1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:09,160 You're listening to the Back Home network presented by Home 2 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:20,680 Field Apparel. How do folks Galen Clavio here 3 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:24,800 joining you once again? It is Friday, September 22nd. 4 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:30,290 I guess I got to say happy Fall for those of you who celebrate. 5 00:00:30,370 --> 00:00:32,610 I do not, but I know there's many of you that do. 6 00:00:32,610 --> 00:00:35,490 So Happy Fall, I hope that you're all enjoying yourselves 7 00:00:35,490 --> 00:00:37,410 and I hope that you enjoy yourselves for the next three 8 00:00:37,410 --> 00:00:41,450 months or so, as we are clearly with fall officially arriving 9 00:00:41,450 --> 00:00:44,330 meteorologically. And I guess it's not tech. 10 00:00:44,530 --> 00:00:46,890 I think meteorological fall actually is October 1st. 11 00:00:46,890 --> 00:00:50,610 But we're in full, very nice weather right now though, down 12 00:00:50,610 --> 00:00:54,450 here in Bloomington, a great weather weekend coming up for I 13 00:00:54,450 --> 00:00:57,530 U Akron, so I guess we can't complain too much. 14 00:00:57,610 --> 00:01:00,210 Not yet, at least. Anyway, This is Crimson Cast, 15 00:01:00,210 --> 00:01:01,970 Happy to be back with you once again. 16 00:01:01,970 --> 00:01:06,010 I'm flying solo on this podcast. We're going to talk a little bit 17 00:01:06,010 --> 00:01:11,290 about the game coming up this weekend and we're going to talk 18 00:01:11,730 --> 00:01:16,290 about some other things because I'm not sure exactly how 19 00:01:16,980 --> 00:01:20,260 impactful or interesting this game is from a matchup 20 00:01:20,260 --> 00:01:22,980 perspective. It's going to be interesting at 21 00:01:22,980 --> 00:01:26,380 least from the standpoint of Indiana and and what they are 22 00:01:26,380 --> 00:01:30,660 able to do in terms of making themselves better because 23 00:01:30,660 --> 00:01:32,420 they're playing a real bad Akron team. 24 00:01:32,420 --> 00:01:36,340 But as we've seen, that's not necessarily an obstacle to a 25 00:01:36,340 --> 00:01:39,020 team putting up a fight and even threatening to win a game. 26 00:01:39,620 --> 00:01:43,180 You know Akron we'll talk about here in a second, but we just 27 00:01:43,180 --> 00:01:47,870 saw a pretty prominent bad team almost win on national 28 00:01:47,870 --> 00:01:49,590 television, so we'll talk about that in just a second. 29 00:01:49,590 --> 00:01:52,110 First of all just a reminder, we're part of the Back Home 30 00:01:52,110 --> 00:01:56,150 network here at Crimson Cast along with our friends at 31 00:01:56,310 --> 00:02:00,350 Assembly Call and they do the work podcast and it it just a 32 00:02:00,350 --> 00:02:03,910 whole bunch of other media, whether it's I U, Film Room, 33 00:02:04,230 --> 00:02:07,470 just a little bit of everything here at the Back Home Network. 34 00:02:07,470 --> 00:02:10,190 All of it brought to you by home field apparel. 35 00:02:10,190 --> 00:02:13,430 Your place to go for the finest in college fashions, the softest 36 00:02:13,430 --> 00:02:17,850 fabrics the coolest designs. They just welcomed Idaho to the 37 00:02:17,850 --> 00:02:23,450 mix which I think is cool. I I love seeing teams like Idaho 38 00:02:23,450 --> 00:02:26,730 you know getting their moment in the sun and their their stuff 39 00:02:26,730 --> 00:02:28,690 being out there. They added Idaho State as well. 40 00:02:28,690 --> 00:02:31,970 They didn't want to leave the Bengals out and I tell you that 41 00:02:31,970 --> 00:02:35,490 that Bengals that Idaho State Bengals hoodie looks pretty 42 00:02:35,490 --> 00:02:37,890 sweet. So check it out. 43 00:02:37,930 --> 00:02:41,900 Go to homefieldapparel.com or follow them or maybe actually 44 00:02:41,900 --> 00:02:44,580 sorry and follow them on social media. 45 00:02:44,580 --> 00:02:47,420 They're a great Twitter follow. You know, while you still don't 46 00:02:47,420 --> 00:02:49,540 have to pay for the the messages, you should go ahead 47 00:02:49,540 --> 00:02:51,740 and subscribe. Follow them on Instagram. 48 00:02:51,740 --> 00:02:53,780 I really love their Instagram content, but go to 49 00:02:53,780 --> 00:02:58,780 homefieldapparel.com and check out what they've got in store. 50 00:02:58,780 --> 00:03:03,540 If it's your first time going use the code Home 23, home 2-3 51 00:03:03,820 --> 00:03:06,820 and get 15% off of your first order. 52 00:03:06,820 --> 00:03:10,250 Again, home field, apparel.com presenting sponsor for the back 53 00:03:10,250 --> 00:03:14,330 Home network and Crimson Cast. All right, let's dive in and 54 00:03:14,330 --> 00:03:18,490 talk a little bit about the things going on around this team 55 00:03:18,490 --> 00:03:21,530 and what we take out of the first few weeks. 56 00:03:21,530 --> 00:03:25,490 Obviously, you got a chance I think to hear our Louisville 57 00:03:25,490 --> 00:03:28,410 recap podcast. If you haven't had a chance to 58 00:03:28,410 --> 00:03:30,610 check out Bite Size Bison, go do that. 59 00:03:30,890 --> 00:03:34,330 Taylor Lehman not joining me on this show, but he's been on 60 00:03:34,330 --> 00:03:37,380 several and will be on several podcasts in the future is we 61 00:03:37,380 --> 00:03:41,780 really like his analysis of I, U football, but I I did borrow 62 00:03:41,900 --> 00:03:45,060 some bite sized bison stuff for this game. 63 00:03:45,220 --> 00:03:49,740 Taylor trying to bring back the old preview sheet that utilizes 64 00:03:49,740 --> 00:03:53,020 a lot of the advanced statistics and it's interesting looking at 65 00:03:53,020 --> 00:03:56,020 this matchup. Indiana a clear favorite against 66 00:03:56,020 --> 00:04:02,420 the Akron, Zips the probability for winning for I U at about 88% 67 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:08,560 in this game and Akron just not coming across particularly well 68 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:11,240 in terms of of their overall statistics. 69 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:15,080 You know, if you look at this Akron team so far on the season, 70 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:17,360 it has not been a great year for them. 71 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:21,360 They lost at Temple maybe, you know, relatively close game. 72 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:22,800 Temple's not a very good team either. 73 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,840 They lost that game 2421. They barely beat Morgan State 74 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:34,390 before a huge crowd of 8213 in Akron, Not not really packing in 75 00:04:34,390 --> 00:04:36,910 the crowds right now in Northeast Ohio. 76 00:04:37,270 --> 00:04:41,390 And then they got pretty much decimated by Kentucky last week. 77 00:04:41,390 --> 00:04:44,070 They lose 35 to 3:00 on the road. 78 00:04:44,070 --> 00:04:48,030 So this is an Akron team that's only averaging 16 points a game. 79 00:04:48,430 --> 00:04:52,270 And if you look at last year, you could see the seeds of all 80 00:04:52,270 --> 00:04:55,250 this being planted. They only won one game in the 81 00:04:55,250 --> 00:04:57,570 whole season and it was kind of an out of the blue game. 82 00:04:57,570 --> 00:05:01,250 It was a 44 to 12 win at Northern Illinois who was also 83 00:05:01,250 --> 00:05:05,130 terrible last year, but the rest of the season was was really bad 84 00:05:05,130 --> 00:05:07,490 for Akron. They were two and 10 last year. 85 00:05:07,490 --> 00:05:11,370 Their only other win was a home win against Saint Francis of 86 00:05:11,370 --> 00:05:15,810 Pennsylvania by 7. So you know, last year's Akron 87 00:05:15,810 --> 00:05:18,050 team scored about 22 points a game. 88 00:05:18,250 --> 00:05:21,450 This is not a team that you would look at and say, oh, you 89 00:05:21,450 --> 00:05:24,930 know, that they're likely to cause much of A challenge and 90 00:05:24,970 --> 00:05:27,610 and really on either side of the ball. 91 00:05:27,890 --> 00:05:30,490 Yeah, you look at this team from an offensive perspective. 92 00:05:30,730 --> 00:05:37,570 They are 130th in the country in ESPN S&P, plus they're 120th in 93 00:05:37,570 --> 00:05:40,370 offense. They're 124th in defense. 