Presented by Home Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast, GAIL and Clavio here. The week of IU Football podcast content rolls on. It's Wednesday night, October 23rd, college game day coming here in a couple of days, but we got plenty to talk about in between now and then. Special guest joining us on the show. We will bring him on in just a second.
First, just a quick reminder folks, we are brought to you here on Crimson cast by Home Field Apparel, your place to go for the finest in college fashions, the softest fabrics, the coolest designs, and they're going to be all over Bloomington over the course of this next couple of days.
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They're going to be at Upland Brewing Company from 5:00 to 9:00 on Friday. If you want that iconic 9 Windy Anna shirt, and I know many of you missed it the first couple of times around, it's going to be available for 999 at the pop up store that they'll have at Upland. So be sure to head over there. Plus, if you wear home field or buy some there, you get free Upland beer. And there's also supposed to be a surprise gift giveaway as well. Along with, according to the
flyer, complimentary snacks. You can't beat complimentary snacks. They will also be on Saturday morning. They will be presenting Game Day Breakfast Club at the upstairs pub starting at 7:00 AM and running until noon. If you arrive early, the 1st 200 fans through the door get a free surprise IU shirt. I haven't seen it, but I know what it is and it's awesome.
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Again, home field apparel your place to go for college sports fashion. All right, we're gonna bring on We've got on our special guest. If you're watching this on YouTube, the man who may have graduated with the highest quarterback rating in the history of the program with a with a 236 in a senior year. You, you know him from Twitter, you know him from podcasting. Former IU odd receiver Mitchell Page joining us here on the show.
Mitchell. We met randomly after the Nebraska game in person and now here we are. Miracles can't happen. This is why you go out after games, folks. But how you doing? Great to have you on the show. Yeah, absolutely. I was just listening. You know what the biggest travesty I think in my life right now is? I don't own a single article of home field apparel. Wow. Isn't that terrible, I'm thinking. Connor, I know you're listening. That is horrible it. I don't deserve it at this
point. Some of the unbelievable stuff that they, and this is, I'm not being paid by them. They just have unbelievable logos, designs, just bringing back classic looks. I'm completely missing out. So I was just listening to you go through that. I may be at the upstairs on Saturday morning. If I if I wasn't having to be in my tailgate spot at 5-6 AM basically on on Saturday morning, I might just park, fire up the generator and walk down to upstairs and see if I could
get in at that point. I think it might be the move. If it's anything like it was last week, you'll probably be late. Late getting in late getting out. Yeah, it was pretty jammed. And folks, if you haven't been to upstairs is not not an official sponsor of the show, but you know, they are our adopted bar here on on Crimson cast.
If you haven't been to the new side of of the upstairs pub, it's like a spaceship landed on the building with the the coolest sports bar set up that you could possibly think of on Kirkwood. It doesn't stink. That was my first time seeing it. For whatever reason, when I was there, never really went upstairs. I, I think Brothers was our big spot is whenever I was on the team. So I spent plenty of time in that place. But upstairs, maybe my spot, I ran into you.
You never know what might happen. See, I mean, great things happen at upstairs. I, you'll find me there at least every once in a great while and you'll see me there on Friday even better. So. But I wanted to bring you on, you know, 'cause this is IU. Football's having what we would
call a moment. I think you could say feels like it maybe the moment and and this is, you know, for for someone like yourself who is, you know, worn the uniform and has gone out there and you know, was there for two of the most successful seasons in IU history. If you take the totality of the whole 220 some years. I I guess first and foremost, like what has been your reaction to this season so far? Yeah, it's definitely changed
from the beginning. I think you watch them play the first game and they look pretty Dang good, but we've looked good before and then it just keeps happening. And you almost expect, I mean, I played for the team and I wasn't on the sideline expecting something to happen. But you could just feel moments in the game where it's like, oh gosh, here we we're going to snap it over the guy's head or
something crazy like that. And the only reason I know that it would happen is I saw it over and I was a part of it. I still have nightmares of double overtime Michigan, me dropping the Dang ball on the goal line. I still have nightmares about it. And this team just doesn't do that. They are an inevitable force. Like if you're on the tracks,
get out of the way. And I think the most impressive thing that, and now it's finally being talked about in the national media, but they don't do anything that's crazy flashy. They're just extremely clinical and the coaches put guys in places to be successful. They take what you're really good at and put you there. Whatever you're really bad at, they keep you away from as much as possible and it seems like they've done that at a really high level.
