,480 --> 01:14:21,840
Be sure to subscribe to Crimson 
Cast on Substack. 

1435
01:14:21,840 --> 01:14:23,560
We'll be back later on in the 
week with more IU football 

1436
01:14:23,560 --> 01:14:28,760
coverage and we'll be up in the 
South Bend area for the game for

1437
01:14:28,760 --> 01:14:29,720
Taylor. 
I'm Galen. 

1438
01:14:29,920 --> 01:14:31,320
This Crimson cast will catch you
folks. 

1439
01:14:31,320 --> 01:14:34,520
On the flip side, bring back the
Bison stay never daunted. 

1440
01:14:34,600 --> 01:14:39,440
It's all on everybody and 
goodbye YouTube.