You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Welcome back folks. Galen Clavio joining you once again. It is Friday the 10th of November and it is time to talk some IU football, maybe a little more than that. As the Hoosiers coming off a big win last weekend as they knocked off Wisconsin at home 20 to 14, they will be on the road this week as they take on the Illinois Fighting Illini Big
game for this IU team. We've got Taylor Layman from Bite Sized Bison joining us on the show. Taylor, great to have you back. It's been a little while. How you doing? Yeah, Yeah, good. I'm good. Thanks for having me. Galen. Yeah. You. You in. I wanted to have you on last week and I was 6, so I'm glad I'm able to join this week. We're we're, it's always a better show when we're talking IU football and you're here. So anytime we don't know about that, it is, it is, it's true.
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In in the Friday news, dumpiest of Friday news dumps but but maybe with A twist on it, has announced that Jim Harbaugh will be suspended from coaching on the sidelines for the remainder of the regular season. And man, this thing has gone all over the place. I mean, earlier this week, Tony Petiti, the Big 10 commissioner, apparently went to Ann Arbor to talk with the president of Michigan. Did not get satisfaction. I'm guessing in that
conversation. And then the Big 10 announces while the Michigan plane is in the air on route to State College that Jim Harbaugh, because of this sign stealing scandal, is not going to be permitted to coach during the game. He'll be able to coach during the week, but not during the game. Which means, in addition to to that Jim Harbaugh has to spend, I guess, the day in his hotel room in State College, which sounds really boring. They are appealing though they
are. Well, but this week, right? But it's veteran's day, which means there's. I don't think they can file a court case because there's no way no judge is going to hear it. They're all on break today. That is so true. I didn't even. Think about I didn't think about it either, but yeah, they're trying the immediate injunction.
This is a fascinating story, and it the the coverage of it has almost been worth its own separate Crimson Cast college sports episode, which we might do if we get bored next week. But Taylor, you've you've covered college football, you've covered the Big 10. Well, we've talked about how this has been an endlessly entertaining story. For those of, you know, if you were a Michigan fan, I'm sure
it's not entertaining. But for all the rest of us, wow, this has been the gift that has gotten me through the fall. I mean what are your overall thoughts about where things are at now? So I I I can't claim this as an original thought, but I saw it on on X or Twitter and and I thought it was, I thought it was the most accurate thing that I've seen, which was this is like like peak embarrassment without affecting the football, right. Without without affecting the performance of Michigan.
So like you know, my first reaction was like, you know, OK, Jim Harbaugh, he is claiming ignorance to this anyway. So what would keeping him off the sidelines do to, you know, directly address this sign stealing thing? But I I don't. I think, I think in the end this is I I feel like this is optimal. Like this is kind of further than what I expected them to do as as far as Big 10 goes and like having him off the off the sidelines not coaching for the rest of the remainder of the
season. I mean that also influences the Ohio State game and and so this it's going to be when that week comes around it's going to be insane. But I I think this is you know for like IU fans, I think this is like a pretty good ruling for for you know rooting interest. But as far as like how this all came about, it's been like
somewhat of a roller coaster. I feel like I'm on like a one of those roller coaster, one of those wooden roller coasters that kind of put that kind of jostles you from side to side because it's some of the national columns and and and things along those lines that just haven't they've they've gone back and forth and it's been kind of interesting to watch like you were saying the the coverage of it itself has been just as interesting as the actual events taking place.
It really and we're not going to go a whole lot more on it now. I mean I I'll, I'll say two things. One some of the the columns. And the tweets that have come from national sports writers that cover college football. This is it was like it's been embarrassing frankly. Like the naked defense of Harbaugh and the the the false equivalencies. I mean, it's really fascinating how just completely UN I I don't understand how people have been so taken in by the Michigan perspective on this.
And you know, look, I mean, do we have ironclad proof? In front of us? No. But the fact that the Big 10 has now seen fit to suspend Harbaugh for the final three games, I don't think they're doing that. Like, for no reason. Like this is, you know, the people I go, they're out to get Michigan. It's like Michigan. This is literally the Big 10's best chance to win a College Football Playoff title Since what? When Ohio State did it.
