You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast, Galen Clavier joining you. It is Tuesday, October 22nd, the big week for IU continues as we get ready for ESPN college game day coming to town. We get ready for the Washington Huskies coming to town to take on the seven and O Indiana Hoosiers. And we promised you a lot of content on football this week. We've got Zach Osterman from the Indy Star, IU Insider joining us.
We'll get to him in just one second. First of all, just a reminder, we are part of the back home network here at Crimson Cast and we're brought to you by Home Field Apparel. Your place to go for the finest in college fashions, the softest fabrics, the coolest designs, a lot of IU stuff. If you haven't been to Home Field Apparel, go shop it. Get your IU stuff. Plenty of great stuff to to shop for there. You can use the code home 23. Get 15% off your first order.
Home Field Apparel sponsors all of our podcasts here on the Back Home network. We are thrilled to have them as a partner and happen to be working with them throughout the course of this week. We'll have more info on that a little later on today. All right, we want to dive right in and get talking with Zach. Zach, hi, welcome back. Good to see you. We haven't talked since pre season and it feels like a lot's happened since. Then I just want to know what the scoop is with home field.
Where, where are we up to? Where are we going? I, I am, I am sworn to secrecy. They, they, they have to make the announcements. So. You're going to tell what first? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, well, I'm not going to tell FAML. An unnamed source is going to tell FAML and then we'll leak it to you guys. It'll be great, you know, get this whole operational order going on.
But no, it's a fun week, fun couple of weeks here in Bloomington. You've been covering this team in one form or another pretty much consistently for the last like, what, 1718 years? Can you ever remember the atmosphere around IU football from your position as a neutral observer being anything close to this? And you know, I guess like, you know, what is that? What does it, what does it appear like to you as someone who's trying to process all this, but also keep it in some
kind of national perspective? No, not really is the answer to the first question. Like there have been moments. I think there was, you know, this sort of groundswell of excitement and pride after they beat Purdue in O 7 because obviously there was an emotional context to that that was distinct. And, and, you know, I think we all hope we know we never see again for for obvious reasons.
And then, you know, I mean, the, the COVID season was like as much as it could be, but the problem was nobody could be around. And even the year before, I, I remarked at this when we were kind of talking about, you know, the importance on our podcast of some of these, these games in the last few weeks, Maryland, Nebraska, now Washington, even the year before Indiana. Listen, Indiana earned an 8 win season, but so many of the most important wins came on the road.
So like just just by the nature of, you know, the, the Maryland win, the Nebraska win, the Purdue win, just by the nature of the schedule, all the wins that you sort of remember that season fondly for happened away from Memorial Stadium. You didn't get the scene basically that you got, I mean really to some extent against Maryland. I think that would have been a sellout if not for the hurricane. And it's worth saying there were probably about 48,000 people there, which is, is very close
to capacity. And they did not leave, you know, that they, they stayed, they stayed engaged. They were by and large still there even at the end when, you know, the, the game was long decided.
And then Nebraska, you know, I mean, the, the, The funny thing is like it, you know, it was almost kind of a, you know, the sort of the sort of grim joke that if you're an Indiana fan, you're allowed to laugh at. Like the crowd did leave against Nebraska. And they did because it's just like, you know, it's indelicate to just stand there and watch someone get just just just just pounded into the ground the way
that Nebraska was. Like I I've gone back and watched some of the highlights just for my own sort of very rudimentary film study. And like by by the end, like Gus Johnson is kind of beside himself, Like he's just he says like touchdown Indiana. Wow, you know what I mean? Just like you know, and, and obviously that performance, I suspect that I, I, I guess I would be surprised if Indiana beats Washington 56 to 7:00 just because you don't beat everybody
56 to 7 every week. That performance stands alone in a weird way, but the atmosphere, the energy and then obviously what has accompanied it, the national attention. You know, I know big new kickoff told IU back in the summer, they thought that either the the Nebraska game or the Michigan game might be one that they were targeting could be in Bloomington for that depending on how things broke. But obviously now game day coming into town as well.
I wouldn't be shocked if we see big new kick off again. Frankly, I know you, you, you, that's your corner of the story even more than mine. But I would not be surprised if if they are back in town, maybe for that Michigan game in a couple weeks, we'll see. You know, this is new. This is different in in and it's not just different to what I've experienced or even what you've experienced. I don't think it's going on a limb to say this is different to the modern IU football experience.
