Hello folks, welcome back to the Tuesday night Bison chat.
GAIL and Clavio here, Joe Cronin there, there now there he is
right there and welcome back as we get ready to talk IU
football. So much to talk about and I am
so excited to to get this episode going.
And first of all, before we get to any of the football talk,
happy birthday Joe. It was your birthday yesterday
and I kind of got lost in the shuffle with the travel bag and
everything, but happy birthday buddy.
Hope that it was a good one for you.
Thank you. It was a shout out to my parents
for taking me out to dinner. Malibu Grill last night.
It was great. I mean, definitely was tired for
a little bit of jet lag, the red eye flight, but it was a good
birthday 21, so look at that. It's what a what a great weekend
for you. You, you watch Indiana win the
first game that they've ever played or had a chance to win in
the Rose Bowl. I guess other in 1968.
And then he turned 21 two days later.
That's a that's a nice college weekend for anybody you know.
Yeah, not something that I really had on my bingo card
heading, I guess when I was looking at the end of this year,
like, oh, my birthday's on a on a Monday.
But then, you know, being able to come back from California, I
can be like, that was that was really freaking cool.
We got a ton of things to talk about in this show and we're
going to be going through and looking at what happened in
Pasadena as IU with a huge victory over UCLA.
Not just in terms of the magnitude of the win, in terms
of of margin, but the way that that really broke a lot of the
ice psychologically. I think for a lot of folks
within the IU family, both internally and outside, there've
been a lot of concern, some concern trolling as well about
the quality of opponents the first couple of weeks.
And it's fascinating. Everybody said, well, let's wait
until they play UCLA. They go out and they wallop UCLA
and suddenly it's like, well, UCLA wasn't very good.
So already the goal posts being moved, but we're going to talk
about that. We're going to talk about the
overall Rose Bowl experience through Joe's eyes, through my
eyes. And then we're also going to, of
course, talk about this weekend's upcoming game as IU
back home in Memorial Stadium taking on the Charlotte 49ers.
So all of that ahead here in this next 30 minutes, Joe, let's
just going to launch right in. We do have Daniel Flick joining
us from the Indiana Daily student who was also out there
covering the game. He'll be with us in about 5
minutes, but let's go ahead and dive in and talk a little bit
about what this Indiana team did in this contest.
You really, you don't have to pick a phase of the game to
focus on to be impressed with what Indiana did.
Let's start with the offense though, and we got some
highlights to show you. This IU offense was on fire
really from the get go. Joe, the passing game taking
over where the running game didn't quite have the same
amount of juice that it had in the first two games.
Curtis Rourke, the offensive player of the week in the Big
10, he was absolutely extraordinary.
Right, That is Indiana's first offensive player of the week
since week 13 of the 2015 season.
That was Nate Sudfeld who was granted that award back in the
day. It seems like back in the day,
2015 is wild. But what a performance from him.
I mean, in those first two games, FIU and Western Illinois,
he was looking sharp. I mean, he has that BIG65 frame.
He's patient in the pocket, 6th year senior.
So you know, he's not really going to try and force a lot.
And this one Big 10 opponents. Say what you want about UCLA, I
mean he was dialed in 75% completion percentage, 300
yards, the 1st 4 touchdown games for A4 touchdown game from a
Hoosier quarterback since 2020. Michael Pennix did that Four
Seasons ago. So really remarkable performance
from him and and I just goes to show that Cignetti got his guy
with Rourke. I mean, I was talking about this
earlier today, and it's like, who in college football right
now, outside of a handful of teams, wouldn't love to have
this Curtis Rourke as their starting quarterback?
Tremendous credit to Kurt Signetti and Tino Sunseri and
the whole offensive staff for identifying this as their guy,
getting him in here. And, you know, something that I
think is worth noting, and we've got an interview with Rhett
Lewis that's going to come later on in the week where he mentions
this. I wanted to give him credit.
Rourke didn't look completely dialed in in the first couple of
weeks. It was clear he was kind of
still figuring out the parameters of the offense and
the timing. But man, not only was I
impressed with his play making ability in this game, but the
fact that he was able to do it often times in 3rd and long
situations due to the running attack not working well or due
to penalties really highlighted even more how impressive his
game was and how quickly he's picked up this offense and is
really moving pieces around. Yeah, I think it was a, it was a
two-part sequence for this UCLA game.
He was very patient on those third and long.
He was finding the gaps, finding what was open.
