You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
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one time. Be like the Crimson cast theme
is a banger. I think Mitchell Page agrees
with this here. Oh man, how can you not?
It's a great night baby it's AI know it's nuts.
I'm I'm so happy we're getting started this way I'm Galen
Clavia this is Crimson cast. It is Sunday, December 15th, and
as our guest on the podcast today notes, it's game week.
Yes, as Indiana. Indiana getting ready for
perhaps the most important game in program history and certainly
an accomplishment just in in and of itself being in this game
that I don't think anybody would have even thought would happen
at the beginning of the year. They'd go to the College
Football Playoff, taking on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish night
game, Notre Dame Stadium. This is what it's all about.
I think, as they say, if I can get any more cliche, I'm not
totally sure, but we got Mitchell Page back, one of our
most requested return guests. Yeah, no, I had a bunch of
people be like, we need Mitchell Page back on the show.
And so we got him, folks. He's here.
Good to see you again. How you doing?
I'm awesome man, it's been an awesome couple weeks.
Lots happened since we last chatted, but can't wait for
Friday. We're going to be up there
early, hopefully in attendance for the live show, so if we got
some listeners going there, we'd love to meet.
Everybody just can't even believe that this is a our
reality, right? It's crazy.
That's a great way of putting it.
Now it, it just feels like something that happened to other
people but didn't happen to you. And then all of a sudden you're
living at it. It's like, I don't know what to
say. I don't know what to do with my
hands. It's it's it's got that vibe to
it, but we're going to talk all about that.
And and Mitchell mentioned something that I was going to
mention the top of the show. So real quick, just a reminder,
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Again, that's home field apparel.com.
Also folks, just a reminder as as was just mentioned, we're
going to be live in a bunch of places this week.
So on Tuesday night of this week, come to the Upstairs Pub
from 8:00 to 9:00 PM, right during $2.00.
We're going to be doing a live show.
It'll be me, Joe Cronin, some special guests joining you,
talking about this particular matchup, Indiana versus Notre
Dame and a way to kind of send off the semester as well here in
Bloomington. Then on Thursday at 7:00 PM,
I'll be live at Corby's. I don't know if we're doing a
live show or just a meet and greet, but we've teamed up with
the IU Alumni Association. We'll be up in South Bend for
that. Again, 7:00 at Corby's in South
Bend on Thursday, and then Friday at noon, you can join me
at Social Cantina in Mishawaka, as we'll be doing a meet and
greet there from noon until about 2:00 and then see where
the afternoon and evening takes it.
So a lot going on here on Crimson Cast this week, but
there's a lot going on with IU football and IU athletics.
And Mitchell, as you said, a lot's happened since you and I
first got together and did a podcast earlier this year.
And I don't even remember exactly when that was.
I think it might have been post Maryland game that we had
connected. And we did a show shortly after
that. And we have no idea what awaited
us as we went into October. We thought it could be good.
I don't think that we thought it would end up being as good as it
ended up being. What has been your reaction,
let's say from the Nebraska game on with what's going on with
Indiana football? Yeah, I think that was the first
time that I let myself actually consider that that was a
possibility, that this was a possibility.
I think so many of us die hard fans have watched IU football
with excitement, but don't let yourself get ahead of yourself,
if that makes sense. Because I mean, I played on a
lot of teams that would be winning in the fourth quarter by
a couple touchdowns and find a way to lose.
And it didn't feel like this team had that in them.
But it's IU. So maybe.
And all they've done is just continued to be the team that
we've seen all year. I mean, you talk, everyone wants
to talk about they got beat pretty bad by Ohio State on the
scoreboard for sure. But if you watch the game,
particularly on defense, we can play with these big boys, right?
It's it's given me so much confidence going into this week.
I think Notre Dame, I've watched him a couple Times Now, is
against Navy and Army, but they're tough, they're big,
they're physical similar to Michigan, but with a little more
offense and maybe not quite as good on defense.
