You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast
folks. Galen Clavier joining you
tonight was the 20th of October recording this.
Kind of early in the morning as we are getting ready for a big
weekend and I use sports Hoosier Hysteria for IU basketball this
evening. If you're listening to this the
Day of and if you're listening to it over the weekend, you
missed the Homecoming parade, I guess, and Hoosier Hysteria.
But also, of course, IU football playing this weekend.
IU. Volleyball playing this weekend,
IU soccer playing this weekend. Just a lot going on all over the
place. And so this is going to be a
football show. We're going to preview the IU
Rutgers game and talk A. Little bit about the numbers.
We got some questions that we haven't had a chance to get to
yet that you folks sent in that we also we don't want to make
sure that we try to address and then just ultimately try to
figure out what's going on with this IU football team.
You know is this the week that things start to turn around?
So we'll get to all of that here over the course of the next 45
minutes or so. 1st just a reminder.
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All right. We're going to tackle kind of
the big items related to this Indiana, Rutgers game first.
And then I'm going to go back and answer some additional
questions from the Q&A that we opened up on Twitter and try to
get more of those answered because I really did like some
of the questions that you folks threw at us.
But Indiana, Rutgers, this game is coming up at noon and
certainly two teams that appear to be going in different
directions, Indiana two and four on the campaign and they've lost
three out of their last four. And that includes of course last
week's 52 to seven loss at Michigan.
That concludes the 44 to 17 loss against Maryland, Indiana
desperately in need of a win as Rutgers.
You could make an argument, maybe the easiest opponent left
on the schedule for this Indiana team.
Maybe you can make an argument that it's Michigan State
instead. But regardless, any path to a
bowl almost certainly runs through Indiana beating this
Rutgers team and just the fact that you're playing Rutgers on
homecoming, you've got them in your building.
Rutgers has won the last couple of matchups between these two
teams. Indiana certainly is due to
exact some measure of revenge, one would think.
However, when you look at what the two teams have done so far
this year and how the computers are looking at them, Indiana
does not fare particularly well. Real Rutgers on the season comes
in with a record of five and two, so they can actually get to
bowl eligibility if they win this game.
They haven't won against a huge amount of tremendously
impressive opponents, but Rutgers has beaten Michigan
State. They had a comeback victory
against the Spartans at home last week.
They won 2047 versus Northwestern, who's not very
good this year. They they handily beat Virginia
Tech 35 to 16, and then their other two wins are against
Temple and Wagner. They lost 31, seven at Michigan,
and they lost 24 to 13 at Wisconsin.
Certainly no shame in either of those losses.
Rutgers on the season averaging about 28 points a game,
surrendering about 16 points a game.
And when you dive into the advanced statistics between
these two teams, Rutgers, as I mentioned, comes out ahead 52nd
overall in S&P. Plus, Rutgers strength has not
been their offense. Their offense is not
significantly better than Indiana.
Rutgers offense ranked 76th in S&P plus, although it ranks, I
will say significantly better in Pro Football Focus.
And so you know a lot of what you're seeing there is, I think
Rutgers lacking a lot of explosivity in terms of what
they're doing on offense. But where they make up for that
is when they get opportunities, they tend to take advantage of
those opportunities and when they're needing to get yards on
the ground. They've more or less been able
to do that. So you know, the where Rutgers
really shines is on the defensive front.
They're 32nd in the country and S&P, plus they're 22nd in the
country and Pro Football Focus and defense and they're 32nd and
FBI. All that adds up to a team that
really has played very well defensively this season, albeit
not against top level competition, but now holding
Wisconsin to 24 points in Madison.
For a team like Rutgers with that level of talent disparity
between the two programs is pretty impressive.
Indiana, as you know, we've talked about this throughout the
course of the season. Indiana just not really looking
good in any phase of the game. The best phase of the game for
Indiana right now is special teams.
But when you look at overall play and either offense or
defense, Indiana ranks around the bottom of Power Five teams
in all of those areas. Indiana with one of the worst
defensive success rates in the country.
Indiana with one of the lowest offensive success rates in the
country. Indiana one of the worst teams
in terms of rushing success. Indiana one of the worst teams
in terms of of explosiveness. And unfortunately, they're
playing against a Rutgers team that has been really good at
turning opponents over and that leads to explosive plays for
their defense. I, you know, I think when I came
into this there, there was a thought in my head that perhaps
the statistics would be more kind to Indiana and less kind to
Rutgers. But what we've seen so far this
season is just an Indiana team that is frankly stuck in the mud
on both sides of the ball. And I have not been imbued with
a high level of confidence by the coaching staff with the
public comments that they've made post Michigan game.
