You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast,
GAIL and Clavio joining you once again.
It is the 15th of October and Indiana.
Lost another game of football this weekend.
We're going to talk about it. We got Mason Williams joining
us. We had Mason on earlier in the
year and he's pinch hitting as as Scott is of course at his
villa in the Caymans and so he can't join us this week.
So, Mason, great to have you on the show once again.
You were up in Ann Arbor, so we're going to get a little, you
know, eyewitness report here. How you doing this morning?
Not too bad, man. A little bit under the weather,
I think maybe from all the travel and you know the the
seasonal change and all that kind of stuff, but otherwise
feeling good. I'm at home right now.
So getting a little recharged before the second-half of the
semester and second-half. Football, basketball coming up.
It's a it's a busy time, but I'm doing good, man.
I and I appreciate you having me on as always.
Always we really appreciate your insights it's and yes you know
this is kind of it's an interesting point because we're
really at the turn here we're we're really at the turn where.
Basketball season is firing up. Both the men and the women have
Hoosier Hysteria coming up at the end of this week and there's
a lot of other stuff going on. I mean, volleyball's having a
moment at IU and and soccer, both soccer programs are kind of
lining themselves up for some interesting stuff here,
hopefully as we close out the season, but we'll see on all of
that and then we'll certainly have podcast on that front.
But we want to focus on football today before we get to the
football. First of all, just a couple
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And whole field apparel is not only obviously a great place to
go for. IU gear but it's a great place
to go in general. I I I'm not going to lie about
this Mason. Yesterday I'm sitting at home.
You know it's late afternoon early evening.
That amazing Oregon Washington game comes on.
I watch as Washington wins that game.
I watch them interview Kailyn de Boer and Michael Pennix.
I I I frankly shed a tear when Michael Pennix was doing his
interview. I went to the home field website
and I ordered a Washington hoodie and it should be here
hopefully within a week like that's.
That's what Home field does for you.
When you feel the feelings about college sports, college
football, whatever, you can just go right to the website and you
can execute a commercial purchase that will help you to
fully exhibit those feelings on your body as you move forward.
And if you use the code, Home 23, HOME 23, you can get 15% off
your first order. So yeah, I've got a I've got a
purple Washington hoodie. Coming my direction at some
point here. I'm excited about it.
Hey, you know that when we did the season preview podcast
earlier, I was wearing a Washington T-shirt that was also
a a home field T-shirt. I think it was the the Rose Bowl
champions. back-to-back one. So always a personal testimony.
They're awesome. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Take care of that. Take advantage of that.
And I mean, maybe we'll feel different as they get into the
Big 10 and we have to look at them more as a rival as opposed
to right now, you know, Washington.
It's it's kind of like rooting for Australia as a country.
You know it's like it's far enough away and not not somebody
that Indiana plays in any sort of regularity.
So you you feel good about it and and maybe we'll feel
differently in the future but it's a nice color palette too.
I'm glad someone other than Wisconsin has purple like or is
there not Wisconsin N I'm glad somebody other Northwestern is
what I meant to say has purple. They they should not own purple
by any means, somebody on our message board said.
It's like rooting for your ex in the Miss America contest.
So it's it's it's the same. Thing it's like there was the
the CFB the college football subreddit.
You know they they post they keep posting these things where
they're like it must be awful for IU fans to to have to watch
Washington. And I was like, I I was
tweeting. I was like, no, it's more like
the the meme of. You know, of Rudy's, you know,
kind of, you know, equipment manager, caretaker who's
clapping after he makes the sack at the end of that movie.
It really does feel more like that, but I don't want to get
too much into that yet. We will talk a little bit about
the Washington Tenex Debor phenomenon a little bit later
on, but we really do need to focus on Indiana football at the
start of this show. So the Hoosiers go up to the big
house and. Take a 7 nothing lead and then
proceed to give up 52 unanswered points.
They lose 52. I thought the game stopped
again. I thought the game stopped.
That's understandable. Yeah.
No, I mean I we're still frozen in time I think at at at that
point. But no, unfortunately I maybe
you are still in suspended animation from the big house.
But those of us who were not there watched time continue.
And yes, indeed, I can verify that Indiana lost the game.
Really a hard 1 to get excited about in any phase you were
there. I want to get your impressions
first. Like what did you see out of
that game and and what were your overall impressions of IU?
I think the first thing that kind of blindsided everybody was
the the quarterback rotation. And.
And I'm sure we'll get into that a ton.
But you, you come out of a bye week and you you reassure
without asking. By the way, at Monday's press
conference that Tavin Jackson's your starting quarterback.
And then you come out and he gets two series.
And then you kind of play it by ear after two series of Brendan
Soresby. And Jackson doesn't end up going
back into that game until I think it was near the end of the
third quarter or the fourth quarter.
Like he sat for two quarters in the rain cold on the bench that
it. And then you just kind of flip
flop back and forth that it doesn't seem necessarily fair to
either of them. How to how to expect them to
succeed in a in a system like that is a whole different thing
defensively that unit flew around for the entire first
quarter and then almost completely.
I I I don't want to say well yeah I I kind of do like kind of
just disappeared for for the next three quarters.
They were just kind of pushed around and Indiana had control
of the front seven which against Michigan is is unheard of for
the for that entire first quarter.
The that you've seen the total yards graphic that was up at the
end of the first quarter was like 141 to 17 and and that's
that was Indiana controlling both sides of the football.
But the next 3/4 as we as we know what we're a completely
different story. There's there's just not a lot
that you can look from, look back on on this game and be
proud of. If you're Indiana, there's not a
whole lot of of facets that I think will show up on tape where
you're like, OK, they can, they can capitalize off of this.
And I think that is really worrying considering the fact
that winning this game or even staying like within a couple
scores was always going to be very, very tough.
And and the goal probably should have been to just get some stuff
that you can that you can build off of.
But now you're, you know you feel lost.
I think if you're, if you're a part of this program right now
where going forward you've got six games left and you're
probably going to be an underdog and every single one of them,
you're not going to be favored. You're not going to be
metrically advantageous in in just about any category against
most of the rest of your opponents.
So just a very bleak afternoon is is probably the way I would
describe it and and kind of indicative of what we've seen
lately with this program and and kind of where it seems to be
going unless there's wholesale change if if you if you get what
I'm getting at. So I do well and it's
interesting because watching on television and I went back and
watched large chunks of the game late last night and into this
morning, which I don't recommend by the way, for those of you out
there, don't go back and watch the game.
We only do it because we have to.
Offense was real bad, you know, just to kind of get the stats
out there. So we're all on the same page,
just 60 minute football game where Indiana LED at one point
they ended up. Combined 14 for 29 for 140
yards, 1 touchdown and two interceptions, an average per
per completion of 4.8 yards. However, that's actually not an
indicator of how bad it was. Because one completion, 44 yards
in, the lone touchdown in that passing attack came on one throw
by a guy who's not listed as quarterback Donovan Mccully with
a really nice pass and and and I got to say, you know, that
particular play I was really pleased to see, it's like, wow,
here's something that's a little bit creative and and that was
not something that we had seen a lot, if it all during the Walt
Bell era. For the Nick Sheridan era, for
that matter, that preceded it, you know, that was it was nice
to see that. It was nice to see Mccully
utilizing a skill set that we know he has, which is throwing
the football. And it clearly confused Michigan
because Jalen Lucas, who caught that touchdown pass, was wide
open. But you take that out, Indiana
was 13 for 28 for 96 yards. I I didn't do the calculation on
the per catch average because that would have been too
depressing. 0 touchdowns, 2 interceptions.
