Hi folks. Before we get to the main
program which we recorded this morning, Sunday, October 1st, we
had to record an addendum to put in front of the program that we
recorded earlier on today. Because, of course, news broke
around 1:00 in the afternoon that I U had fired Walt Bell,
the offensive coordinator for Indiana University football and
replaced him on a permanent basis with Rod Carey, the
quality control coach. First of all, hi, this is
Crimson Cast, Galen Clavio, Scott Caulfield joining.
I'm assuming you will know that if you're listening to this, but
Scott, we try not to put inaccurate or out of date
information out there regarding anything that we do and we felt
compelled to record. We almost rerecorded the whole
podcast. We decided we debated that we
were going to leave the original podcast we recorded in its
entirety because most of our conversation about the loss to
Maryland and the overall state of the program is still there.
There's a lot of Walt Bell talk in there, which is going to
sound either out of date or prescient, I can't decide which.
But Scott, let's go ahead and just kind of dive into this and
talk about the fact that Walt Bell's been fired after one and
a third seasons as I U offensive coordinator.
This was during obviously a couple of seasons for I U that
have not gone very well at all we talked about.
In the main podcast, which you'll hear a lot of the
offensive inadequacies in Walt Bell's tenure.
I U only scored more than 24 points once against an FBS
opponent and that was Maryland team that they scored 33 points
against last year and then only scored seventeen against this
year. So your initial thoughts and
reactions to I U firing its second offensive coordinator in
the last 22 months. Yeah, it.
I'm surprised that it happened now I I mean the offense was was
really bad. What what's hard to parse here
is how much of it was Walt Bell's offense.
How much was was this something that the you know Tom Allen
wanted to run That because it's not like this is vastly
different than what we saw under Nick Sheridan.
When you go back then things do get vastly different and other
coordinators so so you know it's hard to parse.
You know, whether this is what Walt Bell was being told to run
or whether this is the Walt Bell's vision.
There's also what we talked about, just, you know, you you
can only do so much. It's like, hey, even if
everybody wanted to run an option set up, you need the
right players in the right places to run an option set up.
But I don't think we have that. I mean, I'm not, it's no knock
on the players. I'm just not sure we have the
right set to run kind of any offensive set functionally or at
a high level. But I'm surprised that it
happened now. It's funny because I was
thinking during our pod today, I was like, well, we'll talk about
it later in the season, like. I think it's I thought it was
interesting all of the like angst of toward the Walt Bell we
got to get rid of Walt Bell because I don't know what that I
don't know what that solves. Like the the thing about this
move is it does feel like all right we we hear you fans you're
pissed so here's Walt Bell as a sacrifice and but but it also
means like you know we talked about it last year like you know
Darren Hiller had you know years of an aptitude with the
offensive line. You fire him mid season and it's
like that's OK like I'm happy you're you're realizing the
changes you made. It doesn't solve anything for
last year because you can't just now having a better offensive
line. And I feel the same way with the
offense here is like okay, I guess, like thank you for
hearing us that you're unhappy or that we're unhappy.
But it's like this doesn't, I don't think it's fundamentally
solves anything for this year because you haven't changed the
players. You can't do that and you can't
just install a new offense in two weeks before you go to
Michigan. That's like not exactly an easy
place for Indiana to play. So I guess.
It's good. I don't know.
I mean, I don't know. I don't think it fundamentally
changes anything that's going to happen this year.
Maybe we run a couple more, you know, a couple less draws up the
middle, but I don't think it changed anything.
But I guess it means that people are higher than us are hearing
that the fans are pissed. I don't know.
That's kind of my initial reaction.
I agree with a lot of that. I think there's, it's a weird
setup. I mean, so let's and you folks
will hear some of this. Like we said, we talked about
the Walt Bell conundrum on the main body of the podcast.
There's no question that Walt Bell as offensive coordinator,
as play caller was just not getting the job done.
And as we mentioned in the podcast, you know, I like the
things that Walt Bell said in a lot of the the press
conferences. But it was clear this year, you
know, if you lose last year is like, well, it's a new coach,
new off, new offensive coordinator.
They got a new quarterback. They're trying to learn the
personnel. You've got an offensive line
coach that gets fired in week five of last year, I guess it
was week 6 actually, they fired Darren Hiller after the Michigan
loss, which was on October 9th. So almost a year to the day, you
know, you could maybe make excuses for Walt Bells lack of
performance, but there were no excuses this year with the
offense as anemic as it looked with the complete lack of
imagination in the play calls. I don't think you know this.
As we've talked about many times, it's a it's a results
based business, coaching at any level and it's a hair quick on a
trigger as you would normally get for an offensive coordinator
and I'll come back to that in a second.
But if you were trying to defend Walt Bell, the only defense you
could really give was, well, he wasn't given enough time.
And that's not really a good excuse.
And so I don't philosophically from a purely football
perspective, I don't have a problem with the firing because
I use got to learn how to score more points.
But you know, the larger issue here is why was Walt Bell hired
in the 1st place? Because as we talked about on
the main show. So I just just kind of give you
guys heads up for what you will hear again.
Why would you, Why would you hire Walt Bell as offensive
coordinator? Like everything that happened
during his time here at I U could have been predicted by
what happened during his time as offensive coordinator at Florida
State, offensive coordinator at Maryland, head coach at UMass.
I mean, all of this was there. He was not an effective.
Offensive coordinator just by the numbers at the FBS level.
And you know what? What made the higher galling at
the time was the the realization that most people who follow I U
Football closely knew that you know, there was a quote and I'd
like to hat tip our good friend and longtime Crimson cast
listener Sam by Sizing, who went back and found.
This quote and this was in relation to the people talking
about this yesterday, Walt checked all the boxes that we
were looking for, Tom Allen said in the hiring press release.
His experience, creativity and leadership make him an ideal
fit. I was looking for someone to be
the leader of the offense and Walt will be that.
We welcome him and his family to Bloomington.
And so this was Tom Allen's hire.
Tom Allen decided that Walt Bell would be the offensive
coordinator. And you know, it's important to
keep in mind the context. The reason that Walt Bell was
even in the position to be hired was that after Tom Allen went
and hired an unproven offensive coordinator in Nick Sheridan and
that went S incredibly quickly, Allen found himself in the
position of having to go higher. This offensive coordinator and I
have a hard time believing that Walt Bell was really the first
choice. Like I have a hard time
believing that there was a national search that Tom Allen
looked at all the options and said Walt Bell's the guy we want
it. It feels a lot more likely,
especially with him being jettison so quickly, that this
was the best that Allen could do given the circumstances around
the program and the circumstances around the program
seemed to be there's a certain style of offense that Tom Allen
wants I you to play that is. Largely out of step with how the
game is being played, and Allen at the time seemed to be very
protective of his existing coaching staff, including the
former offensive line coach. Now whether that actually
factored into the equation, we don't know, because we got very
little information about how the hiring process went.
But a lot of people called out and not even just us.
I mean, I'm talking about people across the I U Media diaspora
with I U Football called out. Like, why is this the hire?
And so it's no surprise that we sit here on the 1st of October
of 2023 and Walt Bill's no longer the head coach or the
sister, excuse me, the offensive coordinator.
But that does kind of fall in the lap of the head coach pretty
significantly when this was the guy that you said was the ideal
fit to now just kind of unceremoniously dump him, you
know, five games into the the second season that he's
coaching. Illustrates that there's some
much larger structural issues which we already knew about, but
it's like another underline and an exclamation point on that.
And so again, I'm not going to shed tears for Walt Bell.
I think you know you you put yourself in situations where.
You know you. Don't perform.
You're going to get fired, but I think it really does even more
call into question the entire process that's surrounding I U
football right now. Agreed.
You know you and I have talked about that like it we talked
about this like we're we're trying to to keep a level head
at this. But you know it was Tom Allen's
hire and now that you've gone through two coordinators and
like you said 22 months you've gone through a defensive
coordinate. That was the thing that we
talked about going into last season.
It's like all right you've changed all your coordinators
like now you have your new coordinators like this is your
setup. Tom Allen like this is.
This is where you go. And now you've gone through that
and now you've, you know, gone through an offensive line coach
and you you've now fired an office coordinator in the middle
of the season like that. There comes a point where I
don't want to start a weekly Tom Allen contract fire thing, but
there does come a point where it's like we're out of other
moves. Like at some point you know that
it's like moving, you know, chairs in the Titanic, like at
some point we have to stop moving other chess pieces
around. We can do this and see if it
gets better, you know, but. I know we're talking about
offense. We're talking about Walt Bell.
It got me thinking. You know, this is, as you
mentioned, with not you like it is Tom Allen's defense and his
defensive scheme. I was just going back and
looking at the number of points this defense has given up over
the last couple seasons, just FBS opponents.
I'm taking out the 2020 season just because it was such a wonky
season, but I could add that back in.
But in 2018, the team gave up on average 30 points a game. 2019
and went to a ball. They gave up 26 points a game.
2021 they gave up 35 points a game.
In 2022 they gave up 35 points a game so far this year, getting
better, they gave up 28 points a game.
The last time we gave up single digit points to a non division
two team was Northwestern in 2019.
Since then we've had 21 games. We've given up more than 30
points. You know and this is the this is
where I kind of like you know say all right the the defense is
also a problem like if we're going to be firing coordinators
before I fire all the coordinators.
