Ep 1166 - Indiana is 10-1 and Still Alive

You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cask, Allen Clavio, Scott Caulfield joining you here on the show. It is Sunday, November 24th. We can no longer say Indiana is undefeated. We can still say Indiana has ten wins, 10 and one on the season. Coming off. It was certainly a difficult day at the office in Columbus, OH. We're going to talk extensively about that.

We're also going to talk about College Football Playoff and all the items that kind of fell out from what happened over the course of the last 24 hours, as it was a very busy time in college football and Indiana still right in the thick of things despite the results that happened over in Columbus. I was there. I've got some reflections and things like that I'm going to share with everybody. And Scott, you got a chance to watch the game on TV, so well,

we'll talk about that as well. Scott, first of all, how you doing? I'm doing great, man. I it's a bummer. I think we're all a little bit sad, but I would I would say this, take a moment, have some reflection. We're still in a Scott fever dream, right? Two or three months ago, if I said 10 and one with a loss to Ohio State, that wasn't an awesome game. You should be like, take it done like that. I will bank that all day long. So just keep that in mind. We're still we're still in

positive fever dream. Territory yes exactly, and it's it's one of those things where the the sting of what occurs during a game like that it's it's just one of those those wild things and you just you got to kind of shake it off and put yourself in a position where you think a little more clearly and so we're going to try to do that on the show today and we'll we'll work through it together. Those of you that are watching live, we are going live here 4:00 on YouTube.

Thanks for joining us and for those of you who are listening afterwards will probably go live next week. So if you want to join next week live on Sunday after the bucket game, we'll be there for that as well. But anyway, before we get started, let's just remind you folks that we are part of the back home network. A full constellation of shows, including, of course, our friends over at Assembly call the Doing the work podcast.

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All right, Scott, let's dive into it. Indiana loses to the Ohio State Buckeyes, and it was not a particularly close game, at least in the second-half. The Hoosiers started off strong, LED at the end of the first quarter, you know, stopped Ohio State on the 1st Dr. of the game, drove all the way down the field themselves and scored and really looked like they were going to make a a game effort of

this. And even as they struggled through most of the first half to capitalize on that, it looked like they were going to be able to keep it in at halftime. It was a 14 seven game, which as I tweeted and and it's eerily similar to what you just said about the fever dream.

It's like, hey, if you'd said we were going to be down a score getting the ball to start the second-half at Ohio Stadium, you'd have taken it. And unfortunately, Indiana did almost nothing the rest of the game, while Ohio State really came into their own, flex their muscles pretty considerably. They end up winning 38 to 15. I am curious what it looked like through the television first. So I'm going to let you start with your overall observations on what you saw in this contest.

They're very specific to me. And if you listen to any of our previews or Crimson Cash, you knew what I was dealing with that I had a basketball my, my son's basketball game at 1:00. So for me, I watched the first part of the game, I watched the score a touchdown, was very fired up on my phone, watched us do the goal line stand. And then that's when I, I had to go coach my basketball game. So went and coached the

basketball game. I was about to get out of the gym until one of the parents, Grant was like, oh, like Scott, like, we got it, man, not bad. And it sound like he said, hey, 17 to 14. I was like, like, I don't want to know. I don't want to know. But I come back thinking 17 to 14. And then I see Ohio State score that, you know, go up to 77. Then it's 14 seven. I'm thinking, all right, well, no matter what, at least we're scoring a touchdown or they're

it like didn't realize. I think he said 714 because obviously the score was never 1714. And it it's just one of those where I was like, I was pissed that I got the score give it away. And then I was more pissed when I had this like false sense of anyway, you know, the first part of the game, Indiana looked like the dominant team. It was wild. I mean, they were pushing around both sides of the line.

This methodically scored stopped Ohio State and then a couple of mistakes, you know, just just a couple little mistakes. And it's not that the team got broke. I think it was just a bit of almost like the veneer of oh, yeah, this is Indiana and we're Ohio State and we're just going to take control for a little bit. And they did something that that, and then, you know, I I know you're going to talk about the atmosphere there.

The broadcast was just really tough to watch because you know, on on Indiana's first drive, the both the pass interference calls were obvious pass interference calls. And you know, Joel Klatt's like, well, man, I guess they're going to be calling this game tight. It's like, well, that's not a tight call. Like when you're grabbing the jersey and you have your arms wrapped around the receiver. That's just a pass interference, whether you're calling it tight

or not. And then it just became an Ohio State love fest. You know, a lot of a little bit of eating crow for for what you know, the the brashness of Indiana and Signetti, although it always it does kind of come with this. Oh, this feeling of like, how dare Indiana think they can have the hubris to compete with the Ohio State Buckeyes, which is is a little bit odd because it's like Penn State, Michigan are allowed to think they can win.

But but it's tough. But I, I would say this, you know, the last thought on the game is, you know what, what I'm really trying to do, and I think we all need to parse. We'll talk about the College Football Playoff like there's two things here. This effects our College Football Playoff ability. But it, it's if you take that out, like that's not anything any of us thought about this season, You know, just a game against Ohio State, how it fits

into the season. You know, it it it's not abnormal and it wasn't, it wasn't awful. Well, yeah, I mean, it's interesting because as I, as I think about the game and the way that it unfolded, couple of things stuck out to me as I've tried to reflect on it. First of all, Indiana I think got a little too comfortable with their success on the 1st Dr. of the game.

And I actually think they, to some degree, this reminded me of like a military action where the opposition allows their, the, the, the army they're fighting against to like gain ground and feel like they're gaining the advantage and that they can do certain things. And then, you know, 'cause if you look at that first drive that Indiana had, I mean, it was, it was really an amazing drive, 11 plays, 70 yards, super

methodical. And I, I remember sitting there watching that and we got all the way basically to the end of the first quarter. And I'm like, wow, if Indiana is able to do that consistently, they may just choke this game out. And then almost immediately after the turnover on downs that Indiana forced at the goal line, Ohio State changed the way that they were playing the game defensively and got hyper aggressive with their blitzes. And Indiana looked like they got sucker punched at that point.

Like they look completely dumbfounded at the amount of pressure they were getting. They were unsure where the pressure was coming from and they didn't have an adjustment. They didn't change what they were doing essentially for almost the whole game. And I think that that is a learning lesson for Indiana's coaching staff and players in that Ohio State realized it was a 60 minute game. And I can remember standing there in the in the stands thinking to myself, I got a long way to go.

Like this is a great start, but there's a long way to go in this. And I was wondering what Ohio State's change is going to be. And when Ohio State realized that they could bring an extra blitzer pretty regularly and overwhelm Indiana with their speed and with their angles, and then Indiana wasn't going to really change what they were

doing, it was kind of game over. And you were just like, well, can Indiana white knuckle this thing to where maybe they can keep it within a couple of scores and and hopefully find a place to adjust down the stretch.

And they never could. And it's unfortunate because, you know, I think you think about the way the defense played, if you take away the the last touchdown, which was really a product of the onside kick, and I think the fact that the game was essentially over, the defense essentially only allowed seventeen points to be scored in this game. Even if you throw in the the last touchdown that they did let

in, it's 24 points. I mean, letting up 24 points at the Horseshoe normally is going to be enough of an effort. It was like the second most yards, like held Ohio State's been held through all year or something. Yeah, it was. I mean, it ended up being a pretty good defensive performance all things considered. But the problem was, you know, Ohio State scored 38 points. 14 of the points that were allowed were mistakes that you just can't make in games like this.

And yes, there were there were some penalties that were questionable. There were a couple of plays that, you know, they shouldn't have happened the way that they happened. But realistically speaking, what I think about with this Indiana team is like they they put themselves in a position where they could have won the game if they figured out something offensively to adjust to.