So just a a physical kind of bruising team that if you want
to be at this level, this is the kind of game that you have to be
able to to compete and win one-on-one matchups.
That's where all the the difference between all these
really big schools that have been the big schools forever and
a team like Indiana even when I was there, is winning one-on-one
battles and that's offense, defense, special teams, winning
the one on ones and competitive plays when it matters.
And these guys have done it. But you got a big test coming
up. I I think Notre Dame's about as
good A-Team as as there is in the country.
So going to be a tough matchup. Yeah, and on the road, and
obviously that's, you know, always a bit of a struggle
regardless 'cause, you know, it's just it's harder to win
away from home. But it is going to be
interesting I think, on a number of levels.
First of all, the confidence that Indiana had throughout most
of the season looked like it had been shaking a little bit with
what happened in the Michigan game and then certainly what
happened in the Ohio State game. And it's funny, you mentioned
like kind of expecting the other shoe to drop.
I was kind of nervous going into the Purdue game because it's
like, well, the weather's not going to be great.
Indiana's coming off a game where they they played the worst
that they played all season, made a lot of uncharacteristic
mistakes, and then they go out and they just obliterate Purdue.
And I got to think that putting 66 points on the board, shutting
an opponent out, like doing all of that in front of a big crowd
in that kind of environment in a rivalry game, that is about the
best way you can go into an extended break like Indiana's
had here. Because it allowed them, I
think, to kind of maybe regain some of the mojo that they look
like they lost, especially on offense.
That's a great word. I I was going to say rhythm, but
it doesn't sound as good as Mojo.
They it, they just have been out of sorts.
I I think it's, it's not easier on defense to get yourself back
in rhythm, but a lot of that is just playing really fast and
physical. If you make a mistake on
defense, but you do it really fast, you can cover that up a
little bit right If you shoot the wrong gap as AD lineman, but
you do it really aggressively. You probably take a lineman with
you and then a linebacker can fill.
But especially in the passing game, if you're a step short or
step slow out of your break, if you miss an assignment blocking
against some speed like they had against Ohio State, things can
go bad in a hurry. And we saw that over and over
again. It felt like against Ohio State.
But it allows you to regain some confidence.
OK, we can do this. Purdue wasn't great this year.
Obviously everyone knows that. But they have division or it's a
big time Division One program. I just saw some mock drafts.
They have a guy that's projected to go in the first round like
they're still good players on that team and you torched them
up and down the field consistently.
Ones twos, threes, whole team was getting after it.
You had every excuse as well, like you mentioned, bad weather,
bad team to just come out and beat them, but don't beat them
to a pulp. They chose they chose the
ladder. Yeah, they chose a ladder big
time. Yeah, absolutely.
You you have to be feeling good and I think the amount of break
is just right. I if you had an extra week of
practice, I think it allows some complacency to kind of seep in
because you don't have a game for so long.
But this you get a get right week, get your body feeling good
and then they're back. They're this is going to be a
full speed practice game week already.
So it doesn't allow you to get out of your rhythm of the season
because there are two very different rhythms from kind of
offseason even waiting for a bowl game to game week after
each other, right. It's more just a bye week that
they had. I think it sets up perfectly and
I'm not so sure that the that the Hoosier faithful won't be a
much larger contingent than I think people are ready for,
especially the people up north. You know, I spend a lot of time
on Twitter, way too much time on Twitter.
I should. I'd be so much better at my job
if I deleted my Twitter, but then I would be so much less
happy. There's a lot of Notre Dame fans
that think that this is, and I think they're kind of MO is nice
and easy. They're excited to be there.
I think we're going to bring some rowdiness up to South Bend.
I'm really excited to be a part of it.
Didn't think I was going to get to go but in the last week.
Yeah, I know. We were, we were texting back
and forth and it it seemed I, I figured I had a sneaking
suspicion you were going to make it up there.
But well, let's talk about that. And we're kind of bounce back
and forth on some topics here. I'm I am really interested.