But I'm I'm getting off a little bit on what we're here to talk
about. But it's just no, it's a good
point in that it really does feel like this is it's it's it's
hard to get your head wrapped around.
I mean this is now you you know over the course of the last four
years you've you've cycled out a starting quarterback.
You've brought in and cycled out another starting quarterback.
You've brought in an inexperienced quarterback to be
your starter who you now look like you might be in the process
of of cycling out. You've you've hired an offensive
coordinator and fired that offensive coordinator and then
hired an offensive coordinator that a lot of people said, hey I
don't know if this is a good idea and then fired the
offensive line coach and now you fired that offensive coordinator
and. They went to the defense where
you fired a coordinator and then yes, and actually yes, and then
you fired a defensive coordinators.
You did fire a defensive coordinator and you made
yourself Dave as a coordinator. For a year.
And now you have it's just, I mean it's just a wild chain of
events. I mean the one thing I'll, I'll
say that I'm a little bit concerned with which well the
one OK about about the new hire like so this is the thing and
this is where. We have to podcast sometimes on
these things relatively quickly after they happen.
I I do think it's weird that the reporting from Zach Osterman,
who I think had the news 1st and has done a good job of of of
following up on it, noted in his report that Rod Carey who is the
new offensive coordinator is not an interim offensive coordinator
but is fulltime offensive coordinator.
And I'm. I'm hoping that that's a
miscommunication or that there is something that we're not
seeing because if. You know, it's one thing I think
to replace and again I said like I don't have a problem with that
Bell firing from a purely football perspective.
But you know, Allen's under contract for the next 4 years.
A lot of fans already have it in their head that always going to,
you know, get fired this year or get fired certainly at the end
of next year. I don't think you can assume
that necessarily In either case, it may be that that happens, but
I don't think you can assume it. So to sign someone.
As a permanent offensive coordinator with a contract that
extends after December 1st of this year, if that's indeed what
happened and again big caveat if that didn't happen, if it's just
until the end of the season, this is all for not.
But if it is beyond this season then I think that it's a real
disappointing thing to see given what we've already seen in terms
of the decision making around this football, programs,
coaching staff because. This will mean that you've now
hired multiple offensive coordinators on multi year.
Multiple coordinators with offensive and defensive on multi
year contracts fired them with Nick Sheridan.
You didn't do a national search. You hired internally with with
Walt Bell. You did a national search and
what you came up with was wasn't great.
But now you're not going to do another national search and
instead you've hired someone who hasn't been an offensive
coordinator since 2012. And you know, Rob Carey was a
very successful for the level of football.
Head coach at Northern Illinois was not that successful at
Temple. And and in fact, if you read
about the end of his tenure at Temple, it really didn't.
And well, I mean there's there's literature out there to, to
check out on that. There were a lot of problems at
the end of his tenure. I know, but carries up.
He's an I U alum. He played football on the
program during the Mallory era. You know, maybe things are
different here, but it's like it feels like you can't make a
permanent change in the middle of the season.
You make a temporary change. You put somebody on staff in
that role and then you you have to make some kind of a national
search to figure out who you would bring in you.
I think just handing the baton off to a coordinator who hasn't
been a coordinator in 12 years, who was on staff.
I think everything we read last year, specifically Rod Kerry
didn't want to be a coach. He wanted to be in that quality
control role. That's your new permanent
offensive coordinator. Again, we'll see what that ends
up looking like, but that's just a very weird sequence of events
and it doesn't feel like what you would do logically as you're
trying to continue to build your program back up from the the
depression that it's in right now.
Yeah, well, you put yourself and it's not lost on me too that,
you know, Tom Allen was also just ran not randomly but named
as the just official head coach in a point where you feel like
it could have also been interim when you went from Wilson to
Allen. But no, I I agree.
Like now you're in an odd spot where.
Again, what this could all be for not but to not name him
interim is odd because it's like, all right.
So if if he's going to be your offensive coordinator next year,
it does beg the question of like are we no long like that was
kind of the issue is like Walt, you know, Walt Bell was like
that's the best we could get. Like is this?
Is this the best we could get if we don't even do a search?
But then if you do go for a new offensive coordinator next year
that I, I have us down for, you know, that's for offensive
coordinators in five years, which is not normally how a
successful program is run unless you're like Alabama where
everyone's getting hired to NFL and other jobs and you're having
to replace them. But that's not what happening
here normally. You know you need some sort of
stability at Coach and it's like this is.
This is where a lot of this cognitive dissonance is
happening, where it's like the the only logical reason to say
we're going to continue with, you know, this craziness is like
we need to have some consistency at the head coach level because
you need consistently consistency in coaching.
It's like, but we're not doing that anywhere else.
So it it does put the IT puts I U in a conundrum where basically
they they're kind of have no good options here where you
either go with somebody who's unproven or you know just
another internal candidate which you've done that or you're again
doing. Four and five years, which is
just. It's not a path to success at a
program like I that's what I continue to tell friends is you
know we did pretty well in the portal.
It's like that's you know I I always quote you and you're
right. You look at programs like Iowa
and Wisconsin like programs that don't have the the the
recruiting pool to go from like how are they able to build a
program be successful. You know they they they find
players. They build players like they do.
They have very bedrock things that they go with that they're
not able to just live in this kind of crazy frenetic.
World where that we don't times are changing and you can look at
Colorado like oh Dion did. It's like all right well Dion is
a one and one like that's a one of one.
You know you you have to have some kind of core value.
You can't just continue to have this change and do an offensive
coordinator every year or two anyway.
I'm It's all that's well. Taken and you're right and and
there is no consistency and it just it really does feel like
desperation on the part of Tom Allen.
I mean, it really does and and. There there's I mean, and we and
we talk about this in the main show the the all the talk in the
postgame press conference about evaluating everything.
It's like that that ship sailed, man.
I mean it. The evaluation period was the
offseason. The evaluation period was
supposed to be after the Akron game.
I don't. The team is what they are at
this point. And look, I mean the the what
they do with the offense. I don't know what's going to
change with this offense with a play calling, get better, I
guess. But what confuses me is, you
know, Alan spent all that time in the postgame press conference
talking about execution, not play calling.
So is is the problem that the coach hasn't gotten the offense
to execute? I mean, I don't know exactly
what a quality control coach does within Allen's system, but
is that part of his job? Is is he going to get the
offense to execute better? It does feel like you said at
the beginning and we'll wrap up with this and get you guys to
the main pot. But it does feel like here's,
here's the red meat you were asking for.
Please leave me alone. Which is what the Hiller firing
felt like. And it's what the Nick Sheridan
hire or firing felt like. I mean it, Really.
Leave me alone. Partly.
Here you go. Just talk to me in 3 weeks.
And look, I mean, I'm not surprised it happened now.
I mean, we were joking about how we were surprised it hadn't
happened when we were doing the original recording this morning
at like 9:30. So you know, look, they've got a
bye week. If you're going to do it, you
better do it fast and you better really give yourself an
opportunity to try to fix whatever you think is going to
be fixed by changing offensive coordinators.
Maybe. Maybe it has an impact.
I severely doubt it. And I do worry about the
longterm ramifications if they hand rod carry a contract is
permanent offensive coordinator that lasts beyond December 1st
of this year because regardless of whatever.
You think the longterm prospects are of Tom Allen.
Tom Allen needs to be coaching like he's going to be here for
the remainder of his contract. You don't just punt another
season into the sun. You know with it with you know,
without at least having looked at who, What are the options out
there? Maybe we maybe we increase the
pool. Maybe we allow the next
offensive coordinator to pick his offensive coaching staff.
You know, maybe maybe we do it differently than we did last
time. And maybe you get somebody in
who's got ideas who can actually make something of the offense.
I mean, to me, as much as people are ready to give up on the Tom
Allen era, I I get it. I'm certainly very skeptical
that they're going to be able to pull out of this tailspin that
they're in. But the you can't make moves
like this in my opinion, without broadening your search and
thinking, okay this is. I U this is a big 10 program.
It's it's one of the the wealthiest programs in terms of
revenue generation in the whole country to just be like, well,
we're going to let this guy be permanent offensive coordinator
when he might not be the best fit long.
Term that's different than saying he's going to be interim
now. I'm saying go ahead name of
interim now that's fine. But that's where I'm curious
about what the contract extension is.
And I'm also skeptical that this has it makes a dent.
But it you know again going back originally, I don't think the
firing itself is unjustifiable. I think it's actually quite
justifiable. It's just a payment went down
the way that it did. I need to like, start prefacing.
This is going to be a joke. So letting people know, like,
these are jokes, but, you know, maybe if you're Dolson, you're
like, all right, you know, we, we keep, you know, the buyout is
big for Alan, but we're just going to make him pay for an
offensive coordinator firing every year.
So it's like every year, just like, hey, you're, you're
actually losing $1,000,000 your salary because like.
At some point, it's got to be like I this job's great, but I'm
tired of paying for coordinators every year.
You know that and I will say, I mean financially, you were going
to pay Walt Bell the $175,000 remaining on his contract
regardless of whether he coached the rest of the.
Season or not, that's not really a big element.
It is. But I do get the joke that
you're making. It is funny.
I am curious to see if something gets leaked, like, well, Allen
had to pay for this too. I doubt it, but it'll be.
Interesting to see. Anyway, Scott, I'm looking
forward to taking a week off frankly from talking about I U
Football. But if if news breaks, we will
come in and talk about it. So we appreciate you folks
tuning in. We're going to now.
