You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Had one person in the comments one time. Be like the Crimson cast theme is a banger. I think Mitchell Page agrees with this here. Oh man, how can you not? It's a great night baby it's AI know it's nuts. I'm I'm so happy we're getting started this way I'm Galen Clavia this is Crimson cast. It is Sunday, December 15th, and as our guest on the podcast today notes, it's game week.
Yes, as Indiana. Indiana getting ready for perhaps the most important game in program history and certainly an accomplishment just in in and of itself being in this game that I don't think anybody would have even thought would happen at the beginning of the year. They'd go to the College Football Playoff, taking on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish night game, Notre Dame Stadium. This is what it's all about.
I think, as they say, if I can get any more cliche, I'm not totally sure, but we got Mitchell Page back, one of our most requested return guests. Yeah, no, I had a bunch of people be like, we need Mitchell Page back on the show. And so we got him, folks. He's here. Good to see you again. How you doing? I'm awesome man, it's been an awesome couple weeks.
Lots happened since we last chatted, but can't wait for Friday. We're going to be up there early, hopefully in attendance for the live show, so if we got some listeners going there, we'd love to meet. Everybody just can't even believe that this is a our reality, right? It's crazy. That's a great way of putting it. Now it, it just feels like something that happened to other people but didn't happen to you. And then all of a sudden you're living at it. It's like, I don't know what to
say. I don't know what to do with my hands. It's it's it's got that vibe to it, but we're going to talk all about that. And and Mitchell mentioned something that I was going to mention the top of the show. So real quick, just a reminder, folks were brought to you here on the back home network by home field apparel, your place to go for the finest in college fashions, the softest fabrics, the coolest designs. They just launched some knit sweaters. I don't know if you saw these. So.
Sweet, just amazing looking and I think if you're looking for holiday gift ideas, maybe look no further. Go to homefieldapparel.com. Check it out, use the code home 23. Get 15% off your first order. Again, that's home field apparel.com. Also folks, just a reminder as as was just mentioned, we're going to be live in a bunch of places this week. So on Tuesday night of this week, come to the Upstairs Pub from 8:00 to 9:00 PM, right during $2.00. We're going to be doing a live show.
It'll be me, Joe Cronin, some special guests joining you, talking about this particular matchup, Indiana versus Notre Dame and a way to kind of send off the semester as well here in Bloomington. Then on Thursday at 7:00 PM, I'll be live at Corby's. I don't know if we're doing a live show or just a meet and greet, but we've teamed up with the IU Alumni Association. We'll be up in South Bend for
that. Again, 7:00 at Corby's in South Bend on Thursday, and then Friday at noon, you can join me at Social Cantina in Mishawaka, as we'll be doing a meet and greet there from noon until about 2:00 and then see where the afternoon and evening takes it. So a lot going on here on Crimson Cast this week, but there's a lot going on with IU football and IU athletics. And Mitchell, as you said, a lot's happened since you and I first got together and did a podcast earlier this year.
And I don't even remember exactly when that was. I think it might have been post Maryland game that we had connected. And we did a show shortly after that. And we have no idea what awaited us as we went into October. We thought it could be good. I don't think that we thought it would end up being as good as it ended up being. What has been your reaction, let's say from the Nebraska game on with what's going on with
Indiana football? Yeah, I think that was the first time that I let myself actually consider that that was a possibility, that this was a possibility. I think so many of us die hard fans have watched IU football with excitement, but don't let yourself get ahead of yourself, if that makes sense. Because I mean, I played on a lot of teams that would be winning in the fourth quarter by a couple touchdowns and find a way to lose. And it didn't feel like this team had that in them.
But it's IU. So maybe. And all they've done is just continued to be the team that we've seen all year. I mean, you talk, everyone wants to talk about they got beat pretty bad by Ohio State on the scoreboard for sure. But if you watch the game, particularly on defense, we can play with these big boys, right? It's it's given me so much confidence going into this week.
I think Notre Dame, I've watched him a couple Times Now, is against Navy and Army, but they're tough, they're big, they're physical similar to Michigan, but with a little more offense and maybe not quite as good on defense. So just a a physical kind of bruising team that if you want to be at this level, this is the kind of game that you have to be able to to compete and win one-on-one matchups.