You know what we heard going into that Michigan game was that
with the changeover and offensive coordinator and with
the buy that there would be tweaks made that I you would
focus on things that would work. And while Michigan is certainly
a high level opponent, there's a a straightforward comparison you
can give between what Indiana did versus Michigan at the Big
House and what Rutgers did not. You know three weeks earlier at
the Big House both teams lost by, you know a pretty
significant margin. But Rutgers defense at least was
able to keep Michigan under wraps a little bit.
Michigan only winning that game 31 to 7.
You know, overall I look at this Indiana team and I say this does
not appear to be a team that has solved a lot.
And you know, if you look at what Indiana did in terms of of
overall, you know, positive things in that Michigan game.
It's not that there were no positives, but the positives all
came in a really tight cluster offensively and defensively and
they were right at the beginning of the game and what concerns
me. All the time about this IU team,
and with that in miniature, is that we do see IU sometimes come
out and do good things for a couple of drives, whether it's
offense or defense or both. We saw it in the Ohio State
game. What we consistently see though,
is that other teams, whether they are very talented teams
like Michigan and Ohio State or even lesser teams like Rutgers,
other teams are able to take that initial punch, make
adjustments. Solve whatever problems Indiana
is creating for them and then use that to put points on the
board, gain yards, keep Indiana from moving the ball, and it all
ends up with essentially what would have happened if Indiana
hadn't made those plays at the beginning of the game anyway.
We saw that in the Ohio State game.
Obviously. We saw it in the Michigan game.
We didn't really see it in the Maryland game.
I mean, Indiana got some mop up time stuff, you know, but this
is kind of the pattern that we're used to.
With this Indiana team that happened last year when they
went into Rutgers, they got up 14, nothing early.
And I know I looked at that game and I was like, wow, OK, maybe
they put it together and then Rutgers systematically started
stopping Indiana from doing the things that they had been doing
successfully. And Indiana didn't seem to have
another gear or or another approach.
So you look at the numbers overall.
You look at where Indiana's lack of success has been, there's
just not a lot of matchups when you take Indiana's offense
versus Rutgers defense or vice versa, that would favor IU.
There's a much more detailed breakdown of all of this on bite
sized bison, which I would highly recommend everybody go
check out. But you know, when you just kind
of take it in totality, you've got an Indiana team where I
think, frankly, the biggest problem is they come into this
game is that their defense just hasn't been able to stop
anybody. And I don't think Indiana's
offense has any clue about how to move the ball.
Still, I think they'll certainly have an easier time of it
against Rutgers, but I don't think it's going to be
necessarily an easy time of it against Rutgers.
Rutgers being LED in rushing by their junior running back Kyle
Man and guy believe is how his name is pronounced, averaging
about 90 yards a game, but about 5.3 yards per carry.
Gavin Wimsat The quarterback hasn't had a great year.
Only 7 touchdowns and four interceptions and only about a
51% completion percentage. But you know overall what you
know when you look at these two teams in the way that they're
set up. The Rutgers offense is really
not designed to run or excuse me, to pass.
It's really designed to run and they've proven themselves to be
pretty consistently OK at that. So for Indiana, the huge
question here is going to be, can their rush defense rise to
the occasion and force Rutgers to put the ball in the air?
At this point, I don't think we've seen anything that would
let us believe that Indiana's going to be able to do that.
They might be able to do it for a little bit, but I worry that
the defensive line in the front seven is going to get worn down
enough over the course of the first a couple of quarters of
this game that even if Indiana is able to temporarily stop
Rutgers, it's not going to be able to last.
I'd love to be proven wrong. I'd love to see Indiana put
together 4 full quarters of defensive action.
But you know what? What really worries me is that
Indiana, over the last three seasons, when their defense
hasn't been able to get stops even in moderate and low scoring
games, their offense has not been able to make up whatever
points are being allowed by the defense, which puts an
inordinate amount of pressure on the defense because the offense
just is not able to hold up its end of the bargain.
So that's the big question this week.
It will certainly be easier to move the ball and to to have big
plays and to have steady plays against Rutgers defense than it
was against Michigan. I'm just not totally sure that
you can. I wouldn't bet on it at this
point. I think IU really needs to show
before you trust them in a game like this.
And that's what I'll be watching out for in this game is, you
know, how well does IU adapt to the reality of, you know, their
offense has to produce. I don't think IU did themselves
any favors this week in terms of how they handled the quarterback
situation. We go into another game where
Indiana is not naming a starting quarterback, which you know,
it's amazing the lack of learning that seems to have
taken place over this particular situation this season.
You know, Indiana didn't name a starter going into game one.
It really didn't make any difference.