Let you listen to the podcast we originally recorded.
We hope you enjoy that. As always, feel free to to
contact us if you've got questions or thoughts.
So thank you for Scott hopping on late.
We'll talk with you in just a second.
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Welcome back to Crimson Cast, folks.
Happy October for those of you who celebrate October 1st as.
It's time to talk to my youth sports.
We are coming off of another disappointing Indiana football
game as they get boat raced on the road by the Maryland
Terrapins 44 to 17. Scott joining me as always here
on the recap podcast. Scott, how you doing?
The government may not have shut down, but we are like, so I just
want to let you guys know like this, you know, not Crimson cast
is shutting down for a while. I thought.
I thought you meant Indiana football.
That too. It's like Wally World.
Sorry folks, the park is closed. I'm doing well, man.
I'm doing very well. Yeah, good.
I'm glad. It's good to see you and good to
be back talking with you, obviously.
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appreciate you checking it out. All right, Scott.
We look back at the game that closed out Indiana's September,
their second Big 10 game of the year and unfortunately their
third loss out of the first five games Indiana travels to College
Park. This has been a pretty close
series over the course of the time that Maryland's been in the
Big 10. Of course, a relatively new
addition. These teams have traded back and
forth in terms of who's been on top.
Maryland was was pretty down right when Indiana was up.
The tables have turned significantly, and Maryland No
contest, was the better team in this one from the beginning.
They you know really from the first play when they connect on
a 60 some yard pass where Indiana has blown a coverage
that set the tone for the entire game and we see Indiana just
really not able to compete Indiana.
They made a little bit of an offensive move late in the
second-half. It was far too late and it
really felt more like Maryland was just trying to get some some
second stringers, some run out there. 4417, the final score.
What were your overall impressions from this game?
I mean, you know, I got to say this, for the first half, I was
actually really impressed with the Indiana offense and the
strides they made. I just wanted to see your face
for those. Just wanted to see like, what
can I say that really gets you kicked off?
I mean, you know, yeah, I I will say, you know, Indiana had as
many first doubts as Marilyn had in this game.
So clearly something was going right.
Yeah. I mean, so here's kind of I'm
not even sure how to say this correctly, but my my higher
level thought after the entire game was that, you know, like
when. When you really don't have an
identity or a plan, you're kind of stuck with this, like just
grasp it. It feels like you're grasping at
straws. And what I mean by that is, you
know, last year we were a passing offense until you know.
Days lat gets kind of just benched and then we have one
good game with Dexter Williams running kind of an option
because he's a limited quarterback that's we can do it
and something we're gonna do that It's like are you doing
that? Because it's what you've planned
and you know like football really isn't a throat against
the wall and see what sticks. Kind of sport.
Like you have to plan your team around what you want to do.
And it it felt like we're just like we're going to do that now.
It's like, all right, well, are we built to do that?
Do we know how to do that? And that that kind of permitted
the whole offseason. And now, you know, with this
season and this game, it feels that way where it's like we
start seeing some option again. It's like, oh, is that what we
are now? Are we doing option now?
You know, our defense looks confused, But, you know, it
really hit me with, you know, so you bring in Soresby, which I
get it, like nothing's going right, but.
Now Soresby has, you know, two touchdown drives where the
beginning of the game you had no drives, and there probably isn't
going to be a quarterback controversy.
But you've because you didn't ever name Jackson the starter
until game three. Now you, you know an observer
would come back. All right, well, maybe a Soresby
the answer. And I'm not saying that's a real
question. It's just because no one's ever
told us, like, what the hierarchy of how this goes.
Like, what kind of offense are we running?
Because I don't know. Because we keep changing it.
It's like whenever something works do that five more times
like well it doesn't work that way.
And then you know so I I just you know I'm picking on the the
source B Jackson thing and it's they are not the problem here.
But it's just you know under a normal circumstances under a
normal year where you're like I know who my starter is and like
hey we're getting blown out we're just throwing the backups
in You just be like all right that's you know hey he had a
good couple runs against the bad Maryland team.
Like I could see a story coming out of this week, of off season,
of this week, of by week where it's like.
Who is our quarterback? Like, I can see them just going
back into that spin cycle. It's like it's because we just
don't seem to have a plan and this game was really evident of
that and and you are 100% right. You know, this is where that you
know, the frustrating thing is, you know with with Louisville,
they had one speedster. And he got open like
immediately, like second drive, like he's just wide open.
And you saw that a couple games against and it's like, all
right, well, that's the speedster guy for Louisville.
And then for Akron, you saw a couple wide receivers just get
wide open on blown coverage. And then here it's like Tiger to
his brother. I can't.
Cannot say that. Name go Viloa.
How about that? He needs to go to the NFL.
He needs to become. He's like, you know he's a
potent quarterback. You know this is an aerial
attack. To have two blown coverages in
the first three drives where guys are just like it wide open,
it's really got frustrating to see.
It's like how are you not somewhat prepared for this and
even one of those blown coverages we were we were
rushing 3, so we had eight back. You had eight guys back.
It's like just play a shell defense, just be like hey, we're
not eight. I don't know.
It's all fresh that that's my high level thoughts.
Without getting too nitty gritty, is it just?
Which feels like we're at the point we're just throwing stuff
against the wall to see if it sticks and then if something
works once, it's like, all right, that's what our team is
and it's just that's not a good way to run a football team.
There's been a lot of focus on the offense and the struggles
with the offense. And that, you know, not just
last year, not just the year before, but also this year and
rightfully so. I there's a stat that I keep
updating every week and because it's so terrifying.
Through four games against BCS competition.
So taking the Indiana State game out, Indiana with a 17 point
effort yesterday is now averaging 12.75 points per game
in regulation. That's wild.
That's so bad. And you're not talking.
I'm sorry, it's not a murderer's row of teams.
You have an Ohio State team? That's.
You know, really good, obviously.
But it's not the great Ohio State teams have passed.
You have an Akron team. Who?
Scott, I I don't know if you knew this.
I was told after the game last week that Akron was actually
going to be one of the better teams in the Mac.
They turned around and lost at home to A1 win Buffalo team
yesterday, 17 to 10. A Louisville team who has, to
their credit, been good, relatively speaking, but it.
This is still a Louisville. Team that you know has like
Dukes Mayo Bowl written all over it and then a Maryland team that
had given up, you know, quite a few points per game.
This is an offense that I think is rightfully been derided and
been questioned because it just hasn't produced.
Hold on. When you're stat like that,
those 14 points against Maryland need to be highlighted as like
that was garbage time go. Ahead, right.
Yeah, no. Well, that's the thing.
I mean, I'm actually doing I UA favor by crediting them for the
the points that they scored at a time when the game was
completely out of hand. But it's not just the offense
that is lost. The defense, as you pointed out,
is getting burned on a regular basis and.
Maryland, if they wanted to, could have scored 70 points last
night or yesterday. I mean it.
So the interesting stat the the Miami Dolphins, as many of you
know, had a historic win over the Denver Broncos last week.
In the NFL, they won 70 to 20 is the first time since I think
1966 that a team in the NFL had scored 70 points in the game.
To A tag of Iowa. In that game through for 309
yards and four touchdowns against Indiana, his brother
Talia threw 352 yards and five touchdowns, so actually threw
four more yards and four more touchdowns.
Against Indiana, than his brother threw in a 70 to 20
blowout win. So you know.
For all the talk about Tom Allen, as you know, he's a
defensive coach and you know he's got this system that works
and he just needs to find an offense.
It hasn't really worked out that way.
This is a defense that is full. I think what you have, two
returning starters, essentially, maybe 3 if you want to be
charitable. You've got a huge influx of
people from outside the program and it hasn't really made any
difference in terms of what Indiana has been able to do or
been able to stop out there, you know, last year this team.
Surrendered 34 points a game. They're not doing as badly this
year. They're only surrendering 24
points a game. But again, if you take that
Indiana State game out of it, that average shoots pretty far
up and you also have to take into account that.
Ohio State, once they got up was like, we don't really want to
show anything else in this game. Louisville essentially shut
their offense down in the second-half because they knew
they didn't need to score anymore.
And I'm not just saying that. I mean you get to the the post
game win percentages. It's not.
I mean, I know we saw Indiana was at the goal line.
They certainly couldn't have scored there but.
Ohio State or Indiana's post game-winning percentage
expectancy against Ohio State was .1%.
Against Louisville it was 5.5%, meaning that even if Indiana had
scored there, Louisville was probably going to figure out a
way to win. Their post game win expectancy
against Maryland yesterday was 0.0%.
That's not good. Can't really get lower than
that, so to highlight your point, just doing a, sorry.
Just to do a drive point in in reverse, here's, you know, we
played name the drive. We might do it again later.
But let me just here's the drives and I'll tell you who I'm
talking about in the first half. Three plays, 8 plays, one play,
2 play, 3 plays, six plays, five plays, two plays.
We're doing reverse. That's Maryland.
They scored. 4 touchdowns off of that play.
Dr. Oddly the eight play drive, they didn't get there.
The ones they score touchdowns on was 3 plays, one play, 2
play, 5 play. Those are all touchdown drives
and it's like it's this is where it's like all systems failure
because the the defense is giving up these just massive
plays and I I don't think I remember this season us having a
two play touchdown drive like we just our offense also is
incapable of having those first. It's like that's a it's a really
bad combination. Well, I mean, anytime you've got
two defensive backs as your two leading tacklers, it's generally
a bad sign, which is what happened with Indiana yesterday
with Noah, Pierre and Phillip Dunham.