That's where all the the difference between all these really big schools that have been the big schools forever and a team like Indiana even when I was there, is winning one-on-one battles and that's offense, defense, special teams, winning the one on ones and competitive plays when it matters. And these guys have done it. But you got a big test coming up. I I think Notre Dame's about as good A-Team as as there is in the country.
So going to be a tough matchup. Yeah, and on the road, and obviously that's, you know, always a bit of a struggle regardless 'cause, you know, it's just it's harder to win away from home. But it is going to be interesting I think, on a number of levels. First of all, the confidence that Indiana had throughout most of the season looked like it had been shaking a little bit with what happened in the Michigan game and then certainly what
happened in the Ohio State game. And it's funny, you mentioned like kind of expecting the other shoe to drop. I was kind of nervous going into the Purdue game because it's like, well, the weather's not going to be great. Indiana's coming off a game where they they played the worst that they played all season, made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes, and then they go out and they just obliterate Purdue.
And I got to think that putting 66 points on the board, shutting an opponent out, like doing all of that in front of a big crowd in that kind of environment in a rivalry game, that is about the best way you can go into an extended break like Indiana's had here. Because it allowed them, I think, to kind of maybe regain some of the mojo that they look like they lost, especially on offense. That's a great word. I I was going to say rhythm, but it doesn't sound as good as Mojo.
They it, they just have been out of sorts. I I think it's, it's not easier on defense to get yourself back in rhythm, but a lot of that is just playing really fast and physical. If you make a mistake on defense, but you do it really fast, you can cover that up a little bit right If you shoot the wrong gap as AD lineman, but you do it really aggressively. You probably take a lineman with you and then a linebacker can fill.
But especially in the passing game, if you're a step short or step slow out of your break, if you miss an assignment blocking against some speed like they had against Ohio State, things can go bad in a hurry. And we saw that over and over again. It felt like against Ohio State. But it allows you to regain some confidence. OK, we can do this. Purdue wasn't great this year. Obviously everyone knows that. But they have division or it's a
big time Division One program. I just saw some mock drafts. They have a guy that's projected to go in the first round like they're still good players on that team and you torched them up and down the field consistently. Ones twos, threes, whole team was getting after it. You had every excuse as well, like you mentioned, bad weather, bad team to just come out and beat them, but don't beat them to a pulp. They chose they chose the ladder. Yeah, they chose a ladder big
time. Yeah, absolutely. You you have to be feeling good and I think the amount of break is just right. I if you had an extra week of practice, I think it allows some complacency to kind of seep in because you don't have a game for so long. But this you get a get right week, get your body feeling good and then they're back. They're this is going to be a full speed practice game week already.
So it doesn't allow you to get out of your rhythm of the season because there are two very different rhythms from kind of offseason even waiting for a bowl game to game week after each other, right. It's more just a bye week that they had. I think it sets up perfectly and I'm not so sure that the that the Hoosier faithful won't be a much larger contingent than I think people are ready for,
especially the people up north. You know, I spend a lot of time on Twitter, way too much time on Twitter. I should. I'd be so much better at my job if I deleted my Twitter, but then I would be so much less happy. There's a lot of Notre Dame fans that think that this is, and I think they're kind of MO is nice and easy. They're excited to be there. I think we're going to bring some rowdiness up to South Bend. I'm really excited to be a part of it.
Didn't think I was going to get to go but in the last week. Yeah, I know. We were, we were texting back and forth and it it seemed I, I figured I had a sneaking suspicion you were going to make it up there. But well, let's talk about that. And we're kind of bounce back and forth on some topics here. I'm I am really interested. It seems like most of the people that I've known over the last 15 years related to IU or I or sports media are going to be
there. The the number of people who have said they've bought tickets, especially in the last few days as ticket prices have fallen, has been immense. And I'm just like, well, if I know all of these people are coming, think of all the people I don't know that are also going to be there. There's an IU Alumni Association event in the afternoon on Friday, much like there was if you went to the UCLA game, they had one there.
I checked yesterday, there were like 1100 people already registered for that, which I think is, I think that's it. I think it's tapped out. I tried to get a ticket and was not allowed I. Can't do it. Yeah. So, so. And people forget. I mean, South Bend is, is really an Indiana city. There's a, there's a, there's a regional campus there. You, you get a ton of people that come down from there and come to IU. You got Northern Indiana in general.
