You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast,
Galen Clavier joining you. It is Tuesday, October 22nd, the
big week for IU continues as we get ready for ESPN college game
day coming to town. We get ready for the Washington
Huskies coming to town to take on the seven and O Indiana
Hoosiers. And we promised you a lot of
content on football this week. We've got Zach Osterman from the
Indy Star, IU Insider joining us.
We'll get to him in just one second.
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course of this week. We'll have more info on that a
little later on today. All right, we want to dive right
in and get talking with Zach. Zach, hi, welcome back.
Good to see you. We haven't talked since pre
season and it feels like a lot's happened since.
Then I just want to know what the scoop is with home field.
Where, where are we up to? Where are we going?
I, I am, I am sworn to secrecy. They, they, they have to make
the announcements. So.
You're going to tell what first? Is that what you're saying?
Yeah, well, I'm not going to tell FAML.
An unnamed source is going to tell FAML and then we'll leak it
to you guys. It'll be great, you know, get
this whole operational order going on.
But no, it's a fun week, fun couple of weeks here in
Bloomington. You've been covering this team
in one form or another pretty much consistently for the last
like, what, 1718 years? Can you ever remember the
atmosphere around IU football from your position as a neutral
observer being anything close to this?
And you know, I guess like, you know, what is that?
What does it, what does it appear like to you as someone
who's trying to process all this, but also keep it in some
kind of national perspective? No, not really is the answer to
the first question. Like there have been moments.
I think there was, you know, this sort of groundswell of
excitement and pride after they beat Purdue in O 7 because
obviously there was an emotional context to that that was
distinct. And, and, you know, I think we
all hope we know we never see again for for obvious reasons.
And then, you know, I mean, the, the COVID season was like as
much as it could be, but the problem was nobody could be
around. And even the year before, I, I
remarked at this when we were kind of talking about, you know,
the importance on our podcast of some of these, these games in
the last few weeks, Maryland, Nebraska, now Washington, even
the year before Indiana. Listen, Indiana earned an 8 win
season, but so many of the most important wins came on the road.
So like just just by the nature of, you know, the, the Maryland
win, the Nebraska win, the Purdue win, just by the nature
of the schedule, all the wins that you sort of remember that
season fondly for happened away from Memorial Stadium.
You didn't get the scene basically that you got, I mean
really to some extent against Maryland.
I think that would have been a sellout if not for the
hurricane. And it's worth saying there were
probably about 48,000 people there, which is, is very close
to capacity. And they did not leave, you
know, that they, they stayed, they stayed engaged.
They were by and large still there even at the end when, you
know, the, the game was long decided.
And then Nebraska, you know, I mean, the, the, The funny thing
is like it, you know, it was almost kind of a, you know, the
sort of the sort of grim joke that if you're an Indiana fan,
you're allowed to laugh at. Like the crowd did leave against
Nebraska. And they did because it's just
like, you know, it's indelicate to just stand there and watch
someone get just just just just pounded into the ground the way
that Nebraska was. Like I I've gone back and
watched some of the highlights just for my own sort of very
rudimentary film study. And like by by the end, like Gus
Johnson is kind of beside himself, Like he's just he says
like touchdown Indiana. Wow, you know what I mean?
Just like you know, and, and obviously that performance, I
suspect that I, I, I guess I would be surprised if Indiana
beats Washington 56 to 7:00 just because you don't beat everybody
56 to 7 every week. That performance stands alone in
a weird way, but the atmosphere, the energy and then obviously
what has accompanied it, the national attention.
You know, I know big new kickoff told IU back in the summer, they
thought that either the the Nebraska game or the Michigan
game might be one that they were targeting could be in
Bloomington for that depending on how things broke.
But obviously now game day coming into town as well.
I wouldn't be shocked if we see big new kick off again.
Frankly, I know you, you, you, that's your corner of the story
even more than mine. But I would not be surprised if
if they are back in town, maybe for that Michigan game in a
couple weeks, we'll see. You know, this is new.
This is different in in and it's not just different to what I've
experienced or even what you've experienced.
I don't think it's going on a limb to say this is different to
the modern IU football experience.
I don't think anyone's really seen this.
You know, Indiana's only started a season 7 and 0 twice.
And one of those times was in 1967, when obviously, you know,
this whole experience would be very different because there is
no television, there is no social media that, you know,
the, the, the sense of community we draw from sports is not
better or worse, but different now than it was then.