I think the thing that irks me the most, and I alluded to this
a little bit earlier, is to watch Indiana, you know.
So let me let me put it this way.
Are you? We've watched them for a long
time. Different coaches, different
areas of the program. Traveling to Michigan and
getting blown out, that happens for to Indiana.
Traveling to Penn State and getting blown out.
Traveling to Ohio State and getting blown out.
Those teams have a huge reservoir of talent that Indiana
just hasn't been able to to tap. You'll occasionally get blown
out in the bucket game. You know, it certainly happened
recently. But this felt like a threshold
was crossed because it is pretty rare that Indiana goes on the
road and gets obliterated by a team that's essentially in their
class of teams. You know, we're talking the
Maryland's, the Northwestern's, the Illinois's, you know, the
Rutgers. So for Indiana to just be non
competitive for a full 60 minutes against the Maryland
program that frankly has no natural advantages over Indiana
in the Big 10? And when you think about where
Maryland football was five years ago, I think people have
forgotten this Maryland football.
You, you, if you most of you remember, they had that tragedy
with the player dying in practice and they had to fire DJ
Durkin. But that that was a program in
2017, DJ Durkin's last year. They were four and eight.
They had Matt Canada as an interim coach.
In 2018 they were five and seven.
They hire Mike Locksley as a fulltime coach.
They go three and nine in 2019, the year that Indiana won eight
and five. They go two and three in 2020,
the year Indiana goes 6 and and one or six.
Six and two, I guess. And then Since then, they've won
seven games, eight games and are now five and oh, they've got 2.
Not just bowl appearances, but bowl victories in the last two
seasons. And they just, yeah, jocking.
And then and then of course, last year Indiana did not have a
great season, but they only lost to Maryland by 5 and it was
legitimately a back and forth game.
Indiana look like they didn't belong on the same field as
Maryland and so. For these two programs to have
flipped positions so definitively in such a short
period of time, and to do it in the same window where not only
was Tom Allen given a huge contract extension, but Tom
Allen was allowed by the departures of people to bring in
very much his people in all of the roles and be in charge of
all of the recruiting, It is about as damning an indictment
as you can have on the trajectory of the I U program,
and I don't say that lightly. You know, I you, as we know is
always going to struggle to get up into that that middle class
or upper middle class echelon, we're not even talking.
About the Michigan's, the Ohio State's, The Penn State's.
We're talking about the Iowa's. And to some degree, Michigan
State seems to be dedicated to to cutting off each of its
appendages and throwing itself into the sea.
Wisconsin's in that mix, though. You know, Indiana is it's
constantly a battle in the Big 10 of can we be better than
Maryland, Rutgers, Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, maybe it's
in that category now. And Northwestern, I think you
throw into that as well. It feels like Indiana, this is
another program that's exceeded them in the pecking order.
And you look at the way that Rutgers is playing right now.
You look at Maryland having clearly gotten better, and it's
like Indiana had an argument. For being the 4th best team in
the East. Now, I'm not sure what the
argument is for Indiana not being the worst team in the
East. And you know, I'd love to say
that they're better than Northwestern.
But Northwestern's won a Big 10 game so far this year in Indiana
has not. So I'm not even sure if you
could argue that Indiana isn't the worst team in the Big 10.
And that's really, really sad. And this game?
Watching Indiana just get just pushed around by Maryland across
the board. Was really.
Really hard to to it was it was hard having seen where Indiana
had been just a few years prior to watch that happening, that
there was a question that came in on Twitter.
It's like are you more, are you more irate or sad or something
like that? And I'm really more sad about it
at this point. I was irate last week.
Last week was you know, that's a that's a terrible team that they
almost lost. You should have lost.
You were lucky not to lose to I did.
I predicted in the pregame podcast that we did with Taylor
that Indiana was going to get destroyed in this game.
But I was hoping that that wouldn't be the case, because
what we saw really illustrated how far Indiana has fallen and
that there are just no answers. And whether it's what you saw on
the field or whatever that gobbledygook was in the postgame
press conference, it's clear that there aren't a lot of
answers internally on this either.
You know and on Crimson Cash, our our biggest bet of the week
was you know Maryland to cover the 14 1/2 point spread and that
and that might be the last time you get value on Indiana.
Like at this point I was joking like it might we're easily going
to be probably double digit you know underdogs for the rest of
the season. I I don't know.
I mean Purdue and Michigan State aren't awesome either but it's
like it's it's it's going to be some wild numbers coming up.
No, I agree. And this is, you know, this is
where I. Those those early season games
against Indiana State when some people get kind of fired up,
it's like oh we saw this pretty good stuff.
It's like no, like this is these are the I'm with you.
I'm more saddened than angry. But it's like the the
frustrating part. It's like these are really the
games where you can see where you stand up against the teams
that matter because and we just like you said it wasn't even
close and. To say we don't have answers is
true. It's also like this game was was
frightening because it wasn't like when we when things went
well, it's because we were exerting our will and it's just
we couldn't do that enough. Really felt like, you know,
Maryland got up 14 to nothing and then 21 to three in the
second quarter. It felt like Maryland's like,
all right, let's do some prep for, you know, the Michigan
game. It felt like they were just
literally using this as a walkthrough and they were doing
some, you know, they kind of stopped throwing for a while and
started running. It's almost like they grabbed
Tom Allen, you know, Walt Bell's playbook.
And again, it sucks like nothing but running plays up the middle.
But it it feels like our only chance to be competitive is
competitive is is a team. Like just they're making a bunch
of mistakes or a team just kind of forgetting what they should
be doing. Or.
And that's again, it's like it's a bad place to be where there's
nothing that I could say, hey, if we do this really well, I
think we have a shot against that team.
It's like it has to be in conjunction with that other team
doing 12 things wrong and making a lot of mistakes along the way.
Yeah. I mean, it's at this point, it
feels like if you wanted to, you could score in Indiana.
If you wanted to, you could keep Indiana from scoring.
And it's not that simplistic, but it just doesn't feel like
against teams that have a pulse, Indiana is going to be able to
be very competitive. Now a lot of things happen in
the course of the season. Certainly by mid-october last
year, we felt the same way in Indiana turned around and they
were able to win at Michigan State.
Kind of a special circumstance there, but that's that's fine.
But it felt like it felt like last year and this is probably
the primary difference. And why?
Because I could hear somebody you know arguing like wait a
minute, they're, you know, they they won games last year.
You guys thought they were bad then.
It's like there feels like a very, very perceivable
difference right now in this program versus last year.
Last year's team was very flawed.
They were, they were not well coached, but they did have some
fight in them. You know, they they did manage
to come back and win that Illinois game even though they
were, they got some lucky breaks along the way.
They did come back and win that in Western Kentucky game, you
know, they were in the Maryland game.
Like that team felt like it was really, you know, keeping up
with things, even if they couldn't do things.
This team is really starting to look like they're just tuning
out altogether, you know? There was a lot of talk about
that that that, shall we say, you know, perhaps not well
planned video of the team singing the fight song after the
win against Akron last week. A lot of people.
The fight song, let's say correctly, a lot of people
focused on the body language in that that video and and noted
that a lot of guys looked pretty embarrassed about having to do
that and just kind of the whole thing felt cringy.
You know, I understand why those videos get put out.
I don't think that there should be necessarily criticism of the
program, but it is an interesting window into what it
looked like immediately after that game.
And then you hear all these proclamations in the postgame
press conference about we're going to evaluate things we
heard leading up to this game. Oh, we had a good week of
practice this time because of course a bad week of practice
was blamed on the way that they played versus Akron.
Then they go out and play significantly worse and it
really just looked like the team was going through the motions.
To a large degree, it's hard to even get excited about the
Brendan Sorosby piece, about him coming in for Taven Jackson.
Because of course, a quarterback coming in in the third quarter
in a blowout that the other team hasn't scouted and prepped for
is probably going to be able to throw the ball a little bit
better than the guy that everybody watched film on for a
week. But again, the overall
atmosphere of the team, the way that they approached the game,
what we saw on the field just felt like a team that was they
were there because they needed to be, not because they wanted
to be. And that's that's a that's
that's the difference between last year and this year.
Like last year's team, it felt like there was still some kind
of engagement and I'm just not seeing that out of this team
right now. And that's really concerning
because again, yeah, you're going into a bye week.
But as we talked about last week, you're now heading into
the teeth of the Big 10 season. You can't afford to just be
going through the motions. Like that's what leads to, and
we've seen this before, Scott. It's what leads to getting blown
out by 60 points by Wisconsin. It's what leads to, you know,
the the the kind of games that you look back on the Di Nardo
era or the Lynch era and you're like that's that's that felt
like an era that was passed and it feels like suddenly it's back
again. Well, and again, I don't want to
go, I don't want to take this too large.
But you know, to people who would say just kind of scare
core argument, you mentioned, you know, it's like, well, hey,
they can still win a game. And it's true, you know, Rutgers
are still there. You know, Illinois is still
there. Michigan State still there and
pretty we're still there. You could win all four of those.
But you know if if, if the argument is like, hey, they
could still win one or two of those, it's like, all right.
But the problem is, you know two years ago you finished the
season. Oh, and eight.
Last year you finished the season one and six.
So you've had two years on the road just finishing on fumes.