You got all the folks from Chicago, you got the folks from Fort Wayne. There are so many Indiana University fans in that vicinity and they'll, they're going to be very interested in coming. They're driving a lot of the ticket sales that are happening right now on StubHub. I am really curious what proportion of the crowd we get and what that atmosphere is going to be like, 'cause we have seen Mitchell Notre Dame Stadium get taken over by opposing fans
every once in a while. It happened with Georgia there. You know, there've been a couple of other situations like that. This is like, I think for Notre Dame fans, it's great that they're in the playoff, but it's not resonating perhaps the same way with the whole fan base the way it is with Indiana. Because for Indiana, this is like, wow, we finally got into the ball and and that is probably, I think it's going to be an interesting thing to watch dynamic wise that day.
Yeah, it's I, I can't wait to get I might get there at 6:00 in the morning. I, I, I might actually go tonight. I haven't decided yet, but I might be there all week. It it just if you're exactly right, they're they're supposed to be here. And I think that I referenced Twitter a lot, but that's kind of the interactions that I've had like, oh, lowly Indiana just excited to be here being a little obnoxious. Mostly that's just me. I am obnoxious, but this is a
whole new territory. And it can, this can be a program. It already has been a program shifting momentum, shifting season. But you go beat A-Team like Notre Dame that recruits nationally, they're in the running for five stars every year, and you go into their building and show that we're not just a flash in the pan, catch lightning in a bottle, whatever cliche you want to use. This is a real team, and I think the way that we're going to do it is not with flashy trick
plays. We're going to go up there and stick to the game plan of smashing the mouth like they have all year. And then when you win a game like that, that shows a trajectory that we haven't seen in Indiana in a long time. Now it's true and you mentioned right off the top the idea of can you win the one-on-one matchups? You know, what's what's made Indiana so effective for the longest part of the season is how efficient they've been in executing.
And you know, I've had some struggles obviously with the Michigan and Ohio State games. But you look at Notre Dame, they're a different type of team. You know, they are physically very imposing, but they're you look at what they've done on the course of the season and you you can look at the numbers as they compare with each other. It's like, well, there's some opportunities here for Indiana if they play up to what they've done over the course of the
year. And you know what's interesting and, and I wanted to get your perspective on this as a, as a former wide receiver, One of the areas where Indiana has struggled a little bit from an efficiency perspective on offense is there been a lot more drops. The passing game's been disrupted. Some of that's been pressure, but some of it's just been guys not catching balls. And that was not happening through like the 1st 2/3 of the season. What have you seen? Like what would you attribute
that to? What do you think is causing the problems in the passing game now that we didn't see before? Yeah, I think it all started in Michigan and it's all time it it seems so simple like hey, just catch the ball no matter where it is. Of course they're trying to do that. But passing and down the field offense all over college football is so much timing, ball placement, rhythm, right? Especially your back shoulder throws. Some of the RPO action that they've done so effectively all year.
All that is based on the quarterback being able to take snap, get his read, make his steps and deliver an accurate ball when you're ready for it. Early in the season especially, I'm thinking back shoulder throws especially that's a timing route. It's most of the time 7 steps after a release and then your receivers head is back and the
ball has to be there. If the ball is not there, that gives corners a chance to get more into you and then it becomes a true 5050 ball versus the kind of 7030 balls that we are getting when we are in rhythm. I think they got back to that a lot against Purdue. I think there was a lot more space and I think we handled them up front a lot better. But everything, the foundation is the guys up front. I was able to have success when we blocked really well. You can.
The fastest way to disrupt an offense is to get the quarterback off his timing, off his grass, see when he's able to sit back there and process. I mean, think about what Will Howard was doing for Ohio State versus US, right? We have been really effective getting to the quarterback. And for a lot of that game, he was getting the ball out of his hands quickly because they were able to block well enough that he could go through his rhythms. There's just a lot of space out
there. When you have athletes, if you can get in rhythm, those catches become a lot easier because they're running. You're not waiting for the ball, you're not fighting, hand fighting. When the ball's on time, everything gets a lot easier. You don't get stale, and I know what happens in a blink of an eye. But when you run a stop route and the ball is not on you, you're just waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting and your hands get kind of tight and stale.