But also the UCLA defensive scheme was very interesting when
it came to 3rd down. They were sending the house,
they're blitzing, mixing zone blitz packages.
And a guy like Rourke, he was experienced enough where he knew
where he wanted to throw to. And and like you said, like with
the timing, he relied on a guy that he has relied on before
with Miles Cross. What a game from him.
Also transferred him from Ohio. Was one of his favorite targets
these past couple years. Combined for like 1100 yards
over the past two seasons and he's really come into his own.
Made a spectacular catch in the FIU game.
Made a nice one handed catch down on that, get them down onto
the goal line against UCLA, was the leading receiver and and you
could see that connection right there is having a guy that he
could trust in a game like this. Let's go ahead and bring in from
the Indiana Daily student Daniel Flick on the show.
Daniel, how you doing? Good to see you.
It's been like a whole 3 hours since I saw you.
Yeah. We're doing well, man.
We just wrapped up some football press conference stuff here.
I I learned that apparently the Waffle House nickname for Elijah
Sarat is legit. Like people actually call him
that like self anointed, which I 100% have gone about my life the
last week assuming that was self anointed so.
Breaking, breaking news from the football complex here.
Thank you for for updating us. So I don't, I've, I've always, I
never really have a I've had a nickname like that.
It's mostly just been a shortening of my own name.
I'm always fascinated how these things come about.
But it's good to know he didn't just bring it on himself.
Because we always kind of looked at sconce when I was in college
at people who nicknamed themselves anything.
That was always like, OK, I don't know about you.
Oh, I 100% thought he was one of those guys, but apparently I
think it was Keyshawn Williams put it on him sometime in the
summer is what Miles Cross just said.
So I'm very glad. I I think that's a a green flag
for Elijah Sarat from a character perspective, yeah.
Daniel, we were just talking about the offense for IU in this
UCLA game. Give us your impressions of that
offense and and where the most impressive aspects of it were.
I thought it was within the versatility and variety of
weapons that Indiana has. I thought I want to say there
was like 6 receivers who had at least three receptions.
There's just such a deep crop of playmakers there and I thought
it was really neat as well watching Mike Shanahan utilize
all of them in a variety of ways.
I think you know, the, the interesting part about it and
the, the number that I keep coming back to McCauley, who led
Indiana last year in receiving and yards and all of that.
I want to say in in receiving scores as well.
They had about two or three snaps, it felt like saw one
target, very minimal role and you go on the road, you throw
for 307 yards. It was an incredibly, incredibly
impressive performance and really in my eyes, highlighted
just how deep of a, of a group of weapons Indiana has and also
the experience within that group too.
It's a, it's a deep crop, but a crop that's played a whole lot
of football. And I think you saw that show up
early on on the road. One of the things I noted about
McCauley, because we were a little surprised that he wasn't
more central to the offense, kind of didn't need to be
because of how well everybody else was playing.
But I mean, I remember there was one of the touchdowns, I think
it was one of the Keyshawn touchdowns where Mcculley takes
the the the corner route or the, or the flag route.
And then Keyshawn comes short, catches the touchdown pass and
Mcculley just comes over and is celebrating with him.
And it's just like, OK, I feel like we've had past
circumstances where perhaps guys aren't completely bought in if
they're not getting targets. It does feel like you've got the
whole collective really celebrating together and feeling
like they're a part of things. And, and it feels like who gets
to star in every given game kind of changes from game to game.
And people seem to be OK with that so far.
That's huge for this Indiana team.
Given the number of weapons that they've got.
It's hard to keep everybody happy.
So you got to make sure that there's some Esprit de corps
there. Right.
Yeah. And I actually, I think it was
Miles Cross just so that a few minutes ago that they had a
conversation on the sideline Saturday about how, you know,
each week there might be somebody new who stands out and
steps up. And you could really see that
the way that Cross played on Saturday, I think he came in
kind of middle of the road in terms of Indiana's receiving
production. And they're having like 6 for 90
and a touchdown. So it's a very deep, very, very
deep group, especially when you kind of look at last year when
the last month of the year was Mccully and EJ Williams, who
have a combined one catch so far.
So it's it's very, very interesting seeing how they've
completely remodeled that room. Let's talk about the defense a
little bit for this IU team as as they also had a a really good
game and and it almost kind of got lost in the shuffle.
It wasn't just how much they bottled up UCLA in terms of
their their progression down the field, but it was also, you
know, they forced a couple of turnovers.