But then even if they had, they made so many little errors that are pretty uncharacteristic of this team that it put them in a position where I don't even think they could have won the game even if they had had things going well on offense because Ohio State kept gaining, gaining momentum and gaining momentum as a result of those things. So I come away overall thinking to myself, well, the score did to some degree. It was both representative of how dominant Ohio State was, but

it was also representative. It was also unrepresentative because a lot of what Indiana did in the game on defense warranted a better result than what they got. But to me, the biggest take home point, I think from everything, even even above and beyond the special teams errors, which we'll get to in a minute, is how unwell this offense looks

against pressure. And the fact that over the course of the last six quarters of football, Indiana has scored 18 points, three in the second-half against Michigan, 15 against Ohio State. That's not what got Indiana to where they are right now. And unless they can figure out a way to address what they faced in this Ohio State game and in the Michigan game, you know, it, it really does put a hard ceiling on what they can accomplish moving forward.

And it's frankly imperiled a little bit the certainty of them getting into the College Football Playoff. I still think as we we'll get to that later, I still think they will get in. But if you wanted to have questions about Indiana, they did very little to quell those questions, at least in terms of their offense in this game.

And that is very disappointing. No, and expanding off what you were just talking about, you know, with the Michigan to this game, that that's the only really concerning part, is it outside of, you know, the 1st Dr. against Ohio State and you know, the the first half against Michigan, you know, you're, you're seeing as the talent level of the other team steps up with Michigan and Ohio State and the games kind of ratchet up with talent and importance. You know, thank God for our

defense. It's really where we're at, which I don't think a lot of us would have said two or three games ago, you know, if the defense doesn't hold on against Michigan, we don't win that game. And as we just said, if the defense doesn't kind of hold Ohio State a couple of times and early in the game, this would have been a a really ugly blow out. You know, you look at the, you know, Curtis Rourke 68 yards passing, you know, just just not, not what you expect.

And that that's the concerning part is, you know, is, is this, you know, like feature or bug kind of thing? Like is this something where Signetti and the staff just need to go back and tinker and figure out, you know, how can we get this offense humming again against higher competition? Or is it just this offense has a ceiling and the ceiling is higher competition and they they they're not going to be able to to hum playing against those types of teams?

I mean, look, I think there's a couple of things. Ohio State is legitimately one of the most talented teams in the country. And a lot, you know, their talent and Taylor Lehman I was talking with earlier today about this. A lot of their talent emanates from their speed and their ability to, you know, close gaps very quickly. And that's what they did in the pass rush that caused so many problems for Curtis Rourke.

They, they just absolutely terrorized Rourke and they terrorized the offensive line and the running backs that we're supposed to be in to block. And I mean, you just go back and just look at some of the highlights of, of the the attempts to block on the sacks and the hurries that occurred. They just could not get over in enough time to stop what Ohio State was trying to do. And I think there's, there's some interesting things to to take from all of that.

I mean, Ohio State ended the game with five sacks and eight tackles for loss. And this is where the dividing line between like the top five or six teams from a talent perspective in the country and the rest of the teams, that that's where it really lies. It's like, do you have that type of NFL caliber speed and athletic ability? And if you don't, you got to have a way to undercut the effectiveness of that talent as it's going against you.

And I think that was probably, for me, at least on the offensive side, the most disappointing thing where, you know, Rourke was in so much trouble so often because he wasn't able to get the ball out to receivers quickly because the receivers weren't ready. You know, there was very little short developing play in terms of the passing game there. I didn't see screens. I didn't see little dump offs in the middle of the field over where the people were coming on

the blitzes. And yes, Ohio State was doing a good job of disguising where those were coming from and where they were going. But every pass play felt like it took forever to develop. And it, and this is again, it's where I think Indiana kind of got suckered into doing that because they had that time because there weren't blitzes coming on the 1st offensive drive that they had. And then Rook was making all of those throws across the middle and the 7-8 yard. And then those were gone.

Like those took too long to develop. And and so that leads to, you know, it's interesting because Indiana obviously looked terrible in terms of their offense. I think they what they ended up with 150 some yards, 153 total yards. They ended up with 85 rushing yards. But it's deceptive because Tyson Lawton, 15 carries, 79 yards, a 5.3 yards per carry average and two touchdowns. Justice Ellison, 17 carries, 62 yards, 3.6 yards per. That's not as good, but that's still pretty good.

But Indiana only had 85 yards rushing because James Evans lost 23 yards on the punt drop and Curtis Rourke lost 33 yards between the sacks and, and the fumble that he had and whatnot. And so that's that's the kind of thing that skews your perception of, of what Indiana was doing. Indiana probably should have really just focused on the run, should have used more draws, should have used a lot shorter passing plays. And it was very frustrating in the moment.

Like, why weren't they making those adjustments? Why weren't they figuring out like, how do we get the ball out of Rourke's hands as quickly as possible? They, they, they went away from the RP OS, you know, they, they just didn't have any time, but they didn't do anything to give themselves time. And look, I, I have a hard time being overly critical. I think it's more of an observation than a criticism. Yes, I, I, I'm critical in that.

I think they should have made those adjustments or tried to, but as as one of the folks in the the chat pointed out, like the offensive line couldn't hear to communicate with each other. That was from indie nation and we only heard that in the post game. Like, you know, Signetti saying that Catic couldn't hear in there and they couldn't make changes in what they were doing. Well, and this goes back to what we talked about in our pregame podcast, like this is the where

the environment hurts you. If it's that loud that your offensive line can't hear and you don't have a way to adjust to that, it creates a lot of problems. And so I'm, I don't blame Indiana for not being able to manage that, given that they hadn't been in this situation before. The players, you know, including the transfers, they've never played in an environment like that before. They hadn't heard that kind of noise. And so but you know, so now they

have. And we know that hopefully they'll learn things from that and get better. But it was just a shame because I feel like they probably should have anticipated all of that a little bit more. When you saw what Michigan did in the second-half against Indiana to make life so miserable for their passing game, You you probably should have assumed that Jim Knowles was going to look at that and say, OK, we've actually got the ability to put more pressure on work and more pressure on their

offensive line. We're going to go out and do that. And so that it's a lesson learned, I guess. But it's disappointing to learn it with that much of a deficit. And and that's, that's just kind of one of those things where you just shrug your shoulders and say, well, I there's not a lot else you can say about it. Yeah. I mean, the, the other thing that I would say, and, and we talked about this in a preview, we talked about it a couple times throughout the year.

I think it's just, you know, a, a feature of this offense. Has it, it's been a fantastic offense, but it's not an offense that has explosive plays. So it's not an offense based on, you know, 81180 yard play or 170 yard play here. They're normally, you know, longer drives. What I mean by that is that when you saw it against Michigan, you saw it against Ohio State. You know, if you, if one or two plays in a drive don't work, you're not having the first down

play breaking for 60 yards. Suddenly you can get into second long and 3rd, 3rd and seven situations very quickly where suddenly the pressure builds up and, and part of it is Ohio State being good. But in the second-half, you know, 123, you know, 4 the last drive doesn't really count, but four of the six drives were three and outs. And I, I just think, you know, based on an offense that doesn't break a lot of 5060 yard pass. Run plays that's that's based on

more 7 to 15 yard plays. You know, if you do a running play in the first, you know, first down run play, it's like third, you know, first, sorry, second and seven. That's not bad, but then if the pass isn't there or you get a blitz, suddenly now it's third, third and eight or third and

11:00. It's like just you're you're you feel like we were way more on our back foot where a lot of times our offense throughout the year it it does feel like it's a little more front facing, you know, front foot, even though it's not in those big plays just because it's kind of came in moving and moving and moving. But when you don't have those, suddenly you can get in these third down situations where it it just did feel like they didn't have the answers.