It just makes that hard a lot that play a lot harder. So being able to protect is going to be paramount to moving the ball as it has been all year. Yeah. And Kurt Zignetti talked in his press conference last week about how they've really, they were really stymied because of having to switch to the silent count against Ohio State very early. Ohio State was able to figure out how to time things, and that really disrupted what Indiana was trying to do. They've been practicing.
We know because we've seen video against a lot of crowd noise in Memorial Stadium, but they're going to a stadium that isn't quite as imposing from a noise perspective as Ohio Stadium was. I mean, you got 3530 whatever, some 1000 fewer seats in there and there's going to be a non 0 number of IU fans in the building. We know that as well.
So you hope that between being better prepared for that type of an environment and the fact that now they've practiced that they're they know that they have to be conscious of it.
Maybe some of that timing is able to come back and and maybe they can make some quicker decisions about where the ball's supposed to go. I think that was probably the biggest frustration, you know, in that Ohio State game was they didn't seem to be able to adapt in the moment to, you know, running a lot of draws or running screens or trying to do things where they could get the ball out very quickly.
A lot of it just was like they weren't being able to effectively cite where the pass rush was coming from. I have to think, I mean, they've had almost a month since that game that they've spent a ton of time figuring out what to do again in those situations. Yeah, and this is really into the weeds, but when you watch the Ohio State game, it was all timing. They didn't mix up. And you can, it's hard to say, snap count with a silent count.
But if you watch it, every time that Curtis Work was ready, that guard threw his hand out and center snapped it immediately. Defensive lineman key on that after one drive, they're going to get their cleats in the ground and they're going forward fast for the entire game. And as an offensive lineman, you're going backwards. Their time in your snap count, you have to wait and see the ball. It just is that half a second is massive. So I'll be curious if they do something a little different.
I know when we were running our offense when I was in school, it was quarterback would point to the ground centers looking between his legs. Soon as the quarterback points, then it's on the center. He snaps it whenever he's ready. So it it mixed up the timing and teams had a lot harder time timing up the count versus throw your arm out there and as soon as you see the arm then you're snapping it. My guess is they'll add in some variety.
Maybe stick with, I'm not saying the arm from the guard is bad, but give the center a little more wiggle room for when he snaps the ball because it's going to come down to that. They're going to be on a silent count. You have to make it so the defensive lineman can't pin their ears back, and a lot of that starts with maintaining momentum with your drives. As soon as you got down 21, seven, they knew we were throwing.
It made them come off the ball even faster because they were getting after us. They were always on the front foot, especially up front. You've got to do something to mix that up a little bit. And my guess is they have. I mean, it's not like Kurt Zignetti hasn't done an unbelievable job. My guess is they're going to have something ready for it, but something to keep an eye on for. Sure. Yeah, absolutely.
Pulling back the the lens a little bit, obviously this is a big moment in IU football history. What has been the discussion with you and and some of the other former players over the course of, I guess first of all, seeing Indiana officially in the CFP and now the build up and now only being five days away from this game kicking off? Like what what's what's been, the vibe and the dialogue there with you and some of the other guys that have played?
Yeah, I think I want to zoom it out even farther. I moved away for a while, so I wasn't able to go to a ton of games, but even when I was here and we were losing, I was in the stadium just I'm at Psycho. I loved it, but a lot of my team mates didn't want to drive, deal with all the parking, deal with everything because there wasn't an exciting product.
It just was a fact. As the game, as the season's gone on. I would say right about the Nebraska game days coming to Washington, guys that I haven't heard from in forever. We're in Group chats. Hey, what time are you getting to the game? What are you going? How are we going to get there? Do you want a carpool? And the excitement that all of these guys have had. I mean, I saw even at the Purdue game, it's a Blizzard. Purdue is one in 10.
I'm pretty sure 70% of the guys that I played with were in the stadium. There's just so much pride that I can't, I can't even explain it. There's people are just proud to say they played there and I can understand why you wouldn't have been. There wasn't anything to really be proud of, especially in the last couple years. I, I don't know if I said it on this podcast, but on some others I have. It was like 3 weeks ago I got a just this post.