I mean like this is, this is like you look at the way that this team has played and the talent and the fact that they were in the playoff last year. Why would the Big 10 want to do this? Like what would be their motivation? This is one of those where you would rather if you were the Big 10 that just went away. But the fact that the rest of the coaches in the conference, I
don't know. If people heard Brett Bielema's commentary on this yesterday, I'd I'd recommend going and checking it out like the Bielema was pretty direct and for him to be that direct after saying that he wasn't going to talk about it. Is there's a lot of heated anger under the surface and the idea that, you know, with all due respect like the idea that this had to wait and go through like due process. I think the Big 10, they were
really forced to act here. And I mean, I I think there's a, there's a real chance of some kind of revolt around among the Big 10 coaches and the presidents of all the other institutions. If you don't act here and this honestly in the short term feels kind of mild because as you said like it's it's not that they're they're not disqualifying Michigan from the Big 10 championship game. They're not disqualifying them as a as a as ACFP competitor.
This feels like about the the most that you could do, but also the least that you could do if you're the Big 10. So I never anticipated them keeping Michigan from the Big 10 championship or or anything like that, that this, that's why this went further than I thought it was going. I thought it was going to be fine, honestly. Right. The the other thing I'll say on this is like Michigan released a response almost immediately. And, you know, claimed essential and paraphrasing that the Big 10
is acting arbitrarily. There's procedure that they're
violating. And I'll I'll I'll hat tip our buddy Fake Mike Woodson on Twitter, who very accurately pointed out that Michigan, among other schools in the Big 10, didn't seem particularly interested in due process when they arbitrarily moved Indiana out of the Big 10 championship game in football in 2020. You know, there was a procedure that everybody agreed to, and then when it became inconvenient for the Big 10, they just arbitrarily changed that rule.
Only one person voted against it, and that was Scott Dolson. You know what, I don't have a lot of sympathy for Michigan here if they're going to try to play the arbitrary card because what's good for the goose is good for the gander when it comes to this stuff as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, no, I totally agree. And also I was, I I saw I retweeted his tweet from Nicole Lauer back that that was just a screenshot from from their from the big 10s ruling.
And it was basically that they were unmoved by the by Michigan's counters by saying the rest of the coaches were getting their signs from from each other. And and I thought that. I thought that was also, I thought that was also pretty embarrassing for Michigan, too. But yeah, I know. I, I, I I think that, yeah, like you were saying, I think we could talk about this for a long time. Yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll see what happens over the weekend.
But let's go ahead and get to the Indiana game as IU goes into this game. You know, it's funny the way that the reaction has been and the way that people have acted about IU over the course of this week. You'd think that they were on the precipice of a bowl. That they'd finally gotten the season completely turned around, and they've won one Big 10 game so far this season, and that was last week, and they really needed to hold off Wisconsin on the final drive to do it. The three and six.
It's playoff mode, as you pointed out in in the Bite Size Bison. There are ways away from from anything happening here, but they're in this weird spot where they really do look like they've got a potential route to a bowl if they can take care of business statistically. Not a very high probability. I think Punt John Punt noted that it was like a 4% chance that they would win the last
three games. But this is an intriguing match up. This game against Illinois on the road statistically is the toughest of the three match ups that they've got remaining on the schedule. Let's talk a little bit about the match up. First and foremost, you had a great bite sized Bison post about this game. What is it about the Illinois, Indiana match up that people really need to know as we go into this game tomorrow? Yeah, I mean Illinois, they've
shown some positive. They've they've had some some positive performances. I think what I noted the most in in bite size Bison was just that they will take advantage of an inconsistent phase of a football team. I mean they're inconsistent themselves as well. But they like if there's a defense that is inconsistent, they will take what the defense gives them on offense. No, that is with Luke Altmire quarterback. So that's to be determined. If he's gonna, if he's gonna.