Based on the fact that the the Ohio State, the way Ohio State was blitzing, yeah. And then, you know, you compound the problem with the mistakes and obviously the glaring mistakes, the two of them that that took this from, you know, what would have been a a disappointing loss, but a close loss and, and turned it into what it was taking the sacks aside, where of course the James Evans dropped punt snap that led

immediately to a touchdown. And then of course, the, the, the, the kick return there or the punt return from Caleb Downs, the that that the 79 yarder that led to the touchdown. That really kind of broke the game completely. You know, with those, the one thing we talked a lot about the weather, we talked about it being colder, we talked about wind. I was watching the forecast like a hawk. The one thing that really didn't look like was going to happen

was it was going to get wet. You know, there was a minimal chance of precipitation. And then again, I was watching this for three days, four days, every six hours to 12 hours. I was looking at the forecast. I was out tailgating before the game. I got to the tailgate spot on top of the parking garage across the street from the stadium at 7:00 in the morning. It was windy, but there was no rain. I was out walking around the stadium at 10:30, 10-45, you know, about an hour and a half

before kick. There was no rain. I sat down in my seat. I was there for basically the entire hour leading in. There was no rain. And then about, I want to say it was right towards the end of Indiana, long touchdown, Dr. You started to get a little bit of a mist and that mist continued to grow. And it got to the point that by the middle of the second quarter, I think I tweeted this, like it was almost like that borderline between mist and rain.

Like it wasn't steadily raining, but there was so much wetness in the atmosphere and it was coming down on you that it was essentially like rain. And James Evans, who's been a dynamite punter for Indiana, just just fundamentally made a mistake and that he didn't hang on to his towel long enough, didn't wear gloves and couldn't hang on to the ball when it was

snapped to him. And I actually also think to some degree that the the wetness that was out there started to affect Indiana's footing on the offensive line and their their their confidence in their ability to plant and move and do the things that they did. And Ohio State had a big advantage there because Ohio State, because they were sending fast, angry, athletic people, they were able to do it straight

downhill often times. And Indiana having to move and having to try to get in the way, couldn't adjust. That's just one of those divine intervention things, like it didn't rain in the second-half. So you can't say that that was the excuse for the whole game. But in that critical period of time in the second quarter when it got really wet, it got wet at like the exact wrong time for Indiana. And it LED directly to the mistakes that they made.

And it's just unfortunate because it's like, you know, it's one of those what ifs, like if it doesn't happen, you know, 'cause the wind ended up not being that big of a factor. But if that doesn't happen, Evans probably doesn't drop the punt. A bunch of other things don't happen. Maybe there's a couple of fewer sacks. Maybe you're looking at a different game in the second-half. I still think Ohio State wins. I see. I, I still think Ohio State was the superior physical team.

They were the better coach team. They were the team that looked like they've been there before and they look like the team that had a point to prove. But you know, it it took again, a game that could have been like 2115 or 27 to 15 and made it 3815. And you know, that's the brakes. That's how it goes. And and certainly the statistics show Ohio State won the game overall. But it is kind of interesting to think about. Yeah, I I agree with everything you you said, so I'm not going

to belabor that point. The thing that I would say about the mistakes. Are. Are this that? And I don't want to sound like I'm just, you know, carrying water for the coaching staff or just being overly optimistic. But, you know, in years past, you and I would get really frustrated with this stuff because there were mistakes every week. And a lot of time it would cause losses, you know, that there would be a mistake here, a mistake there.

It's like, God, you know, if it wasn't, if it wasn't holding penalties, it was your mistakes on offense or mistakes on the special teams. This season has been basically hallmarked by not a lot of mistakes and not a lot of penalties and very crisp playing and being executing at a high level. And so it's not awesome, but I would say, you know, for James Evans, like, dude, you, you made a mistake, like you, you had a bad play.

Everyone can do that on a season where there haven't been a lot of mistakes or games where we're, you know, seeing mistakes causing issues. I'm I I hate to kind of be so blase about it, but just hey, it it's the brakes Like it it it happens. They're college kids. People are going to make mistakes. The really positive way to look at it is, you know, again, we'll talk more about the College Football Playoff, but this this probably puts us in a spot where we're looking to to go to a road

game, not host a game. It's like you've now been in this in this type of environment. Now you know what you're going to expect. Be ready for it in, you know, four or five weeks when it happens again, understand the noise, understand some of the pressure. But you know, I'm, I'm more willing to do that same thing with special teams. You know, let's not forget two weeks ago it was a special teams punt return that helped break the Michigan game for us.

So again, you I, I don't want to just say, well, no, you know, no harm, no foul on all this stuff. But you know, for a team that has been so mistake free and, and really not seeming to be flappable by any of the issues throughout the year, to have a couple of mental lapses in a game that's pretty high stakes and on the road and probably 1 of the tougher environments you're going to play this year. I I'm willing to to let it slide, hoping that they all become learning experiences that

we don't see again. Yeah, well, look, that's that's absolutely right. And you know, there's a longer tailed aspect of how you react to this game which we'll talk about in a second. One of the couple of those I wanted to really get to about the game itself. You know, one, Indiana only committed 3 penalties to the whole game that you know, that that's Ohio State at 8 for 58 yards. Indiana only turned the ball over once in this game and they, they turned Ohio State over.

So you ended up having a net zero. You know, it just, Indiana just couldn't get their offense going. And that to me, I do think that there's some cause for concern. And we, you know, we talked about this in the pregame. It's not just this game and it's not even that, you know, it's like the Michigan game as well, not even just the second-half, but the fact Indiana couldn't punch the ball in at the end of the first half and had to settle

for a field goal. It's the first quarter of the Michigan State game where the offense was was not in good shape, didn't look like it was going to be able to do anything. They obviously resurrected themselves pretty consistently and and heavily in the last three quarters. The offense has really not looked the same in terms of effectiveness since Curtis Work went down with the injury and

it's. I was thinking the exact same thing, like Michigan State kind of is a bit of an outlier just based on the score, but you do this all seems to kind of come back to that thumb injury against Nebraska. And it's also interesting because the receivers have just not been on target with their approaches. Like there was, there were a couple of plays like Miles Price had a drop on a ball that could have been a first down. You know, Serrat I think had a drop.

There were a couple of other players that had drops. The drops have become now an official issue with a capital I for Indiana. So much of this offense when it was clicking was based upon those guys making those plays. Indiana obviously only completed 8 passes in this game, which meant only four players caught balls. Indiana Indiana's used to having eight players catch balls, not 8 balls caught over the course of the game.

So, you know, the, we talked a lot about we really were confident in Indiana's ability to game plan for this game because they're going to have two weeks to prepare. They're going to watch a ton of film. They're going to be able to come up with cool and interesting things that were going to cause problems for Ohio State's defense. And I think that's what everybody who thought this was going to be a good game on the

national level was anticipating. It's like, OK, Indiana's shown they belong and and deserve to play in a game like this. Indiana's probably going to cook something up. It's going to be interesting. And that was just outside of that first drive, which was a scripted Dr. That just wasn't what happened. Now, that doesn't mean Indiana

can't do it against other teams. And again, I I just don't know how many teams in the Big 10 would have gone in to Ohio Stadium and beaten Ohio State. You do have to say like Nebraska went in and and played a really good game against Ohio State.

And I would actually argue that without the special teams miscues, this game ends up looking a lot like that game because that game ended 2117. And I, you know, we've already talked about like you could either say Indiana allowed seventeen offensive points or 24 offensive points, depending on how you want to count that final touchdown. And again, what lets Indiana down in this one isn't the defense at the it's the offense. But that was the game Indiana

ultimately needed to play. They needed to run the ball a lot more and better. It just didn't happen. I just don't know who's going into Ohio Stadium and beating Ohio State this year. I don't think Oregon could have done it. I don't think anybody else on their schedule could have done it. And This is why most teams don't go into Ohio Stadium and win. It's a very rare thing. And you have to have a really, really good performance in all three phases in order to pull it

off. And it didn't happen this time. It's it's, again, it's not, it doesn't ruin the season or anything. It's disappointing because I think most of us felt like Indiana was just going to perform better in this game than they did. But when you step back and think about it and think about the context of it and where they were playing and who they were playing against and the level of talent there, it just was a step too far for this Indiana team at this moment in time.