This time last year I was just begging for some fight. That's it. I didn't expect to win the game. I expected to lose by multiple touchdowns. But let's just fight and to come now to where let's not only fight, let's go into Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff and beat their butts. Like what it's I think that's
the word that I want to use. There's just so much pride in the former players and how excited they are that the program that we felt like, I mean, we didn't this, this has nothing to do with us. This is all these guys. But we felt like we had some things start rolling when we were there. We are scoring a lot of points. We were just missing a couple pieces. There is some pride like, hey, we are part of this. Right. And to be a part of that, it's
just been really, really cool. It is it's fascinating to watch just as a fan and someone that's been, you know, talking about the team for a while, but I can only imagine. I mean, it's it the it's been so fast and like you said, like it wasn't even like, oh, everybody went into the season with Great Expectations. I remember I went back and listened to the last podcast we did right after the bucket game last year. And there, there was just this
kind of sense of distance. Like I'm not going to let myself crisis. I would actually say it was beyond that. It was just kind of like, I don't really want to affiliate. I, I, I want to see something like give me something to justify the time and the emotional energy that I'm spending on this. And I, I was going back. I, I put together an Instagram reel yesterday of like the, I was going to do the whole
season. And then I realized like there's like 3 natural break points in the year and that Northwestern game felt like one where it's like, OK, they're six and O, they're bowl eligible and something special could happen. Something special has already happened. They're they're bowl eligible. And then I think about that and the fact there was a buy after that. And then it was like the thing just got into a different
stratosphere. And a lot of what you're talking about with your, your former teammates and other people that I know that have been affiliated with the program, it's like now I feel like I can get emotionally invested and it's not gonna hurt me the way that it's hurt me in the past. Or I see something here that is worth not just supporting, but strongly supporting. And that is cool to watch.
I think hearing you talk about that and, and how your former teammates have reacted to it and some of the people we've talked to elsewhere on the pod, that's probably the one of the things I've enjoyed the most is watching all these people kind of open themselves up again and and be willing to put themselves emotional maybe for the first time fully into the fold of IU football. I this is a stupid thing that I did, but you want to talk about being invested.
I have. So my territory for work is Indiana and Michigan. And over the last couple weeks, for whatever reason, I've spent a lot of time in South Bend, Elkhart, Mishawaka. I had a meeting last Thursday and I wore my leather jacket, an IU polo and an IU beanie. These people don't even watch football, but I'm just so proud. I wanted the stadium. I wanted the city to know that
we were coming. And I think that's a pretty universal sentiment that we're just, we've waited so long for this and you talk about pouring everything into something that you love. It's been really hard over the last, jeez, however long 30 years to be able to just give yourself 100% to something. My whole family's texting me about all this. Hey, what are we doing? I was recruiting text that I had never gotten before.
When you have and I, I think for the whole athletic department, when you have a football team like this, it opens so many doors for so many other things in the university that I think we're starting to see that. And I don't want to take a shot at the basketball team. I know nothing really about basketball. But you see Assembly Hall, when I was there, they were, they were good. I think that was Yogi Ferrell time. So they were good team, but didn't matter who they're
playing. Sold out, sold out, sold out, sold out. And now you're getting some of those football crowds. Right. Everybody's, I mean, we watch Nebraska. They didn't make shots, whatever happened, didn't make shots down the stretch when it mattered. That happens. But I just just kind of changed the channel afterwards. Like that's fine. I'll care about this in a couple weeks when Indiana's national champions it's it's what a a switch, I know. I just the.
Way I feel about Indiana University and I, I think it's also important. So we talk about most important game in the program history and I, I kind of disagree that it's the most important, the most important game. I think there were you talk about the changes in the trajectory and the emotion with the program. I think the most important games have already happened. This is kind of icing on the cake. And I'm saying this, this is not what the team saying, I promise
you that. But everything that we get from here is kind of gravy. We've shown a model that's proven. We have proven that this works. Indiana is exciting. If you want to be in a really exciting place with psycho fans that will fill the stadium up on a beautiful campus. If you're an 18 year old kid, just come and see it. And I think we've already proved there's proof of concept already. Come and see it and I think we'll really start to see that after the College Football Playoff.
Everything plays itself out, however it does this next cycle of recruiting, whether it's transfer portal, the high school kids for next season, you're going to see a huge uptick already regardless of what happens now, let's take a step back. You win some games now some some serious, serious stuff starts happening, right? But it's we've made it here already and it feels like the important ones are behind us. So now let's go get some some Christmas presents for the next couple of years.