They they really disrupt the timing of of UCL as passing game
like all over the place. And it just felt like they had
control of the game from an early stage and never really let
up. They had a little bit of a lull
at the end of the first half and Signeti was clearly not happy
about that. But to watch them end but not
break something we always heard about the prom Allen era
defenses and it really kind of got less and less true every
year. Like this team really does do
that where it's like we saw it in Western Illinois, we saw it
in FIU. They move down the field.
Those teams do, but they get stopped at a point and then
Indiana capitalizes on offense, has to be galvanizing for that
defense. And it's been fascinating
watching them kind of coalesce into this unit that is able to
handle most of what's been thrown at them so far.
Yeah, I mean, they also battle a little bit of adversity with
this game, having two ejections with CJ West on the targeting
where he's diving for that ball helmet, the helmet on Garbers,
and then the D'Angelo pawns and whether or not those were legit.
Obviously heard some fans screaming at the TV screaming
from from the Rose Bowl. There was a good eyed contingent
that was present. But I mean, like you said, they
they bent a little bit. You know, it seems like
clockwork now that that last drive in the first half of the
opponent, they're going to score.
It's 3 for three now that a team has scored on that final drive
in the first half. But other than that, they looked
so sharp and through the ejections, they still played so
well. They played fast and physical.
Something that Signetti said on on Saturday night is like, we
wanted to play physical and nasty.
And he said it with this tone. It was like they did.
They did what he said they would.
And that's kind of been the tale of the tape with this team and
with him is they have lived up to every promise up to this
point that he's been talking about since he was hired.
Daniel thoughts on that? Percent.
I think Brian Haines, yeah, I'm a bit of a football nerd in
terms of like the schematic, like packages that that teams
throw at offenses. And I like Brian Haines.
Everything that he does is just so exciting to me to watch.
The one play, the one schematic drop I keep coming back to is IU
had, he was like a third down. It was when Amari Farrell had
his sack off the edge. He's lined up in his normal
Rover spot and you've got like 3 or 4 lineman up front.
They drop Lenell Carr and Amari Farrell rushes off the opposite
end. They they sacked, they sacked
UCLA for a loss or about 10 yards completely just ended that
drive. And it was one of those deals
where it was such a unique creative package.
And I it kind of like made me feel a certain type of way.
I mean, I was excited about it. So that's a unit that is
completely rallied around a very creative mind and Brian Haynes
and you can tell because again, a lot of the pieces there, it's
a it's a lot of new, but there's also a lot of pieces who are
back from last year who are playing at a completely new
level. And so that's one of the things
I kept coming back to a whole lot Saturday night is just how
well coached this team is. I think Brian Haines is
especially is just phenomenal. Daniel, I do want to kind of
piggyback off of that and and it starts with those guys in the
middle. It's Aiden Fisher and Jalen
Walker, those two. And they even mentioned it,
Cygnet even mentioned that those two were the ones holding that
team together through the ejections, through the plenty of
penalties that were thrown out. And Fisher in these three games
has just looked fantastic. He has just been everywhere,
making hard tasks, tackles, breaking up passes and that is a
guy as a leader standpoint that is coming from the Bryant Haynes
system at JMU knows this team. I mean, what a guy to have as
you're really focal point of the defense.
Yeah, he's, he's fantastic. He's fantastic.
I, I think, you know, it's so important to have those two
veterans who've played in this system before who have an innate
understanding of what they're trying to accomplish there.
I think the secondary as well as, but an extremely high level,
you know, pawns entered the year with, with high expectations.
A lot of people, you know, I recall the PFF list having him
as like a top five corner inside the conference.
But it's, it's more than just him.
I think Jamir Johnson's but a very high level.
You know, you look at him, Mari Farrell, you look at Sanguanetti
Asperi. It's a very, very solid group.
I think a lot of people thought that UCLA may test him a little
bit and if that was the first Test, in my eyes, they used it.
We had a comment from long time listener Ross Dixon.
Love SIG. How does IU ensure Florida State
or Florida don't poach him or his assistants?
It's an interesting, I mean, and actually I would, I might argue
West Virginia might be the bigger danger with Signetti than
anybody else given the long standing history his family has,
his has father coaching there. But you know, it's an
interesting moment in time because this is Florida and
Florida State. I think for various reasons on
the on the head coach level, probably not looking, but this
is the price of success in college football is that if
you've got great assistance, you've either got to pay to keep
them because their market price goes up, or you've got to have
people in mind to come in and replace them and not miss a
beat. And I think, as we saw with Tom
Allen, that is often times the hardest thing to do in college
football because you're you're going to lose people, either the
head coaching opportunities or better assistant opportunities,
you know, But I think this is where IU, given the investments
they've made in the football program in general, this is the
dogs you're running with now. So you're going to have to try
to figure that out ahead of time.