That's that's just not going to get the job done, Mason.
The rushing attack was also really bad.
Now part of that was that Chris Turner was injured early.
They had to turn to Trent Howland, but even then a lot of
the running ended up being Brendan Soresby.
It was initially a little bit successful though on those
couple of drives where you know, he was able to pick up some
yards and there was some clever stuff.
But it was, it was like clever. In as much as Michigan clearly
wasn't expecting it, they didn't know that it was coming.
And then it took them like a two drives to readjust to the fact
that that was what Indiana was going to be doing.
And Soresby ended up 13 carries, 30 yards, 2.3 yards per carry,
and that's with a long of 16. Now, there were a couple of
sacks in there as well, but on the game Indiana was 33 carries,
92 yards, 2.8 yards per carry. On average.
And then in terms of the passing game, obviously not great, but
Jalen Lucas led the team in passing receptions, 5 catches,
56 yards, just not not good. Like all the way around.
This was a a bad performance and you look at it and it just looks
like almost all the other offensive performances that
we've seen out of Indiana recently.
Just not a lot of juice there. And while I do think that you
know, I'll tip my hat. To Rod Carey and and the
offensive staff for the second drive and the third drive, it's
hard to say that that was really like, oh, here's a clear change
that's happening because we saw basically none of that the rest
of the game. So it almost just feels like,
hey, we're going to surprise Michigan.
And then once the surprise was over, that was it.
Yeah, it I I wrote earlier in the week that Carrie needed to
be a deviation from this idea of continuity that Indiana kind of
elevated him into the rule, into the role because of.
And there was deviation in in those first 15 or 20 plays.
And then like you said, it just it was just like we were
watching the Maryland game or we were watching any of the other
games. Indiana has just consistently
struggled in this season offensively.
I I still had my my reservations about those, about that second
series specifically because Michigan still, after this game
has not taken a snap where the opposing team has first and
goal. But Indiana pieces together that
second drive a really nice 12 play drive and gets all the way
down to the 9 yard line and then takes a false start penalty.
You're right there down by the Michigan student section.
And then Tavin Jackson misses Omar Cooper Junior running wide
open to the end zone in the back right corner.
And I I I'm not sure if that was his intended target or if he was
looking for Bradley Archer on that little stop curl.
But either way, the ball was way, way short of Omar, was way
over Bradley and kind of just was like in between in no man's
land. And it was like, OK, the short
yardage situations, the short yardage struggles and the the
discipline, the lack of it is still there.
And then you have to to score your touchdown, you have to dive
into the bag of tricks where your quarterback from two years
ago in this game at Michigan, who's now your wide receiver is
throwing your your your one touchdown pass.
So and then like you said, like from there on you go the next
3-4 drives counting the kneel down at the end of the first
half were a net 0. Indiana gained 20 yards, then -6
-, 1 on the kneel down and then -13.
And then it went worse than that on next drive because they they
went negative another 10 yards. So there was just no, no, I I
guess no sustainability to it because Indiana's offense they
they were utilizing the short passing game.
They were you know they were finding in rhythm and easy
completions for Jackson and Soresby and and really just
trying to utilize getting these guys the ball to the playmakers
and then for some reason they just went away from it and and
we can talk about the management of the game later on and and and
you know just kind of the way that things shook out but and
and throw on top of that a quarterback rotation where
there's no there's no ability to get in a rhythm for either of
those guys. There's just not a lot to to
look back on and be like that. OK.
That was tangible improvement or any improvement at all really
from Indiana's offense? It's interesting you bring up
McCauley having started at Michigan a couple years ago.
Yeah, I mean, he even had a great game that day.
He was 10 for 24, but he passed for 88 yards and his quarterback
rating was higher than any of the two named quarterbacks.
That played in this game, it's it's not good.
I mean it. And it's interesting because you
mentioned the management. I mean, there's always a balance
with these games on the road, especially for IU.
Now it always, it hasn't always been this way.
I mean, it did. It would be misleading to say
that Indiana was always competitive in games on the
road, but there were games in the Wilson era and even at the
beginning of the Allen era where IU could at least compete.
And look like they were managing to compete in those games.
It would often times fall apart late.
This one fell apart early. And then it felt like, at least
on the offensive side, the management of the game got all
confused. Like at times Indiana look like
they were, you know, when they did the turnover on downs, it
look like, OK, we're going to try to do something here to get
ourselves, you know, back into the game.
And then that would fail. There's other times where they
would just punt. There was no consistency in the
strategy. You know, it was, well, we've
decided we're going for it and then now we're not going to go
for it. And I don't know if if this came
out, I listened to the post game, press conference, you
know, commentary. I didn't hear anything.
But from watching the game, did it feel like there was a
coherent plan in terms of not even not just the management but
even the management of the quarterbacks?
There was that kind of stunning. Quote by Donovan Mccully in the
post game that the offensive players didn't know often times
who was going to be the quarterback for that series
until the pre Dr. huddle. That in and of itself kind of
feels like the coaching staff is just like well, we'll we'll,
we'll, we'll make it up as we go, you know, and it's the
effort. We'll do it live approach and
that really doesn't work even for good teams let alone an
Indiana team that was struggling for some kind of an identity in
their offensive system. Yeah, it playing quarterback is
not something that you can really do musical chairs that
you can do this song and dance of flipping a coin and
essentially being like, well, neither of my guys had the hot
hand. We're we're just going to try
something throw it at the wall, see if it sticks.
One of the commentary, one of the quotes from Alan afterwards
was, you know, he was, he was hoping that one of the guys
would step up in the quarterback position and he felt that.
Neither did. And I'm, I'm sitting there like,
well, I, I and I know you have, you have commentary on this as
well. But I'm sitting there like,
well, we're we're sitting here in week seven.
They just got trounced by 45 points and the offense clearly
wasn't working to the point where you needed to make a mid
season coordinator change and you you you throw a guy into a
full time role which as we've talked about off air, that
doesn't happen at power Five schools.
You don't you don't promote full time mid season especially to a
role like that. So clearly this offensive system
hasn't been working. So to expect it to all of a
sudden change out of the bye week with two weeks of a new
play caller, two weeks of a new voice in that room against
America's best defense this year is a bit ludicrous in my
opinion. It's just it's just way far out
there and and not fair either to to either of Indiana's
quarterbacks in that situation. Yeah, that's the thing.
I mean this is essentially. Two out of or three.
There's really three games that Indiana has said, well, we're
going to rotate quarterbacks now.
We didn't know that going into this game.
It was a bit of a surprise to everybody that we were back to
the quarterback rotation after they had definitively named the
starter. But the three games that they've
chosen to do this in were Indiana State.
All right, fine. Michigan on the road and at home
against Ohio State. And the comments in the post
gave about we were hoping somebody was essentially going
to grab the steering wheel and demonstrate that they could
consistently make plays and and not turn the ball over.