I like, I like your overall attitude on this and I agree, I think that the building, the foundational building has occurred already. And what you get here, it's like, well, what else can we add to the building before we take a break and then come back the following year? Last thing I wanted to ask you about.
So, you know, there had been once, once Indiana won the 6th game, you know, once they went into all of that, that went on in October, you started to hear people be like, oh, Kurt Zignetti is going to leave for another school. And then Indiana steps up, signs him to a long term extension, pays him significantly more than I ever thought Indiana would pay a football coach. And then even the assistants you hear about, they're going to have this larger assistant pool.
They lose Tino Senseri as offensive coordinator now at UCLA, but they signed the other 9 to extensions as well. I mean, what was what was your reaction when you heard the Signeti news that he had extended and and how impressed have you been at the investment that I use made not just in that position, but in all of the support positions that surround it? It's a plus top to bottom. It's it's almost unheard of to have a season like you just had and not get poached for everybody.
It it's just the way of college football. Even the Alabama teams, it was a dynasty. Those coaches are getting poached. Probably their whole staff is pretty turned over every couple of years. So the fact that you have Bryant Haynes who's if he doesn't win assistant coach or what are the Broyles award, I don't know who else is going to win that. It's it feels like he's has to be a lock.
And there's probably schools that were saying, hey, come be the head coach, come on. And for him to look at Indiana the way that I think Kurt Zignetti is looking at Indiana, seeing the investment, seeing the possibilities that do exist when you're top ten in NIL, which was a stunning number or whatever it may not have been top ten, 13 million ahead of Oregon and some other like. What? Yeah, I know it's. Like, what are what?
But it shows. I mean, Kurt Zignetti called it a sleeping giant and he's thinking it's waking up. That's exactly what it is. It's the third largest alumni base. There are successful people that are Indiana University grads, Indiana University fans. When you have a season like this and you're all over the place on ESPN, you get game day a couple times, big new kick off a couple times. We haven't arrived, but we're we're on a rocket ship and people want to be associated
with that. To keep your entire staff is I mean, it's another. However, I feel like Kurt Signetti gets complimented enough. Right. But how can you not be so impressed that his staff, his entire staff, is as bought in as they are? It's it's almost unheard of in college football. Yeah, it's it's a fascinating
circumstance. And like you said, I mean, Indiana has really stepped up and, and we've talked about on the show before, they had to like, you can't afford to not be competitive in football in the current landscape. It's why Purdue fired Ryan Walters the day after the bucket game. It's why North Carolina just committed essentially $50 million to hiring Bill Belichick and and trying to get their NIL up.
You know, it's you're, you're, and I think Indiana deserves a lot of credit for, you know, making the ride higher and then realizing the best formula is to try to keep the band together. Do what you need to do. You're, you're probably never going to completely out resource the top teams in college football, but I think what you saw this year was you don't necessarily have to completely out resource them.
Indiana's in the College Football Playoff and none of these things were in place when this season started. One can only imagine what it'll look like as you move forward with these things in place. Yeah, You built this from scraps and now you gave him the keys to a Ferrari essentially. And he seems like an F1 driver that's going to drive it pretty fast. So I, I just, you're no matter what happens Friday, I think they're going to win and I think
they're going to dominate. Maybe not win by 50, but I think it will be a physically dominating game for Indiana. That's their identity. And I think they will be better prepared going into an environment like that with everything that's on the line. But the outlook of the program, my gosh, I don't know what I'm going to do when January 20th
has happened. Indiana hangs holds up the College Football Playoff trophy and now we got to wait till August. I know I'm, I'm already struggling with that, just in general. I was, as you know, the bowl season officially started yesterday. And I, I look, I've been a college football fan my whole life. I, I've liked college football as much as I've liked college basketball. Now I find myself liking college basketball less and I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do
once this season's over. This is a huge void. I'm I'm so pleased we've got at least one more game, probably four more games, you know, for Indiana this year. And it's going to be a big step back in terms of like, what do I focus on? This is probably the most the most that we'll see Indiana fans ever interested in the portal and recruiting and and spring ball. And that's great. Like, this is the awakening of a fan base that has never really been taught how to be football
fans. You know, this is, this is the stray dog that you brought in and like, you have to train it. But I think Indiana fans are going to figure this out quickly. You know, and, and I'm already seeing in online conversations, Indiana fans starting to figure out like how to talk about this and what to do and, and, you know, what sorts of things to pay attention to.
