You're listening to the back home network, presented by home field apparel. Welcome back to Crimson, Cask ale and clavijo here as it is. New Year's Eve. If you're listening on the day that this gets released. It might be New Year's Day, might be a couple of days after that either way or any way. Happy New Year, and we're looking forward to bringing in 2022. It's an exciting time for most of you who have been asking for
2021 to be over with. And I think that that number of people has increased pretty consistently over the course of the last couple of months. It's just from a living perspective. So we're going to try to sign off 2021 the right way. And we're going to do so by talking some food, and some drinks, and some music. And things of that nature, not a very Sports heavy edition of crimson cast this time around. But many of you might still find
it interesting. So hopefully you stick around this will not be an overly long podcast either. I appreciate all you folks who wrote in last week with questions that didn't have anything to do with IU Sports. We're going to try to get to some of those today. Just a reminder, that Crimson cast is part of the back home network, and we are sponsored by home field apparel home-field apparel your place to go for vintage College, where of all shapes and sizes, t-shirts and hoodies and crewneck
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So sorry if that is a disappointment to his fans, but I wanted to tackle some of these questions individually and see what what thoughts I could spread around to all of you out there. So we had a couple of questions that I'll jump on right away. So our friend Mark Kate, you know, for actually first of all before I To that question.
I did want to send out a big congratulations to longtime friend of the Pod and occasional host of the Pod or, or interviewer call screener back in the day, but Matt Blasco getting married today on New Year's Eve in Bloomington. So biggest, congratulations to Matt and his new bride Cheyenne. As we're looking forward to helping them get married today. So really exciting times in the, the Crimson cast extended.
Mele congrats to Matt and shy and we look forward and wish them all the very best in the future. Let me jump on this first question from Mark. Katie good friend of the podcast as well best leftover recipe for rib roast. So, you know, there's a couple of different directions. You can go with this.
I know many of you have gone to the rib roast from a Christmas dinner perspective or something around this time of year, you know, many of you have been doing it for years, but I think More people are hopping on the rib roast train or some of the other larger roasts, whether their pork or beef. So, I think the biggest thing with these is you have to approach the different parts of the rib roast differently.
One of the things, and I introduced this to mark this week actually and I think he was a fan of it. What some people for whatever reason? Don't like rib roast bones. I don't understand those people. I don't get what their philosophy on life is, but I would recommend that you embrace the bones as a source of some of the best tasting meat on the rib roast.
And honestly, you know, my perspective on on rib bones off of the rib roast is rather than worrying about keeping them at a medium rare temperature or even eating them the day of Oftentimes, quite good once you've finished cooking the rib roast, but they go incredibly well in the airfryer. I know that's probably not what you expected me to hear, but you take those rib bones. Let him sit in the fridge for a couple of days, maybe lightly, seasoned them or not.
It really doesn't matter, and then pop them in the air, fryer at about 350 degrees. Let them go for about 10 minutes. Let, the outside get singed, get a little bit of the maillard reaction going on on the fat and you pull, Those out. You let him cool. Just a little bit. That is, that is a delightful treat because it's normally one or two of those is enough meat for, you know, a good lunch or maybe a light dinner and you get different flavor profiles that you're not going to get just
with the main rib roast. I think that, you know, the big thing with rib roast is if you're going to have a bunch left over and almost everybody does, you know, figuring out a way to turn that into a slightly less elegant version of what you just It is important. So sliders good example here.
And this was a, the contribution that Mark brought to the table when we were talking about this offline, utilizing a combination of keys and sauce and small rib roast pieces on slider buns, you know heating those up a little bit. That's that's a really nice way to handle this.
I also think if you want to go a little bit on the other side of things, chopping up some Some of the rib roast really finely and making essentially a hash or using that in omelets is is a really good way to utilize some of the meat. That's the problem, with all those methods is you're probably still going to have a lot of rib roast left over. So the other key is, if you can figure out how to slice the rib roast in a way where you can get the outside singed, a little
bit. This is where, you know, cooking on a griddle or cooking on something. That's got some real. Services at a really high heat. You don't want to overcook the interior, depending on the width of your slices, but getting a little bit of char, getting a little bit of texture, differential between the different parts of the rib, roast pieces. Always a good way to go and that goes great, either with sandwiches or not with sandwiches.