So I think we are all kind of, you know, sailing into uncharted
waters together here, you know, in our in our various boats, if
you will. And it's fascinating.
I mean, it, it like it really is.
It really is. As somebody who has been an
interested observer of this program for a long time, and I
know you and I have had many conversations about what doesn't
work in Indiana and why, why what has failed in Indiana has
failed in Indiana. To see it succeed here is is
really something. I was paging back through some
old message threads earlier today and I found a story I'd
forgotten all about. I think you either tweeted it or
wrote about it or something. But I believe it was from spring
ball. And the headline was, you know,
Signetti was upset because his, he said his players had come out
like the old Indiana in practice.
And it, it got me thinking and I was curious about your
perceptions on this, especially having talked with Ben Portnoy
about this yesterday on our podcast with him.
The culture change that we've seen with this team and the just
the way that they're playing and the the aggressive competency
that I keep calling it that they've had in the way that they
played both offensively and defensively.
I mean, this is such a huge turn around just in terms of quality
of play. I mean, putting the record even
aside, how surprised are you that Kurt Signetti has been able
to affect this many changes this quickly and that his staff has
had this level of effectiveness with what was really a very
cobbled together roster? Like you know, there was some
consistency or continuity from the JMU transfers, but it's more
than just those folks that are contributing this and they're
doing it at a much higher level in conference and and just in
terms of overall profile than they were last year.
Yeah, I mean, the one thing I'd say is like, I've been kind of
banging this drum for a while now that that with the portal
and with NIL, the the NFL sort of formula for building a roster
fits in college more than than it really ever has.
That you you know, you cluster a lot of your sort of resources
around your, your biggest playmakers, your most important
players, your quarterback, your tackles, your pass rushers, you
know your your 3 or 4 best skill players.
You obviously spread a lot of money out in, in smaller amounts
among young players in the NFL, it's draft picks in in college,
it's freshman red shirt freshman.
And then you just kind of fill the gaps with guys that only be
around for one or two years, but that are just you know that that
you know that the, the in the NFL, it's free agents who maybe
can get a A1 year deal, A2 year deal, something like that in
college, it's guys who have one or two years of eligibility
left. And I bring that up because, you
know, the flip side is like we, we do see some of these
turnarounds, maybe not quite to this extent, but like we do see
these turnarounds in the NFL where all it takes is a fresh
coach with a better approach and a good scheme and and some sort
of advantage, whether it's tangible or intangible coming
in. Obviously, maybe the the biggest
difference is you are able to kind of microwave your
quarterback position in college. Like you in the NFL, anybody
with a really established quarterback isn't going to let
them go. Whereas in college, you know,
you you're going to have players like Curtis Rourke or, you know,
Dylan Gabriel has a slightly different journey, but you know,
a similar sort of impacted organ where it's like, well, there are
these really good quarterbacks kind of out there on the market.
Their previous school just can't keep them, you know that they
want to leave. So if you have the means and you
can convince them, then you can you can turn around really
important positions on your roster really quickly.
That is a, a departure sort of in the comparison in college.
But what is similar to me is you can turn, you know, you talk
about the old Indiana, but like how many players have that
practice played for the old Indiana?
I mean, less than half of the scholarship players on the field
or maybe roughly half, 'cause I guess at that point you're still
waiting for your freshman class to come in.
But the idea, you know, we do see in the NFL teams that can go
from five wins to 10 or 11 wins. And it's just because the right
coach is hired, the right coordinators are put in place.
The scheme is good. You know, a few clever draft
picks, a a couple really astute free agent signings.
You get a couple guys that maybe were playing well on a bad team
suddenly to be playing well on a good team.
And suddenly you you completely reframe the conversation around
an NFL team. We see that happen not all the
time, but you know, fairly often.
That's that's part of the appeal of the NFL is that that ability
to strike parity more quickly than in in, you know, most other
sports. You are getting some of that,
not a ton, but some of that in college football now.
And I think Indiana is kind of acting as this, you know,
example in extremists, if you understand what I'm saying, of
when you do make all the right decisions and you are smart
about how you identify. This is why we need this player
and this is the mentality we're looking for in this player and
all these different things. You can flip it around pretty
quick. Now you know where the outlier's
gonna come. As if in three weeks we're still
talking about Indiana being undefeated.
You know, if in four weeks Indiana's 11 and O and just beat
Ohio State in Columbus, that's that's where you start to get
into like these historical extremes of, you know, that
doesn't happen anywhere. But I know you and I had these
conversations even in the offseason.