It's been a lot of fun for me. I I know it's been a lot of fun for other people too as they found this thing that they can now get emotionally and mentally invested in. Yeah. And I think the biggest challenge, yeah, there's going to be reset expectations. But I mean, you see what happens. Let's talk the basketball team for, I mean, what's in whatever you want to say. Like they're a pretty successful program relative to the rest of the country.
Pretty successful. And that's about as doom and gloom. IUBB, if you want to look that hashtag up on Twitter and be sad, pretty easy to do it. The challenge is going to be continuing. This is the most positive. I've had more fun interacting with IU fans on the street on Twitter than I've maybe ever had with any. Like it is just so fun because everyone's just so positive and there's going to be bumps it doesn't contain. It does not continue like this
forever. Probably even, I mean, think about Georgia. Georgia had a down year and they're still one of the best teams in the country. So it doesn't just maintaining the positive energy I think is going to be the biggest challenge going forward for the fan base because you saw how powerful, and that's what Signetti was trying to argue, how powerful the fan base can be in creating excitement and creating an environment where
people want to come. We hold so much more power than I think we realize, especially in football because there's 60,000 of us in the stadium. So it understanding that power and using it effectively, I think is is going to be the the next step as we go season 2345. Last thing we'll say here, I agree with all of that. There was a an interesting article in the Indy Star this morning from Michael Nizziolek, who writes for the Herald Times. It had a quote from Fred Glass.
You mentioned you think Indiana's going to go up and down, and I don't know if you've seen this quote yet, but I'm going to read it. One of my favorite people, so I can't wait to hear what Fred says. Here's what Fred said. Quote, I think all the pressure to win the game is on Notre Dame. A lot of people nationally don't even think IU belongs in the College Football Playoff under all those circumstances.
If Indiana beats Notre Dame at Notre Dame and knocks them out of the National Championship Playoff, I think that would be a historic humiliation of epic proportions for Notre Dame. I think the pressure is completely on them. End Quote. All right, Fred, just don't miss words. Tell us. What you're up all right, not sure if we needed that to be hanging under the play like a champion today sign as they walk
out, but he's exactly right. We're playing with house money and that's kind of what I referenced earlier. All of our quote UN quote important games, most important game in program history, I think are behind us now is this.
This is the biggest game. I don't even think you can add up the rest of them together and touch how big of a game this is for Indiana. But we go in there, house money, everything that happens out there is icing on the cake and when you can play that free, that's dangerous. That's why you see so many upsets when the team comes in and plays free. That's that's going to be the one thing and this is where the start of the game is going to be
really important. We'll talk about this more throughout the course of the week. But you know, it's where if Indiana can go out, score a touchdown early, get on the board and and try to dictate a little bit of the flow of the game, Does Notre Dame tighten up? And and again, we don't know. It's tough to go on the road. It's tough to go into this type of an environment. This is one of the most storied stadiums in in college football history.
You're under the lights. You're the first College Football Playoff game of the whole cycle, and game day is going to be there like all of the trappings are there. Indiana has done a great job for the most part of handling that. Let's see what they're able to do in this one. I think it's going to be fascinating to watch how Notre Dame responds just as much as it's going to be to watch how Indiana responds. Yeah, they're just 18 to 22 year
old kids too. Just 'cause they play at Notre Dame, they're going to get nervous. They're as nervous as we are. I can promise you that. Probably more so. So I can't. It's gonna be I might go tonight. I might just sleep on the sleep outside the stadium. I just cannot wait. I can't wait. I'm, I'm going up Thursday, so I'll, I'll find you wherever you're sleeping on the street South. Probably an icicle by then, but come throw me out.
Before we get them in there, I need to throw them out a second time. The game's looking pretty cold, but we'll talk about that a little bit later on as the forecast formalizes. Anyway, Mitchell, it's always a great pleasure to have you on the show and we'll look forward to having you on again sometime soon. Yeah, can't wait. And hopefully at least see you Friday. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No worry. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll we'll definitely find each other.
Don't, don't worry about that. I love it. Mitchell Page joining us here on Crimson Cast. This kicks off game week. We'll have plenty of podcasts, including all the live events throughout the course of the week. I'm Galen Clavio, 4 Crimson cast. We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the Bison. They kind of did already stay. Never daunted. So long, everybody.