So there's a bunch of different things you can do there. But I tend to get creative a little bit further into the lifespan of the rib roast all the way down to. You can make some really really Silent tacos using nothing, but really finely sliced rib roast may be thrown into the skillet and given just a brief sear just to get a little bit of heat on it. Maybe throw some additional flavoring in on that front. So so there's some different ideas that you could play around with.
I think all of them are good and a lot of it just depends on how many carbs you want to consume while you're eating the leftover rib roast, so hopefully that's helpful. We had a couple of questions. That related to food in general. So Andy stop asked my top five pizzas in the state.
I actually don't feel comfortable, giving a top five pizzas in the state because between covid and having young children, it's really been six or seven years since I've been able to go around the state on Pizza pilgrimages. Like I used to, so, I don't really feel like I'm doing Pizza in the state of Indiana, a service. If I'm going around and trying to give ratings on Things that might be five or six years old. I will say some things that
stuck out. I think I mentioned this on a couple of podcasts earlier that the tavern style pizza. A daredevil is really really good. And I'm talking about the Daredevil Outlet in Speedway. That was that was excellent. I had that a couple of weeks ago. I'm always agree. So I grew up as I think some of, you know, I grew up in the Lafayette area and if you grow up in the Lafayette area, you're growing up with our knees pizza. That's That's one.
I wish we had closer to Bloomington quite frankly. There's one in Columbus. There's one in Greenwood. So it's about a 45-minute drive for me. Either way. It's to me the Pinnacle of that Indiana style pizza for lack of a better term, the the very flat dough and the crumble sausage and pepperoni and so forth. So that's always up there for me.
And then I'm going to get to some of our Bloomington options here in a minute, but I'm actually looking forward if we ever ever get out of this pandemic to going around the state and starting the pizza sampling tour. Once again, I hear great things about places all over the state and I want to start experiencing those a bit more. So I'm looking forward to getting back to that. It's been too long quite frankly. So that'll jump us over to Dave's question, which is hit us
with your top b-town. Food stops. I'll make it easy. Best burger best pizza and best overall, so I'm not going to make it that easy because first of all, With very few exceptions. I actually enjoy pretty much everything in Bloomington. There's always something at every stop that I can enjoy and we'll be happy to try out. It's one of those things where I'm I'm a little bit. Hesitant to pick favorites because a don't want people's feelings to get hurt and be my
favorites. Change on a regular basis, you know, my favorite sushi place might change from, you know, one month to the next, depending on how things taste at that particular spot. So I always think of this as an evolving list, but I will give a couple of shout outs in different categories here. Maybe that will satisfy the question. So let me start with burgers in. Bloomington, there's a lot of places that serve burgers. A lot of people have their particular favorites.
We've had some local Publications that have put out some, like, best burgers in Bloomington stories. However, when I read those, I question, if anybody under the age of 60, like, filled out the survey because what you one of the problems you get in Bloomington, and this is something that I noticed living in Bloomington.
And, you know, I've had an association with Bloomington for E 5 years at this point like I moved to school in Bloomington in the mid-1990s and with a few years accepted where I was living somewhere else. I've been in Bloomington basically since then and so it's been interesting living here and watching things change. When you see people come back from you know, wherever who went to school here and then went off and got careers in Chicago or New York or whatever.
Everybody wants to come back and just basically do Bloomington. From when they were in school, they want to play the hits, you know, so it's always we're going to Nick's we're going to Mother Bear's and that's essentially it.
And as I've talked about, I think on this podcast before I go to both of those places on a pretty regular basis, but there's so many other great places that don't get talked about because people don't really want to stretch their repertoire when they come back, they want to go to the places that they really liked when they were in school and I get that. But I feel like part of my job as As a, I guess, a Bloomington evangelist is to let people know about other options that are out
there. And so let me start with Burgers, the three burgers that I really like, right now in Bloomington and that I would recommend everybody try to of them are of the Smash Burger variety and one of them is of the more traditional Burger variety. So I'll start off with the Smash Burger variety and and I'll come right out and say there's one. I haven't had a chance to try it which is it Southern Stone. Looking forward to trying that
at some point. It just the fates of not aligned for me to get over there and try that, but two that I really enjoy and that we have ordered on a pretty regular basis. One is at Hive, which is over at 10th and the bypass at that old shopping center, which they've actually given a facelift to. And this is a Smash Burger. That's actually part of a ghost kitchen secret menu. Sort of thing. You have to order it online, but it's worth it.