Like I wouldn't have predicted they'd beat Nebraska 56 to 7,
obviously, but you didn't have to work that hard to convince me
they'd beat Nebraska. You wouldn't have had to work
that hard to convince me they'd beat any of the first seven
teams on their roster or really even any of the 1st 9.
And I'm not going to predict they're going to go nine and
zero. I didn't in the preseason.
But my point is, if you, if you had, if you bought into the more
optimistic outlook for this, this team, not just the players
or the just the transfers or just the staff, but the whole
picture, these results are more dominant than what we would have
expected. But the, the, the basic results
maybe shouldn't be that surprising.
Or at least it's not like it's happening against all odds.
It's, I mean it, you know it. You looked at this team in
spring and thought at least I did.
That's pretty good football team.
How good? I'm not sure.
And then you do have, you know, to your point about Signetti
with the, you know, the the comment about we were the old
Indiana. Then you do have this this sort
of, you know, historical context or this this historical tether
and you're not really sure. Is Indiana actually still
attached to it? Does the portal in the roster
turnover allow you to just sort of like shed that completely?
How does that work? Well, so far it it seems like
Indiana has really has has left that behind pretty emphatically.
And I think the question now justifiably becomes not even,
you know, and I mean, I jeez, I wrote this after Northwestern,
much less after Nebraska. You're not comparing this to
Indiana football in the past anymore.
You know, you asked at the top, have I ever seen anything like
this? Well, no, but we're kind of past
treating this like, well, compared to Indiana football in
the past. What's this like?
You know it's time and they may end up in the playoffs, they may
not, but it's time to compare this team to the best teams in
the country because they are one of them and there is just no
real escaping that. How surprised have you been at
the dominance they've demonstrated in these games?
I mean, you know, we, we've heard comments about the record
being weak. But football's such a small
sample size, college football especially.
And the way that these things get metricized is not just who
you played, but it's also how much did you beat them by and
how much would a, a, a, an average team beat them by?
And I, you know, there's some comments about that Nebraska
game because predictably, we saw the national narrative shift a
bit to, well, Nebraska clearly wasn't that good because they
just lost 56 to 7. It does make one think if if
most other teams of like a decent or better caliber in the
Big 10, if they're beating Nebraska 56 to 7 at home,
there's going to be a lot of stand up and take notice and
rightfully so. You know, what do you attribute
their dominance to? Because it hasn't been
necessarily that they've dominated the full 60 minutes of
every game. I mean, the Maryland game was
close into the third quarter. Northwestern got within three
points in the third quarter. But you know, in those games,
Indiana was able to even UCLA was kind of in that pattern to
some degree. But they've been able to outlast
opponents, really outworked them in the fourth quarter.
And then this Nebraska game felt like it opened almost a brand
new front because, you know, that is a talented team that'll
be a almost certainly a bowl team.
They'll likely beat UCLA this week.
And they just didn't look like they could stay on the field
with Indiana, even with Indiana playing their backup quarterback
in the second-half. I mean, you know, when you've
watched this team, what has stood out to you as far as how
they've been able to get to this level of dominance?
I mean, what I think what is, and I've said this and I think
you can illustrate this in any number of ways what I've said.
I mean, the, the, the, the score lines, you know, I think there
was a stat running around on Sunday that Indiana's got like
the, the largest aggregate margin of victory of any team in
the last five years, something like that.
You know, the score what? And when people have said how
surprised, you know, before the Nebraska game anyway, when
people said how surprised are you at this?
I said, well, I don't, I'm not terribly surprised at the
results because again, I could have been convinced that Indiana
would be any of the first nine teams that it it played.
You know, it wasn't until you got to Michigan.
And now maybe we need to reframe the, the, the sort of narrative
around Michigan a little bit too.
But it wasn't until you got to Michigan when you looked at this
in the spring, in the summer, the schedule and you said, is
there a team here that Indiana just flatly should not expect to
beat? It is the nature of these wins
that is surprising and that I think it's turned to people's
heads. And I think what what I have
come back to so often is both the efficiency of it and the the
balance of it. And so from an efficiency
perspective, it is the fact that like Indiana is one of the best
teams, for example, in the Big 10.
In fact, they are now the best team or, or or still the best
team in the Big 10 on 3rd downs. They are arguably the best red
zone team in America. They run the ball, they pass the
ball incredibly well, but they actually run it a lot better
than than even some of Cignetti's JMU teams did
relative to conference competition.