And, and my hope would be, you know, it looks like something
special is brewing here in Bloomington, particularly with
this group. You you got to try to put the
fence up around it and say, like this is the place these people
want to be. We can recruit for the future
here. We can do all the things we
need. We've got the NIL money.
That would be the hope. I guess I don't know.
What are your guys thoughts? Let me, Daniel, let me start
with you and then I'll go to Joe on this.
Yeah, yeah. I'm a firm believer in the idea
that for head coaches, having an eye for other coaching talent is
just as, if not more important than having an eye when you're
recruiting. I think you can look back at Tom
Allen's era and you can look at the staff that he had around him
between 19 and 20, and then you look at the one that he had
towards the end of his era, and you can kind of see why things
ended the way that they did. And so I do think it's.
It's kind of surprising to me that Brian Haynes and Mike
Shanahan have lasted with Signet as long as they have.
To be completely honest with you, I would have thought that
other coordinator openings that at a higher level when they were
at JMU may have persuaded them a little bit more.
But they're very loyal, very loyal.
And I think, you know, it starts with the top at the top with
signeting. From everything that we've
heard, everything he said, the guy seems like he loves
Bloomington, right? How could you not?
But I mean, he seems enamored with the city, the campus.
I think he's really committed to trying to turn this program into
a legitimate, you know, a legitimate presence.
And so I wouldn't be as concerned for your one, but I
definitely, I think the coordinators are where I'd be
more concerned. There is that loyalty aspect,
but I think this is probably going to end up being a multi
year thing for everybody. Yeah, Daniel, like you said, I
would not be too worried about this first year and coordinators
are really what what's going to be in the market once the
season's over for Signeti. I mean he's 63.
It's how much moving how how many times does he want to move
again? He's already moved a few times
in his career and seems like he really was able to settle into
Bloomington. Like you said, he loves this
city and has kind of embraced this Hoosier culture right from
the get go. So with the coordinators and
especially, I mean, one of them, you have to imagine at the end
of the year is going to be getting some phone calls when
things end up getting moved around.
It's just part of the game. And I think, you know, you got
to trust the ability to reload. So I imagine they're already
been conversations held at the higher levels of considering the
the future possibilities. Bear's mouth with the comments
is pretty much all the old successful staff now leads
Alabama. Will we actually step up and pay
him when it comes down to it? I will say this, I think that
there, while true factually, Bear's mouth, there's some
important caveats there. Like Caitlin de Boer left after
a year because he had a head coaching opportunity at the
place he had been the offensive coordinator the previous year.
You're not going to normally get a guy to stick around as an
assistant when a head coaching job's available.
We fired Nick Sheridan, he got hired by Kaylin Du Bort,
Washington resurrected his career and now he's at Alabama.
And Kane Womack left to go coach South Alabama as a head coach
and then left that job to go be an assistant at Alabama.
Even even even Ray and Blue, the strength and conditioning guys,
they, they, Saban hired them to run the strength and
conditioning at Alabama. So there is a little bit of of a
different scenario there, but I think the larger point is well
taken. IU, they've managed, I think, at
least through the first three games to capture something
pretty special. You can feel the energy around
the program. And this is where IU's got to
take the next step and make sure that they kind of keep this
together. Daniel, I want to let you go.
But before we do going to the next part of this and I'm going
to ask Joe the same question, but I want to I want to ask you
first and then let you go. So your first trip to the Rose
Bowl, what was the environment like as as a student reporter
covering that and, and just kind of the overall ambiance.
Give me, give me it filtered through your eyes how it felt
and and what the experience was like.
It was incredible. You know, it's really
interesting because I was in Atlanta the week before.
And so you get a complete, you know, kind of like a complete
contrast of styles between a new school Dome, you know, all
state-of-the-art, everything at, at Mercedes-Benz.
And then you get to the Rose Bowl and you just walk in and
just feel so much history inside those walls.
It was really neat. I, I wish, you know, the
students had been there. I think, I think that would have
maybe added to the atmosphere. The really special part of it
for me was being down there at the end of the game and you got
the entire IU contingency just crowded around the tunnel and
chanting. And you could see how much the
program meant to so many people. And, and I, like Joe, was on the
beat last year when there was so much apathy around the program
and to see so many people care about it and to see.