Offensively, Indiana scored three points.
Indiana didn't name a starter going into Week 2, but they were
playing a really bad FCS opponent.
They finally name a starter and they score 0 points in the first
quarter and second quarter of that up that game.
And you know, now we're back to a situation where we're not
naming starters. Michigan is.
You know, if you're playing Michigan and you're rotating
quarterbacks through some set process, but your team doesn't
appear to know about it based upon what we heard from Donovan
Mccully in the post game press conference.
And it's just kind of baffling that this is still considered to
be an important thing for IU to not name a starter.
And you know, frankly, there's there's not really a strategic
advantage at this point. Whatever the coaching staff
seems to think is the strategic advantage, it's not working and
and it's really antagonizing the fans at this point.
It's really kind of fascinating watching the negative reactions
to Tom Allen refusing to name a starter at any point throughout
the course of the week. But I think a lot of that
reaction has been pretty justified.
You know, ultimately IU needs stability and they need a
strategy and fans right now. I mean you look at the the, I
mean we look at the numbers all the time just in terms of how
many people are tuning into the podcast, like the numbers have
dropped off a Cliff. People have become incredibly
disengaged from this football program over the last few weeks.
You know, and certainly the Akron game didn't help.
The Maryland and Michigan games didn't help.
But the atmosphere around the program is just one of nobody
seems to believe in the football program and the coaching staff
have a direction with things or or know what's going on or how
to fix anything. I mean that really is tangibly
seeping through in these press availabilities and the coaches
shows and things like that. Whether or not it's true or not,
that is the perception. And at A at a pivotal point
going into a a weekend where you have to get a result on the
field against a Rutgers team that is no more talented than
your team is, you know to to just be like what?
We're not going to name a starting quarterback.
People do not have anything to grab onto with this team right
now. Like if you asked like what is
Indiana going to do on offense going into this Rutgers game, I
think most people would be like I have no idea and at this point
I don't care. That is not where you want your
football fan base at this point in time.
You know, you have to get a crowd out there and you have to
have a crowd that's excited and invested in what's going on with
the team. And it's almost felt like Allen
and the football coaching staff have just tried to keep
everybody at arm's length. And I'm sure that they think
that they're doing it because they're going to get some kind
of strategic advantage. But a we've seen that hasn't
worked out in the games where they've done this.
And BI think it's really turning off the people that you need to
be invested in the game, which is the people that you want to
get into the stands. And so it also ties into another
thing which I'm, I think if you're an observer of IU
football, you should be nervous about.
And this was actually asked by Taylor Lehman when we did our
Q&A session, is Dexter QB one, of course, meaning Dexter
Williams. This is something that we talked
about on the podcast actually with Taylor far earlier than
this week. We talked about this all the way
back in the preseason when IU kept refusing to name a starting
quarterback and and when they really seem to be refusing to
outline an offensive philosophy or identity other than we want
to be a running team, we're going to integrate the triple
option. We saw all of these things being
integrated in those first couple of games that now I use gone
away from because they can't run them.
The option being a great example of that.
A lot of that seemed to be a, you know, laying groundwork for
Dexter Williams to just come back in and be the starting
quarterback when he was ready. It's complicated though because
obviously if you look at last year, Dexter, while he had one
really good game for Indiana and there was that game up at
Michigan State that Indiana won in overtime.
It's it's been very puzzling that IU, if, if this indeed is
the direction that they're going where they're going to name
Dexter Williams starter. It just seems odd that that
would be the game or the that would be the the offensive
system that they would want to pursue given that that game.
If you really go back and look at the numbers of that game, it
wasn't Dexter Williams as a running quarterback that really
won that game for them. It was some outstanding
individual performances. By, you know, Sean Shiver's 13
carries, 115 yards. Certainly Dexter Williams had a
good running game, 16 carries for 86 yards and a touchdown.
But you know, a lot of it also came down to the fact that
Indiana scored via special teams in that game.
You know, they were able to pick up, you know, a couple of really
nice long returns by Jalen Lucas.
You know the the first kick of the game, Jalen Lucas returns it
for 43 yards and and you you get a touchdown out of that.
You know, Jalen Lucas had another huge return later on in
the game. Sean shivers on the first play
for Indiana of the second quarter, ends up with a 79 yard
touchdown run. You know, just kind of down the
list. And you know, if you remember
that game, Indiana gets down to the end of it and neither team
can really do anything offensively.
I mean the last four drives of that game, you know, Indiana
scores a touchdown and and ends up tying it up.
And then no, Michigan State turns it over on downs.
After an 8 play drive, Indiana has to punt.
Michigan State drives all the way down the field and misses a
field goal and that's the what sends it into overtime.