It seems like most of the people that I've known over the last 15
years related to IU or I or sports media are going to be
there. The the number of people who
have said they've bought tickets, especially in the last
few days as ticket prices have fallen, has been immense.
And I'm just like, well, if I know all of these people are
coming, think of all the people I don't know that are also going
to be there. There's an IU Alumni Association
event in the afternoon on Friday, much like there was if
you went to the UCLA game, they had one there.
I checked yesterday, there were like 1100 people already
registered for that, which I think is, I think that's it.
I think it's tapped out. I tried to get a ticket and was
not allowed I. Can't do it.
Yeah. So, so.
And people forget. I mean, South Bend is, is really
an Indiana city. There's a, there's a, there's a
regional campus there. You, you get a ton of people
that come down from there and come to IU.
You got Northern Indiana in general.
You got all the folks from Chicago, you got the folks from
Fort Wayne. There are so many Indiana
University fans in that vicinity and they'll, they're going to be
very interested in coming. They're driving a lot of the
ticket sales that are happening right now on StubHub.
I am really curious what proportion of the crowd we get
and what that atmosphere is going to be like, 'cause we have
seen Mitchell Notre Dame Stadium get taken over by opposing fans
every once in a while. It happened with Georgia there.
You know, there've been a couple of other situations like that.
This is like, I think for Notre Dame fans, it's great that
they're in the playoff, but it's not resonating perhaps the same
way with the whole fan base the way it is with Indiana.
Because for Indiana, this is like, wow, we finally got into
the ball and and that is probably, I think it's going to
be an interesting thing to watch dynamic wise that day.
Yeah, it's I, I can't wait to get I might get there at 6:00 in
the morning. I, I, I might actually go
tonight. I haven't decided yet, but I
might be there all week. It it just if you're exactly
right, they're they're supposed to be here.
And I think that I referenced Twitter a lot, but that's kind
of the interactions that I've had like, oh, lowly Indiana just
excited to be here being a little obnoxious.
Mostly that's just me. I am obnoxious, but this is a
whole new territory. And it can, this can be a
program. It already has been a program
shifting momentum, shifting season.
But you go beat A-Team like Notre Dame that recruits
nationally, they're in the running for five stars every
year, and you go into their building and show that we're not
just a flash in the pan, catch lightning in a bottle, whatever
cliche you want to use. This is a real team, and I think
the way that we're going to do it is not with flashy trick
plays. We're going to go up there and
stick to the game plan of smashing the mouth like they
have all year. And then when you win a game
like that, that shows a trajectory that we haven't seen
in Indiana in a long time. Now it's true and you mentioned
right off the top the idea of can you win the one-on-one
matchups? You know, what's what's made
Indiana so effective for the longest part of the season is
how efficient they've been in executing.
And you know, I've had some struggles obviously with the
Michigan and Ohio State games. But you look at Notre Dame,
they're a different type of team.
You know, they are physically very imposing, but they're you
look at what they've done on the course of the season and you you
can look at the numbers as they compare with each other.
It's like, well, there's some opportunities here for Indiana
if they play up to what they've done over the course of the
year. And you know what's interesting
and, and I wanted to get your perspective on this as a, as a
former wide receiver, One of the areas where Indiana has
struggled a little bit from an efficiency perspective on
offense is there been a lot more drops.
The passing game's been disrupted.
Some of that's been pressure, but some of it's just been guys
not catching balls. And that was not happening
through like the 1st 2/3 of the season.
What have you seen? Like what would you attribute
that to? What do you think is causing the
problems in the passing game now that we didn't see before?
Yeah, I think it all started in Michigan and it's all time it it
seems so simple like hey, just catch the ball no matter where
it is. Of course they're trying to do
that. But passing and down the field
offense all over college football is so much timing, ball
placement, rhythm, right? Especially your back shoulder
throws. Some of the RPO action that
they've done so effectively all year.