They lead the conference in long scrimmage plays, which is
basically explosive plays. They, and that's the like 10 +
20 plus and 30 plus yards. They lead the conference in
sacks, in tackles for loss. Thanks to no small parts of the
five turnovers they forced this weekend, they are now third, I
think tied for third in the conference in turnovers forced.
They are something like tied for second now.
I'm looking at it now in the conference in turnover margin.
And you know, I think back to some like, you know, like for
example, when LSU wins that national title in 2019, you know
it is because you you you just hit at the perfect intersection
of like generational receivers, a good, maybe not great but good
offensive line and a Heisman Trophy quarterback.
When Auburn wins its national title in in 20 the 20/10/2011
season, it is because Auburn finds a generationally an
incredible player in Cam Newton and builds the perfect offense
around him and goes 14 and O or 15 and O whatever.
I guess it would have been 14 and O back then.
That was the BCS Harris. Still that's not happening here
that you know that this isn't this is not just because you do
have two or three. Now India has got some really
good players. Curtis Rourke is having a great
season. A lot I, I, Elijah Serrat is, I
mean, as, even as a football neutral is so much fun to watch,
not just the pass catching, but like the physicality, the
downfield blocking. You know, I, I mean, if you're
looking for moments that define Elijah Sarat, like I think 1st
about him trucking a, a defensive back at UCLA or when
he's blocking 30 yards downfield, burying a defensive
back out of bounds to just, just to hold a block for a running
play, whatever. You know, Mikhail Kumar is I
think the best pass rusher in this program's had probably at
least 9 or 10 years maybe since Nick Manjiri.
You know, you, you've got some other pieces there.
They got two really good linebackers and some some
promising guys behind them that the offensive line has played
really well. But the point is they're doing
this on, on the merits of the whole team.
This is not because you just have, you know, a small clutch
of irreplaceable players that you have just sort of.
Manage to put in exactly the right spots at exactly the right
times to to just sort of create a level of of dominance or
unstoppability for yourself. This is the team, you know,
winning, but this is the team essentially adding itself up to
something greater than the sum of its parts and just
consistently being far too much for the Big 10 teams that's
playing. And, and in a funny way, like
it's almost like, and I'm fascinated to see what these
next two weeks hold for Indiana, but it's almost like Indiana has
started at the bottom of the conference and worked its way
up. UCLA is one of the worst teams
in the league. And so they go out to the Rose
Bowl and they beat them the way they beat them.
Then you get a couple teams in Maryland and and Northwestern
that are probably in the bottom third of the league.
Maybe, maybe one of them will get to a bowl game this season.
You'd be kind of surprised if both did and they, you know,
dispatch of them with relative ease.
Then you sort of graduate to OK, now you're in the middle class
of the Big 10, Nebraska, Washington, Michigan State, at
least on the on the road maybe fits that a little bit more.
And that's why I found this three-game stretch fascinating.
And for them to start it the way that they did with the Nebraska
game, where again, you know, you, you switch quarterbacks
halfway through, multiple running backs have touchdowns,
you know, it's a it's a different receiver again, having
a career day. Like it's just a really well
built, well coached team. I don't know how much you
clocked this, but like Urban Meyer last week when he was
doing his, his big 10 network stuff and he was doing when he
talked to us before the, you know, on the Friday before the
game with, with the Fox dress rehearsal, like he could not get
to a camera fast enough. Been talking about how well
coached he thought Indiana was. And, and he said something to us
in the reporter scrum. He said, there's times where I
turn on film and I just have to turn it off.
Like I just, I just can't watch it.
And there's times where I turn on film and I can't stop
watching. And he was saying that that is
that is where I'm at with Indiana.
I can't, I can't stop watching this team play football.
And he's highlighting little things.
He's highlighting, you know, tons of different players and,
and stuff. It just what is remarkable is
the extent to which everyone just seems to be looking around
and saying there is nothing. I don't want to say even fluky
because like it's not fluky that Joe Burrow turns out to be one
of the great quarterbacks, you know, deliver one of the great
quarterbacks seasons of of his generation.
But there is nothing sort of there's not an outlier here like
Indiana's just playing good football and winning games and
beating everyone at faces. And in a weird way, the better
you are, the more likely Indiana is to just to batter you,
apparently. And I, you know, I mean we.
We talked at the beginning of the season on the podcast about
how important confidence is for a team.