94 00:05:40,370 --> 00:05:44,530 They're 120th in special teams, and you just go down the list. 95 00:05:44,530 --> 00:05:49,760 Like pretty much every major ranking system does not like 96 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:53,920 Akron at all. FEI has them 128th, PFF has them 97 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:57,800 114th, and they just don't do anything particularly well. 98 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:02,560 They've been mildly successful defensively, but they haven't 99 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:05,720 been able to capitalize on that because their offense has been 100 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:10,440 so bad, only 262 yards per game. We've complained about Indiana's 101 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:14,130 offense, and and rightfully so. I mean, in Indiana, at least 102 00:06:14,130 --> 00:06:16,690 from the advanced statistical numbers, is not somebody you 103 00:06:16,690 --> 00:06:20,730 would write home about at this point as they are 81st in SP 104 00:06:20,730 --> 00:06:24,890 plus they're 92nd. At PFF, they're 67th and FEI. 105 00:06:25,980 --> 00:06:30,900 But Indiana has only scored 3.3 more points per game thus far 106 00:06:31,100 --> 00:06:33,780 than Akron has. At Akron's average 16 a game, 107 00:06:33,940 --> 00:06:37,580 Indiana's averaging 19.3. The difference really is that 108 00:06:37,580 --> 00:06:40,740 Indiana's defense has been pretty good in terms of scoring. 109 00:06:40,980 --> 00:06:43,500 They've only allowed seventeen points a game, whereas Akron's 110 00:06:43,500 --> 00:06:49,380 allowed 26 1/2 basically. So this is one of those games 111 00:06:49,380 --> 00:06:52,020 and and we have it seems like two or three of these a year 112 00:06:52,300 --> 00:06:53,500 with I U. Football. 113 00:06:54,130 --> 00:06:57,330 But there's there's just we can we can try to break it down a 114 00:06:57,330 --> 00:07:00,410 little bit more but this is the kind this is essentially I U 115 00:07:00,410 --> 00:07:05,410 playing an FCS level opponent who just happens to be in FBS. 116 00:07:05,410 --> 00:07:08,090 It's a game that Indiana should win comfortably. 117 00:07:08,650 --> 00:07:11,970 You know it's a game where if you're looking at at the threat 118 00:07:12,090 --> 00:07:15,490 from the opposition it's it's hard to know exactly what to 119 00:07:15,490 --> 00:07:18,370 tell you. You know they're leading rusher 120 00:07:18,370 --> 00:07:21,210 thus far through three games has 78 yards. 121 00:07:21,210 --> 00:07:23,810 That's a senior running back, Lorenzo Lingard. 122 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:27,160 They have another running back who's averaging a little shy of 123 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:29,600 five yards a carry. That's Drake Anderson, another 124 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:33,160 senior, but and that's it. I mean they've they've only 125 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:39,840 rushed on the season for 1.63 yards per carry as a team and 126 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:43,200 and some of that is obviously sacks and and losses. 127 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:46,160 But you know in the passing game that they're not very good 128 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:48,040 either. They they do complete a high 129 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:51,440 percentage of their passes thus far on the season. 130 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:56,510 They've kind of used two quarterbacks, DJ Irons and Jeff, 131 00:07:56,670 --> 00:07:59,590 under Cuffler. Irons and under Cuffler. 132 00:07:59,590 --> 00:08:04,710 Sounds like a a failed 80s buddy movie or something like that. 133 00:08:05,390 --> 00:08:09,150 But both of them have played. Irons has been the guy that's 134 00:08:09,150 --> 00:08:11,910 played more. He's thrown for just shy of 400 135 00:08:11,910 --> 00:08:14,750 yards on the season, only 5.4 yards per attempt, which is 136 00:08:14,750 --> 00:08:19,950 which is really not good under Cuffler has thrown for a higher 137 00:08:19,950 --> 00:08:24,450 percentage, 75% of passes completed for about 269 yards, 1 138 00:08:24,450 --> 00:08:26,770 touchdown, 3 interceptions. He's been kind of their deep 139 00:08:26,770 --> 00:08:29,130 threat. He's averaging, you know, a huge 140 00:08:29,130 --> 00:08:33,250 like 8.4 yards per attempt. So offensively, I just don't see 141 00:08:33,250 --> 00:08:35,450 a whole lot out of this Akron team. 142 00:08:35,450 --> 00:08:38,570 I think Indiana's defense, if they play the way that they 143 00:08:38,570 --> 00:08:41,890 played for most of the Ohio State game, for the second-half 144 00:08:41,890 --> 00:08:45,810 of the Louisville game and for all the Indiana State game, you 145 00:08:45,810 --> 00:08:49,730 know, I think they're going to feast on this Akron team and and 146 00:08:49,730 --> 00:08:51,610 it's honestly something I'd like to see them do. 147 00:08:52,150 --> 00:08:55,710 One of the things I think that that's been troublesome for I U 148 00:08:55,710 --> 00:08:59,790 in the past has been an inability to take opponents like 149 00:08:59,790 --> 00:09:03,870 this and really salt them away and and really punish them and 150 00:09:03,870 --> 00:09:06,940 and make them feel miserable. That's helpful. 151 00:09:06,940 --> 00:09:09,180 I mean if you can do that as a football team, it's going to 152 00:09:09,180 --> 00:09:12,060 help your own confidence. It's going to help to 153 00:09:12,060 --> 00:09:16,460 demonstrate that you can, you know, clearly win against lesser 154 00:09:16,460 --> 00:09:18,140 opponents like this. And I think it gives your 155 00:09:18,140 --> 00:09:21,060 defense confidence and confidence is really important. 156 00:09:21,060 --> 00:09:23,900 As we've talked about on the show over the course of time. 157 00:09:24,180 --> 00:09:26,220 I think for a defense that's still kind of sorting its 158 00:09:26,220 --> 00:09:29,820 identity out, they need to go out and play a full 60 minutes. 159 00:09:30,580 --> 00:09:32,740 You know I think if you're if you're I use defense and you're 160 00:09:32,740 --> 00:09:36,160 trying to look back at the film you you just got to be kind of 161 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:39,480 slapping your head and saying you know how were we still out 162 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:41,560 of sorts to the start of that Louisville game. 163 00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:45,120 You know you can certainly pat the defense on the back for the 164 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:48,280 changes that they made and the adjustments that were made and 165 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:51,640 just the attitudinal approach that altered in that second-half 166 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:54,840 that allowed them to to shut out Louisville in the second-half. 167 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:56,920 But okay. So here's where you take that 168 00:09:56,920 --> 00:09:59,200 and you you do something more with it. 169 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:04,040 You add to it and you know, I think I U, when they finish this 170 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:07,360 game, they will be 1/3 of the way done with the season, as 171 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:10,720 wild as that is. And you know, if you go ahead 172 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:14,680 and take on faith that I U is going to win the game and and 173 00:10:14,680 --> 00:10:17,480 frankly, if this game's even close, given where Akron 174 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:21,000 statistics have been so far, I think that's a real bad 175 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:22,720 harbinger for the rest of the year. 176 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:24,400 But I don't think that's going to happen. 177 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:28,840 I think I U is is very likely to win by a very sizable margin. 