Yeah, and they're, they're also just like bad sequencing of stuff. Like I think it was, you know, Rourke had the fumble and then I think the next, the the next set of downs was when we got the interception. But but it's, you know, it's so like you can't play like what happens? The fumble doesn't like if you don't have the fumble and maybe that drive goes a little bit and then you're able to get the interception and do something with that. You know, like we did the right

things. Just kind of it also happened with some of our mistakes as well. And this is, you know, this is where I do temper my myself a little bit. Like we were we were riding high and we had very high expectations. But never in any year have I ever gone into a season thinking we're going to go win at Ohio State. We're we're are we're going to beat Ohio State period, let

alone in the horseshoe. And there, there was definitely moments, even unlike Michigan, where I, I think one, one of the receivers for Ohio State was really well guarded both front and back. And he just jumped up and just kept going up and got the ball. And it's like, all right, well, that's just an athletic play that I, I don't know how you stop. And you saw that multiple times, especially with their, they're blitzing where guys would just

blitz with unbelievable speed. And it's like, I don't know how you're supposed to stop this. And by the way, I'm not sure how a lot of teams stop it. And that's why they're blitzing a lot of teams. So yeah, it's it's not awesome. I would have loved to have seen a little bit more poison, maybe a little bit more, I don't know how to say this the right way, but a little more fighting back, you know, like there was that I

think in the third quarter. And I think it was also just to not let the game get completely out of hand. But it's like 4th and 11:00 and we punt, which felt very unsignity like, and, and the way the offense was kind of running, it felt a little bit like, all right, man, let's just, let's try and get out of here without getting, you know, our ass out

too hard. And it, I, it, it just sucked to feel that because we've been there before and it, it, it kind of goes against the ethos of this team and kind of the, the attitude they had. But you know, it is what it is. And this is the first time you're playing this level of talent on the road in a place like this and to be expected, you know, things didn't go right. You know, the the game started exactly the way you wanted to up until you had that that 4th down stop.

And then you let a couple of mistakes come in and then Ohio State didn't have mistakes and they, just like we have let our offense kind of lean on teams and just beat them down by scoring and scoring and scoring. It felt like Ohio State used their athleticism and just superior kind of individual talent to lean on us and put us in places where we just really felt uncomfortable. Yeah, I mean, look, ultimately you look at the how many times has Ohio State lost at home

since 2016? Three, three. You know, they they lost to Michigan at home in 2022. They lost to Oklahoma at home or Oregon at home in 2021 and they lost to Oklahoma at home in 2017. That's it. And so you know, that's one big 10 team out of that entire stretch, which is Michigan. Oregon was not in the big 10 in 20211 Big 10 team and that whole time has gone in there. So look, you, you had hope Indiana was going to be able to break that streak and pull off

something special. It didn't happen. So now you just got to re evaluate, you know, what to take out of it. And, and again, look, I just, I have a hard time being overly critical to the players in this circumstance. You know, I think the coaching staff does deserve a little bit of criticism just because there didn't seem to be a Plan B when Plan A wasn't working. And I think that that's a fair criticism.

But it's also you're trying to come up with a Plan B against an Ohio State team that is very hard to have even an effective Plan A against. So again, we knew that there were talent disparities. We were hoping the coaching disparity or the the coaching matchup might mitigate that a little bit. Didn't happen. You you pick yourself up. I do think it sets up some interesting things for next week as far as what Indiana's going to have to do. But we'll talk about that, you

know, in just a second. Anything else I guess from the game itself worth noting as far as you're concerned? No, I mean, I, I again, we, we talked on it. Just want to hit it again that it's, you know, I'm I'm starting to wonder more and more about this Rourke injury and just, you know, I think he's as healthy as he's going to be, but just how much effect is this putting on his ability to throw?

And, you know, maybe just just how much it hurts, but no, it it you you have to mentally parse out the College Football Playoff implications from the game alone.

And it it's very hard to do. And I have a hard time doing it, even discussing it, because then you start kind of getting defensive about, you know, well, why do we have to show that we have to do this, you know, get style style points and do we do enough to make it look good as a what kind of a it's like all of that is a different conversation. It's just this is a game. This is the season you've had a you, you had a great season. You are continuing to have a

great season. Just because we can't win at Ohio State doesn't mean we haven't had a good season. And by the way, that's that's really never been the barometer ever since you and I have been doing this podcast and probably for the rest of the time we're doing this podcast. I don't really foresee a football season that we go into it where we say we have to win at Ohio State to make this season a success no matter what else happens.

And we've had years where Ohio State was on sanctions and they had a bunch of problems and and never, ever have, you know, Michigan and Ohio State kind of loom in a different category. I would say even outside of Penn State, where I just I don't think there's a realistic world where you can be unhappy losing to those teams in their stadiums. Really any year You can be annoyed and it can be a close game. It's like, damn it, we let it slip away. But you have to take a step back

as an Indiana fan. And and this is where I think a lot of the national media probably doesn't understand this feeling of just, you know, this is this is a really a, a bridge. I don't say a bridge too far, but it is really a high bridge to fall. And just the idea that never, ever do we go into a year thinking we need to to get this game. Yeah. So you've got some time here as you come out of this game to re evaluate and you've got an interesting week this week.

And I think a week that is going to, there's a lot going on this week with Indiana and with college football that I'm, I'm really fascinated to see how it plays out. You know, the, the best case scenario for Indiana, if you assume that a win was off the table, which it, which it, I think by the middle of the third quarter, it's like, it was like,

OK, can you limit the damage? And going back to what you said with that significant decision to punt, I in the moment, I was like, OK, this I, I actually like this strategy because mitigation of damage has to be the answer, which I just wish they hadn't gone for the onside kick at the end because man, I, I, I sat there and I thought when they scored that touchdown and got the two point conversion, I was like, wow, 31 to 15 doesn't look that bad. It really doesn't, especially

with the way that the game went. And then of course, they, you know, not only do they do the onside kick that goes out of bounds, but then they let the big run in. And of course, Ohio State, who you, you can't go and say Ohio State sucks and then not expect them to, you know, score a touchdown in your face at the death.

You you're although I do love the running back, like you know, I know fighting to not do it and then it's like, but like that's great and then you know Ryan day is going to punch it in and Ryan Day even can't even. Just do a hand off to the same running back to let him still. That was that was that was a Dick move on his part. I guess. Don't be nice. You're not getting this touchdown. And by the way, I I'm sitting there watching the game with a bunch of my buddies.

The minute he slid they're like Ryan. What's he doing? Ryan day still punching this in like Ryan Day is a Dick and by the way, they should like I will they do. Oh yes, you're playing with the big boys. You've talked some shit like you're you take all the lumps you have to and I have no issue with Ryan Day punching that in, but you just have, you have to know he's punching that in. Well, and look, Ohio State is is looking for style points just like Indiana's looking for style

points. I don't blame them for that. It's just Indiana shouldn't have given them the opportunity. Yes, agreed. And that was that was a tactical air. Again, that I think will be a learning experience for Indiana as they they make those decisions moving forward. You know, so the polls come out and, and just to keep in mind, the polls are not the College Football Playoff committee, but Indiana drops in the college football or excuse me, in the AP poll from 5th to 10th.

I I don't like the fact that they dropped that far, losing at the number two team in the country, but it is what it is. And I'd be curious to see if they dropped that far in terms of the committee rankings. I, I have a tendency to think perhaps that they, they won't drop that far, at least I would hope not because I don't think that the loss combined with the teams that moved ahead of them necessarily warranted that.

But it is where it is. Indiana, you know, in this calculus is certainly not as safe visually as you would think that they might have been. But they are still, I think, a 98% probability according to the College Football Playoff simulator, which is essentially an algorithm that takes into account the way that the committee has ranked teams over the course of the last several years in the College Football Playoff process. So, you know, Indiana didn't drop as far as some people feared.

Like there were people talking about, oh, they might drop to 13th or 14th. They only dropped to 10th. And they do get to play again. Before we talk about the College Football Playoff stuff that we need to talk about the bucket game, I am a little coming to say this right now. And I don't think this is a hot take. Maybe for some people it is. I'm a little concerned about the bucket game right now. And here's why. You know that that was an emotional game for Indiana.