And in football. I think it's it may be the most
important of all of the sports because it is, it is such a game
of momentum and you have to have that baseline of great coaching.
I mean, I I thought the same thing with Urban Meyer's
comments. I don't hear him gush that much
about programs. He'll gush account, but
individual coaches occasionally. But he went out of his way to
highlight how well he thought Indiana was being coached and,
and how well their players were executing.
But then, you know, I think what stuck out to me being in the
stands at Nebraska and, and even being in the stands at
Northwestern and, and in Maryland, like the fourth
quarter, this team just does not seem like they get daunted, I
guess, as the case may be. They they really do feel, it
almost feels like they feed off the crowd, they feed off the
energy, but they feed off of this idea that they're
executing. And there's a belief there.
It's a weird thing to say, but it and, and, but it's something
that you can visually see. There seems to be a belief that
they're going to execute on those plays.
And, and even when they don't, they haven't really gotten too
knocked down emotionally. I do wonder, you know, there's
something that's talking about like adversity and you know
what, if they what, what do they finally face a good team, a
really good team. We thought that was Nebraska,
but it feels like somehow the coaching staff, not as only is
coaching them really well, but it's instilled a belief in them
that they're going to be successful.
And that probably sticks out to me the most of all.
When I think about all of the former IU teams that I've
watched over the course of time, it always felt like IU teams
were on the precipice of losing their confidence and therefore
losing the advantage in games. And I've yet to see even a a
modicum of that in what we've seen out of IU so far this year.
It's it's jarring in a good way. It's just not something that I
expected. No, and I think a lot of that
does go back to Sigietta. You know, you talked about
football as a game of momentum. I think it's a game of trust and
you know that there's no other game, there's no other team game
that asks you to essentially just like to suspend all
disbelief and just just accept that at the moment you're asked.
You just have one usually very basic job.
And if you do that, then everything will be fine because
there's ten other guys on the field and they too will do their
one basic job. And no one will be distracted by
what you know by worrying about whether it's that the guy next
to him is doing it right or whether the backup that had to
come in last week because somebody you know, Torres calf
muscle is going to make a mistake or whether the
quarterback made the wrong pre snap read like you, just you you
like football is the ultimate game of trust, trust in
yourself, trust in your coach, trust in your team mates and the
ultimate the ultimate test of whether or not you can trust all
of those people and I guess to some extent really yourself too.
So implicitly that you will not deviate from the plan at all.
Most mistakes in football are born of good intentions.
They're born of people thinking, I don't know if he can do that,
so I've got to try and do my job and his job.
But then what happens is you, you do neither job effectively
and the whole thing breaks down. And this team has, yes, earned
confidence. It, it took it from its head
coach. I think that's been long
established at this point. It took it from, you know, it,
the veterans, it came in, it took it from some of the players
who stayed. It certainly took it from the
JMU transfers who came in and said like, listen, we've we've
done all this before. We're telling you it works.
Trust it. Listen to what the guy has to
say because it's going to win us a lot of football games.
But there is also this trust that that this group has
achieved that, you know, if if everybody just goes out there
and does their job and has faith that the guy next to him is
going to do the exact same thing, that they're better
coached, that their scheme is better, that their preparation
is better. I mean, I don't know the number
of times I've had a player tell me.
I just think we're better prepared than any other team in
the country. You know, that that I just, I
had like just the level of faith they have that, you know, from
Curt Signetti on down the the sort of organizational chart
that Indiana is the best prepared team in the country.
When you have that kind of confidence and you have that
kind of trust. And then obviously the other
part of it is it has to be repaid.
It has to be paid back in results.
And that's where, you know, maybe to some extent seasons
never have happened in a vacuum. That's where maybe Indiana is
taking advantage of of the fortunate nature of its
schedule. You know, I, I've seen IU fans
saying, oh, if, if it, you know, if it had been Ohio State did
have played this schedule, people wouldn't disrespect it so
much. And I'm not completely sure
that's not true. Like, I, I, I think there is
some, some vouch for that argument.
But the flip side is I I also think this team kind of needed
the schedule to play out the way that it did, where you could get
a couple of games to get some of the gremlins out and make some
mistakes and really gain proof of concept.
And then you go to UCLA and, yeah, it's on the road and it's
the Rose Bowl. And actually, you wound up
being, you know, a better atmosphere from UCLA perspective
than what I've been told by PAC 12 people to expect.
But listen, I mean, that's a bad football team.
And Indiana made them look like a bad football team.