Obviously you've got the quarterback, Curtis Rourke's been unbelievable. We're talking Heisman with him, but all the way through the roster, you've got an offensive line that felt like they were invisible at times in the last couple years and now they're standing up to what people said was a top 10 defensive line. Kind of hit him in the mouth so. Part part in the Red Sea, right? It just, they, they feel like that you just need to get out of the way.
And honestly, the the environment, it feels magical. I will be at every game from here on out. I even if I was still living in Charleston where I was last year, I'd be at every game. It, it just feels like if you haven't been can be a little harder to go now 'cause every game's sold out, but you better find a way to at least be in the city on game day, because it's, it's, I've never seen anything like it. I truly haven't.
I, I got so many directions I want to go with you on this, but let me, let me start with something you were kind of alluding to there, which is like, you know, how clinical and
how like it's not flashiness. It's not like, you know, we, we've talked about this on the podcast before where it always felt like when Indiana was good, they had a few like really awesome players and then they had a bunch of guys that were like a couple of levels below and they, you rose and fell based upon how well or how poorly those players were playing. And this team, I mean, I've, I, I, I looked at the roster and I'm like, where are the obvious
NFL players? Like where, where are the guys who are head and shoulders? It's like everybody's a solid B plus or a minus, which doesn't sound impressive until you think about, well, gosh, if everybody's AB plus or an A minus, you don't have a lot of drop off.
That makes a tremendous difference in, you know, what plays you're calling, how you're scheming, you know, asking guys to step up and do things and, and not asking them to do things they can't do. As I think you alluded to there, it's rare you get a group of of players together that can do that, and it's even rarer for a coaching staff to be able to harness that kind of effort and intensity.
Yeah, I I think what, as we get farther along into the transfer portal, you start to see guys make jumps from what they call the group of five or sometimes even below or into the Big 4, right? Whatever that means. I think a couple things are really going to start to stand out. The first one being how close the really good players on all of those teams at every level
are to each other. It also exaggerates how important depth is. And I think the only thing I can really compare it to is the teams that I played on, right? We had unbelievable talent at the top end. And I'm not I'm not including myself in this at all. I I was just kind of a guy. But you look at like a Cody Latimer or Shane Nguyen or Tevin Coleman, Jordan hat, like those guys start at every school in the conference in a lot of
schools in the country. Maybe you start getting to Georgia or whatever, but like we had talent. But if you really watch those games, especially the games against Ohio State, for whatever reason, we always matched up really well with them for a really long time. And then as you're just hitting, hitting, hitting, hitting, you start to see where that depth starts to matter, especially along the offensive and defensive lines.
When you just been banging into each other for three hours, you just start to wear down and that next man up being able to do it, that's where the really good team separate themselves. And Indiana in a year has built a bunch of depth with a lot of starters that we were just talking about are all right next to each other pretty Dang good. And they've all bought into whatever signet he's talking about in the team room. I would pay a lot of money to be in one of those meetings.
But when you have something like that, I, I keep using the word magic because that's the only thing that I can really describe it as. But really it's just good roster construction in a team that believes that's all that really has happened. You didn't bring in a bunch of five star players. I would guess there's 05 star players on the roster and this is the results you get. I, I don't think I've watched a lot of ball this year, Not a lot of teams that are doing what Indiana's doing.
I don't care if you're talking in Oregon, Georgia, sometimes Texas. Yeah. I, I, I think just the fact that we're talking about Indiana in that vein, it's like it's a fake world, isn't it?
I mean, I, I've been joking with a lot of people all this, it's like every time I talk about how good Indiana is or how, you know, they're, they're, they have a better than 50% shot of making the playoffs, I feel like I'm gonna get struck by lightning because that's this is, this is the universe and the way it normally operates for us. Like you're not supposed to say those things. And yet and yet, you know, I think what lingering doubts I had about the team really, you
know, they disintegrated early. I know that UCLA game. I've been to every single game so far and home and away. And it's, you know, I remember standing in the in the, you know, the, the stands there and if third quarter and, you know, UCLA gets the ball if they scored on their first possession of the third quarter. And I'm like, OK, is this when it unravels? And not only did it not unravel it, it reraveled or whatever, whatever you want to say, like they want the. Exact they did.
The same thing against Maryland, they did the same thing against Northwestern in a game that was pretty tight there in the third quarter and then they just blew it open. And then you know, the Nebraska game, I'm like, well, Nebraska's gonna clearly give them an effort. I picked Indiana to start 6 and O and then lose the 7th and 8th game. So I was like, well, you know, Nebraska probably a bridge too far, Washington Bridge too far.