It it's it just seems odd. And again, I like Dexter
Williams as a quarterback, but he hasn't or as a runner.
I don't think he's demonstrated himself as a guy who can come in
and throw the ball. And you just have to look at his
statistics to see that. I mean, he ended up with about a
34% completion percentage in that Michigan State game last
year. He was 2 for seven.
You know, in that game, only two passes completed the entire
game. And I believe both of those were
in overtime, if I'm remembering correctly.
So that game, I feel like a lot of what IU decided they wanted
to do going into the offseason almost feels like a fluke result
that Indiana was able to pick up on the road.
That's not meant to take away from the win.
It is meant to say that may not be the type of game you want to
base what you really want to do offensively around.
And what worries me about Dexter Williams isn't just the lack of
of demonstrated passing ability at this point.
What what is a much bigger concern to me is that this is a
guy who is not yet a year removed from having a major leg
injury and Indiana has seen a lot of quarterbacks struggle
including Michael Pennix when it appeared they came back a bit
too early. I I do think that there's cause
for concern if the plan is OK, you know Dexter Williams is is
going to play in this game. It may not be the case that he's
playing at all, but if he is I I yeah, I think there's enough
question marks about it and there's been enough secrecy and
and so forth And the fact that he was dressed as an emergency
quarterback, I would be worried about several different things
if that ended up actually being what the case was in this
upcoming game. And so I don't know.
I mean, I if Dexter's back and fully healthy and able to make
all of these plays and very confident, then sure, you know,
maybe he is QB one and and maybe that ends up being the best
move. It just seems unlikely given the
instability on offense, given the fact you've already changed
over offensive coordinators. You know, given the fact that
you haven't really established a lot of of confidence in the
minds of the guys that have come in and played quarterback so far
because you've been jerking him around.
If Dexter Williams does play quarterback this week, now
that's a third quarterback you've thrown into the mix and
you still don't have an offensive system that you have
the right personnel to run. You're not, you know the
offensive line is just not shown the ability to block, and you've
clearly got receiving talent that you're not going to be able
to use Dexter Williams to take full advantage of if he's still
passing like he was passing last year.
That those are all I think major concerns and I guess we'll find
out when the lineup card comes out tomorrow regarding whether
Dexter is going to be starting and if he's playing.
I do. I am curious if he is available.
I'd be shocked if we didn't see him come in at some point.
If I use offense with sputtering, I don't know if
that's a good move at this point.
We'll have to see. It's going to be a really
fascinating thing. Couple other questions here.
We since we that that kind of leads us into talking through
some of the other questions that came in before we talk about the
our predictions on this game, Tyler Herndon asks this
question, what is the conversation around IU football
turn into if they win this weekend?
Rutgers, Illinois, Michigan State and Purdue are all within
reach. With that in mind, Allen could
technically still get an extension to the contract by
winning six games. What's the conversation if that
were to happen? Look, I I At this point, so much
of the conversation is not dominated by people saying,
well, we have to fire Tom Allen. A lot of people are saying that,
but I think what they mean is what we're seeing at this point
does not look like it's getting any better if IU goes out and
beats Rutgers in this game on Saturday.
I think it changes the entire tenor of the conversation
because I think what IU fans are looking for is some sign of life
after really three weeks in a row of really underwhelming
performance. And you know, even the Akron win
was a really underwhelming performance.
And obviously the last two weeks have been incredibly
underwhelming on both. Sides of the ball.
If Indiana comes out and wins this game, I'll be the first to
say, look this. That changes the entire prism of
the season because as was mentioned by Tyler, you've
really only got one. Absolutely.
You know, unwinnable looking game on.
I'm not saying it's actually unwinnable, but you've got one
unwinnable looking game on the schedule and that's that game at
Penn State because the rest of them, as you said, you've got
Wisconsin, who has a quarterback with a broken hand and has not
really looked themselves this year, and you've got them here
in Memorial Stadium. You're at Illinois, who's been
mercurial to say the best thing that you could say about them.
You know they beat obviously Maryland, but then they've
they've lost some really bad games this year.
And you've got Michigan State, who is a dumpster fire, and then
you've got Purdue, who is also frankly, A dumpster fire.
And as bad as I use defense has looked at times, you know,
Purdue's defense has actually looked slightly worse.
They've scored slightly more. But that's certainly a winnable
game. You have, including this Rutgers
game, you have 5 winnable games left on the schedule, which is
what we've been saying from the beginning.