It's really well done. It's really We put together the taste is very good and add some fries from hive with that. You've got a really good combination, one a little bit closer to downtown that I'd recommend everybody. Give a shot to, I'm sure many of you have seen it now walking up and down Kirkwood, but maybe don't know what it is, but it's fat dams, which is located in the Old. Isan Tie building at fit. Excuse me, at Kirkwood and Lincoln right across from The Graduate Hotel.
So their burgers, they have several different. Topping setups with the burger. My favorite is is the is pretty much just the straightforward one run through the garden as they say, the burger the meat tastes probably, it has probably has the most pop of any of the meat that I've had with the Smash Burgers in town and the ingredients all tastes so fresh. It's a really remarkable take on a very simple concept with the burger and it's presented in a very unpretentious style.
So that's a big recommendation. For me right now. The third is the and this is admittedly an expensive category. But the the burger at C3 is one that I would recommend getting, it is close to $20, which makes it. I think, for some people something that they're not willing to do and I certainly get that. But if you're, if you're thinking about at least giving it a try, I would encourage checking it out. It's always really well-crafted. And C3 is a great place to go in general.
It's a nice kind of upscale place that's away from the action on the These side of Bloomington. So that's my thought process on the burgers in town right now Pizza, you know, there's there's really three, maybe four that. I'm a huge fan of right now and that I'd recommend people give a shout-out to one of them is the pizza at switchyard, which a lot of people I don't think are familiar with the fact that switchyard is selling pizza or that it's something that's
originating from them. They're there was a period where the old King do restaurant had moved into switchyard and was making pizzas and selling them. But that I believe that relationship ended and switch yards now making their own pizzas and they're all excellent. They've gotta get a bunch of different varieties. I'm a big fan of, I think the old north east of the Blue Ridge is also very good and that's got a special place in my heart because I used to live in the Blue Ridge Neighborhood.
The breadsticks are also excellent as well. So you get you get some Breadsticks at switchyard. You pair it with a beer. That's a pretty good evening out. And it also carries out very well. Also Cafe, Pizzeria and old favorite one that I kind of feel like Cafe Pizzeria has had a bit of a Renaissance from a recognition Factor over the course of the last five or six years. I often times felt like I was one of maybe 2 or 3 people total
that. I knew that that liked Cafe Pizzeria and went to it regularly. But to me, it is as good of an Exemplar of the Indiana style of pizza that Bloomington has. It's got its own kind of unique Twist on it, but it's consistently good. Our good friend of the Pod IU artifacts is a big proponent of the double do order which I highly recommend checking out. I am still myself a single do guy, but I also like the double do variety. Just like a little bit of a
thinner crust. So, you know, you The other trappings of the traditional Indiana style, the crumbled sausage in particular, switcher or excuse me, Kathy Pizzeria has that in Spades. So I would recommend checking that out the other one and this is a new entrant is DaVinci DaVinci. And and I'll also throw Austria
Rago in there as well. If you haven't been to either of those locations, I'd recommend those DaVinci is located at 3rd and Washington and they have a nice menu in in total that focuses on a variety of different. Current types of Italian food, but their pizzas really well done. It's not big. These are, you know, probably I would say nine inch pizzas,
maybe 10, inch pizzas, there. They've got the Wood-Fired Brick Oven set up which makes for a really tasty pizza and it's a different type of experience from the more traditional pizzas that you've probably ordered in town and Austria, same sort of deal. There crust is a little bit puffier and I'd say they're topping setup is More conventional but it's still done in a Wood-Fired stove. And again, it's a little more personal size. Although it's gonna get pretty big when you try to eat the