You're doing that against Michigan and Ohio State, like
you know, essentially two of the three best defenses perhaps in
the league, certainly two of the three most talented defenses in
the league. And then of course today to go
back to that or yesterday I guess to go back to that as you
said on the heels of a coordinator shift.
I just find it baffling that if they if and you never know with
coach speak, sometimes coaches just say things because they'll
say the first thing that comes to their mind.
But if Alan really meant what he said, that they were hoping that
somebody was going to step up on the road at Michigan.
A team that last I checked on the season had really not
allowed very many points at all. Like you, you go through there,
they they've allowed double digit points once and that was
10 points on the road against Minnesota.
And the rest of the games they've let in 37677 and seven
and as you said have yet to face a snap where they were defending
against a first and goal. To expect a quarterback of any
caliber to go in and assume some level of control and show some
level of consistency, and especially one of two
quarterbacks who coming into the season had barely taken any
snaps at the FBS level. It just it boggles the mind that
that would actually be what Alan and the coaching staff thought
would be a good idea. I I don't know and I mean it.
It was even honored for them later to say, well we'll make a
decision about who's going to start.
I I I can't get my head wrapped around the idea that this was a
testing ground of some sort for the quarterbacks.
Because even though we saw Tavin Jackson do a pretty good job of
leading the team down the field, and even though we saw a couple
of good things out of Soresby, if you're taking that whole game
as a sample size, that is a really unfair set of
circumstances for any quarterbacks to be in, let alone
guys who are really just still learning how to play the
position, let alone having to deal with a change in the person
who's calling the plays and telling the offense what to do.
That whole sequence of events, if you break it down, just is is
bizarre to me. Yeah.
If if that is your measuring barometer where you know you
have to look at, you have to look back after a performance
like this one and be like, well, one of these two guys is our
guy. Like that's just not fair to
either of them for for a lot of the reasons you just mentioned,
You got 2 red shirt freshmen that had.
Zero game experience outside of snaps and garbage time against
anybody at the FBS level And now that their two litmus tests,
their true their two true litmus tests have been the two best two
of the best teams in in all of college football this season.
And I will remind everybody that the time you are listening to
this, the next game Indiana plays will be Week 8 and and
Indiana went. Without naming a quarterback in
the spring, OK, that's fine. You've got two guys that are new
to the position. Two got one guy's new to campus.
You didn't name a guy after the fall.
You didn't name a guy after week one or two.
You named Haven in Week 3 and you say you say he's not going
to have to look over his shoulder, but then you pull him
when you're down 34 on the road and Sorby goes in and throws 2
touchdowns against Maryland's backups.
And then out of a bye week, you've made a coordinator
change. You tell everybody that Tavin
Jackson's going to be your quarterback on Monday.
And then it comes out afterwards that you told both of your
quarterbacks in the midweek that you were going to rotate again.
And that the plan was essentially 2.
Two series of Tavin Jackson, two series of Brendan Soresby, and
then we'll play it by ear. And if you were expecting
Indiana's offense this season? Especially with with the
consistent outputs that we've seen from them to have some sort
of substantial continuity to it after four drives against
Michigan's defense. I'm not really sure what to tell
you because that there's just not a single indicator all all
year long that that was going to be the case.
And it it's I was thinking about this last night on the drive
home and and and this morning. It it's as if the the the
coaching staff doesn't necessarily understand how dire
the situation is, how dire things are with the state of of
where Indiana is going program direction wise.
The kind of the landscape that's upcoming.
Keep saying well we're going to find our guy.
We're going to, you know, we're going to.
Address the mistakes. We're going to address this.
We're going to address that. We're going to turn around here
where you know, the guys are still bought in.
I don't doubt if guys are still bought in because you know, how
am I supposed to go against anything that they say.
But there's just, it seems to be two different levels of thinking
of where actuality is and where the expectations are and where
Indiana falls on that spectrum right now.
In reality is much different than where I think some of the
Indiana coaching staff might fall.
We had a nice series of comments from Patrick on Twitter about
this and his comment and it kind of ties back into what you just
said. It's not losing to Michigan.
Losing was to be expected. It's the way the program is run.
The 2nd Dr. looked competent, then they yanked Haven because
quote that was the plan. Your own team is saying publicly
how much that process of yanking quarterbacks hurts the team.
What is the plan what is the identity What can you run
competently triple option to start the year then a new
quarterback then it's Taven but we want to run then week seven
it's rotating in the quarterback but your pass heavy.
There is no plan. You have a coach in year seven
who has not settled in and that's I think these are all
really valid points and the you know I we didn't need Donovan
Mccully to say it really harms the offense when we don't know
who the quarterback's going to be drive to drive.
I I also would say that you know it was funny like I think Zach
Osterman had a tweet at the beginning of the game and he was
like I'm I'm watching from home to see how differently or more
effectively Indiana is in the run game and Indiana was was
very much not focused on the run game in this one.
They they did a little bit of it and there were a couple of
things at times that looked better, but it ended up with a
running performance that was certainly right along the lines
in fact was under their season average per attempt, they end up
with 2.8 yards per attempt. In this game.
They're at 3.12 on the season so far.
I you know what you just said about there doesn't seem to be a
recognition of by the coaching staff of where the program is
at. Again, I think a lot of it is,
well, they're not going to say things, but it's not just the
words in the post game press conferences.
It's the actions in the games, and it's the actions in the
strategy and the idea that there is no plan.
I don't know how you could carefully watch offense from
Indiana, not just this year but also last year, and come to the
conclusion that there really isn't a plan or a recognition of
how to fix the very simple, fundamental things that are
broken with how the offense works.
They'll occasionally find success, as we saw last year in
that Michigan State game. Even that was a bit of a red
herring because that was one of those kind of perfect storm
situations. You get great returns out of
Lucas. It completely changed the field.
That wasn't really replicable, but that seemed to dominate what
Indiana did in the offseason leading into the season.
You get all this talk about, well, we're a run heavy team and
we've been talking on this podcast all season about this is
not a team that has the personnel to run.
It's like if you did you ever watch that ESPN series
playmakers that was on in like 2003?
The NFL actually had it killed. You should go back and watch
this. It's I I.
Actually just read an article about this or or I saw an
article about this where it was like it was a massive hit.
And you know, the NFL wanted it killed off.
But I I it's it's on a watch list I have I'm.
Going to find a way, if I can see if I can find it.
If you can't, if I have the DV DS, I will be happy to lend them
to you. It's a nice binge watch and it
you'll watch it now and you'll be like, I don't understand what
the NFL was so worried about. This stuff is there all the
time. But at the time they didn't,
they they felt it was going to harm their brand.
If people thought that, you know, football players were, you
know, like taking performance enhancing drugs or were involved
in domestic abuse and it's it's kind of laughable at this point
when you think about all the stuff that's in the league.
But. But there's one scene in
playmakers that those of you who have watched it might remember
where, you know, the owner comes in and tells the head coach that
they're going to hire this offensive coordinator because
the owner wants to run the West Coast offense.
And the head coach is like, we don't have the personnel to run
the West Coast offense. And the owner is like, but I
want the West Coast offense. And so he hires this coordinator
and it sets up this conflict. And it's kind of how I felt
about the entire thing in the offseason.