A lot of the people who have been saying, hey, let's let's
see how this goes. I think a lot of it has centered
around the idea that if IU comes out and beats Rutgers, suddenly
this is a team that could potentially play against that
caliber of competition. And they've got multiple teams
against or multiple games against teams of that caliber of
competition the rest of the way. So I think the conversation
should rightly change to OK, Indiana's got three games left
at the end of the day. What people are reacting to is
how lifeless the offense has looked, how lost the team has
looked overall, just in terms of how they approach the day-to-day
and just the lack of strategy or focus that seems to be present.
If that gets better and Indiana goes out and beats a divisional
opponent at home on homecoming, of course the conversation
should change. And if IU makes a bowl, look,
that's all anybody asks for with IU football.
That's all anybody asks for. Make a bowl, yo.
I mean, if if Indiana's playing in the Detroit Bowl, whatever is
Little Caesars Bowl or whatever they're calling it now, that
would be a tremendous ending to a season that looked like it had
no chance of getting there. It's still on the table, and I
think so much of what IU fans who are still paying attention
to this team are, is, are doing is just waiting for some sign of
life. This would be a great chance for
Indiana to show that, and I would get excited if we're
sitting here on Sunday morning and I'm talking with Scott and
we're talking about how Indiana figured out a way to beat
Rutgers if they did it through offense or if they did it
through defense. Either way, it's like, is there
something that you can look at that says this team can win at
that point, the three remaining games?
That might sound laughable as we're talking right now, but
that's what this game means ultimately.
Can Indiana demonstrate that they still have a pulse Because
as we talked about last year, like last year's team did down
the stretch adapt and they were at least able to you know, they
they they did rise up and even though I the the Michigan State
game was flukish and how it worked out they still were able
to win that game. They were close against Rutgers
last year at almost the same time they were close against
Maryland last year. They they hung tough for 1/2
against Purdue. This is where Indiana just has
to demonstrate that they can actually come up with the wins.
And so I think yes, the conversation would change and
rightfully so. Some other questions our our
buddy James from Crimson Cash asks after Donovan Mccully threw
that touchdown pass at Michigan, do you think it crossed Tom
Allen's mind to give him a series or 2A quarterback?
I mean, it's a really interesting question.
It was interesting. There was a Greg Doyle piece
from earlier this week that that really went after Tom Allen
pretty pretty heavily. It focused a lot on Donovan
Mcculley and the fact that Mcculley had chosen not to be a
quarterback here and instead it had chosen to move to wide
receiver. But you see that throw he makes
to Jalen Lucas in the Michigan game.
You're like, is is there a reason why that happened?
That's still a very bizarre thing to me, that Mcculley who
had, you know, came in as a quarterback, had a lot of the
same skill set that Dexter Williams has, except had shown
an ability to throw the ball better, just decided that he's
not going to play quarterback. And and it seemed from that
piece that Doyle wrote that that was Mccully's decision, not the
football team's decision which that's a whole nother can of
worms that we could talk about at some point.
But yeah, I I'm sure Alan has looked at that and and perhaps
thought about using that Morris or maybe Rod Carey has more so
than Alan if they'd be foolish not to.
I mean when you have a dual threat ball carrier like Donovan
Mccully who can catch the ball or who can throw the ball or who
can, you know you can run jet sweeps or things like that with
them. I mean you need to use that guy
more often, use the talent that you've got.
So it'll be interesting to see how that ends up working as
things go along. Some other questions regarding
football that I wanted to tackle.
Tom Shanklin got a couple What are the chances IU goes with the
hottest handed quarterback and starts Jack Tuttle.
Funny joke. I like that Jack Tuttle you know
5 for five of that game. Good for him.
I'm glad he's he's getting some play at the tail end of these
Michigan games. Tom also asked what are the
chances Justin Fuente was hired as the QC coach but is really
the head coach in waiting? I I would hope not.
I mean who knows at this point. I mean I the the the Fuente hire
is interesting. We talked about it.
I think when it happened it's it's a it's an advisory role.
It's not a straight up. I mean I think there or maybe
it's AQC role, but I'm not even sure how that is set up in terms
of the the overall coaching hierarchy.
I will say this, I think in general, if you can have people
on your staff that understand one phase of the game really
well, which Justin Fuente definitely does, he understands
offense. And if you can hire, you know,
guys who have had head coaching experience, which he had at
Memphis and at Virginia Tech, good, that's, that's a good
hire. You know as far as what does
that mean long term? I I always like to resist the
idea that any program, Indiana or anybody else, if they're
going to make a change that they wouldn't open it up for a full
search. I would certainly hope that the
scenario you're describing would not be considered.
If he ends up being the the best potential hire in that case,
sure, but that is very unlikely given the Med, the the whole
mesh of of variables that would be in that mix?