You know, a program that can legitimately make an impact.
That part of it was really, really neat.
And you know, having covered throughout the spring,
throughout the summer and you hear all the talk about what the
program could be, to see it all come to fruition was really neat
to see in person. And just, you know, pre game,
even our group got there like 5 hours, you know, prior to like
it was one of those deals where we wanted to soak it all in and,
and see everything. And we probably made two or
three laps around the stadium and it was just super cool just
kind of seeing all that. And it was one of those deals
where I was looking down on my phone and I was like, why am I
on my phone? I can look at my phone for the
next however many years of my life, but I might not have
another chance to be at the Rose Bowl.
So, so appreciative of you all and all the incredible people
who allowed that trip to to happen.
It was a whole lot of fun and one of the absolute highlights
of my life so far. Well, I'm glad it was.
I mean, it was. I want to hear what Joe has to
say. It was special for me as well.
But Daniel, I appreciate you taking the time to join us.
We'll let you go get some dinner and and get whatever you need to
get written for deadline tomorrow.
But thank you for joining us from Availability and we'll look
forward to reading you in the IDs later on this week.
Really appreciate you guys. Alright, thanks.
Daniel Flick from the Indiana Daily student covering IU
football joining us here on the show.
Joe, let me ask the same question of you, your experience
as a student covering this game in the Rose Bowl.
Yeah, before I get into kind of my personal experience, I do
want to say thank you to you, Galen.
And then the rest of like the faculty at IU that allowed
twelve students to be able to go out and cover and be a part of
that experience. I mean, having one student to
cover a football of the football game for IU is one thing, but 12
on the road to go 2500 miles, I mean, just thank you for that
experience. Just goes to show where this
program as a sports media program at IU has grown from the
time that you have been able to build it up.
So I hope there's a sense of pride that you have to kind of
see all of us out there on the sidelines.
I mean, I've always said, and you know, I, I wish I could send
everybody, but you know, like one of all my favorite moments
from when I was a student at IU as an undergrad were from the,
the travelling we did around sporting events.
And, you know, there was no budget for anything back then.
Like we drove to Penn State a day after getting passes.
We didn't think we were going to get to broadcast the game, you
know, and we, we, we managed to figure out a way to get to a
couple of NCAA tournaments. So I'm just glad I, you know,
there were a couple of people that didn't get a chance to go
and I felt bad about that. But I was really happy that so
many of you got a chance to go out and cover it and just kind
of be part of the experience because it's, it is so unique
and it is such a you know, that they'll, there will, that will
be the, the, that's the only first time that IU will play a
Big 10 opponent in the Rose Bowl.
So I'm glad you all got a chance to be a part of that.
But yeah, the the game itself, well, kind of like Daniel said,
we're there 3-4 hours really just kind of walking around the
the the tailgate scene, seeing everything happen, seeing the
large IU contingent that was there, which was really cool to
see it. And that was probably my
favorite moment too, that games coming to an end.
All the IU fans, they harp down to to where IU ran out of the
tunnel and they are loud, They're making their voices
heard. They are cheering for the
players, chanting Sig's name. And there was a video that one
of my roommates and someone was on the trip as well as Josh Post
took and tweeted out. It was of Scott Dolson and Pam
Whitten saying thank you to everyone that came out.
And it was a moment like there, it looked like Mr. Dolson had a
tear in his eye, too. And it just from an athletic
director standpoint to see what has happened for this football
team and then for myself as a junior in college, to say that
I've been able to stand on the sideline at the Roseville for a
football game, a real football game, not a preseason game, not
anything like that. It was incredibly special.
It's something that I'll remember for the rest of my life
especially. And it's just very cool, just
everything around. It my my brother-in-law, Eric,
who grew up an IU fan, he texted me today, you know, two days
later, he's like, that might be the most fun I've ever had
attending a live sporting event. And I and I feel the same way.
I mean, I, I went out there, I was in the stands.
I was in that group that Daniel was talking about in the corner,
saluting the team and saluting the coaching staff as they came
off the field. You know, when IUI think when
they scored the touchdown to go up 35 to 13, I, you know, I left
my family in the stands and I said, I've got to go high 5 the
IU cheering sections that are up in the corners.