Even at the very end of last season, where Allen's talking
about we want a dual threat quarterback, we want a guy that
can run. That's our way to success.
But there the the personnel weren't there.
That the personnel have never been there, at least not under
this current configuration and recruiting strategy and and
developmental approach that Indiana's got to do what Allen
seems to have in his head and all of this, you know, it's like
you're constantly throwing a car into into reverse and then
you're throwing it back into 4th gear immediately.
It just leads to a lot of confusion.
It can occasionally lead to some beautiful plays like that gadget
play that we saw for the touchdown, but that's one play
out of 60 minutes in a game that you lost 52 to 7.
And the it's just baffling that they keep going back to the same
cycle over and over again. You know, it's not just last
year. It was also the year the year
before that when they, you know, panics, gets injured and they're
just in this musical chair of who's going to start at
quarterback and they end up with Grant Gremel starting the last
couple of games because they're just so out of ideas.
So all basically just kind of reacting to what you're saying
there. But I'm glad to hear someone
else say it because it's just been so hard to get my head
wrapped around and trying to figure out what's going on with
this team. And I've got, I've got broader
stats on this that I'll get to in a second.
But before we do you have anything else on this 'cause I
want to talk about the defense a minute, too.
Yeah, yeah. And I want to talk about the
defense too, because as as bad as the offense has been, the
defense does not get a pass anymore either.
But the going back to the end of last season, the the comments
that Allen made where he's like we we want a dual threat
quarterback. We've seen what it can do for
us. You know that is.
Running like you said running that kind of offense is a
schematic change and a personnel change that takes programs years
to integrate and and fully accept.
You need the offensive line that are that have the run blocking
prowess and and scheme wise to be able to do that you need the
wide receivers that have the downfield blocking capability.
To do that you need the running backs that.
Provide enough enough of a dynamic look to be able to offer
power run to be able to offer speed options and and Indiana I
think is fortunate in the fact that when they're healthy and
utilized correct correctly the Indiana's running back room with
Josh Henderson with Christian Turner with Jaylen Lucas they
have the running backs to do it and and when who knows how and
we can get into the Dexter Williams talk but when he comes
back and he's fully ready. You might have the quarterback
to be able to at least execute the running part of it.
The the issue with Dexter Williams has always been the
quarterback aspect of his game the the throwing aspect.
We've you know he's Indiana kind of sought out a quarterback
because they needed to this offseason but that was that was
one of his his transgressions last year is well you beat
Michigan State but you didn't complete a pass from regulation
you. You know the the passing game
was feeding off of the run game, which it it's complimentary
football, I understand that. But one has to lead the other
and then it has to go vice versa because otherwise teams will
just key in on a run and and make you throw the ball.
But what what Indiana found out last year is they caught
lightning in a bottle with the dual Threat run game for the
last third of the regular season and all of a sudden.
Because there was no offensive direction before that was like,
well, OK we found success with something we have to run with
this now and as you mentioned the personnel the the scheme the
scheme way, the scheme way of thinking the the philosophy
offensively it that's a complete diversion from everything they
had been doing and and that doesn't happen overnight you
look at and and that's not something that even typically
the the transfer portal can. Can fix and Indiana obviously
brought in a ton of transfers this year.
But you look at a team like Colorado which and they're you
know they brought in 50 some transfers.
They have all the offensive talent in the world at the
skilled positions but their their offensive line still
struggles and their defense still struggles because those
are two units where you need continuity and and you know
combined stacked starts and and and really chemistry between
those units so that those are. Position groups and areas of the
game that that don't change overnight.
And Indiana kind of caught lightning in a bottle.
I think expected, or at least had hopes that that would happen
this offseason, running into this year.
And we're seeing that just like for nearly everybody else,
they're having the same exact issues with that that everybody
else does and it and it's not working.
And now Indiana's stuck in the mud again halfway through the
season, staring down a two and four record.
You know, that could very easily by the end of this be be two and
10. And there's there's no sense of
direction or no sense of identity with this offense still
talking about the defense, the defense gave up 52 points.
You know, as much as Tom Allen gets lauded as a defensive
mastermind and the guy that really understands defense, this
defense has actually been awful the last three years, which I'm
gonna get to get into the stats in a little bit.
But you know, Michigan was 19 for 22 through the air. 244
yards, 4 touchdowns, no interceptions, 11 yards for
completed pass. Jack Tuttle was 5 for five.
Now granted, it was only for 22 yards and it was at the end of
the game. Michigan ran for 163 yards and
three touchdowns. Michigan's receivers, you know,
Colson Loveland, ended up with a 26.7 per catch average.
Tyler Morris and Donovan Edwards were both, you know, in double
digits in that there was very little resistance offered by the
IUD fence after the first couple of plays.
You know, Alan mentioned in his post game comments that they
missed a couple of sacks. Yeah, they also picked up a
couple of sacks early and they did stymie Michigan in those
first couple of series. And it was interesting, kind of
been reading through some of the Michigan fan reactions and they
were like, wow, we were terrible in the first half and they still
won 52 to 7, which they're taking is a good sign for their
team, which I would maybe have them pump the brakes on it a bit
because I think what's been disturbing and we saw this last
game against Maryland as well, this Indiana defense is so
brittle against players that have high levels of athleticism
and or speed. I use defense over the last
three years, to borrow from our friend Taylor Lehman is it's so
dependent on high level individual performance.
And you know, clearly you saw that with some of the players
that Indiana had, whether it was Mike and McFadden or you know
that they've gotten some good individual performances here and
there from, you know, Taiwan Mullen at times.
But they're not. They don't have the type of
players or the caliber of players where you can just have
a bunch of individual performers across the board right now.
They they brought a bunch of transfers in.
They've had a couple of them that have worked out fairly
well. You know, it was it was
certainly a good game today by Lionel Carr who had a couple of
sacks and that was nice to see and and certainly Aaron Casey
has continued to play pretty well.
But as a as a unit they seem incredibly easy to exploit.
They don't handle movement well. They don't handle plays where
routes are disguised well. They don't really handle, you
know, straight up. We've got to stop this person
from penetrating the line of scrimmage plays well.
And it's it's disturbing to me as much as as as much as Alan
talks about the offense in post game press conferences, as much
as he's focused on the problems on offense, the problems at
quarterback, this defense, I think you can make an argument
has actually been as bad as the offense, certainly over the
course of the last 2 1/2 seasons.
And it's not just against teams like Michigan where you might
expect that the defense would not play well.
But I think it's worth noting that, you know, Indiana played a
Michigan team that, yeah, they they scored 52 on the road
against Minnesota. Minnesota also notably, not a
very good defensive team, But Bowling Green held Michigan to
31 points. Rutgers held Michigan to 31
points. UNLV held Michigan to 35 points
and you could say, well, they OK, maybe they weren't trying
against those teams. I I'm sure they were trying
against Rutgers. But when you've got Michigan
players on the pregame radio show, as was reported, I think
by Seth Tao, talking about how we're treating this like a
training camp game, and their offense, which you wouldn't mail
into the Smithsonian, certainly. I mean, Michigan's not that
explosive of a team, but they put 52 points up without really
breaking a sweat and without scoring in one of the four
quarters that they had to score in.