And it does feel like this year could be similar to one of those
years. And so let's say they finished
the year now going one and you know, well they've lost, you
know, 1. So it's like they finished the
year going one, you know, with one more win or even two more.
It's like all right, but is that, you know, again, not to
take it too big, but is that is that fun?
Like, is it fun just where you're checking out the end of
the year and that that's what's concerning.
But you know, back to the Sorosby piece.
Like, yes, like it it it's good. But, like to me, it's like it's
a problem because now you're going into a bye week and if
we're going to now have a, you know, if he ends up, like maybe
he's able to move the ball better, it's like great.
So now you're a two and three team has been blown out, and now
you're getting a quarterback controversy in Week 6.
By the way when you started the season with a quarterback like
so now you're just you're just tossing it up like it they.
And this is where I don't give the the coaching staff and like
I don't. I would say I feel bad, but I
don't because you've created this mess like by not naming a
starter and having this like balance for the first couple
weeks to to play around or do whatever you're doing.
Now that now that it looks like you're not sure what to do, it's
like now you you've created this own like now you're juggling
this thing. But you know that that's my
biggest concern going into this bye week.
Is again, instead of saying, hey, these are the things we're
going to work on, it's like, now let's, hey, let's try that.
Here's 5 new things, like here's one little nugget of something
that worked in Maryland, that we're going to try and build an
entire new offense around in one week.
And as you said, that's not going to lead to us doing
better. It's like it's going to lead to
us doing worse. Because he like by this point in
the season, you are what you are.
You need to do what you do. You cannot install a new offense
and it feels like we don't have anything to like work on and
install. There was a quote in the
postgame. There were a lot of quotes in
the postgame press conference, but one in particular that goes
right to the point you were just making from Alan.
We obviously will use this bye week to make a lot of
evaluations on things. We've got to find ways to get
better. Every positions got to get
evaluated and I'm sorry. I you know, we heard nothing
about this team in spring. We heard very little about this
team in summer and theoretically that was about evaluating
players and evaluating systems to do that.
You know the they they Akron last week, they almost lose that
game and what are we here afterwards?
Well, we've got to evaluate everything.
Well now Indiana gets blown out by Maryland and now we're going
to use the bye week to evaluate everything.
It's like at some point how much evaluation can you do and what
exactly is going into the evaluation Scott, I'm kind of is
it one of like a, is it like a one to five form it's like well
very good not very good. Well like how is this being
done? It's.
Well, you're a teacher we like. We even bring signs of the game,
like build a better rubric. Like just like, come on.
Better rubric. Better rubric.
That's right. Blues taxonomy.
No, it's it's it's maddening. It really is.
And and look, a quote like that is clearly like corporate coach
speak. I get it.
But that's all that seems to exist with Alan and his coaches
is corporate coach speak. If they if they knew what they
were doing to fix the team, they would fix the team, not talk
about how they were going to start fixing the team.
They clearly don't know how to fix the problems that exist on
this team. And I'm sorry we're not idiots.
K it's it's week five. You're not going to fix the team
in Week 5. And it look the the idea that
somehow there's a piece that's been missed.
Now we've talked about like there's there's been a lot of
questionable talent evaluations or readiness evaluations for
this I U team over the course the last few years.
Going back to when they stuck Michael Pennix junior under
center at the beginning of the 21 season thinking I guess that
he was healthy and ready to conduct business.
And that was clearly not the case.
Like that. You know, everything along the
way. There's been so many missed
opportunities to structure things in a way that could lead
to victories. It's like why would we trust now
in this week off that Indiana's got some kind of a direction for
fixing things. It's I think that's probably the
most depressing thing. Not that I mean Indiana being
bad is very depressing, particularly where they were
three years ago. But the fact that they're bad
and there doesn't seem to be any recognition of.
Why they're bad or how to fix it?
That this was the roster that was chosen to go into the
season. You know what, you talked about
the quarterback thing and and look, the I to me pulling
Jackson and putting sores, being made sense from a protection
perspective because you don't want to leave your starter out
there and get, you know, have him get pummeled by an opposing
defense. On the flip side, you know,
talking about how well he didn't execute in the Maryland game
doesn't make any sense. It's like the whole team didn't
execute and. The larger point here is you, as
you mentioned, you didn't have a starting quarterback named.
You came into the season as I you a team that really needs
veteran leadership at the quarterback position, a team
that if you look historically. When they have veteran
leadership at the quarterback position, whether it's Nate
Sudfeld or Richard Lego or Peyton Ramsey or Michael Pennix,
they tend to do better. You came in voluntarily, as we
talked about all offseason, with two quarterbacks that had barely
taken snaps at the FBS level, and you're suddenly surprised
that there's not execution happening, that there's problems
with the offense. That's nuts.
That's absolutely like, I don't know how you could go into the
season thinking that you were going to have.
Success with that. So and then you know, the
problem though is when you know, look the offense could be bad,
but the promise of the defense from the beginning of the year,
the defense has gotten worse against good competition.
You know, based upon what we saw last year, maybe not so much in
point scored but in an inability to make stops when it matters.
I I'm just kind of taken aback at the idea that you could
evaluate your way back to success.
Alan had a quote. On Thursday, like you know, well
it's a long season and we've still got a chance to get
better. And I think the operative
question there is OK, Tom Howe like where specifically and it
can't just be our team has to execute better because you know
Alan in the post game press conference yesterday said you
know essentially yesterday was about not executing well enough,
which is wild because you know what, OK, that first play from
scrimmage when they line up the bowl.
On a wide receiver in a Cover 3 and the receiver releases and
there's nobody covering and there was nobody within 20 yards
of him, How is that an executional issue?
I mean, I can you can go down the list when you go for a
fourth and when you let go for a fake punt on the 1st Dr. of the
third quarter in your own territory and you don't make it
how that's not an executional issue.
That's a What the hell are you doing with that play call issue?
Yeah, you know, so there. And we could go through a litany
of these. I mean, I'm not going to cherry
pick every one of them, but it's just, again, to me, it's wild
that here we are. It's Week 5, There's a bye week.
This team is who they are at this point.
I mean, could they get better down the road?
I mean, sure. And and a Unicorn could pop up
in my front lawn while we're doing this podcast.
But we know there's evidence based stuff that you have to
look at with the team. I'm just curious what you would
point to from an evidentiary perspective that would say, oh,
here's where we're going to get better.
You know, Indiana last night with two different quarterbacks
only averaged 5 yards per reception.
Taven Jackson was at 3.9 yards per reception.
Christian Turner actually had a fairly decent running game, 15
carries, 61 yards, and that was a relatively small part of the
offense and the offense really couldn't do anything throughout
the course of the game. Defensively, they had no
answers. When you know in in the first
half when it mattered for Maryland, I I don't see what you
would point to and say we can get better at these things
because. It's I think we've seen over the
course of this year and last year that that's not really how
this program works and they've had to rely on kind of
unexpected events in order to win games and that's not a
strategy. Well, unfortunately when you
talk about like how are they going to get wins, it's also
like you know Michigan State can be worse.
Again, it's like we need our competition to come down to our
level. If I was looking at this off
week, I mean one thing that I would try and do from a higher
level because everything you said is dead on.
But you know when you look at our off again, there's there's
two sides. You got to fix defense too.
But when you look at the offense, the thing that I see is
a real problem is you know it comes down to play calling and
the plays that are called and how they're worked.
But our offense has a double sided problem which is it either
does one of two things. It'll either and I'm not I'm not
sure I've seen this much in I U Football.
Like I've definitely seen the hey, they're always through
doing 3 and outs and they can't get a drive going.
I've been there. This team and then also but
normally like but those still those teams would find a way to
put a drive together and then get some points here and there.
This team has the the problem of they go with a lot of three it
outs the drives that are just kind of dead on arrival but now
the drives they do get the movement going.
They then can't complete to finish to get points and so it's
like. You know, you go through the
Indiana drive shot first, First drive, 8 plays, 32 yards for a
field goal. It's like, alright, it's great,
but like at some point you got to get a touchdown, But
whatever, field goal early in the game, although you're down I
think 14, nothing. The next four drives are three
plays, three plays for -15 yards, 3 plays.
So you now have three just complete 3 and outs whatever.
But now you get 2 drives. After that 15 plays and 10 plays
but neither result in any points.
And that's something that's becoming a problem is like if
you have a 10A-15 play, 79 yard drive, you got to get something
out of that. But you cannot turn that over on
down like that has to come on with points and you know,
preferably A touchdown, but it's got to do something And then
yeah, the next, you know, the next two drives are three plays
interception 455. So it's like we're in the spot
with the offense where it's either a complete waste, you
know, 3 yard, three and out. Or we're moving the ball, but
then you're not getting anything out of it.
Like something has to be figured out where on the drives where
things are working. You've got to be able to finish
those off and cash them in two points.
Maybe the easiest thing is just not running up the middle when
you're really close to the goal line would be an idea.
But you know that that's something that is truly
maddening with this team that I'm not sure I've seen before
them. You know, the the inability to
to at least finish off the the good drives.
But you couple that with a bunch of three and outs and it is
just, it's just it's awful. Yeah.
Well I I don't know. I mean we got a lot of comments
from the audience members. I wanted to hit a couple of
these before we. I mean it's not I mean again to
some degree we do these podcasts.
Last week was was I think it was important to talk through some
of the issues because there's that was an unacceptable game.