Matt Park asks. The Rutgers games have been
critical both in football for years and basketball for the
last few years. Looking back, what are the
biggest missteps by the athletic department that allowed this to
happen? It's an interesting way of
phrasing that. I think the idea here with this
question is how did Indiana let Rutgers catch them in both
sports. I mean, look, I think it's
different with the the two sports.
I think The thing is that Rutgers made two really, really
good coaching hires. And Steve Pikel, who I I've
always had a tremendous amount of respect for, he is, you know,
he's, you know, Pikel was a Jim Calhoun disciple and really
knows a lot about coaching basketball at a high level.
You know, he he's not for everyone, but he has a system
that you know, has taken Rutgers to two NCAA tournaments, which
probably should have been three NCAA tournaments if you count in
the COVID year. And he's done it, you know,
really without his teams doing much offensively.
But they have been just dynamite defensive teams.
And I think Indiana, you know, because of how up and down their
program has been since Steve Pikel took over at Rutgers, you
know, which was 2017, which was, you know, that was the year that
was Crean's. Last year was Pikel's first
year. I think Pikel was a better
higher than Archie Miller relative to the relative
strengths of those programs. I don't know if Pikel would have
had, you know, been a good hire at IU, but I know that Archie
Miller didn't work out and I think that the things that Pikel
did really made it hard for Archie Miller coach teams to
beat Rutgers. I think that Woodson has been a
better, higher and a better coach against Pikel's teams
because you know, Woodson's teams has spent, you know, last
year especially were able to score enough points that they
were able to beat Rutgers. That was still a really grindy
game. Rutgers just a hard team to
play. They remind me a lot of, you
know, some of those teams that Indiana would have to play in
the Big 10 in the in the 80s and 90s that were just very
difficult to play against. Purdue was like that, but Purdue
was more talented. You know, whenever you would go
on the road and and play like a Minnesota.
When Clem Haskins was there, they were very difficult to play
against football wise. I mean, Rutgers was in real bad
shape and they went back out and hired the probably the best,
certainly the best modern coach in their history and Greg
Schiano. And as much as Schiano flamed
out in the NFL, that's a guy that knows how to coach college
football. And you know, I think that to
me, the big complaint about the Allen era is that IU has gone
backwards. While its two biggest
competitors in the Big 10 E have gone forwards where Rutgers and
where Maryland were pre, Pandemic was far behind where
Indiana was AT. And to watch Maryland with Mike
Locksley and Rutgers with Greg Schiano figure it out and
surpass really Indiana. I think in terms of of just how
they play on a week to week basis with not that much more
talent than what Indiana's got. That's probably the biggest
indictment that you can find of what Alan has or has not
accomplished over the course of the last three years at IU.
And you know you just can't afford if you're Indiana to fall
behind. And so it's it's kind of a
broader answer to your question, Matt.
I think ultimately, I mean Rutgers still doesn't have the
resources that IU has. I just think I, you know Rutgers
in a couple of cases made really good coaching hires.
And those coaches have been able to overcome the obstacles that
their programs face in ways that you know the the coaches that
were in place at the time when they were hired at Indiana
haven't been able to do. But as I said, I do think
Indiana with Woodson made a hire that's helped to give them a
much better chance against Rutgers.
But you have to also tip your cap to Rutgers and Steve Pikel,
I think on the basketball side and likewise on the football
side. Let's see, Derek Fields asked.
With divisions going away and Big 10 television money, is the
football job as attractive as it's been to potential head
coaches in the last 40 years? Or is it about as attractive?
Not asking you to speculate on Tom Allen just about the head
coaching position in general. So good question Derek and I
would rephrase this slightly. It's like this is Indiana more
attractive as a destination for a head coach or a place that a
coach would consider going than it has been in the past.
I think it it is actually you've got much better facilities now
not saying that facilities are where they need to be, but much
better facilities now than at any point you know prior to
really you know when they completed the South end zone.
You know so really you look at, you look at IU, they didn't
start upgrading their facilities really until the mid 2000s and a
lot of programs have done it long before then.
The overall lack of prior investment, which we've talked
about on prior podcasts regarding the football program
in that period from, you know, really the post World War 2 up
to the beginning of the 21st century, it wasn't a very
attractive program for people to come coach at.
And it didn't mean that you didn't attract some good people.
I mean, Lee Corso was a a pretty good college football coach.
So is Bill Mallory. I've always felt like the idea
that the job's unattractive is, you know, if that's.
I think at the end of the day, coaches talk a lot.
This happens in basketball, too. Remember we, we consistently
heard, oh, coaches don't want to go to IU to coach basketball.