All that is based on the quarterback being able to take
snap, get his read, make his steps and deliver an accurate
ball when you're ready for it. Early in the season especially,
I'm thinking back shoulder throws especially that's a
timing route. It's most of the time 7 steps
after a release and then your receivers head is back and the
ball has to be there. If the ball is not there, that
gives corners a chance to get more into you and then it
becomes a true 5050 ball versus the kind of 7030 balls that we
are getting when we are in rhythm.
I think they got back to that a lot against Purdue.
I think there was a lot more space and I think we handled
them up front a lot better. But everything, the foundation
is the guys up front. I was able to have success when
we blocked really well. You can.
The fastest way to disrupt an offense is to get the
quarterback off his timing, off his grass, see when he's able to
sit back there and process. I mean, think about what Will
Howard was doing for Ohio State versus US, right?
We have been really effective getting to the quarterback.
And for a lot of that game, he was getting the ball out of his
hands quickly because they were able to block well enough that
he could go through his rhythms. There's just a lot of space out
there. When you have athletes, if you
can get in rhythm, those catches become a lot easier because
they're running. You're not waiting for the ball,
you're not fighting, hand fighting.
When the ball's on time, everything gets a lot easier.
You don't get stale, and I know what happens in a blink of an
eye. But when you run a stop route
and the ball is not on you, you're just waiting, waiting,
waiting, waiting and your hands get kind of tight and stale.
It just makes that hard a lot that play a lot harder.
So being able to protect is going to be paramount to moving
the ball as it has been all year.
Yeah. And Kurt Zignetti talked in his
press conference last week about how they've really, they were
really stymied because of having to switch to the silent count
against Ohio State very early. Ohio State was able to figure
out how to time things, and that really disrupted what Indiana
was trying to do. They've been practicing.
We know because we've seen video against a lot of crowd noise in
Memorial Stadium, but they're going to a stadium that isn't
quite as imposing from a noise perspective as Ohio Stadium was.
I mean, you got 3530 whatever, some 1000 fewer seats in there
and there's going to be a non 0 number of IU fans in the
building. We know that as well.
So you hope that between being better prepared for that type of
an environment and the fact that now they've practiced that
they're they know that they have to be conscious of it.
Maybe some of that timing is able to come back and and maybe
they can make some quicker decisions about where the ball's
supposed to go. I think that was probably the
biggest frustration, you know, in that Ohio State game was they
didn't seem to be able to adapt in the moment to, you know,
running a lot of draws or running screens or trying to do
things where they could get the ball out very quickly.
A lot of it just was like they weren't being able to
effectively cite where the pass rush was coming from.
I have to think, I mean, they've had almost a month since that
game that they've spent a ton of time figuring out what to do
again in those situations. Yeah, and this is really into
the weeds, but when you watch the Ohio State game, it was all
timing. They didn't mix up.
And you can, it's hard to say, snap count with a silent count.
But if you watch it, every time that Curtis Work was ready, that
guard threw his hand out and center snapped it immediately.
Defensive lineman key on that after one drive, they're going
to get their cleats in the ground and they're going forward
fast for the entire game. And as an offensive lineman,
you're going backwards. Their time in your snap count,
you have to wait and see the ball.
It just is that half a second is massive.
So I'll be curious if they do something a little different.
I know when we were running our offense when I was in school, it
was quarterback would point to the ground centers looking
between his legs. Soon as the quarterback points,
then it's on the center. He snaps it whenever he's ready.
So it it mixed up the timing and teams had a lot harder time
timing up the count versus throw your arm out there and as soon
as you see the arm then you're snapping it.
My guess is they'll add in some variety.
Maybe stick with, I'm not saying the arm from the guard is bad,
but give the center a little more wiggle room for when he
snaps the ball because it's going to come down to that.
They're going to be on a silent count.
You have to make it so the defensive lineman can't pin
their ears back, and a lot of that starts with maintaining
momentum with your drives. As soon as you got down 21,
seven, they knew we were throwing.