They've they've kind of built up over two weeks. They had they had a lot riding on the game. They lose that game. Now you go into Thanksgiving week and Thanksgiving week is always kind of screwed up. You've got obviously Thanksgiving in the middle. You've got an empty campus. You don't have classes. So on the one hand, you can maybe do more. You, on the other hand, you, you, you might do less.

You're going to have a Purdue team that while they have been real bad this year, has at least a couple of times decided to play football. And it just happened this past weekend where they were down against Michigan State. They came back, they got that game to within seven. They probably should have gone down the field and tied the game if their receivers could catch anything.

And they've had a couple of other games like that, you know, at home against Northwestern. They that was a 2620 game. And of course, the game in October against Illinois, 50 to 49. I'm, I'm more concerned about Indiana's mentality than I am Purdue coming in and like, you know, giving a huge, like a big game performance. But it's going to be a weird atmosphere. You're not going to have students back because it's the Saturday of Thanksgiving break. So the energy is going to be

different in the building. It's it's gonna be real cold. Scott, I don't know. Have you looked at the weather forecast for this game yet? It's gonna be like 35° or 32. We're we're, we're gonna be lucky if it's that warm like right now, you know. So this is this is going to be a night kick. I think this is the first night bucket game in all of the history of the series because Rossay didn't have lights for many years. And why would you have a a night bucket game?

Because most of the time it's not a very good game. Right now, the the night forecast for this game is 22° with a wind chill of nine. This is not conditions and, you know, put the players aside. It's not conditions they're used to playing in. This is not conditions that IU fans are used to watching football games in. And so I do worry about the energy in the building.

I do worry about Indiana with their confidence levels, like they will certainly not face the same sort of physicality that they faced against Michigan and Ohio State against Purdue. But I do worry a little bit about, you know, will they be able to bounce up and, and get the energy levels back that they've had that they had against Nebraska, that they had against Washington. So much of that felt like the

crowd feeding the team. I do worry without the crowd to feed the team, what does it look like? And, and can I, you can Kurt Signetti can can we as podcasters and can the Twitterverse? Can you can we get the crowd fired up and get excited about going out and standing in in sub freezing conditions for three hours? I hope so. I would think so, but I do think it's something to keep in mind, You know, you know, David Martin noting or or saying here IU will

be up for Purdue game. Sig will make sure of that. I hope so. And this is where Signetti and his staff are going to have a lot of work to do this week because it's not just the the loss against Ohio State and, you know, maybe that generates some pride in the team. It's like we're going to really punch back. But it's also, it's so hard to take Purdue seriously.

They're one in 10. They've looked awful for most of the season, but we have seen that they can occasionally score, they can occasionally make plays. Maybe I'm worried about nothing, but I just think that it's something we need to note because Indiana has to blow out Purdue. They're either a 26 or 28 point favorite in this game. They need as many style points as they possibly can get because that'll be the last thing that people see, if that'll be the last thing the committee sees of

them. And, and whether or not IU fans want to admit it, the committee is going to be looking a little bit sideways at Indiana because again, like I said, over the last six quarters, you've scored 18 points total. You need to be able to demonstrate that you can go back to the ways that you were playing before where you were just obliterating opponents and you were leaving no doubt about who the better team was. I, in my heart, believe Indiana

can do that. But I do think it's something that people should be at least cognizant of and maybe a little bit curious about how Indiana responds in this game. I think you bring up all really good points and, you know, even more concerning is, as we've said a couple of times, I think right now our defense is playing the best on, you know, the best side of the ball. So I can see a situation where our offense is struggling and maybe it's a 7 three-game or

like a 14, six game. And we're playing really well and our defense is kind of holding Purdue to, you know, three, you know, 3 points and just not a lot. You know, they can't do much, but we have 7 or 10 points. It's like you're always, you know, if our offense is

struggling. And don't forget, you know, for as great as our offense has been, there have been moments, you know, we started the Maryland game with back-to-back interceptions, you know, did not obviously start well against Michigan State. And I wonder the psyche of this team, you know, I, I, I have full faith the coaching staff is going to get them in the right mindset and get them in a good

spot. But even in games we played well, like Maryland again, if they come out and just throw two straight picks to Purdue and then it's like, Oh my God, not you know, everything you said is true. We got to have some style. You can't win this game by two or three points. Although I, I will say, and you know, it's like, OK, but Penn State can I guess Penn State's allowed to just win by one against anyway.

I know, I know, I know. But let's just, you know, pretend that scenario of the Maryland game where you know, work comes out and throws an interception and Purdue gets a touchdown and suddenly you're down 7. Nothing. It's like, shoot, man, we, we got it now we got to get 35 unanswered points because we got to win by 28. You know, you can start getting that in your mind and suddenly you're starting to try and blow A-Team out in the first quarter when you got to just really

grind it and get it done. So I, I'm also a little bit concerned. I don't, I'm not fear, I'm not fearing we're going to lose the game.

But I I do wonder if if right now where this team is AT and some of the offensive struggles, if we're going to be able to blitz somebody like we have in the past, like Nebraska or like Washington. And I even worry too, you know, this is where the eye test and some of what unfortunately, the way it's transpired and that the narrative is, you know, even if it's a kind of like the Washington game, which I think was, you know, like a a tied game at or the Maryland game.

You know, we're the tied game at halftime. Or, you know, if we're up 21 to 7 and just looks like that's a, you know, nip and tuck game. And then we end up winning by, you know, two or three touchdowns when they come late at the end. I wonder if that is also not good enough. It's like, you know, we're we're really in we got to control a really good narrative and it would be great just to go up 28 to nothing and people see that. And then even if the final score is 3514, it's like, wow, they

kick the shit out of them. And then, you know, then things happen at the end versus if it's a 1414 game at half and that game ends 3514 with a win. It's So those are all things that are circling in my mind as well. Like you really got to come out with a good start and and leave Purdue no doubt of hey, man, you guys are not going to get to blow our season up Like this is not going to happen this year.

Yeah, it's. Again, and you know, Indiana is so demonstrably superior to Purdue, Signetti is going to have a point to prove. You know, Signetti will get them ready for the game. I just want to, I just think it's something to keep an eye on. And if Indiana starts slow, I just, I really do wonder what the energy is going to be like. The students have been so important to the energy in that building. I don't know how many are there aren't going to be that many

here. Like most of them left Thursday or Friday of last week to go home for Thanksgiving break. Most of them probably are they scheduled their flights months ago, you know, or they've got plans or whatever. I don't know how many of them are driving back, even the local ones to go stand in 25° weather. That's that is going to. So I don't know what the solution is there. It's going to be fascinating to see.

And this is where, again, it's the long transition to being a a quasi northern college football team. There are places like Wisconsin or, you know, Penn State that kind of embrace going and standing in the cold. I don't know if Indiana's quite there yet. So we'll have to see. We'll see what happens. I'm I just I think it's something to put on the radar. So let's let's kind of pivot a little bit now, Scott and talk about, OK, where is Indiana at in the big scheme of things?

I'm going to call up and and share my screen here because I wanted to walk everybody through wherever where Indiana's at in the FPI and how their playoff chances look. So let me get that called up for those of you that are watching live or watching on on the YouTube. So you can see Indiana, I'm going to Scroll down here so you can see a little bit better. So Indiana right now, 11th and FPI, they are a 97.4% chance to beat Purdue. They're a 97.7% chance to make the playoff.

If you look at Indiana's individual numbers, it's interesting because Indiana's still 7th in strength of record. They are 51st now in strength of schedule. Scott, all of this worthless debate that we've had over the last two weeks about strength of schedule and this shows why it's such a crappy statistic. 1 opponent like Ohio State and it essentially that you lose to and and your strength of schedule gets cut in half from what it was before. Indiana still 7th in game control.

Indiana still 4th in average win probability. All of those metrics are still there and I'd like to note look at Indiana strength the schedule now compared to some of the teams that are in the the debate. Oregon strength of schedule 52, Texas 36, Miami 59, SMU 77, Notre Dame 78, Boise State 81, Arizona State 66. Even the vaunted like other teams that are kind of lodged up there, Penn State's only got to strength the schedule that 19 spots better than Indiana at this point.