178 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:32,040 I would not be surprised at all if they covered the spread, 179 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:35,000 which I think was at 17 or 17 1/2 last time I checked. 180 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,360 This is a game where I think it starts with the defense and the 181 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:41,760 defense. The best thing they could do is 182 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:45,720 not just stymie Akron in the and it looks like that's going to be 183 00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:49,160 in the passing game and that's actually good because Akron 184 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:51,440 doesn't do either running or passing well. 185 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:55,120 But if there was an area of the defense that I U really needs to 186 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:58,240 work on in terms of drills and practice, it's the defensive 187 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:00,190 secondary. You know it's defending that 188 00:11:00,190 --> 00:11:02,910 passing play. You're getting Akron off the 189 00:11:02,910 --> 00:11:07,430 field in inopportune locations and allowing the offense to have 190 00:11:07,430 --> 00:11:10,750 drives that start in Akron territory or start around 191 00:11:10,750 --> 00:11:13,790 midfield and. And allowing the offense to 192 00:11:14,110 --> 00:11:16,510 continue to get repetitions and try new things. 193 00:11:16,510 --> 00:11:18,710 And put Tavin Jackson in a position where he's making 194 00:11:18,710 --> 00:11:22,150 different types of throws. And also frankly, to continue to 195 00:11:22,150 --> 00:11:24,950 work on run blocking and the way that the running backs are 196 00:11:24,950 --> 00:11:28,340 approaching their game. I think all of these things are 197 00:11:28,340 --> 00:11:31,100 important and Indiana kind of finds themselves at this point 198 00:11:31,700 --> 00:11:34,900 needing to work on a little bit of everything since they kind 199 00:11:34,900 --> 00:11:37,980 of, you know, look like they treated the first two games of 200 00:11:37,980 --> 00:11:41,220 the season as as an extended summer practice. 201 00:11:41,220 --> 00:11:44,500 So you know, there were certainly a lot of positives 202 00:11:44,500 --> 00:11:48,740 that we talked about in that Louisville game for Indiana, but 203 00:11:48,740 --> 00:11:52,060 they were offset by a lot of the negatives that we observed in 204 00:11:52,060 --> 00:11:54,880 that game as well. You know, just the team not 205 00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:59,240 really showing up in that set in that first half, but then 206 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:02,600 turning around and playing very well in the second-half. 207 00:12:02,680 --> 00:12:06,160 That you know that when I think about this team as they get 208 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:10,040 ready for, you know what is not a particularly fun start to the 209 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:14,760 Big 10 season, taking advantage of the opportunities to practice 210 00:12:14,760 --> 00:12:18,080 in real time against real competition is important. 211 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:22,680 And you know, you get past this game for Indiana and you win. 212 00:12:23,180 --> 00:12:26,420 You're two and two and you've suddenly got a world of 213 00:12:26,420 --> 00:12:30,340 possibilities because in the next third of the season you've 214 00:12:30,340 --> 00:12:33,700 got four games. Two of them are really probably 215 00:12:33,700 --> 00:12:36,020 not winnable. If I U approaches them the same 216 00:12:36,020 --> 00:12:38,580 way they approach the Ohio State game, which I'm assuming that 217 00:12:38,580 --> 00:12:42,660 will be the approach because that's that was the choice that 218 00:12:42,660 --> 00:12:44,060 was made with the Ohio State game. 219 00:12:44,500 --> 00:12:47,140 But you go to Maryland, that's a winnable game. 220 00:12:47,140 --> 00:12:48,900 Maryland has. They've looked explosive. 221 00:12:48,900 --> 00:12:50,460 They've also looked very vulnerable. 222 00:12:50,820 --> 00:12:54,160 That's the very next game after this, you get a buy, you go to 223 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:56,640 Michigan, then you play Rutgers at home. 224 00:12:56,640 --> 00:12:59,000 That's a must win. And then you got to go to Penn 225 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:02,720 State and also for Indiana. The the Maryland game that 226 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:08,120 immediately comes after this Akron game is rapidly looking 227 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:09,960 like a fulcrum point of the season. 228 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:13,320 Because if you if you win this game and you give your team some 229 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:17,240 confidence, you you, you know you win by 25 or 30 points, you 230 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:19,600 get your offense in phase. You get your defense feeling 231 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:22,320 confident. I like Indiana's chances at that 232 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:31,120 point to go into Maryland and to not be afraid and to go play in 233 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:35,200 a style that's going to be competitive with Maryland that 234 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:38,160 that series, that Indiana, Maryland series has always been 235 00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:40,280 really close. We talked about that in the 236 00:13:40,280 --> 00:13:42,930 preseason. It seems like wherever that game 237 00:13:42,930 --> 00:13:45,530 is played, it's like somewhere between three and eight points 238 00:13:45,530 --> 00:13:47,450 either direction. And we've seen Indiana win at 239 00:13:47,450 --> 00:13:49,930 Maryland, we've seen Maryland win at Indiana. 240 00:13:50,290 --> 00:13:55,050 Certainly going on the road and playing Maryland is is not a 241 00:13:55,050 --> 00:13:57,650 bridge too far. It's just going to take 242 00:13:57,730 --> 00:14:01,650 Indiana's offense showing up and doing something of note and and 243 00:14:01,650 --> 00:14:03,570 that's where I think this Akron game really comes in handy. 244 00:14:03,570 --> 00:14:06,290 But it's also going to be Indiana's defense trying to 245 00:14:06,730 --> 00:14:10,450 stymie a Maryland offense that scored almost 40 points a game. 246 00:14:11,380 --> 00:14:13,180 I'm getting confident, understanding what the team's 247 00:14:13,180 --> 00:14:16,500 supposed to do, continuing to get repetitions and and really 248 00:14:16,500 --> 00:14:18,260 going for it. I think in this game, trying to 249 00:14:18,260 --> 00:14:22,980 win against Akron in a convincing style all ends up 250 00:14:22,980 --> 00:14:27,820 adding up to a level of mental confidence that sometimes this 251 00:14:27,820 --> 00:14:30,780 team has and it looks beautiful and sometimes they don't have 252 00:14:31,020 --> 00:14:32,780 and it ends up not looking beautiful. 253 00:14:32,780 --> 00:14:36,820 So winning this Akron game, I, you know, perhaps I should never 254 00:14:36,820 --> 00:14:40,420 take anything for granted, but you know, even comparing to last 255 00:14:40,420 --> 00:14:45,380 year, Western Kentucky, while they were not a great team, that 256 00:14:45,380 --> 00:14:49,380 was a significantly better team by every metric than what you're 257 00:14:49,380 --> 00:14:52,740 seeing with this Akron team. I think this Akron team is a lot 258 00:14:52,740 --> 00:14:56,300 closer to Indiana State than what they faced last year 259 00:14:56,300 --> 00:14:57,780 against Western Kentucky. So. 260 00:14:58,100 --> 00:15:00,500 So anyway, you know the big keys, I think. 261 00:15:01,220 --> 00:15:04,380 Can Indiana obviously defensively get themselves going 262 00:15:04,380 --> 00:15:06,850 early? Not let Akron put points on the 263 00:15:06,850 --> 00:15:10,210 board for a while, Let Indiana's offense try different 264 00:15:10,210 --> 00:15:13,210 situations? And within the passing game, can 265 00:15:13,210 --> 00:15:16,210 Taven Jackson continue to become comfortable? 