I don't think anyone's really seen this. You know, Indiana's only started a season 7 and 0 twice. And one of those times was in 1967, when obviously, you know, this whole experience would be very different because there is no television, there is no social media that, you know, the, the, the sense of community we draw from sports is not better or worse, but different now than it was then.
So I think we are all kind of, you know, sailing into uncharted waters together here, you know, in our in our various boats, if you will. And it's fascinating. I mean, it, it like it really is. It really is. As somebody who has been an interested observer of this program for a long time, and I know you and I have had many conversations about what doesn't work in Indiana and why, why what has failed in Indiana has failed in Indiana. To see it succeed here is is
really something. I was paging back through some old message threads earlier today and I found a story I'd forgotten all about. I think you either tweeted it or wrote about it or something. But I believe it was from spring ball. And the headline was, you know, Signetti was upset because his, he said his players had come out like the old Indiana in practice.
And it, it got me thinking and I was curious about your perceptions on this, especially having talked with Ben Portnoy about this yesterday on our podcast with him. The culture change that we've seen with this team and the just the way that they're playing and the the aggressive competency that I keep calling it that they've had in the way that they played both offensively and defensively. I mean, this is such a huge turn around just in terms of quality
of play. I mean, putting the record even aside, how surprised are you that Kurt Signetti has been able to affect this many changes this quickly and that his staff has had this level of effectiveness with what was really a very
cobbled together roster? Like you know, there was some consistency or continuity from the JMU transfers, but it's more than just those folks that are contributing this and they're doing it at a much higher level in conference and and just in terms of overall profile than they were last year.
Yeah, I mean, the one thing I'd say is like, I've been kind of banging this drum for a while now that that with the portal and with NIL, the the NFL sort of formula for building a roster fits in college more than than it really ever has. That you you know, you cluster a lot of your sort of resources around your, your biggest playmakers, your most important players, your quarterback, your tackles, your pass rushers, you know your your 3 or 4 best skill players.
You obviously spread a lot of money out in, in smaller amounts among young players in the NFL, it's draft picks in in college, it's freshman red shirt freshman. And then you just kind of fill the gaps with guys that only be around for one or two years, but that are just you know that that you know that the, the in the NFL, it's free agents who maybe can get a A1 year deal, A2 year deal, something like that in college, it's guys who have one or two years of eligibility
left. And I bring that up because, you know, the flip side is like we, we do see some of these turnarounds, maybe not quite to this extent, but like we do see these turnarounds in the NFL where all it takes is a fresh coach with a better approach and a good scheme and and some sort of advantage, whether it's tangible or intangible coming in. Obviously, maybe the the biggest difference is you are able to kind of microwave your
quarterback position in college. Like you in the NFL, anybody with a really established quarterback isn't going to let them go. Whereas in college, you know, you you're going to have players like Curtis Rourke or, you know, Dylan Gabriel has a slightly different journey, but you know, a similar sort of impacted organ where it's like, well, there are these really good quarterbacks kind of out there on the market. Their previous school just can't keep them, you know that they
want to leave. So if you have the means and you can convince them, then you can you can turn around really important positions on your roster really quickly. That is a, a departure sort of in the comparison in college. But what is similar to me is you can turn, you know, you talk about the old Indiana, but like how many players have that practice played for the old Indiana?
I mean, less than half of the scholarship players on the field or maybe roughly half, 'cause I guess at that point you're still waiting for your freshman class to come in. But the idea, you know, we do see in the NFL teams that can go from five wins to 10 or 11 wins. And it's just because the right coach is hired, the right coordinators are put in place. The scheme is good. You know, a few clever draft picks, a a couple really astute free agent signings.
You get a couple guys that maybe were playing well on a bad team suddenly to be playing well on a good team. And suddenly you you completely reframe the conversation around an NFL team. We see that happen not all the time, but you know, fairly often. That's that's part of the appeal of the NFL is that that ability to strike parity more quickly than in in, you know, most other sports. You are getting some of that, not a ton, but some of that in college football now.