Start Yeah, that's become a weird subplot here where he might not actually play I I I mean, I don't know what to make of that. Do you? I mean, no. If if I was Illinois, I would do everything I can to get him on the field though because the rest of their schedule, I mean they have Iowa after this week in the Northwestern and they have four wins. So if they want to get to a bowl themselves, they're like they're gonna have to play this one pretty tough.
So yeah no I I I was kind of surprised I at the beginning of the week when I was kind of putting together the bite size bias and I was like you know it looks like he's probably going to play but as the week's gone on it's like maybe there's more of a chance that Jon Paddock plays from Paul State and and he's not particularly impressive.
I I looked I looked up his his grades on PFF last year which was really his first his only full season and he threw the most passes in the Mack but he was great at 11th in the conference among quarterbacks so you know he's. I don't know. So I I think yeah it's it is interesting this Illinois team still just kind of hard to pin
down. I mean the the offense the analytics say the offense is not very good but they've put together some decent performances against one of them against Wisconsin pretty recently they ran pretty pretty well against Wisconsin but then they also let Braden Locke throw all over the defense. So you know you never really know what what team what team's going to show up here for Illinois. But I think. I think that's what makes them dangerous.
Yeah, I mean we we've seen Illinois have just a weird season and you know Illinois look like a prime regression candidate. We talked about this a little bit before the season in that you know they they last year Brett Bielema's first year, I think they went 8:00 and 5:00 but you know they lost Indiana obviously in the first Big 10 game of the year, they. They lost that embarrassing game to Purdue down the stretch. They lost to Michigan State at home. Both of those games were at home
down the stretch. But they also, you know, pulled off some big wins. They won at Wisconsin last year. They won handily against Minnesota. This season has not gone quite as well for them and they they needed a late drive to beat. I think it was Toledo. Earlier on they they let Purdue score a ton of points against
them. This is probably, this might be the most schizophrenic team right now in the conference other than maybe Wisconsin in terms of figuring out what they're going to do on a day-to-day basis. And it's like, what do they do? Well, what do you think they can bank on if Altmire's playing? I mean, I guess we have to take the, the Altmire thing's a separate thing. But if he's in there, what is it that they do well? I mean, they have really good receivers.
They have actually pretty great receivers and and Isaiah Williams, he's a he's a he's kind of he's a top five wide receiver honestly graded as such and then Pat Bryant behind him is 6 three is is is also he's in the last four weeks they're both top 10 receivers in the big 10. So those guys are are those guys are going to give IU some trouble but you know Luke Altmire is actually pretty decent when he's not under pressure but when he is under pressure that's that's when you
know he's not as he's not as good he's he's actually pretty bad. So but and and the good thing for Indiana is that Illinois's offensive line is not super great And so I think Altmider has the most drawbacks under pressure in the conference. Yeah yeah so and you know defensively the front seven and I've I've said I've emphasized this in the bite size items too. The front seven is going to have to show up this week that there's like no way around it. Yeah, that's going to be the big thing.
Now. They had a really good game last week and relatively speaking, I mean they really, it's hard. This is where it's tough with this Indiana team because they I can't. I went back and watched the game this morning. I can't tease out whether it was I use defense that was doing well or whether Wisconsin's quarterback just sucked in that game. It was a little bit of both. I mean when Wisconsin chose to
run. They seem to really give the Front 7 problems, but they chose to run so infrequently that you wonder, what was that a product, if I use defense primarily? Or was it a product of just Luke Fickell making bizarre decisions from an offensive perspective? I still haven't quite figured that out. Illinois certainly has not scored particularly well this season overall. I mean, you look at their overall points per game, they're at 21.1 points per game. They're allowing 28 points per
game essentially. That does not generally bode well, but the big question for Indiana is, you know, obviously a can you keep them from scoring a lot of points? You know, because they did put 27 points up on the board last week against Minnesota. They put 27 points up on the board at Maryland. We know Indiana couldn't score particularly well against Maryland and that's not a really particularly good Maryland defense.
So, but I just don't know what to make of this because I can't tell if Illinois. I can't tell what Illinois team's going to show up on the field and what kind of effort they're going to get out of that team at this point. Yeah, no, I mean I agree and and if just like looking at, I mean I put together the the stat previews every week and you know there's like no consistency in Illinois.