whole thing. So any of those options are really good in town. It's hard for me to pick an absolute favorite because they're all a bit different and what they bring to the table and I'd recommend you check them all out. One other category. I wanted to hit. Is starters in town. We go back and forth. Sometimes about what our favorite starters are in Bloomington. So a few that have been either consistent favorites or have
become new favorites here. Over the course of the last year over Big Woods, the pulled pork nachos. That's to me, that's become almost like the signature dish at Big Woods whether you're here in Bloomington or whether your Nashville or whether you're up in Indianapolis. Just a really Solid and very consistent, appetizer that eats
like a meal. I've, in fact, I will order that sometimes as just a meal sticking in the chips category, a very simple delivery, but one that always hits the spot at Social Cantina. The chips played a used to be a chips and salsa flight and it still kind of is. But instead of getting for Salsas now, you're getting a queso and guacamole along with a green sauce and a red sauce, and the seasoning that Goes on those chips is always like they eat
very well by themselves. Let's say so you can either eat them by like that or in tandem with the sauces. The other one I'll mention is the dirty tots at fat Dan's which are a and an accomplishment every time you actually finish those they are my wife just walked in from the kitchen and bow down to those. Those are those are her favorite in town. But if you like tater tots and you like pulled pork and you like, Hot sauce and you like cheese all at once. That's definitely the order that
I would recommend. One other thing. I'll throw in, probably the best individual meal that I had this year is actually a tie in Bloomington. The first is the the Fried Chicken and Waffles at Southern Stone. That was we saw that pop up on the Bloomington Foodies Facebook group and we were immediately intrigued because it looked it had the right look to it. You kind of you get it used to seeing the pictures of these things. You're like, yeah.
I think that's going to check out flavor-wise and wow, did it ever just just an excellent Ensemble of the chicken and the the hot honey that goes with it. So I would recommend that if you're a fan of fried chicken at all. It's not something I eat every day, but a good fried chicken. Is a hard thing to find. Sometimes something that isn't, you know, just mass-produced. This is really cooked with care.
So big thumbs up to Southern Stone on the Fried Chicken option there and then the other one, the to me the most consistent restaurant in Bloomington, and the one that I think has, maybe the best array of small touches that make the overall experience. Great for our anniversary dinner this year, my wife and I went to Uptown and they had Add a new steak on the menu item scene, which was the they'll Monica, which is a ribeye essentially, and just prepared excellently.
And we both had the same steak order and just cooked to Perfection really done in a proper manner. So that was, those are the two meals that stuck out to us the most throughout the course of the year in town. So hopefully that helps some of you in terms of if you've, you're not living in Bloomington, but you're traveling back at some point, perhaps, these will give you some options that you might I have not thought about otherwise, so thanks for the question.
Dave at some point. We will do a food like a drink. I got beer and and cocktail podcast and talk a little bit more about that space but we'll save that for the new year. Another question this one from Andrew Elliot any new album recommendations and and actually Andrew and I saw each other outside of concert in St. Louis about five years ago. So I appreciate him writing in I gotta say this was kind of a weird. Year for me and music.
In terms of, it takes new music. Some time to hit me sometimes, and, and I try not to make any Final determinations on albums after until like about a year sets in. So, I'm still honestly digesting a lot of the newer music that came out throughout the course of twenty, twenty one. So maybe I should be giving my 20 20 reviews.
Now that we're at the end of 20 21, I should have thought of that ahead of time, but a couple of albums that did stick out the new War on Drugs album, it's different from the previous War on Drugs albums, by a pretty significant margin, but I really enjoy the creativity and the overall sound that, that group is able to get. And so I'd recommend checking that album out and just it's a different kind of experience.