And so then suddenly you come home like, what if, what if
Indiana played its schedule completely in reverse?
And Ohio State was its Big 10 opener.
Like, what is what does that look like?
I don't know, maybe they'd be like, maybe maybe they went 100
and nothing. I have no idea at this point.
I'm, I, I'm it's hard for me to rule anything out with this
team. But, you know, even the schedule
feels like it has set up in just the right ways for this team.
And they've gotten to a place where there's just there is
supreme confidence, as you said. And I think there is also
supreme trust in the whole thing scheme, the staff, teammates,
everything to just say, you know, if we all go out there and
do what we know we need to do, do what we're told to do, do
what we're capable of, who can stop us?
And you know, to this point, Indiana has has not run into
anyone who can disabuse them of that notion.
Obviously the big story this week is the temporary loss of
Curtis Rourke who suffered an injury in that Nebraska game.
Better sounding report coming up today from Pete Thammel about
Rourke's status as it was a little ambiguous what was going
on. If we take it at face value that
he doesn't play this week, what kind of impact does that have?
What kind of confidence should I, you have in Tavan Jackson to
be able to step up when and what is, you know, how does it change
what Indiana's trying to do offensively?
Because obviously, Rourke. It's not just Rourke's throwing
ability, but its ability to read the defense that has given
Indiana such a huge advantage so far offensively this season.
Yeah, I mean, I'm fascinated by that question.
So. So I guess on Rourke, because I
got into this a little bit too, I saw Pete's report and I tried
to follow up on it where I could.
Like, my understanding is basically they came out of the
game on, on Saturday. They weren't exactly sure the
extent of the injury. They didn't think it'd be too
bad. You know, I think, I actually
think that once Rourke had surgery, I, I actually, my
impression is the prognosis got better basically once they went
in there and, and they were able to kind of visualize what had
happened and what they were dealing with.
And I, I mean, I think Pete reported this and, and we did
too. I think, I think there's a
chance he plays against Michigan State.
I, I would be surprised if he plays this weekend.
I would be pretty surprised at that, not least because I'm not
sure you need him. You know, Washington
statistically is not a terrible defense.
They're. They're really, I've been, I've
been deep diving into this with Taylor Lehman.
They're they're kind of an odd team in some ways because you're
right, your defense not quite as good as Nebraska's according to
numbers, but it's not that far off from where they were.
Their offense is kind of mid pack in college football, but
they seem to have largely feasted on teams that can't
score against them. I mean, they're four wins.
No, I mean that. I mean, like they have given up
their last three games. They've given up 100 and 84174
and 220 yards rushing and five rushing touchdowns in those
three games. Iowa obviously was the one that
really kind of torched them. 220 and 2 scores Iowa 140 to 16.
You know, I mean, if if you kind of look at it like the, the game
they win in that stretch is a home game against Michigan, that
I think a lot of that is reflective of Michigan's just
complete inability to pass the ball effectively.
So my point is that I I'm not doing Roark a disservice and I'm
not even necessarily trying to disrespect Washington.
I'm just pointing out Indiana's got one of the best run games in
the league and I don't think we talked as much about it because
there's not one stand out player on that side of the ball the way
there is sort of this like, like there's Curtis work and then
very clearly like his number one target is Elijah Serrat and his
number 2 is probably Omar Cooper.
And then you have Keyshawn Williams and Miles Cross and
Miles Price who all fill these gaps around them and and and
make a lot of plays. And Zach Horton's a really good
a really good quarterback. But like, I mean, India are a
really good tight end. I'm sorry, but Indiana is, I
mean, one of the Indiana is by 10 touchdowns has the most
rushing touchdowns in the league this season.
And what's interesting to me too is.
Say that again, please. Indiana has 28 rushing
touchdowns. The next closest teams each have
18. I think there are two or three
teams with 18. And The thing is go look at the
at the long scrimmage plays. Indiana also leads the league in
rushes of of 10 plus yards. Now they're a little bit more
modest, you know, kind of maybe top five to middle of the pack
in 20 and 30 plus yards. But the point is we're not just
talking about a team that passes the ball down to the three and
then pounds it in. Indiana can RIP off big chunks
on the ground. We just saw them take, you know,
maybe the best rushing defense in the Big 10 to school for 200
plus and five scores. The only other team that's gone
for 200 plus on the ground against Tony White, Nebraska
defense. Tony White's been Nebraska's
defense coordinator for about a year and a half now.