There's too much pressure and it's like, well, a lot of times
the coaches saying that are the ones that are talking to the
media about that are coaches in low pressure situations who may
just not want to coach in a high pressure situation.
But there's plenty of coaches who are ambitious and every
coach at the end of the day feels like they can take on a
program and take it to new heights.
I think where Indiana has done themselves favors and and where
the Big 10 has certainly done I you a lot of favors, is that
financially Indiana is now a, you know, a cut above most of
the other programs in FBS. Yes, certainly a cut below the
programs that are bringing in huge amounts of money in their
own conference or in the SEC. But I think for a coach that
wants to take the next level, you want to coach in the Big 10,
you want to coach in the SEC. And Indiana is one of those
programs, and it's not that tremendously different from a
coach taking the South Carolina job or the Vanderbilt job or the
Mississippi State job. I mean, these are not
necessarily they're, they're more attractive than Indiana,
yes. But relative to the strength of
their conferences, they're not that attractive.
And I think you've seen enough between, you know, the last four
years of Kevin Wilson's time and the first four years of Tom
Allen's time. I think you most coaches have
seen enough to think, well, I can win at Indiana.
Maybe it's a stepping stone job for somewhere else, you know,
but I can go there and I'm going to have all these financial
resources and I'm able to out recruit a lot of people, maybe
not the the upper echelons of my conference, but certainly you
know when I'm in fights now with ACC schools or Big 12 schools,
I'm going to have some financial muscle behind that, you know.
So I think, I think I think the jobs always had some level of
popularity or or or or draw. I think Indiana to some degree
has has kneecapped itself a little bit in terms of who it
goes out and looks for and that, you know, you think about it
with basketball and you know, there were certain coaches that
Indiana just wouldn't consider in the past few cycles because
of the culture around IU. And I think with football that
has been just as extreme. Or it's been people hiring
people that they have personal relationships with, which is why
Jerry Dinardo ended up getting the job here.
So that I think IU has made some bad choices in coaches and that
has been interpreted as people aren't interested in coming to
IU. Money helps to trump a lot of
that. And I think IU is an attractive
job if IU to some degree overpays for the talent it
needs. Because as we talked about on
the last podcast, the reality is the football infrastructure is
not here at this point. And it can be, but it has to be
developed and you're going to have to convince someone that
this is a place where they can build a platform and become very
successful and that they're going to have, you know, the
ability to build the way that they need to.
That isn't necessarily the way the program's been built up to
this point. That's going to be the big
question, Mark. And you know, so I think the
financial aspects, the facilities aspects can certainly
get better, but I think that that they will.
A lot of it is, you know, you're probably going to have to
overpay relative to what other schools in the mix would have to
pay for a quality coach. But I think you have to do that
if you're IUI don't think you have a choice at this point.
Let's see couple other questions.
Tyler Rails asked, for those of us that don't understand the
do's and don'ts of journalism, why when IU said why when Walt
Bell said IU was a run first offense, did no media member
follow up and ask why that is? I get fans can be crazy and
think questions which cross the line should be asked, but that
seems fair play. I mean, you know, look, I think
what you have to understand with journalism and the way that
college sports get covered is that journalists don't want to
go into a press conference, whether it's basketball,
football or whatever, and get into a debate with the coach
about what they say. A lot of journalists, their
perspective is, well, OK, that's what the coaches said.
That's what we're going to write when we're analyzing it or when
we're talking about it on a podcast afterwards.
Maybe that at that point is like, well, that's odd.
That doesn't seem like it matches what Indiana's got in
terms of personnel. But the press conference is
generally not the time to do that.
You're there to ask questions, to have the people talk.
You're not necessarily there to call out the answers unless it's
something like egregious or something that is that you know
where there's a clear problem that hasn't been addressed or a
or a clear question that should be asked because it has broader
implications. I think a lot of journalists,
you know there's you're, you know what you want to get out of
the the the questions you're going to get those questions.
But entering into an additional back and forth or debate just
doesn't really happen that often.
And then that's not limited to Indiana.
I think that happens in a bunch of different places.
Most of the time the questioning about the responses comes
outside of the press conference. And I think the idea that you're
going to have, you know, a prime minister's question style back
and forth, where the head coach is, you know, facing an
inquisition from journalists or anybody else, that's just not
going to happen. I mean, it doesn't happen on the
coaches shows either. You know, coaches come out, say
what they're going to say. And I think that it's perfectly
reasonable in a lot of cases for than journalists and and
analysts to go back and evaluate those answers and say, OK, well,
this is what Indiana's trying to do or wow, that doesn't make a
whole lot of sense. Why did they say that?