It made them come off the ball even faster because they were
getting after us. They were always on the front
foot, especially up front. You've got to do something to
mix that up a little bit. And my guess is they have.
I mean, it's not like Kurt Zignetti hasn't done an
unbelievable job. My guess is they're going to
have something ready for it, but something to keep an eye on for.
Sure. Yeah, absolutely.
Pulling back the the lens a little bit, obviously this is a
big moment in IU football history.
What has been the discussion with you and and some of the
other former players over the course of, I guess first of all,
seeing Indiana officially in the CFP and now the build up and now
only being five days away from this game kicking off?
Like what what's what's been, the vibe and the dialogue there
with you and some of the other guys that have played?
Yeah, I think I want to zoom it out even farther.
I moved away for a while, so I wasn't able to go to a ton of
games, but even when I was here and we were losing, I was in the
stadium just I'm at Psycho. I loved it, but a lot of my team
mates didn't want to drive, deal with all the parking, deal with
everything because there wasn't an exciting product.
It just was a fact. As the game, as the season's
gone on. I would say right about the
Nebraska game days coming to Washington, guys that I haven't
heard from in forever. We're in Group chats.
Hey, what time are you getting to the game?
What are you going? How are we going to get there?
Do you want a carpool? And the excitement that all of
these guys have had. I mean, I saw even at the Purdue
game, it's a Blizzard. Purdue is one in 10.
I'm pretty sure 70% of the guys that I played with were in the
stadium. There's just so much pride that
I can't, I can't even explain it.
There's people are just proud to say they played there and I can
understand why you wouldn't have been.
There wasn't anything to really be proud of, especially in the
last couple years. I, I don't know if I said it on
this podcast, but on some others I have.
It was like 3 weeks ago I got a just this post.
This time last year I was just begging for some fight.
That's it. I didn't expect to win the game.
I expected to lose by multiple touchdowns.
But let's just fight and to come now to where let's not only
fight, let's go into Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff
and beat their butts. Like what it's I think that's
the word that I want to use. There's just so much pride in
the former players and how excited they are that the
program that we felt like, I mean, we didn't this, this has
nothing to do with us. This is all these guys.
But we felt like we had some things start rolling when we
were there. We are scoring a lot of points.
We were just missing a couple pieces.
There is some pride like, hey, we are part of this.
Right. And to be a part of that, it's
just been really, really cool. It is it's fascinating to watch
just as a fan and someone that's been, you know, talking about
the team for a while, but I can only imagine.
I mean, it's it the it's been so fast and like you said, like it
wasn't even like, oh, everybody went into the season with Great
Expectations. I remember I went back and
listened to the last podcast we did right after the bucket game
last year. And there, there was just this
kind of sense of distance. Like I'm not going to let myself
crisis. I would actually say it was
beyond that. It was just kind of like, I
don't really want to affiliate. I, I, I want to see something
like give me something to justify the time and the
emotional energy that I'm spending on this.
And I, I was going back. I, I put together an Instagram
reel yesterday of like the, I was going to do the whole
season. And then I realized like there's
like 3 natural break points in the year and that Northwestern
game felt like one where it's like, OK, they're six and O,
they're bowl eligible and something special could happen.
Something special has already happened.
They're they're bowl eligible. And then I think about that and
the fact there was a buy after that.
And then it was like the thing just got into a different
stratosphere. And a lot of what you're talking
about with your, your former teammates and other people that
I know that have been affiliated with the program, it's like now
I feel like I can get emotionally invested and it's
not gonna hurt me the way that it's hurt me in the past.
Or I see something here that is worth not just supporting, but
strongly supporting. And that is cool to watch.
I think hearing you talk about that and, and how your former
teammates have reacted to it and some of the people we've talked
to elsewhere on the pod, that's probably the one of the things
I've enjoyed the most is watching all these people kind
of open themselves up again and and be willing to put themselves
emotional maybe for the first time fully into the fold of IU
football. I this is a stupid thing that I
did, but you want to talk about being invested.