266 00:15:16,450 --> 00:15:19,370 Can he continue to find receivers? 267 00:15:19,530 --> 00:15:23,330 And can we continue to get repetitions for receivers out 268 00:15:23,330 --> 00:15:24,650 there? So far on the season, it's been 269 00:15:24,650 --> 00:15:27,170 interesting. Through three games, there's 270 00:15:27,170 --> 00:15:30,410 only one player on Indiana's roster that has caught 271 00:15:30,410 --> 00:15:33,890 doubledigit balls, and that's Jalen Lucas, who's not a wide 272 00:15:33,890 --> 00:15:37,060 receiver. So to some degree you look at 273 00:15:37,060 --> 00:15:38,300 that and you're like, oh, that's nice. 274 00:15:38,300 --> 00:15:42,180 Indiana has really made a concerted effort to get Jalen 275 00:15:42,180 --> 00:15:45,300 Lucas the bowl more, and that was one of the things that fans 276 00:15:45,300 --> 00:15:48,140 and media were both asking for coming out of last season. 277 00:15:48,140 --> 00:15:50,660 I think the coaching staff deserves credit for finding 278 00:15:50,660 --> 00:15:55,460 different ways to put him in the mix, but it is kind of it's it's 279 00:15:55,460 --> 00:15:58,500 an illustration of how uncommitted Indiana's been to 280 00:15:58,500 --> 00:16:01,300 establishing the pass. I think that through three games 281 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:04,560 there's, you know, there's two wide receivers with 9 catches, 282 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:09,960 Cam Camper 9 catches, 146 yards and Donovan Mcculley 9 catches, 283 00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:12,160 103 yards. I like the way that both of them 284 00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:14,680 look. Camper looks like he's mostly, 285 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:17,240 if not fully, back from the injury he suffered last year. 286 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:23,000 Omar Cooper has caught some balls, 8 catches, 109 yards, but 287 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:24,680 his usage has been very up and down. 288 00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:28,560 He was used pretty heavily in the Indiana State game. 289 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:31,600 He wasn't really used very heavily at all in either the 290 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:34,840 Ohio State or the Louisville games and it's kind of a 291 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:37,920 question mark as to as far as what's going on there. 292 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:41,560 So you know, it does appear at least early that that trio will 293 00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:44,920 ride wide receivers is the group that's going to get the most 294 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:47,440 targets. And and it's interesting because 295 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:49,680 we were kind of curious about that coming into the season. 296 00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:54,120 You know, we talked a lot about EJ Williams Junior, the transfer 297 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:58,240 that was coming in from Clemson. He has not really done much. 298 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:00,520 He's only played in two games or at least he's only. 299 00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:02,280 I think he's only, yeah he's only played in two games. 300 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:06,880 He had an injury recently, but at least we think we're we're 301 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:10,400 not totally sure. But he wasn't targeted that much 302 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:12,200 in the first couple of games that he played. 303 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:17,680 Duques Carter has been available for all three games but has only 304 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:19,839 caught 3 balls thus far on the season. 305 00:17:20,210 --> 00:17:22,770 Bradley Archer, the tight end we talked about a little bit at the 306 00:17:22,770 --> 00:17:26,130 tail end of the podcast. After the Louisville loss, he's 307 00:17:26,130 --> 00:17:27,609 been a little bit of a revelation. 308 00:17:27,609 --> 00:17:31,170 He caught some good balls against Louisville and you know, 309 00:17:31,170 --> 00:17:33,770 if you if you think about the way that I use passing attack 310 00:17:33,770 --> 00:17:36,170 could work if everything was working properly. 311 00:17:36,170 --> 00:17:41,450 The idea that you could have sets where you have Camper, Omar 312 00:17:41,450 --> 00:17:43,850 Cooper Junior and Donovan Mccully is your wide receiver 313 00:17:43,850 --> 00:17:46,490 set. You have Bradley Archer who thus 314 00:17:46,490 --> 00:17:49,960 far has proven he can catch the ball on the run and then Jalen 315 00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:51,560 Lucas coming out of the backfield. 316 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:57,080 You know that is that is an interesting set of of personnel 317 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:01,560 and you know it that that particular formation you know 318 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:04,840 that's a it's interesting like you know three wide receivers 1 319 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:09,080 running back one tight end that's that's a really 320 00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:11,680 fascinating formation at the college level because it it 321 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:16,490 really does get used a lot more at the the pro level and it can 322 00:18:16,490 --> 00:18:19,650 be a very devastating way to approach the passing game if 323 00:18:19,650 --> 00:18:23,570 you're running it properly. And I know I think Indiana's to 324 00:18:23,570 --> 00:18:26,490 some degree kind of blessed because they have big wide 325 00:18:26,490 --> 00:18:31,570 receivers in Camper and McCauley and you know Omar Cooper is not 326 00:18:31,570 --> 00:18:34,770 exactly small. You've got a potential speedster 327 00:18:34,770 --> 00:18:37,850 in in in decrees Carter, but you've you've got your real one 328 00:18:38,010 --> 00:18:41,360 in Jalen Lucas and then if you've got a safety valve, the 329 00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:46,440 tight end, suddenly that's a much better scenario for paving 330 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:50,880 Jackson to throw the ball in. So you know, again, it's clear 331 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:53,520 that the passing game is still a work in progress, but I really 332 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:56,120 like what I saw in the second-half of that Louisville 333 00:18:56,120 --> 00:18:58,040 game. You know, that was the promise 334 00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:01,080 that we kind of peaked at a little bit in the Indiana State 335 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,520 game and it feels like it got a lot more fleshed out. 336 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:07,520 So you know the pass blocking has to be better and it's 337 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:10,480 interesting because on the one hand you tip your cap to the 338 00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:15,800 offensive line because they they haven't yielded any sacks so far 339 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:19,040 on the season. And and yet the flip side of it 340 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:22,880 is they've also graded out really poorly in terms of past 341 00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:26,080 blocking and then the run blocking has been particularly 342 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:28,080 good either. And so there's room for 343 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:30,880 improvement I guess would be the charitable way of thinking about 344 00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:34,000 line play. And again, I think playing 345 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,200 against Akron, that gives you a chance to get a lot of 346 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:40,750 repetitions to make sure that guys are are more comfortable 347 00:19:40,750 --> 00:19:43,910 and what they're supposed to do. And if you can get a half second 348 00:19:43,950 --> 00:19:47,750 more or a second more of protection or if you can open up 349 00:19:47,750 --> 00:19:50,990 some more holes, you know Indiana, that there was an 350 00:19:50,990 --> 00:19:54,750 interesting statistic that I was chatting with Taylor about. 