And I did and I ran up there and I started high fiving people,
which probably looked a little goofy in retrospect, but I was
so overcome with just a joy and kind of it was almost like a
dreamlike state where it's like, I, I can't believe that not only
did IU win a game in the Rose Bowl, and I don't really even
care about the level of competition, but like they, they
absolutely just, they, they, they made it really hard on UCLA
to do anything. They dominated the game
basically from beginning to end. And I think for for you
students, like it's, it's such a joy.
I was actually telling my kids this when I was walking out of
the stadium. Like, I don't know how I can't
explain to you how lucky you are you were here for this because
so many generations of IU fans haven't been able to experience
anything even close to this. And yes, it wasn't a bowl game.
It was just a game in the Rose Bowl.
But the psychological weight that that takes off the
shoulders of a lot of older fans who have made that trip and to
to have it be that enjoyable of the game is really hard to put
into words. And I'm just glad that you
students get a chance to experience like that in college
because that you have to literally go back to when my dad
and mom were in college for the last time that you even had a
chance to go to the Rose Bowl. And there just haven't been a
lot of games that have given that kind of joy.
I mean, we've been tossing it around.
Like, you know, the 2019 game at Nebraska was a game that you
kind of had a similar feeling coming out of the 2015 bucket
game when Indiana beat Purdue to make it back to a bowl.
I mean, there's a couple of others, but that was just a
unique joining of circumstance and location and everything
else. And what a beautiful venue to
play a football game in. I, I, you know, we were hearing
before the game like, oh, the place is kind of a dump.
And it's like, it's not a dump. It's that it was a nice stadium.
It's not, you know, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles
of like a Mercedes-Benz, but it was absolutely a really cool
place to watch a game. And that was that was really
cool to see. Quick, quick couple of comments
here before we move on quickly to Charlotte Ross Dinnen or
Dinson. Sorry, with all the good vibes
around the football program, how can I you bring that tailgate
experience vibes to basketball? Man, I've talked about this for
a while. I don't think it's possible, at
least from the alumni side, because there's, you know,
basketball games are always at night.
It's always cold. You, you it's I've tried
tailgating in those environments.
It's not a lot of fun, you know, but it but it's also a different
vibe. But the games are shorter and
there's such a different expectation around basketball,
like basketball at IU, often times it just hasn't been fun.
You know, the last time it was really fun all the way through
the season was 2013, I would argue.
And that was because that team, people knew that team was good
coming into the year and then they were good all throughout
the year. And I mean, that was 11 years
ago. And yes, there, you know, 2016
was an excellent season. 2022 was was a season that or 2023, I
guess it was, was a season where it's like it turned into
something that was that was nice to see, you know, at least in
terms of the regular season. But yeah, it's it's just one of
those deals where I don't think you can really translate the
type of vibe that you get off of football into basketball.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing.
They're just very different types of sports.
Yeah. And and like you said,
basketball, I mean a college basketball game at a maximum
will go 2 1/2 hours. And if you and you're really
upset if it goes that long, yes. You're upset if it goes that
long because that means, you know, players are calling for
review for everything. Maybe it goes to OT and you're
getting a little extra bang for your buck, but for football,
it's an event aside from just a game.
I mean, it's already 4 hours. You got to get there an hour
early if you want to just, you know, for Aga ticket, you want
to get a good seat if you're a student.
And that tailgating experience has just been kind of
circulating around football for like really the longest time,
ever since I've been born tailgating and it's been a
thing, I imagine it's been before and I was born.
So I just don't think it's as much of I, it's possible, but it
just doesn't fit the culture of the sports, I'd say.
We wanted to get to to well, we got a question from Ryan Cotter
actually here What can I you do to make it easier for fans to
get to games from Indy? UCLA buses students 45 minutes
from campus. Should be the same I.
It's hard to get a charter flight to to.
Well, I, I think they, I think he means fans from Indy coming
down to Bloomington because it is, there is some traffic issues
and it's not so much students as it is, you know, alums.
Here's the thing, Ryan, the there's the roads are not an
excuse anymore. If you're coming from
Indianapolis like it is, it's a quick trip down and look, yes,
the parking and the overall setup is not ideal, but anytime
you try to put somewhere between 40 and 50,000 people in one
spot, the parking and the the overall flow is going to be
difficult. I mean, to me, I think to some
degree, I think IU frankly has done a lot to make that
circumstance work. And Ryan had an idea here of
like a stadium district with bars right around the stadium
and arena would be huge for pregame atmosphere.
I mean, in a in the micro, I agree.
But the problem is there's no, there's no place to put a
stadium district around the athletics complex because.
There's already living quarters as well.