And I think Indiana is kind of acting as this, you know, example in extremists, if you understand what I'm saying, of when you do make all the right decisions and you are smart about how you identify. This is why we need this player and this is the mentality we're looking for in this player and all these different things. You can flip it around pretty quick. Now you know where the outlier's gonna come. As if in three weeks we're still talking about Indiana being undefeated.
You know, if in four weeks Indiana's 11 and O and just beat Ohio State in Columbus, that's that's where you start to get into like these historical extremes of, you know, that doesn't happen anywhere. But I know you and I had these conversations even in the offseason.
Like I wouldn't have predicted they'd beat Nebraska 56 to 7, obviously, but you didn't have to work that hard to convince me they'd beat Nebraska. You wouldn't have had to work that hard to convince me they'd beat any of the first seven teams on their roster or really even any of the 1st 9. And I'm not going to predict they're going to go nine and zero. I didn't in the preseason.
But my point is, if you, if you had, if you bought into the more optimistic outlook for this, this team, not just the players or the just the transfers or just the staff, but the whole picture, these results are more dominant than what we would have expected. But the, the, the basic results maybe shouldn't be that surprising. Or at least it's not like it's happening against all odds. It's, I mean it, you know it. You looked at this team in spring and thought at least I did.
That's pretty good football team. How good? I'm not sure. And then you do have, you know, to your point about Signetti with the, you know, the the comment about we were the old Indiana. Then you do have this this sort of, you know, historical context or this this historical tether and you're not really sure. Is Indiana actually still attached to it? Does the portal in the roster turnover allow you to just sort of like shed that completely?
How does that work? Well, so far it it seems like Indiana has really has has left that behind pretty emphatically. And I think the question now justifiably becomes not even, you know, and I mean, I jeez, I wrote this after Northwestern, much less after Nebraska. You're not comparing this to Indiana football in the past anymore. You know, you asked at the top, have I ever seen anything like this? Well, no, but we're kind of past treating this like, well, compared to Indiana football in
the past. What's this like? You know it's time and they may end up in the playoffs, they may not, but it's time to compare this team to the best teams in the country because they are one of them and there is just no real escaping that. How surprised have you been at the dominance they've demonstrated in these games? I mean, you know, we, we've heard comments about the record being weak. But football's such a small sample size, college football especially.
And the way that these things get metricized is not just who you played, but it's also how much did you beat them by and how much would a, a, a, an average team beat them by?
And I, you know, there's some comments about that Nebraska game because predictably, we saw the national narrative shift a bit to, well, Nebraska clearly wasn't that good because they just lost 56 to 7. It does make one think if if most other teams of like a decent or better caliber in the Big 10, if they're beating Nebraska 56 to 7 at home, there's going to be a lot of stand up and take notice and rightfully so. You know, what do you attribute
their dominance to? Because it hasn't been necessarily that they've dominated the full 60 minutes of every game. I mean, the Maryland game was close into the third quarter. Northwestern got within three points in the third quarter. But you know, in those games, Indiana was able to even UCLA was kind of in that pattern to some degree. But they've been able to outlast opponents, really outworked them in the fourth quarter.
And then this Nebraska game felt like it opened almost a brand new front because, you know, that is a talented team that'll be a almost certainly a bowl team. They'll likely beat UCLA this week. And they just didn't look like they could stay on the field with Indiana, even with Indiana playing their backup quarterback in the second-half. I mean, you know, when you've watched this team, what has stood out to you as far as how they've been able to get to this level of dominance?
I mean, what I think what is, and I've said this and I think you can illustrate this in any number of ways what I've said. I mean, the, the, the, the score lines, you know, I think there was a stat running around on Sunday that Indiana's got like the, the largest aggregate margin of victory of any team in the last five years, something like that.
You know, the score what? And when people have said how surprised, you know, before the Nebraska game anyway, when people said how surprised are you at this? I said, well, I don't, I'm not terribly surprised at the results because again, I could have been convinced that Indiana would be any of the first nine teams that it it played. You know, it wasn't until you got to Michigan. And now maybe we need to reframe the, the, the sort of narrative around Michigan a little bit too.