351 00:19:54,990 --> 00:19:59,110 You know, Indiana has actually run the ball a lot better inside 352 00:19:59,110 --> 00:20:02,710 the tackles than outside the tackles, and that's. 353 00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:05,000 You know, that's probably not what people thought. 354 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,720 And certainly when you think about the way that Indiana tried 355 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:10,920 to start the season is, you know, looking like a team that 356 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:12,720 was going to be doing a lot of option running. 357 00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:17,440 Gosh, just, you know, through the first few games, the option 358 00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:20,160 run has not looked like something that Indiana can 359 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:25,760 necessarily lean on or rely on. So all that said, I mean the one 360 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:30,640 downside about this Akron game is, you know, will Indiana take 361 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:36,270 it seriously and will they approach it with a ruthless 362 00:20:36,270 --> 00:20:38,950 mentality? Because I, you know, I will say 363 00:20:38,950 --> 00:20:43,870 what I mentioned earlier about bad teams giving better teams a 364 00:20:43,870 --> 00:20:46,590 game, I'm still a little skeptical about Colorado. 365 00:20:46,830 --> 00:20:49,510 Everybody focused on the fact that Colorado beat Colorado 366 00:20:49,510 --> 00:20:52,630 State and you know, it was in overtime. 367 00:20:52,830 --> 00:20:55,430 And what was left out of all that is that Colorado State 368 00:20:55,430 --> 00:20:57,750 grades out really badly. Like, that is not a good 369 00:20:57,750 --> 00:21:01,350 Colorado State team and they still gave Colorado everything 370 00:21:01,350 --> 00:21:04,070 that they could handle. So, you know, there's a 371 00:21:04,070 --> 00:21:07,470 complacency aspect that you worry about when you're playing 372 00:21:07,470 --> 00:21:09,710 a bad team. And I think that Indiana 373 00:21:09,710 --> 00:21:13,390 sometimes is very susceptible to that, which is why the hope is 374 00:21:13,390 --> 00:21:17,190 when the ball was kicked 7:30 on Saturday, Indiana just has their 375 00:21:17,190 --> 00:21:19,750 foot on the gas from the beginning on both sides of the 376 00:21:19,750 --> 00:21:22,110 ball. Because I think both sides of 377 00:21:22,110 --> 00:21:26,350 the ball really need to develop an aura of confidence and a 378 00:21:26,350 --> 00:21:29,070 little bit of superiority if they're going to be successful 379 00:21:29,070 --> 00:21:32,280 playing against Maryland the next week and and you know the 380 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:34,760 the the kind of the crisis moment I think is if Indiana 381 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,680 struggles in this game I don't think that that's a positive. 382 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,320 I think that's something that is an indicator that they're going 383 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:43,560 to really struggle when they play a team that has the ability 384 00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:46,760 to put up points and bunches which Maryland certainly does so 385 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:50,480 So anyway there's there's not a lot more detail to go into. 386 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:53,440 I think specifically with this matchup we'll see how Indiana 387 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:54,920 plays. This is clearly a game that 388 00:21:54,920 --> 00:22:00,990 Indiana can win handily if they take care of business and that's 389 00:22:01,510 --> 00:22:03,910 that's going to be a really interesting question because 390 00:22:03,910 --> 00:22:06,750 that isn't always what we see out of this football team. 391 00:22:06,750 --> 00:22:08,510 So we'll keep our fingers crossed on that. 392 00:22:09,430 --> 00:22:11,270 Couple other items that we wanted to get to. 393 00:22:11,270 --> 00:22:14,670 We're not going to go like terribly long today with with 394 00:22:14,670 --> 00:22:19,310 this podcast but you know we have had some interesting things 395 00:22:19,310 --> 00:22:23,910 going on in and around the game. One of them of course being that 396 00:22:23,910 --> 00:22:27,710 Indiana is wearing black uniforms for the first time 397 00:22:27,950 --> 00:22:31,610 since 1997. And this is really fascinating I 398 00:22:31,610 --> 00:22:39,450 think for a variety of reasons. So I was a freshman actually in 399 00:22:39,450 --> 00:22:42,730 1997. I was at that Kentucky game that 400 00:22:42,730 --> 00:22:46,730 I was joke about that season that you know they were Indiana 401 00:22:46,730 --> 00:22:51,410 was trying a bunch of different things to get their their 402 00:22:51,490 --> 00:22:55,080 excitement back around the football program because I think 403 00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:58,160 sometimes and I've I've been guilty of this just like 404 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:01,600 everybody else has. I think people forget that as 405 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:06,760 great as as Bill Mallory was as a coach and as as rewarding as 406 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:11,680 the Mallory era was there really had been a complete lack of like 407 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:16,320 loss of buzz for I U. Football in the previous couple 408 00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:18,840 of years. You know they they win two games 409 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:24,340 overall in 1995 and and that was coming off what some people 410 00:23:24,340 --> 00:23:27,300 consider to be a bit of a disappointing season in 1994 411 00:23:27,540 --> 00:23:30,220 where they didn't make a bowl. They they had a winning record 412 00:23:30,780 --> 00:23:32,540 but didn't get invited to a bowl. 413 00:23:33,100 --> 00:23:36,860 And and you know the there was a worry that fans weren't 414 00:23:36,860 --> 00:23:39,420 traveling for bowl games as much as they had been. 415 00:23:39,740 --> 00:23:41,740 They followed that up with another bad season where they 416 00:23:41,740 --> 00:23:44,580 win three games. And so for those who don't 417 00:23:44,580 --> 00:23:48,870 remember or those who weren't around, the 97 season was really 418 00:23:48,870 --> 00:23:52,270 intended to be kind of a cultural reset of I U Football. 419 00:23:52,270 --> 00:23:54,470 And the idea was it's a brand new era. 420 00:23:54,630 --> 00:23:59,150 We have a new coach, a young, exciting offensive mind who has 421 00:23:59,150 --> 00:24:01,350 been coaching with the Washington Redskins and he's an 422 00:24:01,350 --> 00:24:05,510 alum, you know, a former member of the football team. 423 00:24:06,310 --> 00:24:08,590 They had hired Cam Cameron and and that was the idea. 424 00:24:08,590 --> 00:24:11,110 I mean, the whole idea behind the Cameron hire was, hey, you 425 00:24:11,110 --> 00:24:13,910 know, let's get on the, you know, get a guy out of the NFL 426 00:24:13,910 --> 00:24:18,030 train and, you know, let's let's try to be modern in the way that 427 00:24:18,030 --> 00:24:20,870 we do things. And I I think a lot of times 428 00:24:21,230 --> 00:24:24,790 people forget that that was perceived to be a real need 429 00:24:25,070 --> 00:24:26,590 around I U. Football at that point. 