There's there's places where people live like it's apartments
and things like that, but it's also like university land where
you're not gonna like put a commercial district.
And look, I mean, and there's other colleges, there's other
other college towns that don't like that are set up very
similar to Bloomington and the way the stadiums are, are on
campus and you don't have a district around.
I honestly think the best thing IU can do to make it easier for
fans to get the games from Indy is make the team good enough
that missing the game is not an option because, and that's, that
really only comes from wins and from playing attractive
football. And I think that's what
Indiana's done so far. You know, my hope in all of this
is that the UCLA win wakes up the people who have not
otherwise decided to go to football games.
And, you know, I said this in class today.
I was like, I we should make this weekend, like, introduce a
friend to IU Football Weekend, you know, volunteer to buy their
ticket, drive them down, whatever.
But it's like, let's get people in the stadium and who cares if
it's not a great opponent and Charlotte is not a great
opponent. I mean, they're 121st in S&P
Plus. They're they've, they're one and
two. They beat an FCS opponent by 1.
They're on their third string quarterback Joe.
They're they're not a good team right now.
But as Scott pointed out on on the The Mothership Show, there's
a certain excitement in watching your team beat the hell out of
an opponent. You know, I mean, going and
watching 6-7 touchdowns, being scored, that's fun.
Like, isn't that something? Isn't that what we want as
football fans? You know, what is it that we're
doing exactly where we wouldn't want that to be what we go to
watch? Why do we only go watch games
that IU is likely to lose? I've never quite understood that
that concept. Well, I I think with with this
season as compared to others, I mean, last year, someone that
Daniel mentioned was like how we were there last year.
And there's just, you know, the vibes are on the team.
Just you could tell those wheels were falling off the wagon.
I mean, the moment they lost or the moment they went to four
overtimes against Akron was like, this just is going to be a
long year to go through. But for this year to go to
Pasadena, disregard. It doesn't matter what UCLA
record ends up. They like if UCLA ends up, you
know, 3:00 and 9:00 in the season and IU is who knows?
They played them like they were 3:00 and 9:00 and took care of
that game like they were three and nine.
Now, granted they could. The record could be fluctuating.
They do have a tough schedule, so I think bowling's going to be
tough for them. But they went there, took care
of business. Again, this wasn't a game like
for the players. There was never a doubt the
moment that game started, they went down marched on the field
score first play UCLA had as a fumble score again, they're up
14 zero. So this the the vibes around the
the team was this is they're taking care of business right
there and the national attention has started to gain And just saw
a comment here about how Joe Buck he actually mentioned he
was singing the Indiana fight song on last night and briefly.
But there there has been national attention around this
team. I mean, saw the graphic 23%
chance to make the playoffs. Pat McAfee shouting out Kurt
Signetti yesterday on his show. There's a buzz around this team
that Galen, I mean, have you seen this?
No, I mean that's. I mean, even 2020, yes, there
was 20, there were winning games, but.
Yeah, it was 20, so it was a different thing.
Yeah, it was a crazy time. And.
And look, as Justin points out in the comments, according to to
many, and it's not just FP, I I mean the I US favored in all the
remaining games except Ohio State.
And, and look again, there are limitations on what the stats
and the projections can do because they're just looking at
the input. But I mean Bill Connolly, who's
one of our favorite stats people who runs the S&P Plus statistic
for ESPN, you know that, that I think Indiana's still in the 30s
or 40s or maybe is around there in S&P Plus.
But if you that is still factoring in last year, if you
take it and you just have this year's performances, Indiana is
8th in S&P Plus because they have won so convincingly against
the opponents that they've played.
And look, all of this has to be taken with a bit of a grain of
salt in as much as there's a lot of season to play and this is
still a team that is fully figuring itself out.
But I think it is OK if you're an IU fan to be irrationally
exuberant and confident. Even if it doesn't pan out, have
fun with it. Like, don't worry about, well,
maybe we're not actually that good.
And that because that type of enthusiasm spreads.
It's funny, Like, I got a text from my mom after the game who
hadn't seen the score. And she's like, I had no idea IU
was so dominant. I was like, well, go listen to
the podcast I recorded. And then she did.
And she's like, wow, they really were good.
And I'm like, yeah. And it's like that.
That helps to build enthusiasm amongst your fellow fans.
And I think if you're already following, following IU
football, you kind of have a responsibility to evangelize IU
football to those who aren't excited about it yet.