This one was expected. And so it's like we're not going
to spend a huge amount of time going over things that everybody
saw. Using using corporate speak,
we're also kind of saving some of our dry powder for later in
the season. Well, I mean you got to have
some material right. You know it's it's let me let me
hit a couple of these comments because I think it's I mean
there's some interesting stuff from folks I mean from Jeffrey
Harrison. No words can describe the
ineptitude of play calling on offense.
How Alan can hire Walt Bell is beyond me need to think past
this. I mean, it's, yeah, I said there
were a lot of comments about the the offense and about Bell.
And you know, here's the problem, I think is as follows.
I mean, if you did your research before or when Walt Bell was
hired, this is kind of what you get.
I mean, he hasn't been a particularly effective offensive
coordinator, certainly wasn't very effective as a head coach.
I like Walt Bell personally. I like what I hear from him in
press conferences, but it just doesn't translate onto the
field. It's also not a team that's
built particularly well. It's a team that seems to try to
focus on things other than what its strengths are, which we've
talked about numerous times. The team that decided to commit
to the triple option without having the personnel for it and
then tried to switch back and doesn't seem to have an identity
on offense. And even in a game where they
are running the ball, well, it's it isn't something that you can
utilize. It's funny when you say commit
to that, it's like I U Football is the worst girlfriend.
Like I committed to you, but like 2 weeks later, like, yeah,
I'm not really committed to you anymore.
It's there's there's just no coherent philosophy and I and I
you look I think there's you could certainly attribute that
to Walt Bell but for the people that are calling for his head
I'd say there was no real coherent philosophy under Nick
Sheridan except for Mike Pennix throws ball and people catch it
like that was the that was the philosophy it's it's not a
structure that you can work under effectively within.
A college football environment, particularly in the Big 10,
which is so difficult, so it's very frustrating.
But you know, it's hard to parse out what is Walt Bell's fault
and what is the personnel's fault.
And the personnel is not just the offensive coordinator.
I mean, this guy's been here for a year and a half at this point.
It's not. I don't know.
So look, I think for those of you who are calling for a firing
on the offensive coaching staff, you may get it.
I mean, if there's one thing that we've seen over the last
few seasons, whether it was Sheridan or whether it was
Darren Hiller last year, is that when things get tough, Allen has
shown a propensity to fire coaches.
I guess to show that he's doing something because you know it's
it's certainly not to get results because we haven't seen
much improvement in the results in any of those firings which is
pretty scary. But I also think this just a
fundamentally flawed team in the way that it was built because of
the decisions that were made in the transfer portal this past
offseason in the recruiting the previous year, in the recruiting
the year before that in the recruiting the year before that
in the overall talent evaluation.
So it you know I blame sure blame the guy that's calling the
plays. I think he certainly deserves
some blame because the offense has been future.
We talked about the point totals, but the flip side of it
is I don't know that it would be any different with another
person calling plays because I just I think the fundamental
structure of what you got in this team is, is not there Brian
Hicks at the comment. The decline since 2020 is simply
stunning to the point that you wonder how the same man could
have been responsible for both halves of his tenure here.
And you know that's an interesting point, Scott, we
talked about this a lot kind of the duality of the Allen tenure
and how it's hard to reconcile how down the program is right
now with where it was at the end of the 2020 season.
I mean, what are your thoughts on that?
Yeah, I mean, and I think we can.
We talked about it in the preseason as well.
You know it. I never want to take away those
two, two or three years. I think 2018 was also a good
kind of lead up year into it. But you know when when you look
back on it, that was a period where you had, you know, Kevin
Wilson had done some good things with the team.
There's been some things that have been built up and Alan
definitely kept that going. Alan made some really good
coordinator hires and he did some good, you know, prospect
research and getting Michael Pennix onto the team.
But there's also a way that you can look back and say, OK, you
know, like I said, it's a bunch of times as you know what, what
made that team successful and maybe it was and what made Alan
successful in that time, which is, you know, you had two really
high level coordinators and a Heisman level quarterback behind
center. And if if you have those things,
I do think a lot of coaches are going to be successful and then.
You know that team kind of gets some wins and then Allen's kind
of Elio kicks in and now you got the tailwind and like the the
mojo kind of gets going and the inertia of good vibes gets it
going. So you know, unfortunate that's
kind of how I look at things is like things were set up really
well for Allen to do what he did in that two year span.
Unfortunately, those things are no longer here.
Like those coordinators left because good coordinators leave.
And that's where you have to. Then you don't.
He still gets credit for hiring those guys.
But now, like, after Sheridan and Walt Bell, it's like you
have to do it again. You can't just go continue like,
oh, I got the right guy in place before.
It's like, well, you have to do it multiple times.
And then, you know, like I've said to a bunch of people a
bunch of different times. Like if you need a Heisman level
quarterback to be successful at Indiana, like you're not a
successful coach here because we just don't have that.
Like, that's just not something that normally walks through the
doors in Memorial Stadium. I mean unfortunately that's kind
of how I look at it now is that the, the climate that made that
those teams successful and gave Alan the, the pieces that he
needed to be successful are just not here right now.
And unfortunately it's not like an aisle where you can just say,
all right, we're going to go back to our, you know, our
blocking and our tackling and our fundamentals and we're going
to do that. Like there isn't any of that.
And I'm not trying to be negative.
It's just it is the case like I just so that's how I that's how
I reconcile the two things is things partially of Allen's
doing like it's not like it just did he did a lot of good things
made the right hires and made the right recruits that he built
a little bubble that was perfect for those two or three years.
That the trouble is it's increasing looking like he's
unable to make those same hires and recruits to be able to
create that. Again Scott Shoemaker comment.
Does Alan honestly look himself in the mirror and think he can
do the job Three years of horrible teams would make a sane
person begin to wonder. I mean I think look I think any
here's the thing I think a lot of people myself included get
angry at what we hear in the press conferences from Alan.
And you know, it's tough because I think most coaches, not just
Tom Allen, but most coaches, are going to approach their jobs and
their perspective on their jobs, thinking of course, I'm supposed
to be here. I I can do this job.
I've done this job already. I've been clearly successful
before. So that that doesn't change just
because you lose games. I think the the problem and the
kind of cognitive dissonance that has popped up around
people's perception of Alan is that there doesn't seem to be in
any of his public comments any level of selfreflection
whatsoever. Yeah, everything is what we got
to execute better or you know, we'll evaluate which is a cop
out thing to say in a public press conference.
And look, I've always felt with a lot of successful people in
any walk of life, a lot of people don't understand why
they're actually successful. They they don't understand what
brought them success in the 1st place.
And so when that starts to go downhill, they don't look at
themselves and say I've done something wrong because that
that's not how a narrative of a human being works.
Like, you attribute what you think got you somewhere with
success. But when that stops working,
generally you're going to look outside first because as far as
you're concerned, you're still doing the exact same things that
you were doing when you were successful.
I think that's likely what Tom Allen believes, and that's why
you hear the things you hear in the press conference.
And look, I think most people would say the same kind of
things. And you hear this from other
coaches in similar situations, so you know, that's so that's
how I would answer that. I mean it's very frustrating and
I think, you know, this is where it's really hard because you can
have personal critiques and professional critiques of people
and and personal critiques I think kind of really need to be
left out of a lot of things unless a person makes something
personal, which hasn't happened here.
But I think the professional critique of Allen is yes, he
believes he can do the job. I think that the larger issue is
I don't think he understands why the team isn't good.
And that to me is the bedrock issue across the board with most
of what's going on with I U. Football the last three years.
And it is hard to get your head wrapped around when you consider
the success that they had the couple of years prior.
Yeah, I mean, I always, I do feel bad for coaches when like
you're in these stretches and if you're going to O and eight and
you got to keep going to the podium and like there's nothing
you can say. And you know, the defense I will
say of Alan is like, you can't. You can't just go out and be
honest every single time, Like, well, you know, we're really
going to not pay attention to mission.
We're trying to beat Rutgers, which is kind of the truth.
We all know that. But like, you can't say that.
So I do feel bad. But you are right.
Like the cognitive dissidents like this is something you'll
see even like, you know, Woodson do this like, you know, coaches
that that seem to have a little more confidence they'll come
out. McMahon.
We suck tonight. Like, I suck.
Like, just kind of like. Say, say what we're all thinking
for a little bit and then go back to the coach speak.
It is frustrating to just continually hear nothing but
coach speak. And it's like at some point
during one of these eight game loss streaks, you know, can you
just be honest for 12 seconds and just be like, man, every,
you know? We suck and like and just even
to hear, you know, again, it's not going to change anything.
It's not gonna make anything better.
But I do think that is where Fran fans get frustrated is we
understand you can't come out and say everything.
That's a reality. But just little Nuggets to be
like, hey, like a little Easter egg to let us know that you, you
understand what's going on, just be like, hey, that was awful and
you know. I I I'm not sure.
You know just say something that like you understand it not just
kind of put a smile on and do the coach speak like it does.
That's where it does that. There's a fine line there, but
we're missing that line where it's like we're just we're deep
into like you said, corporate coach speak, which is like where
they, I don't even think you believe anything you're saying.
We had a lot of comments from people about that, some Mark
Parrish asked. The question is, did they really
think they were ready and prepared to play?
Like, did they feel actually good about the adjustments they
made after Akron? It's so.
And they thought that right of the ship and then this happens
that tells me they have no awareness whatsoever.