It's really I I think it should be a big warning sign to
everybody that all the attention on the offense is kind of
minimizing the reality that the defense has not been anywhere
close to good enough. Yeah, I I forget if it was a
podcast I was listening to by you guys or or if I saw it
somewhere. But the defense has has played
like. A bunch of transfers that are
still trying to find their footing where it's like there's
no cohesion really anymore. The only plays you're the only
playmakers you're really seeing are the edge rushers who's you
know, one goal is to get to the quarterback, or Aaron Casey, who
just like always under Tom Allen, he's got one linebacker
who's always got a nose for the ball.
It was Micah McFadden and it was Cam Jones.
And now it's and now it's Aaron Casey.
And I think Aaron Casey actually had a pro scout there for him
yesterday. So good showing for him.
But otherwise the the unit just, I know on your preview podcast
you were like you know the the outcome here isn't necessarily
in doubt but the the way that it happened in the fashion where
Michigan didn't need to score 52 points to beat Indiana and.
Indiana let Michigan score 52 points like like you mentioned
there was. And it's not like Michigan's
been doing this to everybody. I know that.
I know they beat Minnesota 52 to 10, but Rutgers holding Michigan
to to 31 points? Everybody's holding them right
around this 3035 point threshold and Indiana essentially just
gets pushed around for 3/4 Michigan scores. 52 points in
3/4 where you know Indiana's defense looked like it had
something going for it in that in that first quarter.
And it it's almost like you know how the there's the script
drives right and and you try not to to fall into the lull of it.
I think maybe we might have fallen into the lull of what
Indiana's offensive script looked like yesterday, because
they probably had two weeks to prepare for that, but.
You know Michigan's offensive script, Indiana handled the
first, the first chunk of that and then off script was just
able to essentially get whatever they wanted from Indiana or from
against Indiana's defense yesterday.
The the reliance on takeaways has been you know something that
Allen and something that's defense.
The mentality that the, the reliance and and effort put
towards creating takeaways has been something that just they've
emphasized constantly and you're sitting here through six games
and you have 6 interceptions and no forced or two forced fumbles,
but no fumble recoveries. So you're sitting there and
you're you're not creating takeaways anymore which was the
one of the main driving factors behind that 2020 season where
they found so much success because their turnover
differential was so positive in in that sense.
But as that has gone away and kind of regressed the means and
then regressed further than the mean over the past three years,
there's just not a whole lot that this defense has to hang
its hat on anymore. And it it's it's troubling like
you say when when you have a a coach that's heralded from a
defensive background he's he was elevated into this role from the
defensive coordinator position after just one season at
Indiana. He and you know there's there's
a lot of of flaws that just consistently show up with this
defense every single week and and now you're going on a run of
two or three seasons now where it's been you know just not
adequate. Not up to scuff not up to
standard to compete with even mid level Big 10 teams let alone
the guys like Michigan and Ohio State where you got to remember
Ohio State scoring 23 points. Yes, Indiana's defense played
well, but they also took the air out of the ball for 3/4 of that
game. So once India started to open up
and realized there's not a whole lot offensively here, Ohio State
was able to start putting points on the board.
So there's just, there's just not a lot defensively to to hang
your hat on anymore. Really.
Nothing at all after six weeks. Yeah.
You mentioned that the turnover margin, I mean, in 2018, Indiana
was plus five in turnover margin.
In 2019, they were +2. In 2020, they were plus eight.
In an 8 game season 2021, there were minus 13/20/22, they were
-5. And so far this season they're
-3. Things are not trending in the
right direction. They're really only -3 because
they haven't turned the ball over themselves that often and
that's really been the only thing that's kept them there.
No, but I think you bring up a lot of great points and it's
it's clear, it almost feels like a lot of the attention has been
focused by Allen and his press conferences on the inadequacies
of the offense, as if it in almost to some degree feels like
a deflection. And it's like, yes, the offense
has been bad, no question. But the defense has also been
bad. And it's again.
Something that we were worried about in the pregame podcast and
looking at this seem, you know, this whole season and how it was
going to play out because you had so many new players coming
in. Because you were relying on so
many people who hadn't played necessarily in this system,
Certainly hadn't played together and hadn't played under this
coaching staff. And while I've been excited at
times at what Matt Guerrero's defense has tried to do and
occasionally has succeeded in doing, on balance.
As you've gotten into better competition, they haven't looked
that impressive at all. And in fact, they've they've
just consistently not been able to make stops when they've
needed to. They haven't been able to stop
explosive plays, and it's led to a circumstance where Indiana's
defense is as much of A liability as their offense has
been. And that was the problem last
year. I mean, people forget.
S&P plus, I mean, everybody pointed to the offense last year
as being such a big issue. The defense was statistically
demonstrably far worse last year than the offense was.
And yet that's where you know you you.
Obviously we had a coordinator change on defense, but it was
just Allen taking the role off of himself.
That should have been a red flag, I think to a lot of people
about what was going on on that side of the ball.
So yeah I'm I'm looking here at the at the statistics of the Big
10 and Indiana's defense it is second worst only to Purdue on a
on a points per game average but in Purdue has also played seven
games versus Indiana 6 so and and Purdue led by a defensive
background coach and Ryan Walters as well.
So which side note that game at the end of the year is that's
going to be something. It's going to be it's going to
be like those those mid twenty 10s games where each team's
coming in with like two or three wins and and it's essentially
the Super Bowl for both teams. But it's like the the the
inconsistencies and everything when it comes to the management
and the offense and the defense and the and the special teams is
is like you know penalty wise, yeah, that's just gone downhill.
The the you you take what you get with the kicking game.
We've barely seen any of Chris Freeman or Nikko Radjicic this
year. But with just like the overall
direction that the program is going in all facets, there's not
anything that's trending positively.
And it's one of those things where it's like in in the
Matrix, it's like you take the red pill and you and you just
kind of make the wholesale change, right.
You just kind of cut your losses and and be like well we know
that something's got to completely change or you take
the blue pill and it's like how how deep does the rabbit hole go
with you know the the negative trends in on in each facet of
the game. So I.
Mean Indiana, Indiana. New S&P plus rankings are out
which is an evaluation of the resume and and last year's
pretty much out of the system. Like it's all this year.
Indiana's 96th and S&P plus their offense is 97th.
Their defense is 88th and special teams is 63rd.
They're now behind Northwestern in S&P plus they're behind
Vanderbilt. They're behind Arizona State
who's won in five. They're behind Virginia who's
won in five. It's not just the losses.
And this is where you know a lot of I, I was seeing some
commentary, even heard it a little bit yesterday on a radio
program. There's some commentary about,
well, Indiana's just played a really tough schedule.
You know the teams coming into last year or last week were 23
and one, you know, we can't judge Indiana too harshly.
They're probably better than what they look like.
Well, A, the the in depth statistics that really measure
these things tell a completely different story.
They say Indiana is actually this bad and B.
I think it's worth noting that a it was reset like Rutgers kept
it significantly closer against Michigan.
Illinois, who has been real bad all season, waltzed into College
Park and came away with a regulation victory against a
team that boat raced Indiana a couple of weeks earlier.