And to come out and hang A50 six to seven victory on a team that was a, a fringe top 25 team to to beat them so severely that that chart, like, did we lose that bad chart that's on Twitter? Like you need a. Separate chart to get Indiana, Nebraska on there. I, I mean, my God, it's, it's, it's just one of those things where it doesn't compute. And I've had people ask me like,
how is Indiana doing this? And other than the very technical and accurate description you just gave, it's like, well, they've got a bunch of guys who are doing their jobs really well and they make really good play calls and they seem to really stay disciplined. I cannot explain it, and I've given up trying. It's like if I try to peer too deeply into this, I'm afraid I'm going to undo the magic or something. So I'm just kind of like living in the moment, as messed as I possibly can.
Just smile and wave. It's unbelievable. I think the real turning point of the season in terms of my belief and I think the belief of a lot of people that are true live and die. IU football fans and I, I'm going to pause that thought because I do want to say even before this now, it feels like there's a whole bandwagon and come on, all of you are invited there. There's no shame that you're just now joining us. Come on we're excited you're here.
But even in the down years, the IU football fan is a unique, powerful individual. Like to the ability to just every year bang your head against that wall is a special, special trait. And there's so many of them out there. I've interacted with a lot of people that are just die hard, die hard football fans. And when I do come across them, it makes my week, month. It just how cool and passionate those real lifers are. So now I'm going to pivot as that fan.
You start to talk about like the when the belief changes. I was in the stadium for Maryland. You throw 2 picks in a set. It felt like you threw 2 picks before the game started. That's a game that in the past, similar to Rutgers a couple years ago, you lose 50 to nothing. Things have derailed. You start getting mad at each other. You start throwing the ball down the field trying to make it all
up in one play. And when I watch these guys just methodically, continually beat teams into the ground, that's when you start to think, OK, these guys got a little something different to the point where now I'm not afraid to appear behind the curtain. I want to see the magic because it's it's real. It's it's not a team that in the past we've had some teams that create a bunch of havoc on defense and cause some turnovers and get some 5050 balls to fall our way. That's just as fun.
Or it is fun. Maybe not just as fun. This is it's truly a just good team. There's nothing flashy. They don't do anything fancy. You just better bring it if you're going to play them. Yeah, it feels more sustainable than than the big play approach. You know, it's funny you mentioned like the game that you throw 2 picks early and then lose by 50. Nothing. It's essentially what happened in Nebraska. You know, they, they, they, they had that, that game. Think about that.
They were down 50 to nothing. It felt like, yeah, at the kickoff, yeah. And, and that it's just so weird for Indiana football to be the one doling that out as opposed to being on their losing end of it. I was talking with somebody who's not a huge football fan. It was the day after the Nebraska game. And I was like explaining how the whole day had gone. And they they, they asked me something that I just thought
that was hilarious. They were like, well, why hasn't IU just hired somebody like Signetti before? And I'm like, I don't think you understood. I don't think Indiana understood necessarily what they were hiring when they got Signeti. I think they had an inkling like this guy could be special. This guy is different. But it is so unusual, not just at Indiana but in college football to hire a coach who comes in and completely flips
the culture. You know, especially, you know, I mean, we've never really had the transfer portal era prior to the last couple of years. But that obviously allows you to flip the culture a little bit faster. But even with that, we, you know, normally takes 3-4 years to really get your system and get your program in. How surprised are you about how quick this is gone? And what do you think is the reason why they've been able to
get it going so quickly? Yeah, it's obviously unprecedented times with the transfer portal, so it does happen faster. But the ability to just come in with completely new guys. And he brought some from JMU and there's some that play, so some were familiar. But it's still 85 guys that have never seen you before. They got recruit. Half the team got recruited by you, the other half just had two or three of the most miserable years of their lives. And now you'll come in.
Maybe you're a breath of fresh air, but to buy in implement a system that is as diverse and I keep using the word clinical, but that's what it is and disciplined that quickly at a place that had experienced the last couple of years. It's I don't have any words for what that is. It's much more likely that a team like Alabama, and I don't mean this because Kayla Nabor was at Indiana, he has probably the hardest job takeover in the history of college football.
That's so this is no slight to him, but I'm just using that as a reference because you go into a place like Alabama that has the standards, has a bunch of guys that have followed these standards. Saban leaves. You lose a couple guys, but it's not the whole roster. It's still a very big chunk of those initial dudes that played for Nick Saban and they average 20 penalties a game.