430 00:24:26,590 --> 00:24:28,310 And they were trying all kinds of different things. 431 00:24:28,310 --> 00:24:33,480 One of the things they tried in 1997 was for all freshmen living 432 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,080 in the dorms, you got football tickets for free. 433 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,920 And I I, you know, it was funny because I never like going to my 434 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:43,600 my mailbox at teeter one day and like the football tickets were 435 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:45,360 in the mailbox. It was right right at the 436 00:24:45,360 --> 00:24:47,120 beginning of the year, which was kind of neat. 437 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:50,520 I didn't need to be talked into going to football games. 438 00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:54,480 You know, I've been going to I U football games with my dad, you 439 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:59,510 know, since the mid 80s. And so I was just happy that, 440 00:24:59,510 --> 00:25:02,550 you know, I had tickets and was ready to get out there and and 441 00:25:02,550 --> 00:25:06,270 watch the team. They they play a Kentucky team 442 00:25:06,350 --> 00:25:08,950 in the third game of the season and they decide that they're 443 00:25:08,950 --> 00:25:10,790 going to debut these black uniforms. 444 00:25:10,790 --> 00:25:14,270 And they've also debuted this new logo, the Oval logo, which 445 00:25:14,270 --> 00:25:17,750 is considered to be very divisive within I U Circle still 446 00:25:17,750 --> 00:25:21,350 to this day. And of course they go out and 447 00:25:21,350 --> 00:25:24,910 they lose that game immensely. They lose 49 to 7. 448 00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:29,760 Tim Couch, who was, you know, Kentucky's last great hope as a, 449 00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:32,160 you know, a nationally prominent quarterback. 450 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:36,520 It had a Heisman caliber type of day and just passed all over. 451 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:40,280 I U and a lot of people didn't like the black uniforms, 452 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:43,760 including infamously Bob Knight, who you know, one of the 453 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:47,120 uniforms basically like kind of kept away from everybody's eyes 454 00:25:47,120 --> 00:25:50,920 for the rest of time. And I I think to some degree the 455 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:57,190 black uniforms, the, the attitude towards them has grown 456 00:25:57,190 --> 00:26:00,550 and changed, you know, in ways that that game didn't really 457 00:26:00,550 --> 00:26:03,150 warrant. You know it almost feels like 458 00:26:03,270 --> 00:26:06,750 there are a lot of people who look at that example of are you 459 00:26:06,750 --> 00:26:09,590 wearing black uniforms and then losing 49 to 7 in the only game 460 00:26:09,590 --> 00:26:12,790 that they played in them and saying you know see that's what 461 00:26:12,790 --> 00:26:15,390 happens when you when you drift away from tradition or you wear 462 00:26:15,390 --> 00:26:17,390 something that you shouldn't wear and hey, Indiana should 463 00:26:17,390 --> 00:26:21,350 never wear black. And I, you know, increasingly as 464 00:26:21,350 --> 00:26:23,830 I've heard that over the years because people have been asking 465 00:26:23,830 --> 00:26:25,510 hey, can we do we do a black uniform? 466 00:26:25,510 --> 00:26:28,430 Can we do something different. The response has always been, 467 00:26:28,430 --> 00:26:32,070 look we did that last time and we lost by 42 and it and you 468 00:26:32,070 --> 00:26:34,990 know I think it's important to keep in mind for everybody that 469 00:26:34,990 --> 00:26:38,190 I U literally could have worn candy stripe uniforms. 470 00:26:38,910 --> 00:26:42,590 They could have worn 1967 Rose Bowl vintage uniforms and they 471 00:26:42,590 --> 00:26:45,030 probably would have lost by 49 to 7. 472 00:26:45,030 --> 00:26:47,310 It would The uniforms made zero difference. 473 00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:50,600 It was a bad matchup. That was a bad Indiana football 474 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:53,360 team in 1997. They went two and nine that they 475 00:26:53,360 --> 00:26:56,560 won one game in the big 10. They they think they they 476 00:26:56,560 --> 00:27:00,280 averaged like 10 points a game. Offensively that was that was 477 00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:04,840 the pre Antoine Randall L Cam Cameron era team that just could 478 00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:09,360 not get anything going. The black uniforms I it it was 479 00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:12,280 time to bring them back out again and I tip my cap to the 480 00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:14,880 athletic department and to Adidas for designing them. 481 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:16,400 I think the uniforms look awesome. 482 00:27:17,090 --> 00:27:20,170 I think the idea that I use going to have a a blackout where 483 00:27:20,170 --> 00:27:23,290 they're encouraging everybody to wear black, especially in the 484 00:27:23,290 --> 00:27:25,890 student section, that's going to be fascinating given that it's a 485 00:27:25,890 --> 00:27:28,690 night game. You know, I think it's fun 486 00:27:28,690 --> 00:27:31,010 though. I I like the fact that Indiana 487 00:27:31,210 --> 00:27:35,890 is continuing to try to, you know, get people excited about 488 00:27:35,890 --> 00:27:39,290 different aspects of football. It's very difficult, obviously, 489 00:27:39,290 --> 00:27:42,170 without more results on the field, but I think they really 490 00:27:42,170 --> 00:27:44,930 did do a good job with the black uniforms. 491 00:27:44,930 --> 00:27:46,570 I think it's a nice change of pace. 492 00:27:46,950 --> 00:27:49,350 I would certainly buy one if they were available for 493 00:27:49,350 --> 00:27:52,350 purchase. And I I'll be honest, I was 494 00:27:52,350 --> 00:27:55,190 actually a little bit surprised at how positive the overall 495 00:27:55,190 --> 00:27:58,630 social media reception on the black uniforms was it. 496 00:27:58,630 --> 00:28:00,990 I remember the the last time these things got seriously 497 00:28:00,990 --> 00:28:03,030 talked about, a lot of people flipped out. 498 00:28:03,030 --> 00:28:05,070 A lot of people were unhappy and there were still a few people. 499 00:28:05,070 --> 00:28:08,310 And there's probably some of you in the audience who are uneasy 500 00:28:08,310 --> 00:28:12,350 or you know find black uniforms for Indiana distasteful. 501 00:28:12,350 --> 00:28:16,620 But I think, I think it's cool. I'm, I'm excited to see it. 502 00:28:16,780 --> 00:28:20,220 It's a different look and it's a good time to do it. 503 00:28:20,220 --> 00:28:23,460 It's a game that there's you know it's something different. 504 00:28:23,500 --> 00:28:26,100 I mean I I if the if the Akron game is close if it's 505 00:28:26,100 --> 00:28:29,860 competitive, that's a problem. And so assuming that it's not 506 00:28:29,860 --> 00:28:33,500 going to be close, I'm excited about Indiana being able to have 507 00:28:33,500 --> 00:28:35,980 something that the fans can get excited about at least a kickoff 508 00:28:36,140 --> 00:28:37,660 we can see. Are you wearing something 509 00:28:37,660 --> 00:28:39,620 slightly different? That's going to be really 510 00:28:39,620 --> 00:28:43,550 fascinating. One other thing I wanted to 511 00:28:43,550 --> 00:28:46,870 touch on and I and I think that, you know, this is not 512 00:28:46,870 --> 00:28:48,950 necessarily a straight up Indiana thing, but Indiana 513 00:28:48,950 --> 00:28:51,510 always invariably gets dragged into these conversations. 