You know it's like a like they actually have decent success rates in pass and rush but then their EPA is like 73rd in the country. It's like how does that even how does that even happen. But no, you're you're right. And and when I think about the last couple weeks for Indiana, you know, when it comes to the offensive success against Penn State, you know, we can say those were defensive breakdowns. And and I think that's accurate to say.
And then last week when you talk about Wisconsin's offense, you know, I think a lot of it was Brayden Locke. I also think if they had Braylon Allen, things would have ended differently. And so, you know, when it comes to college football, how many times can you say that without it being that Indiana is actually affecting these things. And so I've kind of gone back and forth with that as well. Galen, I think, I think the front seven has played well.
I think Aaron Casey really stepped up his game. I was looking at some of the individual grades and you and I have talked about this before where the defense needs. So they they wean so heavily on individual performances because that's just the nature of the defensive and and their four to five system. And Aaron Casey, Jacob Mingo Farrar, even Andre Carter a bit. A lot of those guys, they were, they dipped big, big time for like 3 or 4 weeks there in the
middle of the season. And then suddenly things are changing and and you know they're they're changing some things schematically and they're they're making themselves unpredictable on defense. And I think that is really working in their favor. And I think as long as they continue to do that, it it will continue to work in their favor.
I'm just curious to see how they do that against an Illinois team where you know obviously they're the coaches are better football minds than I am. But like I I don't know how you would adjust between the Husky and the bowl positions and change your defense that way to account for an offense that I don't really fully understand. You know, I I I I don't know their I don't know what their bread and butter is.
And besides their slot receiver, who by the way in 2019 when Watt failure had all of those targets in in the IU offense. Isaiah Williams has a bigger percentage share of targets in in this offense than Watt failure did back in 2019. So just a heavy toast of him, So yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's an interesting one.
One thing, so I had a bunch of people ask her this question on on on Twitter, 'cause we I I solicit questions like I always do. And there was a question from our buddy Patrick taking away making a bowl, What would make Crimson cast feel good about IU football headed into the offseason? Patrick's answer was a competitive finish with consistent play from Soresby. And a competent defensive performance. So I want to set aside the defensive performance stuff for
a second. But I've heard this a couple of times and I I think I feel the same way. You know, it does feel like almost by accident. Indiana has now found a starting quarterback that they can stick with and and Soresby has impressed me in how he has kind of started to limit mistakes. He's still not throwing for a huge amount of yardage. I think that's as much a product of the offensive line and the general play calling philosophy
as it is him. But I've been really impressed with what I've seen out of him, and I've been interested in seeing how he has developed confidence under center over these last four weeks. I mean, that feels like a really good building block for IU regardless of what happens these next three games, because it might provide some stability at the quarterback position headed into the offseason. I mean, how do you feel about that and what you've seen out of Soresby? Overall, yeah.
Just just the quarterback position. Well, yeah. With Soresby in particular, yeah. OK. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I think Soresby's great. I I mean, I've noted before that you know he has and in the last three weeks that he's been, you know, the committed, the, the IUS committed to him as a starter, he has a he's. Basically the same statistics as Kyle McCord at Ohio State and I, you know, and then played essentially the same schedule in those three weeks.
So I the Ohio State people are gonna come after you for that, Taylor. I'm aware of that. I know. That's why. That's why I did not mention Kyle McCord in my tweet when I tweeted out that that that chart comparing the two. Cause. Yes, you're absolutely right. No, I think Soresby. I I think you know I've been I've been a Soresby fan from the beginning not necessarily you know Soresby versus Jackson or anything like that.
I just like Soresby as a quarterback and I think that he has a strong arm and I think he, I I mean I don't think Tom Allen was exaggerated when he says he can make all the throws. I think that Brendan Soresby is tooled with you know talent around him especially an offensive line. I think he could be a good quarterback and and I think he's. Proving so now and I think I think Scott comparing him to Peyton Ramsey. I think it was that last week. I think that was pretty good.