The only team that went for 200 plus as a team against Tony
White's Nebraska defense was Michigan last year.
And we obviously know, you know how good Michigan was running
the ball last year. So this should be a game, at
least on paper, particularly because Washington really got
screwed with the kick off time. I have no idea why this game is
being played at noon and Indiana doesn't have to apologize for
that. They didn't do it, but you know,
Washington's going to be out there trying to plug holes in
it's run and I know they're coming off the buy, but they're
going to be out there trying to plug holes in their run defense
at 9:15 in the morning like that is that's not helpful.
And I, I will say like I went back and watched and I think I
found five of the 8 pros Tamon Jackson made, they were pretty
much all 1 Reed throws. And some of that is going to be
reflective of the offense. Like we make a lot about Curtis
Roark and his ability to, you know, make advanced progressions
and things. They still call a lot of one
read pros for them. They still call a lot of RPO.
Typically most RPOS only have one pass read, maybe two maybe.
But the whole point of an RPO is it's supposed to almost act like
an option play like it's, it's supposed to happen so fast that
a, a defense doesn't have time to react to both possibilities
at the same time #2 you know, you're, you're, you're giving
Jackson someone read stuff. They're not just because you
want to get his, his confidence and his rhythm up, but also
because he didn't prepare for that game.
And everybody will say, oh, I, I always prepare like I'm the
starter. And you can say that.
And that can be your mentality and film study and installing
stuff. But the starter gets 85% of the
snaps in practice, you can't prepare as well as the starter
can. The stuff that's installed week
to week, the wrinkles, the tweaks, the, you know, the
additions in the scheme are geared toward the starter.
They're not geared toward the backup.
And Jackson is a, you know, he's a good quarterback.
He's a slightly different quarterback than Curtis Rourke.
The point is, some of that is just going to be about saying,
hey, Taven Jackson is is, you know, we just kind of need to
give him stuff he can manage. But he is younger.
And I do think Indiana's going to want to be in a position
where it's not going to ask too much of him over the course of
just one week. And so, you know, I think it's
going to be important to be able to run the ball to take some of
this pressure off of him and allow Indiana the rhythm within
the within the, you know, the scheme to call a little bit of
more of that, you know, a little bit more timing stuff, a little
bit more rhythm stuff, a little bit more one, maybe 2 read
stuff. On the other hand, you know, I
think about this too. I was thinking about this last
night when I was watching some of that film.
If this was Ohio State or Oregon and the sixth string quarterback
was out or the six year quarterback, the sixth string
6th year quarterback was out. And the guy behind him was a red
shirt sophomore who'd been a four-star top 200 recruit, went
to elite 11, won a couple state titles with one of the
powerhouse programs in his in his, you know, state's high
school game. And he came in against Nebraska
and went seven of eight for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
We wouldn't be saying, oh, that's a big loss.
We would just be saying, yeah, it's Ohio State.
That's just the next cab off the rank.
Like it's just, you know, that's just what you know, when you
when you're playing that program, that's just the luxury
you have. So, you know, you can Signetti
said this too. And I know we're running out of
time, but I I've always found it fascinating that he says this.
It's a level of self-awareness and a coach that I I find
fascinating. We've asked him about trap games
and complacency and stuff and he said you're always guarding
against it. But he's also said multiple
times he's said, but you can also speak that kind of stuff
into existence. You can worry so much about a
trap game that you turn a game into a trap game.
You can worry so much about complacency that you almost make
your team complacent by virtue of trying to combat it.
You can worry so much about saying, Oh my God, what are we
going to do with our starting quarterback that you make that
you you make that an emergency when it doesn't need to be.
And so I think there's I think there is going to be a, a real
ability, I suspect from Signetti and his staff to just kind of
keep the boat, you know, rowing steadily in the same direction
while Curtis works out whether it's one week, two weeks,
whatever. And the more you can give to
Haven Jackson, the better off you'll be.
PJ Flex lawyers are online too now after that.
But I I do think it's worth noting rushing wise, last year,
Indiana's top 2 leading rushers in yardage, Trent Allen and Josh
Henderson, rushed for 354 yards and 337 yards, respectively
through 11 and eight games. Through seven games, Justice
Ellison's rushed for 514 yards. Tyson Lawton's rushed for 393
yards. Justice Ellison's averaging 7
yards a carry so far on the season.
And as you mentioned, 28 touchdowns on the ground.
Indiana had 13 through the entirety of last season.