I mean, this has been kind of the point we've been trying to
talk about over the course of of the whole preseason and even
into the beginning of the year. You look back at the last couple
of seasons and you get these total systems failures from I U.
Football. It doesn't really feel like
they've got a clear bead on what it is is creating problems and
and that is I think one of the big concerns.
I don't think it's the biggest concern but it is a big concern
when it comes to I, U. Football because ultimately if
you don't know what you're not doing right you can't really fix
it and if you. But but I also think you know to
some degree when you look at Alan in particular you know in
and I've listened to a lot of Tom Allen press conferences I've
watched a lot of Tom Allen coached football.
We'll. Get you counseling at the end of
the season. I mean, you know, Allen.
It really feels to me like Allen believes in a very, very rigid
definition of what leads to winning football.
And it's weird because he's almost had more success when
they've deviated from that a bit.
But it's fair. But, but point aside, Alan seems
to think that if you do this and this and this, you're going to
win games. And maybe that's right in an
ideal world. The problem is that I you rarely
has the collection of talent set up in the way that you would
need to win games like that. And you know, we've we've seen
over and over again across college football coaches that
can adapt. And we see this in basketball
too. It's not just college football,
college basketball also coaches that can adapt to their
personnel, can develop their personnel and can play a style
of football that is off the beaten path because you can't
compete headtohead with some of your opponents can still win
games. It doesn't feel like I use
anywhere close to that. And so I actually do think the
answer Mark is that yes, they did think that the adjustments
they made after Akron fixed the problem.
But the issue is ultimately that I don't think they understood
what the core problem was to begin with and that's not going
to work. It's it's really it to me from
my perspective. I look at it and I say to
myself, I'm not, you know, I I we always talk about.
It's almost I'm tired at this point of the caveat.
We don't know nearly as much about.
Football as the coaches, It's like it's not our job to know as
much about football as the coaches.
It is our job to. Evaluate what happens in the
output. You know the input and the
throughput. I mean, you can quibble about
certain things, but the output is ultimately what matters.
And if your job is to know those things and you repeatedly don't
make the adjustments or don't do the developmental things or the
choices beforehand that. Would lead to success.
It's hard to believe that you're making the right changes that'll
make it work better the next time.
So no, I mean I think they they have full, I believe this.
I think Alan has full faith that what he thinks they're doing in
practice is actually the stuff that's leading to success.
It's not actually, and that is a real problem and that should be
a real concern for everybody. A couple other things real quick
here, Scott, because I don't want to go with CSW Hoosier.
Rd. Feels like you guys have been
warning that this has been coming for a long time.
I considered you to be a little too negative in years past, but
now it's coming home to roost. Take a victory lap, I can, I
suppose for having your concerns validated, this sucks.
Nothing much else to say. This is the thing.
I would have loved to have been wrong on this.
I mean, really, I I just it's. And this is this is honestly
you. The signs were there early, but
I was hoping that maybe maybe I was wrong.
Maybe you were wrong. Maybe there would be some
adaptation and and maybe you know the okay last year was a
blip on the radar and maybe 20/21 was just a you know a
season where everything went entirely wrong.
But it's so I don't take any pleasure out of this.
I mean I really the so this as we've talked about many times a
it's so important that I U football is successful for such
a large number of reasons. We feel that even more keenly
than many people because we are actually I U football fans like
we we are season ticket holders. We've gone to games for decades
and look at, you know, Alan is a great story in terms of like the
the one paragraph profile that you would put up about I, U
Football is A, I is a Hoosier native.
He's an excitable coach who, you know seems to get a lot of media
attention. It's just not working.
And I, you know it feels to some point it's funny.
I you know, like the Pittsburgh fans are going nuts right now.
Pitt Panther fans are going nuts because their team has started
like one and four. And you know this is after A10
win season, they're flipping out.
This happens in every fan base where things go sour.
It almost feels like being critical of Tom Allen is like
being critical of the Easter Bunny.
You know that there's this attitude that you know well,
Alan, hey, but Alan loves the program and Alan's Mr. I U and
all of that is true. But you know, to to have the
record that Indiana's had over the course of the last several
years is is kind of wild. I mean, you know, there was a
quote or there was a statistic that our friend Taylor from Bite
Size Bison put out. Indiana's point differential
against FBS opponents since the start of the 2021 season is
-431, which means that in the last 2 1/2 years, Indiana's lost
FBS games writ large, all of them by an average of 16 points
a game. Since then, you know Indiana
has, you know what, eight wins, I think, against FBS opponents
since then, and and multiple of those games were very lucky wins
for Indiana. It's just not working.
I don't take any joy out of that.
This. The last three years of talking
about I, U Football has frankly sucked.
Not just because of the results on the field, but because, you
know, we don't want this to just be a miserable podcast every
time. Which is why a lot of times we
resort to humor, which a lot of you take is being mean spirited,
which is not intended as it's really just a way to try to keep
things entertaining while we talk about something that has
been inherently unentertaining. And that I think it's not a
whole lot different from talking about I U Basketball when Archie
Miller was here. You keep waiting for something
to get excited about on a weekly basis, and it just never.
There's always this kind of hope out there that maybe they're
just about to turn the corner and it just never actually
happens. Once it the answer, sorry, I was
I agree with you a million like I I don't want to be negative.
I don't want to take a victory lap like it is.
Kind of what we expected to see, but I I will, you know, try and
put this silver lining that this may be the frustrating part, but
it's true. You know there's still 4
winnable games out there. Like Rutgers is no amazing
shakes. You know, Maryland is probably
the best of these kind of mid level teams we're going to see
this year based on the offense. You know, Illinois just got
throttled at Purdue. Michigan State, as you said,
like they are a a hot mess and who knows what kind of a mess
they'll be in at that point. Purdue was kind of, you know,
not looking great. They just throtted Illinois.
That's just two. Those two bad teams playing,
there's still 4 winnable games out there, you know, and this
is, I don't want to take. I'd love to be proven wrong.
I think the the problem that you and I are talking about is
there's just like no evidence to show how we're going to
successfully win those four games and how we're going to
turn it around. So everything else just becomes,
you know, kind of a hope and a prayer.
And you know, I would love to see them figure out a way.
I'd love to see other teams at this point just make a bunch of
mistakes and we capitalize on it, unfortunately, like.
He said in some of those wins, like that's kind of already
happened the last couple of years to get us the wins that we
got. But you know, it, it's, I think
this is what you and I continually harp on is I I would
love to not look at the rest of the schedule and see maybe, you
know, half a win or a win, but there's no evidence to show that
it's going to be there. And I think your point is valid.
All we can do is go off with the results.
We don't see the input. We don't see what's coming in.
We're not the coaches, but we see the output and the output's
been off. Like if it's just a results
based, it's been really bad and there's no reason to think it's
going to get better, but it it still could.
And like things are definitely salvageable and it sounds
insane, but that this team could still make a ball.
I mean you have 4 winnable games ahead of you, you have two in
the bank and you've got to find a way to start turning things
around and doing it. The problem is I don't see the
evidence and you know being honest to myself, not doing
coach speak is I just I don't think that the pieces are in
place for it to be done with this team and that in this
coaching staff. It's really hard to make the
argument. I mean I I'm with you.
It's very, it's very hard. Well, pardon me, sorry, outside
just I want him to win. Like I just I'd love to see him
win. Yeah, I know it's so much of it
really just comes down to and then look the problem it's, it's
interesting because I think, I mean look we've we've been
through multiple bottoming out periods.
I mean, even even the Indy Star was calling this rock bottom and
then and then, you know, there was a followup column where it's
like, well, actually actually there's no such thing as rock
bottom. It can always get lower.
That's not me talking, That's the Indy Star talking.
And then they're right. I mean, it can get worse.
You can go, oh and 12 as opposed to two and Akron, you can lose
to Akron. I mean it, it could always get
worse. We've been through this cycle
before though. I mean, you know, we've, we've
been through it with Mallory. We were through it.
I mean the Cameron era was a was largely just unrealized
expectations and we've been through it with Dinardo and
we've been through it with Lynch.
You know, like it's it's this is not new territory for I U.
The difference here is, you know in the in the past sometimes I U
would wait a year too long to do something, but they they would
generally make the change. And you know what worries me
about where the program's at right now is, you know, the the
all of the things that make the program work, the recruiting,
the overall vibe around the program, the, you know, people
like fans being excited or not excited.
Like it's it almost feels worse now.
Cuz like the last time you saw Indiana really bottom out was
probably the end of the Lynch era.
And that was still at a time when I U.
Football hadn't really kind of gotten its pathway back to some
level of respectability. You know, people hadn't really
fully started coming back into the stadium.
It was very much like what happened with the Dinardo era
where, you know, interest bottomed out.
That was probably the lowest ebb of I U football since the early
1950s. The problem here, I think is
that I U had made so much progress in how their football
program was positioned. They had a six year span where
they won, you know, six games, six games, five games, five
games, eight games and in a shortened season, six games.
I mean, that's that's the backdrop for what's happened
over the course of the last 2 1/2 seasons, which I think makes
it even worse because you you've got much further to fall in
terms of fan interest and in terms of recruiting and
positioning. And it's happening at like
absolutely the worst time in college sports history for this
kind of thing to be happening if you're a program like Indiana.