I think you know we're seeing some like early in his career we're seeing some Peyton Ramsey as type of things like you were saying like limiting turnovers and you know like making three turnover worthy plays in three weeks for a freshman for retro freshman quarterback is is great. But I thought it I think his running is getting better I think he's I think he's. And he's doing a better job of identifying when to leave the pocket and when to stay in.
And you know, one thing I like about Taven is his footwork. And I don't think Brendan, I don't think Brendan Sourceby really has that. But but you know, he's developing and and like we had said before, regardless of which quarterback it is, there's going to be some growing pains. And you know, there are some throws that he just absolutely sails and it looks terrible. And then you know he's dropping handoffs out there just last week. So you know he looks like a red shirt freshman.
But based on his high school career, this is. I mean this is impressive like he was. I I don't know how he was developed. I'm not sure exactly how he came into the program. But however he got from his high school career to here is honestly pretty impressive from a developmental standpoint. Yeah, I, you know, I look, I think ultimately, well, one thing I want everybody to remember about the quarterbacks and what, and we've said this about Tavin, we said it about
Brandon as well. They're young. I mean these are guys who haven't taken very many snaps. And you know, there's there's some people on Twitter who seem to think that any quarterback can just walk in and be a functional starting Big 10 level quarterback. It doesn't happen that way. You you need seasoning. Peyton Ramsey was very inconsistent his first couple of
years. You know, Michael Pennix was very inconsistent when he wasn't injured his first couple of years, you know, So I was, I've just been really impressed. And I think what impressed me the most about about Soresby, especially last week after I went back and watched the games, was, you know, he, he corrected mistakes. You know, he sailed that first touchdown attempt pass to Mccully. It was a little high. It was people were blaming Mccully for dropping it.
I mean, Mccully's not 9 feet tall. I don't know how he was supposed to accurately get that. Soresby dropped the angle of the next throw on the following drive and got it exactly where it needed to be. There was a play in the third quarter where, you know, Soresby tried to roll out and immediately got absolutely smothered by two Wisconsin defenders coming off the edge. Then there was that first down on that drive that ended up
netting them the field goal. He waited just a hair like beyond where you might have thought, read everything, and then immediately took off and went a direction that he saw the defenders were not coming from and that netted that a very important first down that eventually set the field goal up. I mean, he is making mental adjustments on the fly and as much as I liked what Taven was doing in certain areas, we weren't seeing quite the same
thing. I also don't think Taven was getting great play calling, so that didn't help much. But the fact that this combination works. So to go back to Patrick's point, if I'm looking for building blocks for the offseason with this football program, having a quarter, especially if if Sorsby wins his last four or even three of his last four, yeah, that. You know that. That to me is a real, real
positive sign moving forward. And especially, I'm sorry I was going to say the last thing, especially since he lost his number one receiver. I mean, camp Camper's out for the rest of the season and he's still figuring out ways to get different guys involved in the receiving core. I think that's a really, really good sign.
No. And and I mean early in the season his only snaps were were against like the top tier competition that he's gonna play you know so I guess Ohio State against Michigan. So now he's actually getting some reps against some of these more you know mediocre Big 10 teams And so however he finishes out. Yeah, I I mean, I agree with Galen I I I hadn't really thought about that from the quarterback standpoint is like.
How can he lead this offense? That is not particularly impressive, you know, and it's it's not schematically impressive. Kind of like, you know, you know, Peyton Ramsey in that 2019 season, he was running Kaylin Deborah's system, you know, not to take anything away from Kate, from Peyton Ramsey, but, you know, if we're compare, if, if I were to compare the two, you know, Brendan Soresby is running a much less effective schematic offense than Peyton Ramsey.
And and he's doing it, you know? I I I wouldn't say he's maximizing it but I think in a lot of opportunities he is maximizing play by play what he can do on each of these plays and and it's it's been good to see from a guy that's so young and I I I personally don't think a lot of people were expecting much from Brendan Soresby when he came in so even the fact that he is taking this job is to to me is impressive.