But it wasn't until you got to Michigan when you looked at this in the spring, in the summer, the schedule and you said, is there a team here that Indiana just flatly should not expect to beat? It is the nature of these wins that is surprising and that I think it's turned to people's
heads. And I think what what I have come back to so often is both the efficiency of it and the the balance of it. And so from an efficiency perspective, it is the fact that like Indiana is one of the best teams, for example, in the Big 10. In fact, they are now the best team or, or or still the best
team in the Big 10 on 3rd downs. They are arguably the best red zone team in America. They run the ball, they pass the ball incredibly well, but they actually run it a lot better than than even some of Cignetti's JMU teams did relative to conference competition. They lead the conference in long scrimmage plays, which is basically explosive plays. They, and that's the like 10 + 20 plus and 30 plus yards. They lead the conference in
sacks, in tackles for loss. Thanks to no small parts of the five turnovers they forced this weekend, they are now third, I think tied for third in the conference in turnovers forced. They are something like tied for second now. I'm looking at it now in the conference in turnover margin.
And you know, I think back to some like, you know, like for example, when LSU wins that national title in 2019, you know it is because you you you just hit at the perfect intersection of like generational receivers, a good, maybe not great but good offensive line and a Heisman Trophy quarterback.
When Auburn wins its national title in in 20 the 20/10/2011 season, it is because Auburn finds a generationally an incredible player in Cam Newton and builds the perfect offense around him and goes 14 and O or 15 and O whatever. I guess it would have been 14 and O back then. That was the BCS Harris. Still that's not happening here that you know that this isn't this is not just because you do have two or three. Now India has got some really good players. Curtis Rourke is having a great
season. A lot I, I, Elijah Serrat is, I mean, as, even as a football neutral is so much fun to watch, not just the pass catching, but like the physicality, the downfield blocking. You know, I, I mean, if you're looking for moments that define Elijah Sarat, like I think 1st about him trucking a, a defensive back at UCLA or when he's blocking 30 yards downfield, burying a defensive back out of bounds to just, just to hold a block for a running
play, whatever. You know, Mikhail Kumar is I think the best pass rusher in this program's had probably at least 9 or 10 years maybe since Nick Manjiri. You know, you, you've got some other pieces there. They got two really good linebackers and some some promising guys behind them that the offensive line has played really well. But the point is they're doing this on, on the merits of the whole team.
This is not because you just have, you know, a small clutch of irreplaceable players that you have just sort of. Manage to put in exactly the right spots at exactly the right times to to just sort of create a level of of dominance or unstoppability for yourself. This is the team, you know, winning, but this is the team essentially adding itself up to something greater than the sum of its parts and just consistently being far too much for the Big 10 teams that's
playing. And, and in a funny way, like it's almost like, and I'm fascinated to see what these next two weeks hold for Indiana, but it's almost like Indiana has started at the bottom of the conference and worked its way up. UCLA is one of the worst teams in the league. And so they go out to the Rose Bowl and they beat them the way they beat them. Then you get a couple teams in Maryland and and Northwestern that are probably in the bottom third of the league.
Maybe, maybe one of them will get to a bowl game this season. You'd be kind of surprised if both did and they, you know, dispatch of them with relative ease. Then you sort of graduate to OK, now you're in the middle class of the Big 10, Nebraska, Washington, Michigan State, at least on the on the road maybe fits that a little bit more. And that's why I found this three-game stretch fascinating.
And for them to start it the way that they did with the Nebraska game, where again, you know, you, you switch quarterbacks halfway through, multiple running backs have touchdowns, you know, it's a it's a different receiver again, having a career day. Like it's just a really well
built, well coached team. I don't know how much you clocked this, but like Urban Meyer last week when he was doing his, his big 10 network stuff and he was doing when he talked to us before the, you know, on the Friday before the game with, with the Fox dress rehearsal, like he could not get to a camera fast enough. Been talking about how well coached he thought Indiana was. And, and he said something to us
in the reporter scrum. He said, there's times where I turn on film and I just have to turn it off. Like I just, I just can't watch it. And there's times where I turn on film and I can't stop watching. And he was saying that that is that is where I'm at with Indiana. I can't, I can't stop watching this team play football. And he's highlighting little things. He's highlighting, you know, tons of different players and,
and stuff. It just what is remarkable is the extent to which everyone just seems to be looking around and saying there is nothing. I don't want to say even fluky because like it's not fluky that Joe Burrow turns out to be one of the great quarterbacks, you know, deliver one of the great quarterbacks seasons of of his generation. But there is nothing sort of there's not an outlier here like Indiana's just playing good football and winning games and
beating everyone at faces. And in a weird way, the better you are, the more likely Indiana is to just to batter you, apparently. And I, you know, I mean we. We talked at the beginning of the season on the podcast about how important confidence is for a team. And in football. I think it's it may be the most important of all of the sports because it is, it is such a game of momentum and you have to have that baseline of great coaching. I mean, I I thought the same thing with Urban Meyer's
comments. I don't hear him gush that much about programs. He'll gush account, but individual coaches occasionally. But he went out of his way to highlight how well he thought Indiana was being coached and, and how well their players were executing.