514 00:28:51,510 --> 00:28:55,390 But we heard some stuff out from the West Coast over the course 515 00:28:55,390 --> 00:29:02,360 of the last week talking about the idea of the two remaining 516 00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:06,320 schools in the PAC 12, which of course are are Washington State 517 00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,160 and Oregon State. They were the ones that 518 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,720 essentially got stuck without chairs when the music stopped on 519 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,560 realignment. But they have floated this idea 520 00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:18,320 that they want to try to launch some kind of a promotion and 521 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:25,000 relegation model in college sports in relation to the, I 522 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,480 guess, the Mountain West and maybe a couple of other squads. 523 00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:30,190 And you know, the idea is essentially if you're not 524 00:29:30,190 --> 00:29:32,270 familiar with promotion and relegation, if you're not 525 00:29:32,270 --> 00:29:34,590 following along with like English soccer or soccer in 526 00:29:34,590 --> 00:29:40,430 other countries, promotion and relegation is a an approach to 527 00:29:40,430 --> 00:29:45,990 doing league play where a certain number of of teams at 528 00:29:45,990 --> 00:29:51,550 the bottom of the standings in any given year get relegated 529 00:29:51,550 --> 00:29:55,940 down to the next level down. And then whoever the top two or 530 00:29:55,940 --> 00:29:59,140 three teams are from the next level down get bumped up. 531 00:29:59,140 --> 00:30:02,180 So in England, you know, in the Premier League, you'll, you 532 00:30:02,180 --> 00:30:05,540 know, like this year you're, you know, you had three teams that 533 00:30:05,540 --> 00:30:07,860 got promoted. There's a very good chance that 534 00:30:07,860 --> 00:30:10,260 two of the three, if not all three are going to get relegated 535 00:30:10,260 --> 00:30:13,220 this upcoming year. You know, so it's basically 536 00:30:13,220 --> 00:30:16,380 like, you know the the way that they do it, it's it's based upon 537 00:30:16,620 --> 00:30:18,900 points. You get 3 points for a win, you 538 00:30:18,900 --> 00:30:22,060 get one point for a draw, you get 0 points for a loss. 539 00:30:22,060 --> 00:30:25,470 And then if there's a tie in the number of points that you've 540 00:30:25,470 --> 00:30:29,430 accrued, you go to gold differential in. 541 00:30:29,470 --> 00:30:32,950 In American football, you know, the idea of promotion and 542 00:30:32,950 --> 00:30:34,390 relegation has been tossed around. 543 00:30:34,390 --> 00:30:37,430 We've seen it tossed around in other areas and other other 544 00:30:37,430 --> 00:30:39,550 sports as well. You know, we've asked, people 545 00:30:39,550 --> 00:30:42,070 have asked for it and in the NFL people have asked for it. 546 00:30:42,070 --> 00:30:45,950 In baseball people have asked for it in in in Major League 547 00:30:45,950 --> 00:30:50,140 Soccer and the idea that it's kind of picking up steam in the 548 00:30:50,140 --> 00:30:52,220 college ranks. I think it's really interesting 549 00:30:52,220 --> 00:30:56,940 because it's it's such a nonstarter for so many reasons 550 00:30:57,260 --> 00:30:59,820 and yet people keep coming back to it. 551 00:31:00,380 --> 00:31:02,380 It's it's it's almost funny to me. 552 00:31:03,020 --> 00:31:05,660 You know, and this, I say this is someone who studies sports 553 00:31:05,660 --> 00:31:10,530 for a living and and certainly I I find the conceptual cultural 554 00:31:10,530 --> 00:31:14,530 idea of promotion and relegation to be kind of of curious and 555 00:31:14,530 --> 00:31:17,010 interesting. And it certainly feels right to 556 00:31:17,010 --> 00:31:19,130 the fan and and the media member. 557 00:31:19,290 --> 00:31:21,890 Hey, you had a bad season. You didn't do what you were 558 00:31:21,890 --> 00:31:23,730 supposed to do. You weren't as good as these 559 00:31:23,730 --> 00:31:26,010 other teams. Your punishment is that you have 560 00:31:26,010 --> 00:31:28,850 to go down to the lower level and have to fight your way back 561 00:31:28,850 --> 00:31:31,490 into the top level. That sounds, you know it sounds 562 00:31:31,490 --> 00:31:34,530 like justice, right. You know we we relegate the week 563 00:31:34,530 --> 00:31:37,450 and we we allow that the teams that have taken care of business 564 00:31:37,450 --> 00:31:40,090 to keep going. It just doesn't work. 565 00:31:40,530 --> 00:31:43,730 You know in in American business and increasingly in the Premier 566 00:31:43,730 --> 00:31:47,530 League it doesn't work. What we've seen in the Premier 567 00:31:47,530 --> 00:31:51,930 League is when a team gets relegated, generally one of two 568 00:31:51,930 --> 00:31:55,610 things happens. They either all of these teams 569 00:31:55,610 --> 00:31:58,490 are given what are called parachute payments when they're 570 00:31:58,490 --> 00:32:01,650 relegated because there's such a huge financial difference in 571 00:32:01,650 --> 00:32:05,290 television money and gate receipts between playing at the 572 00:32:05,290 --> 00:32:09,290 top level and playing at the level below. 573 00:32:09,690 --> 00:32:14,650 And for a lot of these teams that they have, you know you 574 00:32:14,650 --> 00:32:19,130 have to sign players at a certain level of salary and that 575 00:32:19,210 --> 00:32:21,130 is the salary of the highest level. 576 00:32:21,130 --> 00:32:24,250 Well, when you're relegated, it's not like those contracts go 577 00:32:24,250 --> 00:32:26,360 away. You know, for most of those 578 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,560 teams, they either are continuing to pay Premier League 579 00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:31,960 salaries but they're no longer making the money that they were 580 00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:35,760 making in the Premier League, or they have to sell all their 581 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,520 players at a discount because their players have clauses in 582 00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:42,760 their contract saying if we're relegated we get to leave and 583 00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:45,360 and a team that's in the Premier League will go by us. 584 00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:48,720 You know, this is where every time the promotion, relegation 585 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:52,080 comes up, even in pro sports, in the USI just kind of shake my 586 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:58,100 head because with the way that money works in sports, the idea 587 00:32:58,100 --> 00:33:01,700 that an owner is going to voluntarily sign up for a system 588 00:33:02,020 --> 00:33:05,300 where their investment in the level of investment is not 589 00:33:05,300 --> 00:33:08,220 guaranteed is is. It's crazy like it's not going 590 00:33:08,220 --> 00:33:09,900 to happen. I remember sitting in a 591 00:33:09,900 --> 00:33:13,180 conference listening to the chairman of Bournemouth Football 592 00:33:13,180 --> 00:33:16,300 Club which is one of the Premier League teams and his team had 593 00:33:16,300 --> 00:33:19,550 just gotten promoted and he was asked about bringing promotion 594 00:33:19,550 --> 00:33:22,870 and relegation to the United States and and he he made the 595 00:33:22,870 --> 00:33:26,110 statement like, you know, honestly we just got promoted. 596 00:33:26,390 --> 00:33:29,350 I really want to do away with relegation because the financial 597 00:33:29,350 --> 00:33:32,190 impact of that would be so negative at this point given 598 00:33:32,190 --> 00:33:35,150 that we've spent so much money on not just on contracts but on 599 00:33:35,150 --> 00:33:37,670 all these other things. To be a Premier League club, the 600 00:33:37,670 --> 00:33:40,910 idea of being relegated is like financially ruinous. 601 00:33:41,190 --> 00:33:44,370 And when I hear it talked about at the college level, it just 602 00:33:44,970 --> 00:33:48,250 not, you know that the financial elements are important. 