I have. So my territory for work is
Indiana and Michigan. And over the last couple weeks,
for whatever reason, I've spent a lot of time in South Bend,
Elkhart, Mishawaka. I had a meeting last Thursday
and I wore my leather jacket, an IU polo and an IU beanie.
These people don't even watch football, but I'm just so proud.
I wanted the stadium. I wanted the city to know that
we were coming. And I think that's a pretty
universal sentiment that we're just, we've waited so long for
this and you talk about pouring everything into something that
you love. It's been really hard over the
last, jeez, however long 30 years to be able to just give
yourself 100% to something. My whole family's texting me
about all this. Hey, what are we doing?
I was recruiting text that I had never gotten before.
When you have and I, I think for the whole athletic department,
when you have a football team like this, it opens so many
doors for so many other things in the university that I think
we're starting to see that. And I don't want to take a shot
at the basketball team. I know nothing really about
basketball. But you see Assembly Hall, when
I was there, they were, they were good.
I think that was Yogi Ferrell time.
So they were good team, but didn't matter who they're
playing. Sold out, sold out, sold out,
sold out. And now you're getting some of
those football crowds. Right.
Everybody's, I mean, we watch Nebraska.
They didn't make shots, whatever happened, didn't make shots down
the stretch when it mattered. That happens.
But I just just kind of changed the channel afterwards.
Like that's fine. I'll care about this in a couple
weeks when Indiana's national champions it's it's what a a
switch, I know. I just the.
Way I feel about Indiana University and I, I think it's
also important. So we talk about most important
game in the program history and I, I kind of disagree that it's
the most important, the most important game.
I think there were you talk about the changes in the
trajectory and the emotion with the program.
I think the most important games have already happened.
This is kind of icing on the cake.
And I'm saying this, this is not what the team saying, I promise
you that. But everything that we get from
here is kind of gravy. We've shown a model that's
proven. We have proven that this works.
Indiana is exciting. If you want to be in a really
exciting place with psycho fans that will fill the stadium up on
a beautiful campus. If you're an 18 year old kid,
just come and see it. And I think we've already proved
there's proof of concept already.
Come and see it and I think we'll really start to see that
after the College Football Playoff.
Everything plays itself out, however it does this next cycle
of recruiting, whether it's transfer portal, the high school
kids for next season, you're going to see a huge uptick
already regardless of what happens now, let's take a step
back. You win some games now some some
serious, serious stuff starts happening, right?
But it's we've made it here already and it feels like the
important ones are behind us. So now let's go get some some
Christmas presents for the next couple of years.
I like, I like your overall attitude on this and I agree, I
think that the building, the foundational building has
occurred already. And what you get here, it's
like, well, what else can we add to the building before we take a
break and then come back the following year?
Last thing I wanted to ask you about.
So, you know, there had been once, once Indiana won the 6th
game, you know, once they went into all of that, that went on
in October, you started to hear people be like, oh, Kurt
Zignetti is going to leave for another school.
And then Indiana steps up, signs him to a long term extension,
pays him significantly more than I ever thought Indiana would pay
a football coach. And then even the assistants you
hear about, they're going to have this larger assistant pool.
They lose Tino Senseri as offensive coordinator now at
UCLA, but they signed the other 9 to extensions as well.
I mean, what was what was your reaction when you heard the
Signeti news that he had extended and and how impressed
have you been at the investment that I use made not just in that
position, but in all of the support positions that surround
it? It's a plus top to bottom.
It's it's almost unheard of to have a season like you just had
and not get poached for everybody.
It it's just the way of college football.
Even the Alabama teams, it was a dynasty.
Those coaches are getting poached.
Probably their whole staff is pretty turned over every couple
of years. So the fact that you have Bryant
Haynes who's if he doesn't win assistant coach or what are the
Broyles award, I don't know who else is going to win that.
It's it feels like he's has to be a lock.