But then, you know, I think what stuck out to me being in the stands at Nebraska and, and even being in the stands at Northwestern and, and in Maryland, like the fourth quarter, this team just does not seem like they get daunted, I guess, as the case may be. They they really do feel, it almost feels like they feed off the crowd, they feed off the energy, but they feed off of this idea that they're executing. And there's a belief there.
It's a weird thing to say, but it and, and, but it's something that you can visually see. There seems to be a belief that they're going to execute on those plays. And, and even when they don't, they haven't really gotten too knocked down emotionally. I do wonder, you know, there's something that's talking about like adversity and you know what, if they what, what do they finally face a good team, a
really good team. We thought that was Nebraska, but it feels like somehow the coaching staff, not as only is coaching them really well, but it's instilled a belief in them that they're going to be successful. And that probably sticks out to me the most of all. When I think about all of the former IU teams that I've watched over the course of time, it always felt like IU teams were on the precipice of losing their confidence and therefore
losing the advantage in games. And I've yet to see even a a modicum of that in what we've seen out of IU so far this year. It's it's jarring in a good way. It's just not something that I expected. No, and I think a lot of that does go back to Sigietta. You know, you talked about
football as a game of momentum. I think it's a game of trust and you know that there's no other game, there's no other team game that asks you to essentially just like to suspend all disbelief and just just accept that at the moment you're asked. You just have one usually very basic job. And if you do that, then everything will be fine because there's ten other guys on the field and they too will do their
one basic job. And no one will be distracted by what you know by worrying about whether it's that the guy next to him is doing it right or whether the backup that had to come in last week because somebody you know, Torres calf muscle is going to make a mistake or whether the quarterback made the wrong pre snap read like you, just you you like football is the ultimate game of trust, trust in yourself, trust in your coach, trust in your team mates and the
ultimate the ultimate test of whether or not you can trust all of those people and I guess to some extent really yourself too. So implicitly that you will not deviate from the plan at all. Most mistakes in football are born of good intentions. They're born of people thinking, I don't know if he can do that, so I've got to try and do my job and his job. But then what happens is you, you do neither job effectively and the whole thing breaks down. And this team has, yes, earned
confidence. It, it took it from its head coach. I think that's been long established at this point. It took it from, you know, it, the veterans, it came in, it took it from some of the players who stayed. It certainly took it from the JMU transfers who came in and said like, listen, we've we've done all this before. We're telling you it works. Trust it. Listen to what the guy has to say because it's going to win us a lot of football games.
But there is also this trust that that this group has achieved that, you know, if if everybody just goes out there and does their job and has faith that the guy next to him is going to do the exact same thing, that they're better coached, that their scheme is better, that their preparation is better. I mean, I don't know the number of times I've had a player tell me. I just think we're better prepared than any other team in
the country. You know, that that I just, I had like just the level of faith they have that, you know, from Curt Signetti on down the the sort of organizational chart that Indiana is the best prepared team in the country. When you have that kind of confidence and you have that kind of trust. And then obviously the other part of it is it has to be repaid. It has to be paid back in results. And that's where, you know, maybe to some extent seasons
never have happened in a vacuum. That's where maybe Indiana is taking advantage of of the fortunate nature of its schedule. You know, I, I've seen IU fans saying, oh, if, if it, you know, if it had been Ohio State did have played this schedule, people wouldn't disrespect it so much. And I'm not completely sure that's not true. Like, I, I, I think there is some, some vouch for that argument.
But the flip side is I I also think this team kind of needed the schedule to play out the way that it did, where you could get a couple of games to get some of the gremlins out and make some mistakes and really gain proof of concept. And then you go to UCLA and, yeah, it's on the road and it's the Rose Bowl. And actually, you wound up being, you know, a better atmosphere from UCLA perspective than what I've been told by PAC 12 people to expect.