I've, I've liked watching it. We had a couple other questions we'll get to here before we wrap up. So assembly call Jared asks. Let's dare to dream. Well, we can say the Big 10 football sees part and Indiana is delivered to a bowl game with a four-game winning streak to end the season. What other totally unpredictable runs of success would be analogous and IU sports history. I'll take. I'll take most of this one,
Taylor, I mean. Yeah, you have a deeper knowledge than I do. I mean, look, I think that the 1967 Big 10 titles in basketball and football, we're out of absolutely nothing. I mean, you look at IU men's basketball in like the six years preceding it. I mean it. The whole athletic department got put on postseason probation. Nobody could go to the NCAA tournament. Everybody was bad IU basketball. I don't think it had a winning record in a while.
Or maybe they had won in the last seven years or something like that and they came out of nowhere and won the Big 10 title same year that IU football out of nothing having not had a winning record since 1958, you know ends up going nine and two and and going to the Rose Bowl and you know that was those are the most improbable. Like I don't know what happened in 1967 in Bloomington. The Summer of Love loved Bloomington and and IU in some way that that I think still
can't be adequately explained. I think that certainly there was a build up that was impressive with IU Men's Baseball. But I'll still say that going to the College World Series in 2013, when you look at where the baseball program was at in the 90s and the 2000s, for them to go to a College World Series is still to me the most improbable thing from a program perspective that we've ever seen. And that would be kind of my
programmatic one. Although, yeah, honestly, I mean, you know, it's like there's a couple of others. I mean, you can say women's basketball. And the success that they've had under Terry Moore in here is really, really unexpected. As far as the season thing, I mean, it's funny, I've heard a lot of people saying, Oh yeah, they're going to win these last three and go to a bowl.
And the number of times that hasn't happened in IU history where I remember clearly, my sophomore year, it was 1998 and Indiana was sitting at 3:00 and 5:00 and we had Antoine Randall L was the the the quarterback. He had just taken over the starting role and Indiana was sitting in the same spot.
They were three and five. They had just lost to Ohio State and I remember sitting with one of the football players at I think it was Mcnutt or Briscoe having lunch because he was friends with a friend of mine and he's like, yeah, we're going to win these. Last three, they went to Illinois and it was November 7th and they lost 31 to 16 and they ended up they ended up finishing that season four and seven.
They had a nice win at home against Minnesota the next week and then they got boat raced by Purdue in the final game. The only time I can remember this happening where Indiana had their backs against the wall and had to win multiple games in a row was 2015 when Indiana they lost the game to Michigan and they they were that dropped them I think to four and five. I think they lost one more game after that and then they had to go and win their last two and they ended up winning their last
two. They won that that big game up at Ross Aid and that's what got them into the Pinstripe Bowl. That's the only time that I can remember Indiana being in this position where they had to win the games and actually winning the games. So that's about the closest I can come. Anything recent that you can think of that would fall into this category? I think you know the first thing that comes to mind.
You know, I've. I've not I don't have as as historical I don't have I don't have like a lot of filing cabinets in my brain of IU historic sports historically. But I was the sports editor at the IDs during the 2015 sixteen IU basketball season and I thought that that season I think it's it's it's not as comparable but when they because there are some things happening within the pro.
Like off the court and and then they went on that 12 game win streak in the middle of the season and then they ended up going they ended up in to get the Sweet 16. That is like the only comparison I can make just off the top of my head. But I I think you know I I saw Ken Bikoff tweet that IU has has beaten. If I understood it right IU has beaten has won four big 10 conference games in a season. Just what was it?
I can't remember the exact number of times in the last 30 years, like, not very often like, but. And it's to to win them. To win four in a row, is the OK? It's not really. Here's all the times Indiana has won four games in the conference in the last Let's just go back. Let's go back 30 years. OK, So we're going to go back to 1993. They did it in 2020, they did it. They won six games that year in the Big 10. They did it in 2019. They won five that year. They did it in 2016.
They won four games that year in the conference. They did it in 2001. They won four games in the conference that year, and they did it in 1993, when they won five games. So it's that's all. That's the only times in the last since 1993 that Indiana has won more than three games in the conference in a a single season, which I need to go pour a stiff drink now after looking that up.