Because I think there's something special this it feels
like there's something special going on with this particular
group of coaches and players. And this next week, you know, if
they go out and play really well and they can fine tune, which is
really what they're going to need to do, continue to fine
tune both offense and defense. You know, get rid of some of the
penalties, get rid of, you know, some of the running.
There were some running issues this week that were passing
issues the previous week. It's still going to be a little
bit of work in progress. But you get through this
upcoming game, you're a third of the way through the season and
you've only got 2/3 left. And those are all conference
games. After this Charlotte game, this
is essentially the last tune up. It's going to be really
important to get people involved and going with this.
And I think it's exciting for fans who already are going.
Let's get some more people out there would be what I would say.
And I think students, same thing.
If I'm a student, I'm like, it's a noon kick.
This is great. You know, I can go and I can
still have the rest of my day to do whatever I want.
There's not really a good excuse for not being out there for
multiple like 3 or 4 quarters, not just two.
I I think with how this past week when that performance in
Pasadena and IU fan, it's hard to not be optimistic and think
that there should be three more conference wins along with what
is likely a win against Charlotte.
So you got to think that seven wins is a very likely scenario
at this point when going into the year, there was so much
unknown, just new coach, new team, so many new players.
But the way they performed and yes, obviously, like you said,
with all the analytics, the FBI, it's all just the input of stats
that they have. But the eye test, they have
passed that too. They've been mature when faced
with any sort of give in the UCLA game two ejections when
UCLA brought it to two scorers, 2 score Game 2 separate times
start of the second-half and start of the fourth quarter.
They scored to bring it down to two scores.
And IU immediately responded with long drives down the field
to regain that three score leading.
Like you said, it was the the score to put it up 3513.
That was really like, oh, they just did this.
They they have come in here and and whooped a a conference
opponent in their own stadium in a historic stadium at that.
So I just think if there are fans roaming around that are
questioning, don't see it for yourself and I think especially
this week, there'll be something to enjoy from it.
And well, and it's funny because because Steve said just seven
wins. Are we only playing eight games?
And I knew that somebody was going to react to that.
And I'm going to finish with this stat, Steve, and I
understand your reaction. In the last 30 years, how many
seasons has Indiana finished with seven or more wins?
Do you know Joe? Is it 1?
It's it's 2. I knew about, I knew about 2019.
I don't know if there would be another one in there. 19 and
2007 are the only two seasons where Indiana has won more than
six games in a season like there.
Has to be a bit of like. Seven wins.
Look, I mean, I know people and I try.
I got, I got a ton of people in my group chats and texting me
individually like is the floor? Ten wins.
It's like, let's pump the brakes slightly.
Not to the point where we're not enthusiastic, but we predicted
eight and four. Both Scott and I did on the
preseason podcast for Crimson cast.
A lot of people were like, wow, you guys are really being overly
optimistic. So I you know, you never know
what's going to happen when you get in the conference play.
But even A7 win season, if you had said before the year, hey,
let's do this. Let's let's just take seven wins
and walk away with it. Most people would have grabbed
that check without a second thought.
And so let's just keep that in mind as we move forward.
Anyway, Joe, any final thoughts where we wrap up?
Really my last thought is, is this is something I'm excited
two weeks from now when we come back, we have the show after the
Maryland game and we talk about the crowd for that because this
team is trending to start four and all on the season and
hosting their second Big 10 conference game in two weeks.
And I think that will be very interesting to see the response.
We've talked about, you know, Week 1.
And then he was like, oh, wish they stayed the entire game.
There was a good turn out, but they didn't stay the whole game.
And then obviously Western Illinois is Western Illinois.
I think week five there could be a strong 54,000 for four
quarters. Yeah, it's we'll see what
happens as we move forward. As Steve notes, it's not fair to
hold any of us responsible for what we said before the year.
I agree. I will not be held responsible
for anything I said before the year either.
But look. I appreciate everybody joining
us here on Tuesday night Bison chat.
We always have a ton of fun doing this.
We'll be back with more next week, hopefully after a big win
for IU as they take on Charlotte over the weekend.
Our thanks to Daniel Flick from the Indiana Daily Student for
joining us. And my thanks as always to my Co
host here, Joe Cronin, Emily Fox off this week.
She'll be back next week and we'll look forward to bringing
you more. Thank you all for tuning in,
whether you're doing so live or whether you do so later.
For all those folks and for the back home network, I'm Galen
Clavio saying thanks for joining us here on the Tuesday night.
Buy some chat. We'll catch you folks on the
flip side. So everybody.