But listen, I mean, that's a bad football team. And Indiana made them look like a bad football team. And so then suddenly you come home like, what if, what if Indiana played its schedule completely in reverse? And Ohio State was its Big 10 opener. Like, what is what does that look like? I don't know, maybe they'd be like, maybe maybe they went 100 and nothing. I have no idea at this point. I'm, I, I'm it's hard for me to rule anything out with this
team. But, you know, even the schedule feels like it has set up in just the right ways for this team. And they've gotten to a place where there's just there is supreme confidence, as you said. And I think there is also supreme trust in the whole thing scheme, the staff, teammates, everything to just say, you know, if we all go out there and do what we know we need to do, do what we're told to do, do what we're capable of, who can stop us?
And you know, to this point, Indiana has has not run into anyone who can disabuse them of that notion. Obviously the big story this week is the temporary loss of Curtis Rourke who suffered an injury in that Nebraska game. Better sounding report coming up today from Pete Thammel about Rourke's status as it was a little ambiguous what was going on. If we take it at face value that he doesn't play this week, what kind of impact does that have?
What kind of confidence should I, you have in Tavan Jackson to be able to step up when and what is, you know, how does it change what Indiana's trying to do offensively? Because obviously, Rourke. It's not just Rourke's throwing ability, but its ability to read the defense that has given Indiana such a huge advantage so far offensively this season. Yeah, I mean, I'm fascinated by that question.
So. So I guess on Rourke, because I got into this a little bit too, I saw Pete's report and I tried to follow up on it where I could. Like, my understanding is basically they came out of the game on, on Saturday. They weren't exactly sure the extent of the injury. They didn't think it'd be too
bad. You know, I think, I actually think that once Rourke had surgery, I, I actually, my impression is the prognosis got better basically once they went in there and, and they were able to kind of visualize what had happened and what they were dealing with. And I, I mean, I think Pete reported this and, and we did too. I think, I think there's a chance he plays against Michigan State. I, I would be surprised if he plays this weekend.
I would be pretty surprised at that, not least because I'm not sure you need him. You know, Washington statistically is not a terrible defense. They're. They're really, I've been, I've been deep diving into this with Taylor Lehman. They're they're kind of an odd team in some ways because you're right, your defense not quite as good as Nebraska's according to numbers, but it's not that far off from where they were.
Their offense is kind of mid pack in college football, but they seem to have largely feasted on teams that can't score against them. I mean, they're four wins. No, I mean that. I mean, like they have given up their last three games. They've given up 100 and 84174 and 220 yards rushing and five rushing touchdowns in those three games. Iowa obviously was the one that really kind of torched them. 220 and 2 scores Iowa 140 to 16.
You know, I mean, if if you kind of look at it like the, the game they win in that stretch is a home game against Michigan, that I think a lot of that is reflective of Michigan's just complete inability to pass the ball effectively. So my point is that I I'm not doing Roark a disservice and I'm not even necessarily trying to disrespect Washington.
I'm just pointing out Indiana's got one of the best run games in the league and I don't think we talked as much about it because there's not one stand out player on that side of the ball the way there is sort of this like, like there's Curtis work and then very clearly like his number one target is Elijah Serrat and his number 2 is probably Omar Cooper. And then you have Keyshawn Williams and Miles Cross and Miles Price who all fill these gaps around them and and and
make a lot of plays. And Zach Horton's a really good a really good quarterback. But like, I mean, India are a really good tight end. I'm sorry, but Indiana is, I mean, one of the Indiana is by 10 touchdowns has the most rushing touchdowns in the league this season. And what's interesting to me too is. Say that again, please. Indiana has 28 rushing touchdowns. The next closest teams each have 18. I think there are two or three teams with 18. And The thing is go look at the
at the long scrimmage plays. Indiana also leads the league in rushes of of 10 plus yards. Now they're a little bit more modest, you know, kind of maybe top five to middle of the pack in 20 and 30 plus yards. But the point is we're not just talking about a team that passes the ball down to the three and then pounds it in. Indiana can RIP off big chunks on the ground. We just saw them take, you know, maybe the best rushing defense in the Big 10 to school for 200
plus and five scores. The only other team that's gone for 200 plus on the ground against Tony White, Nebraska defense. Tony White's been Nebraska's defense coordinator for about a year and a half now. The only team that went for 200 plus as a team against Tony White's Nebraska defense was Michigan last year. And we obviously know, you know how good Michigan was running the ball last year. So this should be a game, at least on paper, particularly because Washington really got
screwed with the kick off time. I have no idea why this game is being played at noon and Indiana doesn't have to apologize for that. They didn't do it, but you know, Washington's going to be out there trying to plug holes in it's run and I know they're coming off the buy, but they're going to be out there trying to plug holes in their run defense at 9:15 in the morning like that is that's not helpful.