You know, Tennessee's is, is 21. You know, they're they're in the same ballpark as all of these other teams and strength the schedule about all of this. And so that's really important to keep in mind because it just highlights again, how bad faith most of the arguments against Indiana have been over the course of the last couple of weeks. If you look at efficiencies, you know, Indiana's still 8th in the

country overall. Their offense, even as bad as Indiana's offense played yesterday, their offense still ranks third in FPI offensive efficiency. Their defense is 25th. Special teams took a big hit, rightfully so. But this is still statistically, according to ESP NS own stats, a top ten team in terms of how they're playing. So, you know, when you think about that, a lot of people looked at this, you know, this Ohio State game on the national level, it was like, oh, this is

disqualifying. It's like it, it didn't really move the needle in terms of Indiana's overall body of work. All it did was improve their strength of schedule and give Indiana one of these vaunted quality losses that everybody else seems to have. So that that is kind of how I've decided to to take the game more than anything else.

I think the worst thing you can do as an IU fan is get yourself in a position where you believe the narrative that somehow this game demonstrates that Indiana is not a good football team, because that's not what it did. It indicated that Indiana lost the game to Ohio State, which was always certainly a possibility. I think that that's, I think that's something that's worth thinking about as we move through this. Yeah, I, I, I agree with all of

that. The thing that I would say that the things that are hurting us right now is it's just, it's narrative stuff. And sometimes I do wonder if like you get too close into it, like like you're, you're hitting a lot of agree with everything you're saying. I mean, a lot of stats is like, well, here's this, here's that,

here's that. And like the strength of schedule stuff makes sense, but it's tough when it's like, you know, you're, you're 19 spots below Penn State, but it's like Penn State has a couple of, you know, better wins or even the Oregon, Oregon beat Ohio State. You know, the, the one, the Notre Dame 1 is a little more interesting. But you know, the, the, the thing that I all the stats were

there. The trouble is it's not just as you know, I'm telling you things, you know, but I'm just saying out loud, it's not like College Football Playoff is just done by stats. It's not just strength of schedule versus wins and losses. We make a formula and here it goes. There are people making these decisions and unfortunately narrative plays in.

And what sucks for Indiana is, you know, like if you do, you know, negotiation tactics, you never want to anchor a number, which means it's the first number that gets thrown out there. Unfortunately, Indiana kind of got anchored with bad strength of schedule because it just was a bad number. You know, Penn State has kind of the same thing going, but they played Ohio State a couple weeks ago. So their bad loss cut their strength of schedule in half. So they're not in the bad

strength of schedule. So even though ours got cut in half, people still have it anchored that like Indiana has a bad strength of schedule. So there's that narrative when our loss happened isn't awesome. Like Miami already got their loss out of the way. They kind of got dropped and they start moving up as other people are there. That's not helping us. And then, you know, it is just that, you know, the eye test against Ohio State. I, I agree with everything you said.

I'm not trying to like play devil's advocate totally, But I do think there's, you know, you're playing for a College Football Playoff spot, you're playing for the national championship and you're trying to show we can compete with those those types of teams. And you were right on the borderline of showing you could compete. And so that that's going to be effective. Those are all things I think that are going against Indiana.

I will look at it this way, though, and say, you know, I think what's helping us is I'm I think we're at the floor. And So what I mean is that we were at 10.

We'll have to see where we come in the College Football Playoff rankings, but I can't imagine we're any lower than 10 or 11 or 12 would still put you in. But you look at the teams that are below us. You have Boise State, which is 10 and one, I don't think they're gonna jump, but there's no win that they're gonna have that's going to jump us. Clemson is 9 and two, they're not gonna jump us. I don't know, OK, I don't know if I totally agree with that.

OK, so, so these so I think it's important to kind of of game out. OK, let's what you're looking at with this. So if you go down the list of of the, the, the, the, the playoff committee and what they've done so far and you think about what that means in terms of everything else that's going on. So let's go down the list.

So Oregon was idle this week and they're going to stay at #1 Ohio State beats Indiana. They're, they're going to be #2 Texas beats Kentucky, they're going to be #3 Penn State wins. Because Minnesota never, never asked me to do anything for you again. Minnesota. OK, we're done. We're done. No, no, no. No more relationship between me and Minnesota. But you will not be rowing. The boat I will not be no I, no, I'm going to shoot a hole in the damn boat. But Penn State's going to stay

at 4th. So Indiana loses. And if you think about, OK, what's the committee going to do? They're going to clearly move Notre Dame up. Notre Dame was very dominant against a, a frankly an Army team that was overrated. They they were overrated. They were not that good. They hadn't lost, but they weren't that good. But they're still going to move up. So that will put Notre Dame almost certainly in 5th.

Alabama loses. Miami should not get that much credit for winning at home versus Wake Forest, but they will probably move up into the 6th position. Ole Miss drops down, Ole Miss was 9th, Ole Miss loses, Ole Miss is is going to drop significantly I would imagine. Georgia probably moves up and gets to the 7th position. The question is going to be from the playoff committee's perspective. Playoff committee at Tennessee at 8:00 and 2:00 after a loss to Georgia.

They had them 11th. They had them six spots further down than Indiana. Now the pollsters decided they were going to move Tennessee above Indiana, which is baffling

to me, but whatever. I don't think the committee is going to move Indiana below Tennessee based on Indiana losing a game at Ohio State. If they do, I start to become a little bit concerned because that sets up a scenario where it's like, well, if they're what I mean, what was it that caused them to rank Indiana that high and Tennessee 6 spots lower that would have flipped to that degree? And I don't know the answer to that.

The pollsters are overly reactionary that the media that that vote in it are overly reactionary. I'm hoping that the committee is a little more consistent and I'm hoping that what they've done is kind of dialed in a general idea of where they feel most of these teams are in the echelon. You go down below that, like Boise State's not going to move. They really struggled against Wyoming. SMU will come back to in a second, BYU lost, Texas A&M

lost, Colorado lost. So essentially all those teams that you're talking about all the way down to teams 17 and 18 lost their games, 19 lost its game, 21 was where Arizona, Arizona State's at. So that's kind of what I'm looking at as we go into this process and I don't know what are your thoughts. I, I, it's, I, I still think we have kind of a hard floor in that. I, I'm going to be very curious to see where we're at. Because if, if I, I, I like that Tennessee comp, I think it's, I

think it's a really good comp. I think that if we fall past 10, I'm going to be really concerned because there's there's just not a lot of narrative time for us to get back up. So, you know, 'cause we're going to have the one game against Purdue, we're going to have to look really good against that. And then we're just going to be idle. And unfortunately, I think just the way the narrative played out

for Indiana wasn't awesome. You know it it even though all of the stats you're saying are correct, I think for most people it's like they played a weak, weak strength of schedule when they had a chance to show us they could do something they didn't. Right.

As much as some of that isn't is unfair, I also think some of that is slightly legitimate and it just is the narrative and you're not going to change it because again, like you're saying, Miami's kind of like they everyone's forgot about Miami's loss. Like it still counts. It's still on the schedule, but there's just a when things happen matter. And unfortunately the, the order of operations hasn't been awesome for Indiana in this.

And you know, you're fighting, you're fighting a real battle of this kind of we don't want out, you know, non blue bloods breaking into the blue blood party. And it does feel like that is real. And it does feel like there's a world where you know, Indiana could be left out. And if you're going to do it, now is the time to rank them low enough.

Because if you put them at 8-9 or ten, I feel really comfortable because I don't think there's going to be 3 teams that are jumping us with us getting to 11:00 and 1:00. But if you put us right on the bubble or outside the bubble now, I think there's a world where it's just tough for us to get back into it. Yeah, I mean, a lot of it depends on what they're going to do with some of these teams.

I and I, I don't think anybody knows, you know, because you just got at some point you've got to, you got to think that the committee has backed themselves into a corner from a logic perspective with some of the the teams that they've they've decided to rank and how they've decided to approach them. So to go to go back to something that you mentioned, you mentioned Clemson.