Louisville, who was undefeated, you know, had had a game where
they lost in pretty embarrassing fashion to pit.
It's it's hard to take even. The few positives you might
grasp at with this IU program right now you know and and do
anything with them because there's always something.
I think it was as it was said by by Osterman in one of his
earlier articles there's there's there's no rock bottom rock
bottom can always be worse and and so this kind of leads me to
I I was looking at some statistics yesterday because I I
don't know that we've really gotten a full sense of where
Indiana's AT and where they've been since the start of the 2021
season. I'm really excited for.
This I bet you are. So this is what I've I've found
after running all of the numbers.
So since the start of the 2121 season, if you just focus on Big
10 play, which is really the important stuff, Indiana's 2 and
19 now, which we knew that ever anybody that's been paying
attention. You know that Indiana's won two
games in the conference since the start of the 2021 season in
that in those games, those 21 games, Indiana has been
outscored 745 to 308. Which is an average score of 30,
I think. What is it, 35 to 1435 to 15, If
you want to round up, it's actually 35.5 to 14.7.
That's real bad. Now what immediately happens
when you bring that statistic up is people who are inclined to
defend Allen's program right now say, oh, but they play in the
Big 10 E and they have to play all these tough teams every
year. That's.
That's true. They do.
So if you take it the next level and you take all the games out
versus Michigan Ohio State and Penn State, Indiana is 2 and 11
in those games and has been outscored 431 to 246, an average
score margin of 33 to 19. So Indiana's only done four
points better in those games, and they've only allowed two
fewer points. And that's again.
No games against Michigan. No games against Ohio State.
No games against Penn State. In that span since the start of
2021, IUS offense has only scored more than 23 points on 3
occasions in that entire span. One of them was the double
overtime game against Michigan State.
To be fair, they had 31 points going into that overtime.
One of them was the loss at home last year to Maryland, and one
of them was the loss at Maryland in 2021, where they lost 38 to
35. So in those games where they've
scored 23 or more points or more than 23 points, they've they've
lost two of them and the third one went to overtime.
In that same span I use, offense has only exceeded 17 points five
times. So we've got the the three games
I just mentioned and then you've got the game at Nebraska last
year that they lost 35 to 21. And you've got, of course, the
win that they had last year at home against Illinois to start
the season. So that that's it.
That those are the only times that Indiana's exceeded 17
points since the start of 2021 on offense.
It actually gets worse. In that span, I use only LED
once in all of those games, all 21 games, by 10 or more points.
They've only LED by 10 or more points once in any of those
games, and they lost that game. That was the game.
That was the Rutgers game last year.
Yes, correct. Good job.
You you you get double jeopardy for that in that same span.
Since the start of the 21/20/21 season and I, U.S. defence has
allowed at least 20 points in every single game.
They have not held an opponent under 20 points in Big 10 play
in any of those 21 games and they have allowed at least 30
points in 15 of the 21 games. So that's I I felt like.
I felt like I just kept taking Blue.
Pills there. No.
So yeah, you you wanted the blue pill, you you got the sense of
the rabbit hole. And this is the problem.
I mean the even taking out Michigan, Ohio State and Penn
State, which I've always felt like, yes, it's it's unfair if
you're comparing to the West. But you can't just say, well, we
can't compete against those teams, which has seemed to be
the MO of a lot of how this is gone.
You're talking about if you take out those games, you're talking
about three games against Maryland, two games against
Purdue, two games against Michigan State, two games
against Rutgers, a game against Nebraska, a game against
Illinois, a game against Minnesota, and a game against
Iowa. You're 2 and 11 in those games
since the start of the 2021 season, and I only say that
because I think to some degree. The the level of excuse making
that's been made for IU over the course of the last 2 1/2 years
and look again. I hate the fact that we have to
get on here and talk about losses every week.
I hate the fact that I have to go back and look at these
statistics. I I missed the days in the mid
to late twenty 10s when we could get on here and Scott and I
could. Enjoy wins or even close losses.
And we could talk about IU being competitive and trying to, you
know, breakthrough and get over the hump or having, you know,
played a really great game and won at Nebraska or one at, you
know, at home versus Northwestern.
There's been none of that the last 2 1/2 years or very little
of it. And it's so stark to me how?
Like, catastrophically bad. Indiana's been in multiple
phases of the game since the start of the 2021 season, and it
kind of goes back to it goes back to a bunch of different
things. But just the lack of direction,
the lack of improvement, it's not like Indiana's even gotten
necessarily better in this process because you look at this
season and in the three Big 10 games that they've played,
they've scored 27 points and they've allowed.
What, 119 points in the three games that they've played in the
conference so far this year? That's and and that's not good.
It's not good. So, so that's that.
That's it. I don't even know what else to
say on that, Mason. Maybe you have something to say
and you can bail me out of this. That's a lot you you had texted
me, you had texted me last night.
You were like man I have some jaw drop some jaw-dropping stats
and I I was I was ready for it. I I don't know if I was ready
for the extensiveness of it. I think you bring up a good
point with the kind of the excuse making and and and the
deflecting of it to go back a a few minutes ago you you were
talking about deflecting kind of the goal posts seem to move
where when it when it it talks about OK well Indiana plays in
the Big 10 E and and the goal posts move back further and the
these performances that continue to stack and be inadequate and
not not even up to competitive standard let alone winning
standard against not even the top 3 powers in the Big 10 E or
you know just at just any Big 10 opponent period and this is
before four more teams come in next year that are all
substantially better right now than than Indiana is as well
where it's like the goal posts seem to keep moving back because
it's like well they played in the toughest division in
football. They play in a really tough
conference. You know Indiana's a really
tough job and and you've seen that there's been coaches
elsewhere that especially when given the the length of time
that Allen has had in his tenure has found some sort of success
and found some sort of consistency with it as well.
And that is just absent from this program right now and it
has been for the past three years.
The the anomalies of 2019 and 2020 continue to become more and
more fascinating where it's like something that the perfect storm
really came together in those years.
Because now you you've you've come out of those games and
you're 8 and 22 since then since the beginning of the 2021 season
I think. And there's just not a lot to to
really look forward to where the the coaching staff and and the
expectations seem to keep moving back for Indiana.
And it's like the fan base I feel like on the other hand and
you would have a much better pulse on this than I would
speaking from a non biased perspective, it's like the it's
like the fan base is actually moving them closer.
It's like just show us something just show us something some
semblance of a reason to invest again back into this program and
and give their time and and spend their money to to see this
program to to invest in its future And it it's like the
goodwill from those two seasons has has completely run its
course. It's run out and everything is
just even even with the goal posts coming closer to Indiana
it's like well they keep moving backwards.
So I would say in AI would say in a system where or in an
instance where Indiana probably feels they're moving the goal
posts back, they're actually just going backwards and the
goal posts aren't moving at all so well.
I would, yeah. It's it's one of those.
It's just a weird. It's just a weird.
It's really. It's a weird spectrum.
It's really frustrating, 'cause I feel like IU fans have been
chided for like somehow not being more grateful to Tom Allen
and and it's constantly like well, time on coach the 2019 and
2020 teams like yes, and I think everybody was very grateful and
expressed that gratitude and. But even as late as the end of
last year, it was like, well, IU fans, you know, there's dips in
every program. This isn't a dip.