And I, I will say like I went back and watched and I think I found five of the 8 pros Tamon Jackson made, they were pretty much all 1 Reed throws. And some of that is going to be reflective of the offense. Like we make a lot about Curtis Roark and his ability to, you know, make advanced progressions and things. They still call a lot of one read pros for them. They still call a lot of RPO. Typically most RPOS only have one pass read, maybe two maybe.
But the whole point of an RPO is it's supposed to almost act like an option play like it's, it's supposed to happen so fast that a, a defense doesn't have time to react to both possibilities at the same time #2 you know, you're, you're, you're giving Jackson someone read stuff. They're not just because you want to get his, his confidence and his rhythm up, but also because he didn't prepare for that game. And everybody will say, oh, I, I always prepare like I'm the
starter. And you can say that. And that can be your mentality and film study and installing stuff. But the starter gets 85% of the snaps in practice, you can't prepare as well as the starter can. The stuff that's installed week to week, the wrinkles, the tweaks, the, you know, the additions in the scheme are geared toward the starter. They're not geared toward the backup. And Jackson is a, you know, he's a good quarterback. He's a slightly different quarterback than Curtis Rourke.
The point is, some of that is just going to be about saying, hey, Taven Jackson is is, you know, we just kind of need to give him stuff he can manage. But he is younger. And I do think Indiana's going to want to be in a position where it's not going to ask too much of him over the course of
just one week. And so, you know, I think it's going to be important to be able to run the ball to take some of this pressure off of him and allow Indiana the rhythm within the within the, you know, the scheme to call a little bit of more of that, you know, a little bit more timing stuff, a little bit more rhythm stuff, a little bit more one, maybe 2 read stuff. On the other hand, you know, I think about this too. I was thinking about this last night when I was watching some of that film.
If this was Ohio State or Oregon and the sixth string quarterback was out or the six year quarterback, the sixth string 6th year quarterback was out. And the guy behind him was a red shirt sophomore who'd been a four-star top 200 recruit, went to elite 11, won a couple state titles with one of the powerhouse programs in his in his, you know, state's high school game. And he came in against Nebraska and went seven of eight for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
We wouldn't be saying, oh, that's a big loss. We would just be saying, yeah, it's Ohio State. That's just the next cab off the rank. Like it's just, you know, that's just what you know, when you when you're playing that program, that's just the luxury you have. So, you know, you can Signetti said this too. And I know we're running out of time, but I I've always found it fascinating that he says this. It's a level of self-awareness and a coach that I I find
fascinating. We've asked him about trap games and complacency and stuff and he said you're always guarding against it. But he's also said multiple times he's said, but you can also speak that kind of stuff into existence. You can worry so much about a trap game that you turn a game into a trap game. You can worry so much about complacency that you almost make your team complacent by virtue of trying to combat it.
You can worry so much about saying, Oh my God, what are we going to do with our starting quarterback that you make that you you make that an emergency when it doesn't need to be. And so I think there's I think there is going to be a, a real ability, I suspect from Signetti and his staff to just kind of keep the boat, you know, rowing steadily in the same direction while Curtis works out whether it's one week, two weeks,
whatever. And the more you can give to Haven Jackson, the better off you'll be. PJ Flex lawyers are online too now after that. But I I do think it's worth noting rushing wise, last year, Indiana's top 2 leading rushers in yardage, Trent Allen and Josh Henderson, rushed for 354 yards and 337 yards, respectively through 11 and eight games. Through seven games, Justice Ellison's rushed for 514 yards. Tyson Lawton's rushed for 393
yards. Justice Ellison's averaging 7 yards a carry so far on the season. And as you mentioned, 28 touchdowns on the ground. Indiana had 13 through the entirety of last season. The you're absolutely right, as much as Curtis work in the passing game get so much attention, this rushing attack has been absolutely impossible for teams to handle throughout
the course of the season. And obviously, you know, if you're going to go into a game without your starting quarterback, you'd like it to be a team that's had struggles stopping the run as Washington has here recently. It'd be interesting to see if they can plug those holes coming into it. So Zach, any final items you want to hit before we wrap up here and or anything else that sticks out to you about this team that you think is worth
noting? I think I mean it, it really is just kind of fascinating and and I what you know, what I would say is and listen, it's a very small sample size. So I'm not just going to act like I have been completely converted. I was among those that criticized the 12 team playoff and I just, I didn't, I, I felt, I, I felt like the, the, the appeal of college football was that it was different to the NFL.