But there are circumstances where I do think some tougher
questions could be asked when it comes down to what if people,
what if the coaches said over time and then what has actually
been seen, You know, and I think that there's philosophical
questions. We talked about the, you know,
not naming the quarterback thing.
You can ask the question like what you know, Why do you feel
that gives you it? Is it is an advantage that it
gives you? Why do you feel it gives you an
advantage? Do you feel it has negative
impacts on your team? But you've also got a limited
number of time of of opportunities to ask questions.
You may not want that particular answer.
So I don't know if that helps explain things a bit.
But generally speaking, I guess the the broad based answer is
journalists are going to go in and they're going to have
questions. And if you go back and you
really what I would suggest for everybody, you get a real good
insight into the the mentality behind the questions that get
asked in press conferences. The transcripts are all up on
iuhoosiers.com. Go read those, they're normally
up on other teams websites, read those as well.
And then if you can figure out who's actually asked the
question and then look at what they've written afterwards or or
what the television package was that the reactions from that
that question, you know, engendered, you can kind of get
a sense of why questions get asked and why follow-ups may not
get asked. And that's just kind of how the
system works. And it's it's rare, especially
at the college level, for there to be a lot of back and forth or
probing into an answer. Even if at the time as a
journalist you're like, that doesn't make a whole lot of
sense. You're generally going to save
that for later. Let's see.
We had a question from Robert Holbrooke.
Do you think Tom Allen is one of Dexter as a starter all along,
which is why he hasn't been able to commit to either Jackson or
Soresby? It's a good question.
I think Allen certainly found a level of comfort with the way
Dexter Williams played the game last year that made him want to
build the offense around Dexter, which is essentially what they
tried to do the last 3-4 games of the season.
And the type of attributes that Dexter brought to the table seem
to really dominate Tom Allen's thoughts about what type of
quarterback you wanted to bring in and what offense he wanted
that quarterback to run. I, to some degree wonder if Alan
going into the season with Jackson and Soresby is the the
two players who were going to be available to start at the
beginning of the year. You know, I do wonder if Alan
said to himself, well, I I feel like I've got my starter and
Dexter Williams and I have to tide things over until he's
healthy again. And I don't want to bring in a
quarterback who's going to play a very different system.
And I also don't want to bring in a quarterback who's going to
be a a direct obstacle to Dexter starting.
We've heard Dexter's name brought up so much by Allen over
the course of of the press conferences.
Really even going back to August it's clear that Dexter Williams
is on his mind in some capacity as far as being a starter.
I think it's a it's an insightful question, Robert.
I think it's very possible that that's been bit of mentality
around all of this and again I have my questions on that.
You know both because of the injury that Dexter suffered and
the style of play that he he is is executing.
When he's out there or or shown that he will execute and just
you know you've got good receivers on this team.
What we saw when Dexter was playing didn't really take
advantage of those and that feels like a wasted set of
talent that at that point. But we'll see.
I guess we'll find out as as this game gets ready to get
going and that'll come up here in less than 24 hours from when
you're probably listening to this.
So, So good questions everybody. I'm sorry I didn't get to
everyone's, but we hit the 45 minute mark and it's probably
time to shut this one down prediction for the weekend.
I would love to predict an Indiana victory here, but like
every metric is pointing in the favor of Rutgers.
And I don't really like to pick emotionally just because I want
something to happen. So I think Indiana will come out
and play well for the first couple of quarters.
I think they might even be leading at halftime.
I think Rutgers, though, is going to be able to figure out
how to stymie what Indiana's trying to do on offense.
And so I think Rutgers covers in this game.
I think that Rutgers probably wins.
I'm going to say 24 to 20 in this game.
I think IU, you know, is able to move the ball a little bit,
especially early. I think they've got a couple of
good special teams plays, but I just think Rutgers is a little
bit stronger and I guess the 2420 they wouldn't cover.
So let me adjust. Sorry, let's say 24 to 18
Indiana loses this game. Rutgers is just good enough
defensively and Indiana has shown so little offensively.
It's hard for me to imagine that Indiana's going to be able to
score the 20 or more points that they're going to need in order
to win this one. So unfortunately, I have Rutgers
winning. Hopefully I'm wrong.
We'll see what goes on with this one, but that's where
everything's at with this one. So thank you all for listening.
I really appreciate it. Thanks to our friends at Home
Field Apparel. Be sure to check out the pop Up
store at The Graduate. And my thanks to the entire back
home network assembly call. We'll be recapping everything
with Hoosier Hysteria. We'll talk about it a little bit
on Sunday as well with our post game wrap up podcast for all
those folks. I'm Galen Clavio, thanks for
joining us here on Crimson Cast. We'll catch you on the flip
side. Bring back the Bison.
So long, everybody.