603 00:33:48,330 --> 00:33:51,890 And if you think about what the Big 10 television contract is 604 00:33:51,890 --> 00:33:55,610 going to be and then you think about, you know the idea that if 605 00:33:55,610 --> 00:33:59,570 I'm in the Big 10, random school in the Big 10 and I'm going to 606 00:33:59,570 --> 00:34:03,450 be guaranteed somewhere between 90 and $100 million in 607 00:34:03,450 --> 00:34:06,410 television money. And you know, let's say we had 608 00:34:06,410 --> 00:34:10,250 relegation, like PAC 12 is talking about, if you're in the 609 00:34:10,250 --> 00:34:12,409 Big 10, it's like, Oh yeah, we're going to do a league with 610 00:34:12,409 --> 00:34:14,570 relegation. Unless you're going to guarantee 611 00:34:14,810 --> 00:34:17,610 that there's no difference in television money between the 612 00:34:17,690 --> 00:34:19,929 promote the teams in the top level and the teams that have 613 00:34:19,929 --> 00:34:22,370 been relegated to the second level, There's no way that 614 00:34:22,370 --> 00:34:23,889 schools are going to sign on to that. 615 00:34:24,130 --> 00:34:29,570 And you know, much like as you see in the Premier League, the 616 00:34:29,570 --> 00:34:32,290 ability to compete with those teams at the top level, the 617 00:34:32,290 --> 00:34:36,850 moment you get kicked out in a relegation process, it's it's 618 00:34:36,850 --> 00:34:39,730 going to be almost impossible to make up for that from a 619 00:34:39,730 --> 00:34:42,489 financial perspective. Unless you're like SMU and you 620 00:34:42,489 --> 00:34:44,770 can just walk into your donors and say, hey, we need $100 621 00:34:44,770 --> 00:34:47,650 million and they just all write checks, which is actually what 622 00:34:47,650 --> 00:34:50,330 happened with SMU last week. But not everybody is SMU. 623 00:34:50,969 --> 00:34:54,489 So I, you know, I know this always gets talked about. 624 00:34:54,489 --> 00:34:56,489 We, you know, we've got people, industry people say yes, 625 00:34:56,489 --> 00:34:58,690 promotional relegations being talked about seriously. 626 00:34:59,090 --> 00:35:01,890 I've spent more time on it on this podcast, the 5 minutes or 627 00:35:01,890 --> 00:35:03,850 so I've been talking about it than it deserves. 628 00:35:04,370 --> 00:35:07,250 It's it's an idea. I wouldn't be shocked if it went 629 00:35:07,250 --> 00:35:10,050 away in European football in like 15 years. 630 00:35:10,650 --> 00:35:13,770 It's an idea that really worked at a time when the money was a 631 00:35:13,770 --> 00:35:16,490 lot closer, when the the difference between the First 632 00:35:16,490 --> 00:35:19,810 Division club and the third division club wasn't that huge 633 00:35:20,290 --> 00:35:25,210 and you know, it didn't require literally billions of dollars to 634 00:35:25,610 --> 00:35:28,810 to to run a top level program or top level team. 635 00:35:29,170 --> 00:35:30,730 It's the same thing in college sports. 636 00:35:31,260 --> 00:35:33,580 And I I'll go back to what we've talked about on some of our 637 00:35:33,580 --> 00:35:37,300 sports business podcast, college teams, colleges and universities 638 00:35:37,300 --> 00:35:40,260 who engage in college sports. They're in it for the prestige. 639 00:35:40,540 --> 00:35:44,260 They're in it for the visibility and the idea that, you know, 640 00:35:44,300 --> 00:35:47,420 even I mean think about, you know, if you're if you're a, 641 00:35:47,980 --> 00:35:51,500 let's let's ignore even the Ohio's and Ohio States and the 642 00:35:51,500 --> 00:35:55,500 Michigan's and the Penn States. Think about a team like Michigan 643 00:35:55,500 --> 00:35:58,430 State. They had a year. 644 00:35:58,430 --> 00:36:01,190 I think it was in 20. It was the IT was the last year 645 00:36:01,190 --> 00:36:03,870 before the year, this past year that Indiana had won the old 646 00:36:03,870 --> 00:36:06,270 Brass Platoon. So I think it was 2016. 647 00:36:07,510 --> 00:36:11,190 You know, they they went like 2 and 10 or three and nine that 648 00:36:11,190 --> 00:36:13,550 season. Imagine if Michigan State just 649 00:36:13,550 --> 00:36:15,710 has an awful year and gets relegated. 650 00:36:16,310 --> 00:36:19,070 They're not going to sign up for that because it's always very 651 00:36:19,070 --> 00:36:21,270 possible, you know with the way Michigan State's been running 652 00:36:21,270 --> 00:36:22,950 itself that they could have a year like that. 653 00:36:23,150 --> 00:36:25,910 The Maryland's of the world are not going to sign up for the 654 00:36:25,910 --> 00:36:29,630 idea that they're not going to be, you know, at the big table 655 00:36:29,630 --> 00:36:32,950 because they have one bad year. You know, it's it's a lot of 656 00:36:32,950 --> 00:36:35,590 people focus on the the little teams or the teams that haven't 657 00:36:35,590 --> 00:36:37,670 achieved well and Indiana always gets thrown into that mix. 658 00:36:37,670 --> 00:36:41,510 Vanderbilt gets talked about, Rutgers gets talked about that. 659 00:36:41,630 --> 00:36:45,030 You know, not only will those teams not support a promotion 660 00:36:45,030 --> 00:36:48,070 relegation, but the middle class is going to be like, hell, no, 661 00:36:48,190 --> 00:36:50,670 absolutely not. That is, that is not going to 662 00:36:50,670 --> 00:36:54,590 work. So you know for the PAC 12 on 663 00:36:54,590 --> 00:36:58,150 the Mountain West that it would be an interesting thing to look 664 00:36:58,150 --> 00:37:00,270 at. But even there, there's enough 665 00:37:00,270 --> 00:37:03,470 money difference between what a PAC 12 team is considered to be 666 00:37:03,470 --> 00:37:05,950 from a television perspective and what a Mountain West team is 667 00:37:05,950 --> 00:37:07,880 considered. I think they're just talking 668 00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:10,400 about this to get some media attention and I guess I played 669 00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:13,040 right into it because I've been talking about it for 7 minutes 670 00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:14,720 now. Anyway, I'm going to stop, but I 671 00:37:14,720 --> 00:37:16,440 just wanted to mention that anyway. 672 00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:18,960 We're going to wrap things up. I hope you all have a wonderful 673 00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:20,920 Friday. I hope you have a wonderful 674 00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:22,240 Saturday. If you're going to come down to 675 00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:26,000 the game, should be beautiful weather and maybe the last 676 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:30,240 really great home football weather game that I you has this 677 00:37:30,240 --> 00:37:32,120 season. So if you aren't planning on 678 00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:34,640 coming down, take advantage of the fact that it's an evening 679 00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:36,480 game, Take advantage of the good weather. 680 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:40,840 You know, come down, do a tailgate, relax a little bit, go 681 00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:44,640 out, enjoy. I U wear black to the game and I 682 00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:48,240 think hopefully Indiana comes in plays with some fire and some 683 00:37:48,240 --> 00:37:51,560 spirit and then blows the Akron out and and really gives 684 00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:53,600 themselves some confidence heading into this next game. 685 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,840 Anyway, my thanks to our friends at Home Field Apparel is our 686 00:37:56,840 --> 00:38:00,080 presenting sponsors. My thanks to the Back Home 687 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:02,560 Network for their friendship and camaraderie. 688 00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:05,220 And my thanks to all of you folks for joining us here on the 689 00:38:05,220 --> 00:38:07,300 show. We'll be back with our regular 690 00:38:07,460 --> 00:38:11,900 recap podcast on Sunday morning, so be sure to tune in for that. 691 00:38:12,100 --> 00:38:13,940 Make sure to follow us on substack 692 00:38:13,940 --> 00:38:17,980 crimsoncast.substack.com. I'm Galen Clavio. 693 00:38:18,420 --> 00:38:20,620 We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the 694 00:38:20,620 --> 00:38:21,740 Bison, So everybody.