Then in the NFL, my team could go 10 and six and still have a puncher's chance at, at a Super Bowl appearance as long as it was healthy and playing well at the right time of year. But the college football was appealing because it demanded perfection, because it demanded this sense of you cannot, you cannot slip even once or else you know, your chance is gone. Maybe one, maybe get one chance. That's it.
But what I would say that I don't think I anticipated was the extent to which the 12 team playoff would actually dovetail better with a greater sense of parity in college athletics. And listen, if we had a Group of five coach on here, I I'm not sure he'd agree with my my definition of parity in college football. And I understand that. I really do. But I look around at, at BYU, forget the forget the service academies. That's a separate conversation. But at BYU, at Indiana, Iowa
State, it's a great example. Miami, frankly. And like, there's nothing wrong with there are people like, oh, Miami, it's like, what, what do you, what, what has Miami done to you? They haven't been good in 20 years. Like a, a, a, a good Miami is good for college football. And I look around and I just sort of suddenly feel like Ohio State's weaker, you know, Alabama's weaker. And I'm not picking on this program so much as saying the reason they are is not because
of the 12 team playoff. It's because NIL, soon to be revenue sharing and the transfer portal have allowed more programs to be able to say, actually, if we get the right things right, we can be better. And just because we have less money than, for example, Ohio State, doesn't mean we can't still make the right call on a quarterback or the right call on, you know, hey, we're going to you're going to come here because we're going to give you $150,000 more, but you're also
going to get 40 more catches. And so whereas you would just be one of three good receivers at Ohio State, you're now going to get showcased as an absolute. And I'm not, this is not some inside knowledge of Elijah, Elijah Sarat. It's just an example or a hypothetical.
I think the 12 team playoff as we as as this season really kind of matures into November, it looks like it fits really, really well with an era of of what actually looks like may well be greater parity in college football, certainly at the top, certainly in the bigger conferences the the, the power for again, we can have a separate conversation about what the heck we're going to do with the group of five, much less the
FCS. But like it it as somebody who's now at the epicenter of trying to cover a team that has suddenly has playoff ambitions, you sort of realize actually this gives more people more reasons to engage with college football. And to some extent may actually show people there is a a really, there's a much better way forward than some sort of 2014 Super League, which I know some
people think is possible. Because actually you can build a playoff that still gets dominated by the schools that are going to want the biggest seat at the table. But actually does give a genuine opportunity to everybody else. And opens the field up enough that you are capitalizing on a lot of the eyeballs that you need at the highest level of the
sport. While still including, while still stretching the tent out to be big enough to include enough people to not feel like we're just kind of balling up everything that is is meaningful and fun about college football and throwing it away. I'll give you the last word on that 'cause I think it's a fascinating topic that we should return to in about a month. It's a small sample size that that's the one thing. But you know what? But no, I think you hit a lot of really important points.
And I think it's it, it is always what I've argued for when I've asked, hey, let's have an expanded playoff environment. Let's let's bring a few more teams to the table. I do think that that matters, but we'll talk about that at a future date. Zach Osterman, IU Insider at the Indy Star As always, we appreciate you joining us on the show. Appreciate your insights. Be sure to check out Zach's content throughout the course of the week. And be sure to check out our
content. We'll have more stuff coming up, including Bison chat tonight at 8:00 PM on the Back Home network for everybody involved. I'm Galen Clavio saying thanks for joining us here on Crimson Cast. We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the Bison stay. Never daunted. So everybody.