The you're absolutely right, as much as Curtis work in the
passing game get so much attention, this rushing attack
has been absolutely impossible for teams to handle throughout
the course of the season. And obviously, you know, if
you're going to go into a game without your starting
quarterback, you'd like it to be a team that's had struggles
stopping the run as Washington has here recently.
It'd be interesting to see if they can plug those holes coming
into it. So Zach, any final items you
want to hit before we wrap up here and or anything else that
sticks out to you about this team that you think is worth
noting? I think I mean it, it really is
just kind of fascinating and and I what you know, what I would
say is and listen, it's a very small sample size.
So I'm not just going to act like I have been completely
converted. I was among those that
criticized the 12 team playoff and I just, I didn't, I, I felt,
I, I felt like the, the, the appeal of college football was
that it was different to the NFL.
Then in the NFL, my team could go 10 and six and still have a
puncher's chance at, at a Super Bowl appearance as long as it
was healthy and playing well at the right time of year.
But the college football was appealing because it demanded
perfection, because it demanded this sense of you cannot, you
cannot slip even once or else you know, your chance is gone.
Maybe one, maybe get one chance. That's it.
But what I would say that I don't think I anticipated was
the extent to which the 12 team playoff would actually dovetail
better with a greater sense of parity in college athletics.
And listen, if we had a Group of five coach on here, I I'm not
sure he'd agree with my my definition of parity in college
football. And I understand that.
I really do. But I look around at, at BYU,
forget the forget the service academies.
That's a separate conversation. But at BYU, at Indiana, Iowa
State, it's a great example. Miami, frankly.
And like, there's nothing wrong with there are people like, oh,
Miami, it's like, what, what do you, what, what has Miami done
to you? They haven't been good in 20
years. Like a, a, a, a good Miami is
good for college football. And I look around and I just
sort of suddenly feel like Ohio State's weaker, you know,
Alabama's weaker. And I'm not picking on this
program so much as saying the reason they are is not because
of the 12 team playoff. It's because NIL, soon to be
revenue sharing and the transfer portal have allowed more
programs to be able to say, actually, if we get the right
things right, we can be better. And just because we have less
money than, for example, Ohio State, doesn't mean we can't
still make the right call on a quarterback or the right call
on, you know, hey, we're going to you're going to come here
because we're going to give you $150,000 more, but you're also
going to get 40 more catches. And so whereas you would just be
one of three good receivers at Ohio State, you're now going to
get showcased as an absolute. And I'm not, this is not some
inside knowledge of Elijah, Elijah Sarat.
It's just an example or a hypothetical.
I think the 12 team playoff as we as as this season really kind
of matures into November, it looks like it fits really,
really well with an era of of what actually looks like may
well be greater parity in college football, certainly at
the top, certainly in the bigger conferences the the, the power
for again, we can have a separate conversation about what
the heck we're going to do with the group of five, much less the
FCS. But like it it as somebody who's
now at the epicenter of trying to cover a team that has
suddenly has playoff ambitions, you sort of realize actually
this gives more people more reasons to engage with college
football. And to some extent may actually
show people there is a a really, there's a much better way
forward than some sort of 2014 Super League, which I know some
people think is possible. Because actually you can build a
playoff that still gets dominated by the schools that
are going to want the biggest seat at the table.
But actually does give a genuine opportunity to everybody else.
And opens the field up enough that you are capitalizing on a
lot of the eyeballs that you need at the highest level of the
sport. While still including, while
still stretching the tent out to be big enough to include enough
people to not feel like we're just kind of balling up
everything that is is meaningful and fun about college football
and throwing it away. I'll give you the last word on
that 'cause I think it's a fascinating topic that we should
return to in about a month. It's a small sample size that
that's the one thing. But you know what?
But no, I think you hit a lot of really important points.
And I think it's it, it is always what I've argued for when
I've asked, hey, let's have an expanded playoff environment.
Let's let's bring a few more teams to the table.
I do think that that matters, but we'll talk about that at a
future date. Zach Osterman, IU Insider at the
Indy Star As always, we appreciate you joining us on the
show. Appreciate your insights.
Be sure to check out Zach's content throughout the course of
the week. And be sure to check out our
content. We'll have more stuff coming up,
including Bison chat tonight at 8:00 PM on the Back Home network
for everybody involved. I'm Galen Clavio saying thanks
for joining us here on Crimson Cast.
We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the
Bison stay. Never daunted.
So everybody.