So the the one concern that you have with Clemson and South Carolina is that they play each other in the last game of the season. Now Clemson currently is 17th in the CFP, South Carolina is 18th. One of those teams will get eliminated. Essentially, either Clemson will have 3 losses out of the ACC or South Carolina will have 4 losses. Now I. How much Oct you put in the win I guess. Is your name and I don't, I fundamentally do not understand the effing obsession with South Carolina.

Here's here's who South Carolina has beaten so far, Scott. They've beaten Old Dominion, Kentucky, LSU, which is not, excuse me, they lost to LSU. They lost to LSU at home. They beat Akron, They lost to Mississippi. They lost to Alabama. close game still lost. They wanted Oklahoma. They beat Texas A&M, which doesn't look that great right now. Right they lost at Vander excuse me, they won at Vanderbilt.

They won against Missouri, who's how they're ranked is still beyond me and they beat Wofford. Those are their wins. It's like that is the the people arguing that they should be a ACFP contender with that record and three losses and three losses isn't even if they beat Clemson. That's insane. Clemson, for their part, you know, they've, they they lost to Georgia, 34 to three. They lost to Louisville, 33 to 21. Unranked Louisville. By the way, the Georgia game,

that was at Clemson, too. No, it was a neutral sight game. It was in Atlanta. OK, sorry, sorry. But the rest of the rest of Clemson's wins. Here's the rest of Clemson's wins. Appalachian State, North Carolina State, Stanford. Florida State, Wake Forest, Virginia. Virginia Tech, Pitt who, whose, whose pits completely lost the plot and then they just beat the Citadel. What's the, what's the argument? Even if you beat South Carolina, South Carolina is a team that would have 4 losses at that

point. What's the argument? These are the things that I'm hoping that the committee is more clear headed on than the polls have been in terms of how reactionary they are to stuff that's happening in the minute. Like I think the thing that's that's most fascinating to me is that the AP poll decided, you know what we're going to do? We're going to rank Miami and SMU ahead of Indiana after Indiana lost with the number two team in the country.

Here's SM US wins, Scott, Nevada, Houston, Christian, TCU, Florida State, Louisville, Sanford, Duke, Pitt, Boston College in Virginia. That is, there's not a ranked team in that mix. That is an incredibly mid ACC. Go to Miami. Who has Miami beaten so far on the season? Their wins are Florida. Who's back now? That win looks better. That was a very bad Florida team at the beginning of the year. Florida A&M, Ball State, South Florida, Virginia Tech, Barely.

Cal, Barely. Louisville, barely. Florida State, Duke and Wake Forest. There's there's there's no meat on that bone. So I'm hoping that what the committee ends up doing is perhaps the committee decides, all right, we're going to reward Miami for reasons that only have to do with their brand name and move them ahead of Indiana. But we're going to keep SMU down a little bit lower because what is SMU really done over the course of the season that's any different than what Indiana's

done? And Indiana's only losses to the number two team in the country on their on their field, on, you know, on the road. So that to me becomes the big question, you know, and I, I agree with all that. The, the, the, the slight counterpoint would be, you know, as you're saying all of this, you could look at again, like being, you know, see the forest from the trees. It it does it, it's, you know, I'm just taking a step back.

I'm not sure I totally even agree with this, but the idea it's like, all right, Miami's played a soft schedule, Indiana's played a soft schedule. You know, they both have one loss. And again, not, but like the narrative kind of became all right, Indiana, show us you're, you're willing to compete at this level and you just didn't do it. I agree. I'm not I don't think that's a fair argument. I don't think that's a fair, you know, standard to judge Indiana on.

But I, I do see that narrative like did I, I do see where that narrative is like, let's just take a step back and, and stop parsing, you know, Akron versus that Illinois wins and just, you know, you're both soft schedules. You're both 10 and one, you both have losses that the trouble is Indiana kind of had this the the way things were set up for them, not because of the way they wanted it to just narrative wise was like, all right, man, here's a showcase.

Show us that you can compete. And you, you were right on the borderline of being in that of, of that competing level. I I'm. With you on that, I guess my what I'm saying though, is that the the committee is not the pollsters, yes, and and so everything you're saying about

narrative is correct. But I do wonder with the I mean for whatever we want to say about the process, the fact of the matter is the committee decided Indiana was pretty high in the pecking order over the course of this last stretch. You know, the last, the last ranking the couch will playoff committee ranked Indiana 5th. Taking everything into account, they ranked them 5th and they ranked Miami 8th after a loss. They ranked SMU 13th after a loss.

I don't know what the justification would be with all the power numbers with everything else for them to move Indiana below both Miami and SMU. I I'm really. Curious to see how they decide to handle that and this. Let me ask you this go on, when the rankings come out on Tuesday, let me flip this around on you. What ranking would you be obviously, like 5th would be awesome.

Like what ranking would you say? I'm very comfortable that Indiana is in a good, you know, assuming we're going to beat Penn State. I'm sorry, assuming we're going to beat Purdue at a good number so that, you know, take that out

of the equation. What ranking are you like, I'm comfortable that we're going to be good to to finish this off of the win against Purdue. And what ranking are you like, Oh God, I I feel like we could be in a real danger not making it like what what are those numbers for you? So. I just, I've been trying to do the, the accounting here. Here's what I'm anticipating the committee may end up doing. And, and I there there's a couple of of switch offs here that may change things.

I think if Indiana is 11th or 12th in this ranking, they're in real trouble. I anticipate Indiana's going to be 8th in the ranking, but I could see them being as high as 6th or I could see them, you know, somewhere I somewhere between 6th and 9th. So if I look at it right now, I'm guessing the committee is going to go as follows.

They're going to go Oregon one, Ohio State 2, Texas 3, Penn State 4, Notre Dame 5, Miami 6, Georgia 7, Indiana 8, Tennessee 9, Boise State 10, SMU 11, Clemson 12, Alabama 13, South Carolina 14, and Arizona State 15. That's. So with that, that becomes very interesting because then you would have Clemson 12th in the in the ranking, but not in the playoff because Arizona State would be the fifth team, the 5th conference champion. They would be the 12 seed, but they would be ranked 15th.

And then at that point, it's like, well, if Clemson wins, that's the one. That's the one scenario I get concerned about. Could the ACC get three teams in the playoff? What you're going to end up with almost certainly is. And then this is where the remaining games matter. OK, So you're going to end up in that last week. Texas has got to play Texas A&M. Whoever wins that game goes to the college football or goes to the SEC championship game to play Georgia, who clinched a

spot yesterday. So all the tiebreakers are done. It is just Texas or Texas A&M going into that game. Now, I said yesterday on Twitter, hey, you know, thanks for playing A&M. Do us a favor and knock off Texas. Here's why I said that.

The best way to get rid of Texas A&M out of this equation, even though they're largely gone already, but also damage Texas enough where you look at their schedule and say, wow, this is really weak, would be for A&M to beat Texas, deny them the chance to go to the SEC championship game, and then have Georgia Boat race Texas A&M, which would get them out of the rankings entirely. Would move Georgia up probably to #3 down, maybe under us, right?

You know, look, I think Texas is going to make it regardless, but I'd like to just, you know, I just, I'm always, I'm a big fan of like just trying to knock teams out as we get into things as as much as possible. You know, Penn State is going to beat Maryland. Maryland, you want to talk about a worthless program right now? I mean, it's like, could you do something to help Indiana's strength of schedule? You have Iowa at home. Iowa can't score.

You let them win. They score 29 points in that game. Like what? What the the the the Minnesota beating Penn State, which was very possible like that would have been so. Helpful. So helpful. When you when you go then down the list, there's some games that really are going to matter and be interesting. Notre Dame's got to go to LA and play USCUSC just clinched I think bowl eligibility yesterday.