That's bad. How many of those seasons did they fire their offensive coordinator mid season game or change quarterbacks in the middle? I mean, you know, it's, you know, outside of something other than injury. No, it's it's wild.
So it's it's why I'm not getting too much on the hype train with this because it just it really does feel improbable because it's just it's hard this this even though Indiana won against Wisconsin they're still 95th in SP plus and and you know the the metrics still think that they look bad and. And they didn't budget at all after beating Wisconsin. No, because they didn't play that well. I mean, they they they made plays that won the game.
And this is the tough thing. It's like I think it's I admired the scrappiness and the grittiness of IU in winning that game. I thought the players deserved a ton of credit. But it's not like they played a great game. It's they they had a great first drive of the half of the first half.
They had a great last drive of the first half and they rolled the dice and sent a kicker out who had only hit like a what, a 42 yard field goal for his career and had him kick A50 or 51 yard field goal, which would have if he'd missed given Wisconsin the ball down three, close to midfield with a short field to even go and kick the the, you know the field goal. Now they were missing their quarterback or the excuse me,
they're missing. Well, they they were missing their quarterback and their kicker. So there was some calculated risk there, but it was a very lucky win and look we need, we need lucky wins against Wisconsin. Like I'm not, I'm not. I'm not saying throw it back, but what I am saying is that it's a bad idea to take a win where a lot of lucky stuff happened and try to extrapolate oh, Indiana's going to be able to do XY or Z moving forward. That's really not how it works.
I mean that was that you know, that was that that's just that's not wise. And then so my point is ultimately as we go into this, just temper your expectations, guard your heart, IU fans, because it's it would this would be if this Indiana, this does happen. If Indiana wins their last four and gets the 6:00 and 6:00, this would be an absolutely unprecedented thing in IU football history. And I think we will reward it and celebrate it as such if it happens.
I would not hold my breath for very long as far as it's concerned. I think the Big 10 is very bad this season. It is like, I don't think they're good, but to be at the bottom of that is saying something and so I think you know when. When you look at the last couple of games, you know and then you could say this about any team that's going to lose Indiana
this season. But it seemed like the the last two games, Wisconsin and Penn State underachieved or underachieved in the in in in each of the individual games when you just watch the game, and I mean even like analytically too, they did under underachieve. And so my my concern is that one of the next three teams is not going to underachieve, they're going.
To either achieve or overachieve and and the odds of all three of these teams underachieving to a point that allows this Indiana team to win all three games is just so improbable. But, but I mean, the Big 10 is bad. Like Illinois is not that great of a football team, right?
Well, that and that's in state. You can make a legitimate argument that Indiana is is statistically clearly better than Michigan State. Yeah and you can make an argument that the way that they're playing now is better than Purdue is playing because Purdue just seems to have decided that defense is optional this year. And they also both their head coach and their offensive coordinator don't seem to really quite have a grasp on this whole coaching in the Big Ten thing you know.
So it's it is really a fascinating situation. But again, we'll we'll, we'll we'll hold our powder on this until we see what goes on. A couple of the comments real quick. Matt Simon talking about this scenario. It's almost a perfect match to IU men's basketball 2016. Crane and Allen both had unexpected successes for two seasons.
Two seasons below standards, then would have both rebounded to salvage success in a season that appeared disastrous early on. True, we'll see big difference between getting blown out a couple of games in Maui and almost losing to Toledo, but but we'll see how things go. Jamie Jordan asked. Do you think with all the new faces and time for the quarterback situation to get settled, this team is just starting to gel late, or are they just playing the worst part of their schedule?
What What would you say about that? A little bit of both. You know what? Well you know, no, no, actually no. I I think, I don't think they played the worst part of their schedule yet. You know like besides non conference, you know. But this, I think this game here starts the worst part of their I mean, Wisconsin. They didn't have Braylon Allen. They didn't have Tanner Mordecai. You know, I guess you you could say that that started their worst part of their schedule.
But you know they played well against Penn State at Penn State and I I think there's something to be said for that. I think the offensive line is gelling. I I think, I think I've. I think I've.