And there's probably schools that were saying, hey, come be
the head coach, come on. And for him to look at Indiana
the way that I think Kurt Zignetti is looking at Indiana,
seeing the investment, seeing the possibilities that do exist
when you're top ten in NIL, which was a stunning number or
whatever it may not have been top ten, 13 million ahead of
Oregon and some other like. What?
Yeah, I know it's. Like, what are what?
But it shows. I mean, Kurt Zignetti called it
a sleeping giant and he's thinking it's waking up.
That's exactly what it is. It's the third largest alumni
base. There are successful people that
are Indiana University grads, Indiana University fans.
When you have a season like this and you're all over the place on
ESPN, you get game day a couple times, big new kick off a couple
times. We haven't arrived, but we're
we're on a rocket ship and people want to be associated
with that. To keep your entire staff is I
mean, it's another. However, I feel like Kurt
Signetti gets complimented enough.
Right. But how can you not be so
impressed that his staff, his entire staff, is as bought in as
they are? It's it's almost unheard of in
college football. Yeah, it's it's a fascinating
circumstance. And like you said, I mean,
Indiana has really stepped up and, and we've talked about on
the show before, they had to like, you can't afford to not be
competitive in football in the current landscape.
It's why Purdue fired Ryan Walters the day after the bucket
game. It's why North Carolina just
committed essentially $50 million to hiring Bill Belichick
and and trying to get their NIL up.
You know, it's you're, you're, and I think Indiana deserves a
lot of credit for, you know, making the ride higher and then
realizing the best formula is to try to keep the band together.
Do what you need to do. You're, you're probably never
going to completely out resource the top teams in college
football, but I think what you saw this year was you don't
necessarily have to completely out resource them.
Indiana's in the College Football Playoff and none of
these things were in place when this season started.
One can only imagine what it'll look like as you move forward
with these things in place. Yeah, You built this from scraps
and now you gave him the keys to a Ferrari essentially.
And he seems like an F1 driver that's going to drive it pretty
fast. So I, I just, you're no matter
what happens Friday, I think they're going to win and I think
they're going to dominate. Maybe not win by 50, but I think
it will be a physically dominating game for Indiana.
That's their identity. And I think they will be better
prepared going into an environment like that with
everything that's on the line. But the outlook of the program,
my gosh, I don't know what I'm going to do when January 20th
has happened. Indiana hangs holds up the
College Football Playoff trophy and now we got to wait till
August. I know I'm, I'm already
struggling with that, just in general.
I was, as you know, the bowl season officially started
yesterday. And I, I look, I've been a
college football fan my whole life.
I, I've liked college football as much as I've liked college
basketball. Now I find myself liking college
basketball less and I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do
once this season's over. This is a huge void.
I'm I'm so pleased we've got at least one more game, probably
four more games, you know, for Indiana this year.
And it's going to be a big step back in terms of like, what do I
focus on? This is probably the most the
most that we'll see Indiana fans ever interested in the portal
and recruiting and and spring ball.
And that's great. Like, this is the awakening of a
fan base that has never really been taught how to be football
fans. You know, this is, this is the
stray dog that you brought in and like, you have to train it.
But I think Indiana fans are going to figure this out
quickly. You know, and, and I'm already
seeing in online conversations, Indiana fans starting to figure
out like how to talk about this and what to do and, and, you
know, what sorts of things to pay attention to.
It's been a lot of fun for me. I I know it's been a lot of fun
for other people too as they found this thing that they can
now get emotionally and mentally invested in.
Yeah. And I think the biggest
challenge, yeah, there's going to be reset expectations.
But I mean, you see what happens.
Let's talk the basketball team for, I mean, what's in whatever
you want to say. Like they're a pretty successful
program relative to the rest of the country.
Pretty successful. And that's about as doom and
gloom. IUBB, if you want to look that
hashtag up on Twitter and be sad, pretty easy to do it.
The challenge is going to be continuing.