I mean the what the statistics I just described, that's not a dip
like that's you've blown a tire on the Interstate and there's
roadside assistance is not coming to save you.
IU football fans like die hard IU football fans, they're not
imagining things when they look out there and they see a program
that just looks rudderless and doesn't seem to know how to fix
the problems that are there and and honestly has created more
problems along the way rather than addressing the ones that
were originally present. And you know, I think the people
that have been kind of yelling and screaming about I us lack of
performance that a lot of times they'll just get.
They'll get called out as not being properly supportive of the
program. Like somehow that's the problem
with the program. And it's like, no, the problem
with the program is the program isn't working properly right
now. And I think everybody, everybody
has shown they'll get behind IU football in mass numbers if
they're given something, as you said, to latch onto.
There's nothing to latch onto here.
The post game comments have really upset a lot of people who
perceive, whether accurate or not accurate, that Tom Allen is
throwing his players under the bus and in particularly his
starting quarterbacks and focusing all the attention on
well, we're not, you know, guys aren't taking advantage of of
opportunities or aren't executing.
When it's like you, you look at those numbers and for 2 1/2
years in the Big 10 player, averaging under 15 points a
game, that's. Not something that people are
imagining, and I think it's important that fans understand
you're right to be frustrated. I think any football program
would look at these numbers, FBSFCS, whatever, and they would
say, wow, we're 2 and 19 in conference play over the last 2
1/2 seasons and we're not even averaging 15 points a game on
offense. And we're giving up more than 7
touchdowns. Excuse me, More than five
touchdowns a game in offense. That's bad that that is
something that you look at and you say this, this is not
acceptable. This cannot stand.
Let's let's end on this though. Mason, Indiana's got to play
Rutgers this upcoming week. It's a homecoming game.
Rutgers has kind of owned Indiana the last couple of
years. You know it's a two game losing
streak to Rutgers. They had a lead last year at
Rutgers. They end up losing 2417.
They get destroyed by Rutgers at home.
A couple of years ago, 38 to 3, Rutgers just had a big fourth
quarter comeback where they beat Michigan State and Rutgers is
going to be playing for bowl eligibility in this game against
Indiana. What does Indiana do?
Like what? What can they do in this
intermediate period between the end of this Michigan game and
the start of that Rutgers game to try to put themselves in a
position to win? Obviously, Rutgers is not as
talented as Indiana or, excuse me, as Michigan.
They may not be as talented as Indiana.
I mean, you could look at the recruiting rankings and you
could probably make an argument. Indiana's got more raw talent on
the field, but Rutgers looks like they have a direction and
Indiana doesn't. Is there anything that Indiana
can do in this week? To get their heads turned around
and be able to win what is essentially an absolute must win
game for them. Yeah that's a really good
question Galen, I I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back to the previous
point about the fan base real quick.
I I think there's also a notion that because Indiana football
fans are are rightfully upset with the way things are going
that they don't appreciate the talent that the that the roster
has. I I think it's more of an issue
where the coaching Staffs miss utilization or complete complete
choice not to to utilize some of these guys in the in the correct
fashion plays into that because there are name a guy that is
easier to get behind on this Indiana team than Tavin Jackson
based purely on his namesake alone.
There's there's there's players all over this roster that have
really good stories that are are.
The talented football players that I think a lot of the fan
base is behind, there's just not a a sense of trust, a sense of
belief in what the coaching staff is able to do with them.
That I think kind of wears off as, oh, Indiana fans aren't
grateful for what they have in in Tom Allen or or or what they
had in Tom Allen or or or the talent that's on the roster.
Where it's like, no, it's just there's there is the town on the
roster, but they're upset because it's not being utilized
correctly. And it's not being converted
into the same kind of victories that a team like Rutgers, who as
you just mentioned, is in mid to late October going to be playing
for bull eligibility like Indiana.
Realistically, these two teams are not in different realms, but
in the past two seasons have been as as in sense of a
direction, and especially on the field, they haven't even looked,
you know? Competitive especially not 21
game that was 3538 to 3 if I remember correctly 38 to 3:00
and then they're up 14 nothing last year at Piscataway and and
end up blowing that one as well. There's just man a a week there
there's you have to find a way to somehow flush this this
Michigan result but. I I I question the ability of
this team to do that because we see it.
We see it in game situations where one mistake compounds to
three and then a three compounds to five and and really just you
look back at the end of that first half where it's like that
game could have been it. It actually could have been
pretty, pretty close to 10 or 14.
Nothing before, before Michigan scores and then it could have
been 7/7. It could have been 14-7.
You go into the half down to scores.
You don't even score in the second-half.
It's like it's like one thing just compounds into another And
and it kind of feels that same way with the weeks now where
it's like, well, are they just going to go through the motions
this week and and kind of you know accept their fate there
where it's like, yeah, the the commentary around this game is
it's must win because frankly it is.
I mean, this is the this is the barometer the past few years of
are you in the basement of the Big 10 E or not?
Or really in the Big 10 this year, 'cause now you're looking
at. I believe everybody else in the
conference has won a conference game now with with Illinois
beating Maryland and and Rutgers beating Michigan State.
I'm not sure if Michigan State. State hasn't won one yet, but
that I mean, OK, so it took. It took a program that had to
literally fire their coach at the beginning of the season to
find another team. And even Michigan.
In the same boat as Indiana. Even Michigan State all the
season has scored in conference play 49 points and allowed 84.
Indiana scored 27 points and allowed 119.
So that they're not, they're not even quite in the same boat,
because at least Michigan State's been in these games.
Yeah, I would. As far as like pure on field
performance, you have to find I guess as much of that first
quarter tape and and and drill that in as possible but.
I'm not sure necessarily if if I had the answer I'd probably be
coaching somewhere but thankfully I I'm not doing that
so that there's just it's it's a dire situation and and I I go
back to the point where I I'm not sure if the coaching staff
realizes that or not. It's specifically Tom Allen.
I'm not sure if he realizes how dire the situation truly is, and
I think more than anything if there's a sense of urgency
because of. An understanding of that somehow
coming over this coaching staff, coming over this team, that
would be just as important as, you know, finding something that
actually works schematically and performance wise on the field on
Saturday. But yeah, and it may.
I will say I don't envy the position.
And and it may be that they do recognize it, but it's not being
talked about in press conferences.
But recognizing it and knowing what to do about it are two very
different things. And that seems to be the thing
that's missing is that we've now seen multiple years.
And it's funny you mentioned that Indiana Rutgers game from
two years ago because if you took the names off and you just
looked at the stats, you would think it was from this year that
game Indiana had, they had three quarterbacks throw double digit
passes and they finished with a 4.2 yards per completion
average. They were 18 for 42.
They had 0 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 177 yards.
Their rushing attack was 32 carries for 82 yards, 2.6 yards
per carry. It's just it's like white label
Indiana offense unfortunately, but the worst kind where you
can't tell the difference from year to year.
That was two years ago and and so we'll see.
I mean, look, I I do think from the standpoint of Indiana,
Rutgers, you know, the, the, the saving grace for Indiana is
that, as we mentioned, Rutgers isn't that talented and you
know, they haven't scored that many points.