And so, you know, for all the people who are writing, like,
you know, what should they do? And you know, you know what kind
of changes need to be made. I don't know what the answer
that is, and I think there's a whole bunch of very complicated
things that go into that. But realistically speaking, what
we're dealing with is a situation where just looking at
the situation, not the solutions to the situation, this is about
as bad as you can get right now for a program that didn't really
have the ability to be in this position again and that.
And this also doubly hurts like no, you you hit it on the head
with, you know that that that trailing run of, you know, five
wins, five wins like and that's. Again, that's what the 2021 hits
so hard. It's not that you were bad, is
it felt like at that point like based off of 2 back-to-back bowl
seasons like a six win season and a short season, people are
like, all right, I I've been burned before, but like I'm
going to now trust this. I'm going to trust that this
team has figured it out and they've raised the bottom and
they didn't and they just completely like torched
everything. And this is, you know, mark this
moment. Save this clip.
If I you gets back to a point where they win back-to-back
seasons of five games and six games, I know what's going to
happen. They'll be the, you know, let's
say they win 5-6 and seven games in three years in a row and win,
you know, go to two bowls and win two bowls.
And then people are still leaving at halftime and there's
gonna be the stories like, you've got to give it to this
team, you've got to go there. It's like This is why like this
right here is why fans IU football has such a hard row to
go down is we did that. Like we like the recent memory
we had a couple years where things were good and then it
just got completely smacked in the face.
We're here now, and This is why I always get so frustrated with
the fans are the problem argument because.
Completely getting the the football polled Lucy style like
it's happening every time and even after a couple years
successful it'll happen we'll be we'll be doing all right and
it's like the fans are still not going to be there's back you got
to stop and support this team at you know Ohio State levels like
no because this is what happens. You and I will still be there
because I don't know, we're mentally deranged or something,
but it's like this is this is that.
Not understanding that larger context and why you are right,
this hurts so much more than it has when it just seems like you
know it's like a car. That is the engine stops.
You're just rolling to a stop. There was a A staff that was
just tweeted out by Mike Schumann over at the Daily
Hoosier Follow Daily Hoosier on on X folks and they do some
great work. They really do.
But MM wrote in this In 13 games against Power Five teams over
the last season and a half, the I U football offense has topped
24 points in regulation once, and that was last year against
Maryland when they scored 33 points and lost.
So it is. And that to have an offense
that's been that inept for that long and also coupling that with
the lack of a defense that can win games when your team only
scores 24 points or less. It's a hard ask and I don't know
what the solution is. I we had a bunch of people
asking us to explain, like why should we pay attention to this
team at all moving forward the rest of the year?
I have no answers for you. I don't know why you're even
listening to this podcast. I mean I really I I and I
appreciate those of you who are listening.
I mean I don't. I I we do this because it's it's
like a it's like a morbid fascination at this point with I
U. Football and every offseason we
talk about should we stop podcasts.
But I U Football because it feels like we're just nothing
but negative. I'd love to be positive but I'm
not going to lie. I'm not going to make things up
to try to make the program look better than it is at this point.
And I'm and it's just unfortunate I mean I'm sure
we've said things in the past that have been interpreted as
unfair or have actually been unfair that's that's a fair
thing to say. But at the end of the day it's
it's a program where I feel like there's very little scrutiny on
why things aren't going right and and you know why the coach
doesn't seem to have any answers despite you know having some of
the best job security in the country at this point.
And that's it's really depressing that things are where
they're at, because it'd be great to have Indiana football
even back to where they were four or five, six years ago,
where they're winning, you know, in the five, six game range.
And they're at least competitive in some of these contests where
they're they're able to score points occasionally.
And I, you know, at the end of it all, it's hard for me to just
look at Walt Walt Bell and say he's the problem When before it
was Nick Sheridan was the problem, before that it was Mike
Debord that was the problem. The offense wasn't good enough
then either. There's one common thread
throughout. All of that.
And it's it's not just the coaching.
It's also frankly, a bunch of other things.
You know, the recruiting, the overall atmosphere, the program,
the way things are put together. I would love it for all to turn
around. Maybe the evaluations will work
here during the bye week. They haven't worked up to this
point. They haven't worked when you've
had the whole offseason to evaluate, but maybe it'll work
this time around anyway. Any final thoughts?
No, I was. I want to just real quick answer
that question too because it's funny.
I was having you know my wife and I were drive we I watched
the first like 3/4. And then we went out to dinner
and went drive with my wife. And I'm just like, I like and
just being completely honest here.
I'm like, I've had season tickets for football since 09
and we moved back here, back to Indiana and I was like, I don't,
should we keep them really like, I mean, I enjoyed.
We've talked about it. It's like, how much do you have
to? I like doing the tailgate but
it's like you know we're we're going to fall break.
We get back like you know late on Friday night before the
Rutgers games that's that's and that's on us.
It's an hour drives like. So, like, do I really want to
get up early that morning? Right after?
Like, do I want to do? That probably not.
And then it's like now you get into weather games and it's like
Wisconsin and it's like it's just like we're going to fewer
and fewer games every year. Part of it's on weather.
Yeah, maybe I'm a shitty fan or a fair weather fan.
That's fine. But you know, I have, well, I
have kids and they're doing basketball, by the way.
Like, I'd much rather at this point go to my son's basketball
game than an I U football game. Like I get way more enjoyment
out of it. I I like it a lot more.
Plus he's related to me and I I dig him a little bit.
But it's like I'm having this conversation for the first time
in years where I'm like, I don't know if it you know.
And like the Ohio State game, we went with kind of the plan that
we go to tailgate and leave at halftime.
We stayed because the game was close.
But it's like the, like, I'm what am I paying for?
Like as a season ticket holder, like I'm kind of using all the
wrong things. So like I'm going and planning
to leave early because I'm assuming we're going to get
blown out. It's like I'm just.
Not going to games. It's just it is as somebody who
doesn't want to give up his tickets like to me, I I should
be a real problem for IU football and IU athletics to see
somebody who's like I'm trying trying to figure out why I
should be doing this because again, money is finite.
I don't have unlimited amounts of it and so.
Football is supposed to be a sport but also an entertainment
product and it's not. Anyway.
And I think to back to what you said to me years ago and I was
like, I love going to college football games and I like the
atmosphere and you're like, well then go to a real program.
I don't go to IU games and it's but anyway I don't, well, I, you
know, I don't want year, but it's like I'm really having that
debate. So to answer that question, like
I'm really having that question, I can't, I can't tell anybody
why they should go well. And look, I'll say this, I think
people get hung up on the wrong things.
I mean people complain about the game day experience, so they
complain about the parking or they, you know, look, I've been
to a lot of college football games all over the place.
There's a few places that run it like an NFL team does where it's
it's actually really well put together and really well
managed. 75% of the places I've been, it's the same or worse
than Indiana in terms of of, you know, what you get.
Indiana is not an outlier in that.
I think the difference is even places that have, you know, not
the most ideal game day experience win games and give
their fans more often than not something to cheer for.
And that is the thing that is always, or not always, but
pretty consistently over the course of I U Football history
has been missing from the I U Football experience, even the
the fleeting moments when you do get that generally.
They go away very quickly and that you know every time Indiana
has a chance to deliver for fans in terms of the on the field
experience, which is the one thing you can't control as a
marketing department. They've managed to figure out a
way to screw things up. And you know, even just in the
last decade, the Minnesota game in 2013 with the with the
lateral that Minnesota recovers and Indiana loses that game, You
know, in 2015, the Rutgers game. I mean, you can go down the list
of all of these games where you know it was, should have been a
coronation, should have been a celebration.
And it ends up being just another reminder to those people
who do brave the elements or do go out and and fight through
crowds or whatever, that it's just not.
It's it it it ends up not being fun.
And right now, I mean, this is just not a fun product.
It's it's not something that you want to watch and we can talk
about execution all we want. You know what you're executing
out there is it still doesn't look particularly engaging or
exciting And I think you've, you know at this point unfortunately
this group of of this, this coaching staff, this particular
regime has used up all of their mulligans with fans.
And I think you now you're starting to see real anger and
and apathy coming out of the fan base because they're like all
right we've given faith that this is going to get better and
it's not getting better and so fine, we'll just stop paying
attention. And the problem is I, you know,
I I don't know what the solution is at this point.
Like there there's not really. There doesn't appear to be the
internal selfreflection of why things aren't going right from
the coaches, so the on field product just feels.
So that's like you said, this is the absolute worst time to be a
program. Not having functional football.
We can end on that anyway. Yeah.
Well, so we'll wrap it up. Thank you all for listening.
We appreciate it as always. Scott, always a pleasure
chatting with you. For those of you who are around,
obviously we won't have a preview podcast this week
because there's no game, but we'll be back.
Are you doing Crimson Cash this week?
Yeah, we do every week. So Crimson Cash will be out on
Thursday. So keep an eye out for that and
also we're going to have upcoming here a relatively
special episode, our thousandth episode.
So keep an eye out for that sometime in the next couple of
weeks. A lot to talk about obviously
with I, U Basketball as that season starts to get going, they
just they've had multiple practices already.
Things are are starting to percolate on that side of
things. So we'll we'll be hopefully
having you folks along as we approach our thousandth episode
and we'll look forward to chatting with you all over the
course of this next month. So anyway, thanks to our friends
that don't feel apparel. Thanks to our friends at the
Back Home Network. Thanks to all of you as always
for listening for Scott, I'm Galen, this is Crimson Cast.
We'll catch you folks on the flip side.
So long, everybody.