It's the same guys that happens much more often than coming in and taking over a team that couldn't block a soul, couldn't throw it 5 yards down the field, couldn't tackle anybody, and we're destined to lose every game before they even flip the coin. To have the aura isn't the right word, but it kind of is. Like when you come in, you talk crazy. First of all, some of the stuff
he said. When you look back at it, if you don't think this man was a psycho when he first got here without seeing this, you're a liar. If you tell me that, you're like, yeah, I believed him. No, you didn't. To start like that and get a team that actually believes what the heck you're saying before anybody else does. When a lot of people on campus,
you go to class. I've been in those classes after we lose a game that we should have won, and the professor doesn't even know that I'm in the class and starts making jokes about the football team. I've been in that class. That's happening to those guys, especially when I win. Google me. And so does Purdue and Ohio State, especially when that happens. So now you get on campus. These people think we got a lunatic coach on the football team.
They're going to be talking like that, you know what's happening at practice. But it's so easy to kind of let those voices get in your head and get distracted. And they haven't done that. And I, I think that that is maybe why I have a little more hope that they're not going to let the national media get in their head now that people think they're good and they're just going to keep on doing what
they're doing. So that was a really long way to answer a question, but it's there's so many factors that make it unbelievable that it becomes simple. Like the real simple is they believe in them, they believe they're going to win and they're really freaking good. That's it. I want to go back to what you said there about not letting it stuff get in their heads. You know, so as a football player, you know, obviously game day didn't come when you were here or it came the next year
sort of for that Thursday game. But you know, how are you dealing with the week when this kind of noise is happening around you? And you know, I mean, it's it, it's not just the game day thing, but it's all of the national media. And this, this was what I worried about last week because it felt like Signeti or Curtis Rourke were on every single podcast and show known to man.
And I, I just was thinking the whole week I was like, God, I hope that this doesn't cause them to come out and just be flat. And I had the opposite effect. I'm like, maybe they need to be on more shows this week. I'm scrolling Twitter and I see Signeti on Pat Mcafee's show. I'm thinking, oh gosh, here we go again. We've got big time. This is over with and now I think he should be the president. I wish it was on the presidential debates.
I'm. Fine, I'm fine with right in a minute at this point, it might be best for everybody, but I mean, are you able to shut the noise that like, how does it penetrate and and what can a coaching staff do like you because you don't want to overdo it, because then you can almost create a self fulfilling prophecy to some degree, to borrow something that somebody told me a couple of days ago.
But it it does feel like it's a tightrope to walk, especially for a group of players, at least the non JMU guys and and their success was at a lower level. But this is not a group that's collectively had a lot of taste of success up to this point. Yeah, it's really hard and I can promise you that they do hear it. Now. I think as a coach, you have to acknowledge that you hear it.
People think you're really good. And in some people, I've definitely been in scenarios where they say people think you're good but you're not. And here's why. Here's why. Here's why. This is why we got to bring you down to make you think you're not. I'm more in the camp of people think you're really good. Now you got to go prove it because you haven't shown him anything yet. We're not even close to how good we can be. And that kind of feels how Signetti handles it now.
Yeah, he is hard on you when you're winning because that's what you need to do, especially on Saturdays. But during the week, my guess is they're coaching much more positively. Even when there's a negative play that happens at practice or in the game, you talk about it more along the lines of people think you're really good. If you start playing like this, they're going to stop thinking
you're really good. You need to go show the world why we are different and why they're still not talking about us enough. And I think that's how you build the little chip on the shoulder. But I do have a funny story about letting the letting the noise get in. I was still a walk on. I was not playing, but I definitely heard it and I was all bought in. I think it was my second year. We got through the 7th game of the season. We were like four and three or something. It wasn't.
We were not blowing teams away and somehow it shook out that there was no conference divisions yet. I don't think maybe there was. I think it was the old that was the leaders and legends, that's what. It that's what it was because Wisconsin was on our side. I know, I know. I remember this. I was at this game. Somehow it worked out that if we beat Ohio State. Ohio State had been put on probation, I think because of the tattoo scandal.