They're only averaging 27 points a game.
They're allowing 16 points a game.
But in Big 10 play, they've scored 71, they've allowed 86.
There's at least a route there where you can say, well, OK,
Northwestern's two wins have been at home against
Northwestern and Michigan State and they got to travel on the
road, maybe Indiana. You know, they if they can
properly put in their rearview mirror the fact that they got
drubbed at Michigan, which you know that you should be able to
do that because you're used to doing that right now.
But I just what what concerns me is that Rutgers has been good
enough on defense that if Indiana is going to expect to
not have a plan, as they appeared to not have in the
Michigan game, or the Maryland game for that matter, it's not
like Rutgers just going to roll over and let them try things on
offense. And certainly the running back
injury situation is going to be interesting.
If you don't have Josh Henderson and you don't have Chris Turner,
that's a real problem. But it's also like the the
inability to get the ball to the receivers makes it a
significantly worse problem and the lack of commitment to one
style of offense or another. And it, you know, when when Rod
Carey's official hiring press conference happened what what
was the word? It was like well we're it's too
deep into the season to make large scale changes.
Now it's like well what OK, what does that mean?
Does that mean that you can or can't settle on an offensive
approach and just go with it with the idea that it might not
be effective to start with but it might eventually be effective
later? I don't know what the answer is
there I get you know let let me let me ask this last question
for you. Who do you think starts at
quarterback for Indiana in that game?
I was hoping you weren't gonna ask me this, because I there is.
You have to at least give some consideration to Dexter Williams
being in in in the situation, right?
Well, like he gets. Alan gets asked last night I I
asked Monday and I'm like, I'm like how close is he?
We we see him dress up in pads every single week but he's
listed as out. How close is he And And Alan
says he's getting closer. Then he comes off the out
section of the availability report last yesterday and is
listed as questionable and he's available on an emergency
status, but he's also on the sideline like calling plays.
He's got the hat on he, you know he's he's essentially in a coach
role yesterday. But then afterwards he's asked
again, was he available? And you know it it Where is he
now that? You he contradicts himself from
the earlier answers and he's like well we're not going to
rotate quarterbacks anymore. We're going to name a guy after
this week which good luck with that if if that's your if that's
your barometer you're you're going to name a guy this week
and you're not going to rotate anymore.
But then you say Monday that you believe Dexter Williams can help
you win football games this year and yesterday say that he's
getting closer and. Expect him to be available or
should be ready in the next week or two.
Well, are you going to really throw them out there against
Penn State? I don't know.
Or if he's ready next. If he's ready come Saturday
against Rutgers is is that your like what?
What is it? What is he doing in practice?
I don't know. But I think you could
legitimately flip a coin on on all three of them and be like.
You know, that's the guy. But I would say there's there's
got to be at least consideration for Dexter Williams.
Keep in mind, last year Indiana loses that game to Rutgers at
home and the next week the game. I don't know if this is a quirk
of scheduling, but that last year they're at Rutgers.
The next game is November 5th and it's at home versus Penn
State. And that was the first time we
saw Dexter Williams get some run at quarterback.
He was four for 11 in that game throwing, which is not a good
percentage, and he threw 2 interceptions in that game as
well. But he, you know, he ran the
ball four times for 24 yards. So he did play in that game.
He and then he he played the next week against Ohio State and
was you know the starter in that game and did throw 2 touchdown
passes but was only 6 for 19 and then had to leave.
I think at one point later on in the game, if I have the
chronology correct in that one or maybe Basilac started and he
came in after. I have to go back and check that
my my memory failed on that one. But but the idea that Dexter
Williams would get thrown into the mix against a good opponent
like Penn State is not out of the realm of possibility because
it happened last year. But as you said, I, it does feel
like the Dexter Williams thing has been hovering around over
the course of the really the whole offseason and into the
first part of the year. And it just kind of feels like
when he's ready, they're going to put him in.
And that's concerning because he's a completely different type
of quarterback that does very different things from the guys
that they have been doing, playing with and the offensive
system that they have been running.
This was a concern we talked about very early on.
I don't know I, but I will be fascinated by that.
Like if I had to put a bat on it.
It's the biggest storyline this week.
If I had to put out a bet on it, I think Soresby will probably
start with the idea that if they have to bench him to go to
somebody, they probably go to Dexter Williams if he's healthy.
But I think that won't work for a variety of reasons.
We'll see. But it's one of those things
where it wouldn't shock me if that was the the the way that
things went down. Going back to last season, that
Penn State game was out of the bye week and Jack Tuttle started
that game, who was already in the transfer portal was
essentially giving the opportunity to get some film on
him, to be able to transfer somewhere.
Then the offensive line, he gets mauled behind the offensive
line, Brendan Soresby goes in ahead of Dexter and stinks it
up. And then they bring in Dexter,
and he wasn't much better either, but at least showed a
little bit of something to where they're like, OK, they've got.
They've got a guy for the last three games.
I I man, I don't. I'm glad I'm not.
It's gonna be. It's gonna be quite a week in
terms to try to figure all this out anyway.
There's gonna be quite a it's going to be quite a week because
you you look back at the body of work that Tavin Jackson has and
how much of it do you attribute to him just being young and
trying to develop which? I think that's been detrimental
to him all season long where either of the guys where it was
like, well, they weren't given the chance to be the guy right
away and take first team reps the entire time.
And now they're they're playing musical chairs at quarterback
against top level defenses in games that count.
You know, there's there's just a lot of mismanagement with that.
So to I think then factor in another option.
There's there's the My first thought would not be positive
towards, well, maybe they'll get this decision right because they
haven't got the other decisions right so far.
So I'm not sure it'll be pretty wild.
We'll see what happens. I've kept you on way too long
given that you're playing with the cold.
So I really appreciate you joining the show and really
appreciated your insights and we'll look forward to reading
your reporting. Where can they find?
When? Where can the folks find you on
on X and elsewhere? They can find me on Twitter at
MVSON Williams. We've talked about this, but
it's just the a upside down to AV thought I was thought I was
slick with that in high school, but no at Mason Williams with
the V on Twitter. And then also you can find my
reporting and all of our work at the hoosier.com.
It's Indiana's rival site. We've got a lot of basketball
content coming out this week with Hoosier Hysteria got some
football content coming out still as as we've got the rest
of the season to still go through.
So yeah busy season is upon us. It's crossover E season now.
So but yeah, no, I appreciate, appreciate you having me on as
always. And I am sad we didn't get to
talk. I know, yeah I promised that and
then we didn't deliver, but we we did need to take care of
stuff in house. But we'll get you back on.
Washington is going to be a fascinating story and I think
everybody in Hoosier land is following that.
So we'll talk about that later on in the season.
So anyway, Mason Williams from thehoosier.com, thanks for
joining us and thanks to all you folks for tuning in.
Thanks to our friends at Home Field Apparel, our presenting
sponsor. Thanks to our friends across the
back home network, Big week for basketball.
Be sure to check it out all our podcasts on the feed for that,
for all those folks. And for Scott, who's in the
Caymans, I'm Galen Clavio saying thanks for joining us.
We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the
Bison song, everybody.