They come back and they beat UCLAI am not particularly sure that US CS got the juice to beat Notre Dame, but that would be nice. Notre Dame's out. OR OR Notre Dame drops below Indiana permanently. Miami obviously is going to play SMU. One of those teams is guaranteed another loss in the ACC title game, and I don't know that either team can necessarily sustain a second loss in the ACC title game and maintain being in

the playoff. Tennessee's got to go to Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt does not look great lately, but that is going. Vanderbilt is going to look at that and say we beat Alabama this year. If we could knock off Tennessee, this becomes one of the best seasons in program history. And Tennessee, as we know, is flawed, though they're a they a really good defensive team, an average offensive team, and they got to go to Nashville to play that game. You want Vanderbilt to win that

game. If you're Indiana, Boise State, I don't know that it necessarily matters that much because at this stage, unless they fall apart, they are going to be the four seed because they are going to be that the next highest conference champion. We already talked about SMU. They've got to play in the ACC title game. So the other lingering question becomes Clemson versus South Carolina. I have a hard time actually seeing the committee saying, yeah, we're going to put South

Carolina in the playoff. I could see the committee saying, gosh, we might want to put Clemson in the playoff. But I have a feeling that they would put Clemson in the playoff ahead of whoever lost in the ACC title game. Because I have a real hard time with, you know, saying, look at their schedules. Let's put three ACC teams. So. And then, of course, you go down the list. Alabama's pretty much done and Auburn win isn't going to help them.

We already talked about South Carolina and then who, what, what, whatever the hell happens in the Big 12 at this point. You've got you've got Colorado who loses to Kansas, They're done. You've got Arizona State, you've got Iowa State. I don't know what the Big 12 tiebreakers are. I haven't had a chance to take a look at it, but it sounds like fun bedtime reading. But whoever is going to come out of that is, is, you know, they're not going to have that quality of a win in the Big 12

title game. And so I have a hard time seeing them even popping into the top 12. They'll still get in because they're guaranteed as the 5th conference champion to get in. So essentially Indiana has to be in the top 11 if they're going to be in the College Football Playoff. That's I. So I think they're fine. I and I and I think as long as they have as they go out and beat Purdue handily and leave no doubt and look good, that's that's the that's the ticket.

That's the secret to things. And and so that that's why this game in this week is so important. So you're saying like under under, if they're 1011 or 12, you're concerned above that, you're fine. Yeah. So I think if they're 10, I have a hard time seeing a scenario where they would be in trouble on that front, but we'll have to see. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I, I, I, I do I agree with all that. I, I still feel comfortable. I, I'm going to be better on

Tuesday night. You know, the, the 10th ranking is, is nerve racking. 8 would be great because then you know, there, then there's a world where, you know, depending on what happens, you might still have a shot at a home game. If you go down into that 9/10/11 range, you're, you're probably not going to have a home game and you're risking playing a game at Penn State or having another game against Ohio State, You know, depending on where, how the Big 10 playoff, how the

Big 10 Championship goes. And, you know, I, I was thinking about this earlier, you would mention in one of your preview pods kind of the, the, the thing that I've talked about too is like this is you only, you only get to go up the mountain once. Like this is such a fun season 'cause you're doing it once. And the, the idea behind, you know, the, the, the Watford shot season, I think 1112 basketball season versus the 12/13 was actual expectations. And I agree with all that.

And again, this College Football Playoff stuff is, is wild to be talking about and kind of crazy. But I go back to that, that Watford shot season, and I've said this for years, that T that IU team going into March was playing so well and playing so fantastic. They ran into the wrong team. They played Kentucky, who won it all that year in the Sweet 16, and I would still say played Kentucky, probably the toughest

game in their run. It was like one O 2 to 92 or 9, you know, one O 4 to 90 or so. It was a wild game and you know, again, I wasn't going into that season expecting to win a title or go to a Final Four. But it's looking back, it's like, well, that was our best shot like in the last 15 years that might that season. Let's just say we're not in Kentucky's bracket. I think that team makes a Final Four. That was our best shot in the

last 15 years. And there's a world where obviously was not going into this year ready to win the national championship or be in the College Football Playoff or go to the semifinals. But it's very possible, like, all right, but you're here and this is a real chance. Do it against Purdue. Everything else you have to

leave up to the committee. But I do believe for for Indiana to have a real chance to make a run in this College Football Playoff, I felt for a while that the bracket needs to break correctly. And I really think they need to have a home game in the first round.

I think those are really key things to make it something where if Indiana's gonna have a chance to make a run, I think those things need to line up. And so I'm with you and I think to get a home game, you probably got to drop no lower than 8th or 9th in the next rankings. And then for some things to. Work out for you. Yeah. And and it's it's it's gonna be a real touch and go on that. And this is where I think if Indiana wants to host, they've really got to go out and lay it on Purdue.

They got to demonstrate that, that, that, that they're able to do that, you know, because that's, that could be the deciding factor. So, you know, look, a lot, we're going to learn a lot more on Tuesday and we'll kind of see how things go with all of it. But yeah, it's going to be fascinating to kind of see how it, how it plays out. And I'm, I, I, I think Indiana, we, we'll just have to see.

Yeah. Based on what the committee's done up to this point, I'm hopeful that they don't do what they did with Miami and knock them way the hell down, but we'll have to see. I really don't know what they're taking into account at this point or how they're going to factor in how Indiana played in that game against the totality

of what they've done overall. When you wonder too, like did they knock Miami down knowing Miami's going to have some time to build it back up, 'cause if you knock Indiana down with you, just you know that they don't have time or the schedule to bring it back up. So basically, they're the committee's kind of sealing Indiana's fate this Tuesday. Yeah, it feels like that to some degree. I think so. All right, Scott, Well, let's we'll go ahead and wrap up any final thoughts from you before

we get going. No, I mean, real quick, give us your your take on what the experience at Ohio at Ohio Stadium was like. It was fine. It was it was it was good. I mean, I actually was in a a an area that was that I didn't have bad fans around me. Like nobody treated me poorly. I will say kind of had the worst for the for the men's bathrooms. It was the longest lines I think I've ever been in for stadiums. I don't know what the heck was

going on there. That was that was ridiculous for a stadium that's got, you know, 100 and some thousand seats. But it was fine. I mean, you know, that stadium's an interesting stadium. It's certainly loud, but it wasn't it wasn't like overwhelmingly deafeningly loud, but it was certainly a trouble for Indiana's players in the game. And that's I think an interesting thing to think about.

I'm, I am, you know, the, the tailgate scene before and the overall scene before was, was not nearly as fun as Indiana's, which I think is normal to think about because Ohio State's just kind of in a different plane of existence when it comes to this stuff. You know, they're, they are oriented in a whole lot of, you know, they're oriented towards

winning titles. Indiana has had to kind of create the tailgate scene around it as as a way to keep fans fun and excited or, or feeling fun and excited. But it was, it was good. I, I, you know, other IU fans did not have similarly positive experiences with the fans, but I thought the overall setup was fine. It's, it's just to me, it's, I've been to a lot of other college football environments. The Ohio State one's weird. Like their fans clearly love it and love the way that it's done

and good for them. It's it. I don't find it to be that exciting of an environment. But I'm not an Ohio State fan. If I was an Ohio State fan, I'd probably really be in love with that entire set up. So that's kind of an interesting thing. But. But overall, you know, the the trip was good. We had a good time. So a lot, a lot of IU people there, a lot of IU people who were engaged and excited and it was fun to see so many IU fans

in the stands. I just wish that they'd had a better game to react to. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So anyway, thanks to all you folks for tuning in. Appreciate you joining us here on the show. And we'll be back on Tuesday. Bison chat will be talking about the College Football Playoff reveal and we'll see how things go with that. And obviously, we'll have a lot

to talk about there. We'll recap Kurt Signetti's press availability and we'll talk through what Indiana needs to do to put themselves in position to beat up on Purdue. Hopefully this Saturday, that'll wrap it up for us. For Scott, I'm Galen, this is Crimson cast. We will again be back later on in the week with more content for you as we wrap up this season. Indiana 10 and one and with a chance to go to 11:00 and 1:00 and extend the best season in school history.

For Scott, I'm Galen, this is Crimson cast. We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the Bison. Stay. Never daunted. So long, everybody.