Would lean towards the former rather than the latter in in that in that scenario I look, I think as much as we disagreed with the idea that Rod Carey should be given the permanent offensive coordinator role, I don't think there's any question the offense is looking significantly less lost under him than it did under Walt Bell. And that doesn't still mean it's good, but it's not nearly as bad. And I do think that that's having an impact.
And I also think I mean defensively they've made some very curious personnel decisions as you've highlighted on on the
newsletter. But they are getting some more positive plays out of their defense, I would say because the whole, the whole team in the Maryland and Michigan games just look like they've thrown their hands up and they were done with it. And the fact that they've they fought as much as they have the last couple of weeks, I mean I still, I will forever be confounded by what happened with
the Rutgers game. I just I and it's and it will it completely changed the prism of the season because I mean imagine Indiana on A2 game-winning streak going into this one knowing that they don't have to beat Illinois to Illinois. But if they did, now they've lined up a potential seven and five finish as opposed to scrapping or being in playoff mode to try to get to 6 and six.
You know, it's like where was that effort that they showed against Penn State and against Wisconsin, against Rutgers? Now Rutgers, I think is is pretty good, but still you know that that's. I mean, they ran on 82% of the place, yeah, it was just, it was just, you know, so, so it is. I think Jamie, it is a bit of both. As Taylor said, I do think that certainly the competition's gotten a bit easier, but Rutgers should have been one of those games that they played better in.
So I don't know something seemed to happen with the team the last couple of weeks that wasn't happening before and maybe we'll find out at some point, probably not, but that's that's going to be the kind of the interesting thing. All right, we're we we had a couple more questions we need to wrap this up. So I guess if you're going to register a pick here, what's your pick in this game? I mean, S&P plus has Illinois as a 10 point favorite, I think the lot what is? The.
Line's 6 1/2. It's 6 1/2, so there's already a bit of a discrepancy there. What are you thinking here? I think it's closer than 6 1/2, I think. I think it's a close game. I think, man, I I've been feeling inspired by what they by what they've done with the defense schematically like. I've I feel like the defense is really feeding the offense in a lot of ways. That really lends itself to playing on the road.
And so I, you know, Galen, I'm, I'm going to go out on a limb here, I think Indiana wins and I don't think they win by 7:00. So I think it's closer than this, this closer than the line, you know, but I think, I think Indiana wins. So they would still cover. But yeah this is like the kiss of death. But I actually feel the same way. I just it's it's feels.
I don't know there's I'm going to probably we're all going to sound like idiots when we recap this with Scott on Sunday morning and it's like what are you doing don't you like. But Scott's going. To be laughing at you, he's going to laugh his ass off at this. I'm with you though, actually. I feel like it's going to be a low scoring game. I think both teams are going to struggle to consistently do things on offense.
But I think Indiana is just like they It feels like there's some belief that's built up with Indiana here. And so I'm going to say Indiana wins and it's tight. I think it's going to be like 19 to 17 Indiana wins. And I won't be shocked if it goes the other way. But I agree with you. We had a question from I think it was Hoosier hype on Twitter. What's your best bet? I'm taking Indiana +6 and the under 44.5. IA 100% agree with both of those.
I think Indiana plus six. I'll be shocked if I I wouldn't be shocked if Indiana lost. I'd be shocked if Indiana lost by a touchdown. And that has very little to do with Indiana. And it has a lot to do with Illinois and the fact that Illinois offense hasn't looked good with Luke Altmire. I can't imagine what it would look like without and so I think that's the best bet and the under 44.5 is that feels like very easy money, but we'll see.
Anyway, Taylor, as always, a delight to have you on the show. Glad you're feeling better? We will go ahead and sign off and be sure to check out Taylor's work. Bite Sized bison.substack.com Be sure to check out Crimson Cast, as we've got plenty of shows for you to listen to. And if you're heading over to Champagne, good luck, because man, that's a depressing town. Anyway, for Taylor, I'm Galen, and for the Crimson Cast podcast in the back Home network, we'll
catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the Bison. So on everybody.