A. 100% So now we control our destiny, we get to the Big 10 Championship and we are geeked. All we can practice. We broke down on Big 10 champs. We got beat by 60. One of the many games that I've sadly wandered out of the stadium at halftime be like, well, that that didn't go very well. For whatever reason we just never the Wisconsin teams of old and I don't think really anyone matched up with them but the Monty Ball Melvin Gordon teams. My dad. This is my favorite story about
any game that I played. I didn't even play again this one either. This was at Wisconsin. It was like 5° and my dad was there way early like he always was. Went to the concession stand and he's behind these five humans and they're ordering whatever they're ordering and they turn around and it was all ladies. We are in trouble. That looks like our offense line. This is a power. Towering over him and like we are not getting off a block. All day. It's it's wow, lot of last, last
question for you. So you were at the Nebraska game, you were out afterwards, but especially in the stadium. I know you've never heard or seen Memorial Stadium quite like that before. What was that like to experience for you as someone who's been in that stadium a bunch, has been on the field a bunch? Like what? What was that vibe like for you seeing the stadium not just full, but full of people that were like absolutely psyched to watch IU play football. Yeah, definitely nothing I'd
ever seen. We got there at 6:45 in the morning and I started getting emotional just driving past the tailgate fields, past upstairs in Kilroy's with 1000 kids waiting to get in there. Not just because they wanted to drink, because they needed to be there early so they could get to the game. And then my wife could tell you, I don't think I spoke for the first quarter. Just soak it in. Just bask.
It's so loud in there. I've never known that stadiums are designed like if you go to Michigan and maybe it's because they're playing Indiana, it's but it's so flat so it doesn't. All the noise doesn't get on you. Ohio State is built in the way that the noise is in your helmet. Memorial Stadium is kind of like that. When? We were in on the field or shooting fireworks. I couldn't imagine being on Nebraska's sideline.
That's a little different beast. And I know it's not 100,000, but there's a, it's a different kind of place and it's just so special, man. And how fun is it? All listeners, all of you listeners, how fun is it to be in the stadium and make a difference? Because it's, I don't think Indiana fans have really known how big of a difference they can make in the outcome of a game. They're a huge There's a reason that it's so hard to go into
Death Valley at LSU and win. Indiana has the ability to do that, whether we like it or not. If you don't think that creamy Crimson ran out of the stand or ran out of the locker room, looked and saw a full stadium and weren't ready to win 50 to nothing, you're crazy. How could you not want to go out there and execute every single job that you have to the best of your ability in front of a crowd like that?
Well, and what's exciting about it is the the remainder of the home season is sold out, which is just wild to think about. I mean, the four sellouts in a season is almost unprecedented. Last time it happened was 1970 for IU. And yeah, just nice. Yeah. That was in our lifetimes, right? But no, you're right. I mean, the ability to for IU fans to go in, make a difference, be loud and have it matter. I've been saying this for years.
You know, people would try the fans for not showing up or not sticking around. And I'm like, I get, I get the complaints, but you got to build it first. Like, you really have to show people success. And I mean, even the first couple of home games this season, people were leaving at halftime. Signetti talked about it. You know, that Maryland game was really kind of the first time where it felt like we were almost there. And that was up to that point.
As I've said on the show before, up to that point, that was my favorite Memorial Stadium experience, that Maryland game. Damn, it was still electric. Yeah, and, and the Nebraska game blew it out of the water. Like everything about it was just so perfect. It was like living in a movie for three hours. So I, I'm, it was, it was interesting to hear your perspective on it 'cause you know, I've, I've been in there a bunch of times when it's been nowhere close that I know you have as well.
And I also have gotten emotional. I've talked with a lot of people who are in my boat where you, you're the Maryland game. I teared up a little bit at the end 'cause I was like, I can't believe that they pulled this off to this degree. And to be this much further down the road already is, is really special. And. It is right now. Just thinking about it, I saw Indiana put out like just a 5 second highlight on Instagram and it wasn't even the plays, it was just the scans of the stands.
Gives me chills. It it's gonna, I can't imagine what this weekend's gonna be like. I gotta, I'll have to meet up with you again, man. We'll have to have some fun. I'll be there bright and early. I'm gonna I'm gonna be getting in line at 5:30 to park in the tailgate lot. So I will I will look for you or I will send you my info. Come on over. We'll, we'll, we'll crack open a Hoosier game day logger and get ready for the noon kick here. We'll Mitchell, we'll have you
on again soon. This was awesome. I appreciate you joining us and appreciate everything you did in uniform as well, so thank you and look forward to chat with you again about IU football in the future. Absolutely. Let's keep it going, baby. Absolutely well thanks to all you folks for joining us as well on our week of content here for football on Crimson cast. We got more tomorrow. Taylor Layman and I breaking down the whole thing, Taylor from bite sized Bison with all
the numbers. Thanks to our sponsors at home Field Apparel and thanks to all you folks once again, be sure to be out there and loud. Get into the stands, help Indiana beat Washington. Coming up this weekend, I'm Galen Clavier. We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the bison. Stay never daunted. So long, everybody. Send off I. That's what I do.