This is the most positive. I've had more fun interacting
with IU fans on the street on Twitter than I've maybe ever had
with any. Like it is just so fun because
everyone's just so positive and there's going to be bumps it
doesn't contain. It does not continue like this
forever. Probably even, I mean, think
about Georgia. Georgia had a down year and
they're still one of the best teams in the country.
So it doesn't just maintaining the positive energy I think is
going to be the biggest challenge going forward for the
fan base because you saw how powerful, and that's what
Signetti was trying to argue, how powerful the fan base can be
in creating excitement and creating an environment where
people want to come. We hold so much more power than
I think we realize, especially in football because there's
60,000 of us in the stadium. So it understanding that power
and using it effectively, I think is is going to be the the
next step as we go season 2345. Last thing we'll say here, I
agree with all of that. There was a an interesting
article in the Indy Star this morning from Michael Nizziolek,
who writes for the Herald Times. It had a quote from Fred Glass.
You mentioned you think Indiana's going to go up and
down, and I don't know if you've seen this quote yet, but I'm
going to read it. One of my favorite people, so I
can't wait to hear what Fred says.
Here's what Fred said. Quote, I think all the pressure
to win the game is on Notre Dame.
A lot of people nationally don't even think IU belongs in the
College Football Playoff under all those circumstances.
If Indiana beats Notre Dame at Notre Dame and knocks them out
of the National Championship Playoff, I think that would be a
historic humiliation of epic proportions for Notre Dame.
I think the pressure is completely on them.
End Quote. All right, Fred, just don't miss
words. Tell us.
What you're up all right, not sure if we needed that to be
hanging under the play like a champion today sign as they walk
out, but he's exactly right. We're playing with house money
and that's kind of what I referenced earlier.
All of our quote UN quote important games, most important
game in program history, I think are behind us now is this.
This is the biggest game. I don't even think you can add
up the rest of them together and touch how big of a game this is
for Indiana. But we go in there, house money,
everything that happens out there is icing on the cake and
when you can play that free, that's dangerous.
That's why you see so many upsets when the team comes in
and plays free. That's that's going to be the
one thing and this is where the start of the game is going to be
really important. We'll talk about this more
throughout the course of the week.
But you know, it's where if Indiana can go out, score a
touchdown early, get on the board and and try to dictate a
little bit of the flow of the game, Does Notre Dame tighten
up? And and again, we don't know.
It's tough to go on the road. It's tough to go into this type
of an environment. This is one of the most storied
stadiums in in college football history.
You're under the lights. You're the first College
Football Playoff game of the whole cycle, and game day is
going to be there like all of the trappings are there.
Indiana has done a great job for the most part of handling that.
Let's see what they're able to do in this one.
I think it's going to be fascinating to watch how Notre
Dame responds just as much as it's going to be to watch how
Indiana responds. Yeah, they're just 18 to 22 year
old kids too. Just 'cause they play at Notre
Dame, they're going to get nervous.
They're as nervous as we are. I can promise you that.
Probably more so. So I can't.
It's gonna be I might go tonight.
I might just sleep on the sleep outside the stadium.
I just cannot wait. I can't wait.
I'm, I'm going up Thursday, so I'll, I'll find you wherever
you're sleeping on the street South.
Probably an icicle by then, but come throw me out.
Before we get them in there, I need to throw them out a second
time. The game's looking pretty cold,
but we'll talk about that a little bit later on as the
forecast formalizes. Anyway, Mitchell, it's always a
great pleasure to have you on the show and we'll look forward
to having you on again sometime soon.
Yeah, can't wait. And hopefully at least see you
Friday. Oh, yeah.
No worry.
We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll we'll definitely find each other.
Don't, don't worry about that. I love it.
Mitchell Page joining us here on Crimson Cast.
This kicks off game week. We'll have plenty of podcasts,
including all the live events throughout the course of the
week. I'm Galen Clavio, 4 Crimson
cast. We'll catch you folks.
On the flip side, bring back the Bison.
They kind of did already stay. Never daunted.
So long, everybody.