And many of you, maybe never listened to War on Drugs before period, so would recommend them and then on more of the rock, kind of indie rock pop side. The Ducks limited another interesting album that I like that style of music almost like a power pop or sort of thing in places. So those would be the two things that I would recommend now, but they'll be a lot more as we go through. I think these next couple of months, as I'll finally have
some time to really form. Final, conclusions on things. Let's see, a couple of other questions that we had just over all of Craig Davis, asked making pork. Ellie burnt ends. When do you typically pull off the heat? So if you haven't had these before, I'd recommend it pork belly, chop it into small pieces, and there's a whole array of things you can do. But you can put these, you can actually do these in the oven, or on the stove top. You don't have to do them in the
smoker. But if I think doing them in the smoker, probably makes the most sense. And if you going to do them in the smoker, I normally aim for about four to four and a half. Hours. And it's a it's an interesting process because you need to season the the pork belly cubes basically first. And then you want to make sure you've got some wood in there. You're going to you're going to smoke for a couple of hours and then you're going to coat and barbecue sauce and then smoke
for a couple more hours. The nice thing about doing these is they're going to be done kind of whenever you want. A lot of, it's just a personal preference on how cooked the meat is and what the overall. Consensus on the texture is, as far as the people that are eating in your house. I like mine a little bit more on the having a little bit of a tougher exterior because it contrasts well, with what is normally a pretty loose, you know, mouth feel on the inside
with things. But you might want yours a little bit on the, the less cooked side. You might want them even more cooked than that. So, I would say start checking out about the four hour mark, never be afraid to take a sample or two and just make sure that it's where you want it to be. And if you're doing them through an alternate methodology. It's kind of a similar sort of deal. I just think the smoker is probably it gives you the best flavor and it's honestly kind of
the least amount of work. There's a little bit more prep at the beginning, but all things considered that's probably the easiest way to go about it. Couple of other questions that got tossed, our direction, we did have some additional questions that came in. As far as the way that everything is set up from the standpoint of football.
Not a whole lot has changed on the football front since we talked last week, and we've had a couple of other questions about, you know, what is a reasonable record for next season for an expectation perspective. This was Evan deal asked his question. And, you know, I think look as our friend Martha, the mop lady posted on Twitter. It's, it's hard unless you're just one of those people that's given over to unbridled optimism at every opportunity, with your sports teams.
It's hard to look at the offseason, it Indiana's had and say, oh I'm expecting them to jump right back in and have seven or eight wins next year. They've certainly made a lot of good strides in recruiting. Is anybody that's debating that At, but the idea that those recruits are going to be ready to contribute. Right away is probably overly optimistic. I would say.
And I just haven't seen enough transfers in the key areas where the team had trouble last year to feel like anything more than maybe a 4 and 8 or 5 and 7, season is a realistic record because I just again, you could see freshman having an impact, but I always worry about freshman having to deal with the physical. Pounding of being in the Big Ten that that's where you get injuries. That's where you get guys realizing that, wow. They've got a lot more learning to do.
There's a lot more film study to do and if you look at the roster that's coming back. It's a lot of question marks in a bunch of different areas. So it's an easier schedule. But you also get the sense, you know looking at the way that a team like Maryland went out and wipe the floor with their bowl opponent for instance and you're like, you know, that's that's going to be a problem potentially. Year Rutgers is going to potentially be a problem next
year. So at this point, you know, maybe things will change, but as I end 2021 for the football team, my emotions on them. I'm not very optimistic about next year. Hopefully that changes. I'm sure. I'll I'll dope myself up on optimism before the before Summer Camp starts and we get back into the swing of things leading into the season. But right now, yeah, not so much. Evan also asked Big Ten record, expectations. And also how does Indiana suddenly have a pipeline of
School talent. I covered the record question last week. I said I think twelve and eight maybe 13 and 7 was a reasonable expectation. I still feel that way. Big Ten is just a mess. There's so many imperfect teams right now. I mean, you need look no further than Michigan losing last night. Not just losing by a little bit but losing by a pretty significant margin to University of Central Florida. That Michigan teams got problems and you.
Look up and down the roster of things with the Big Ten and the various teams. I think everybody expects the Purdue Boilermakers to be good. I think they're not going to be as good as many people are expecting just because I while they're certainly a very good team. I don't see them being a team that's going to threaten to go like, you know, 18 and 2 or 17 and 3 in conference. So, you know, I look at Indiana and I say they are so they're
firmly in the middle. Of the the overall set up in the conference. And I think they'll be slightly better than average because I think their schedule will play out as such and I am to some degree still. Keeping my fingers crossed that they figure out a few additional things and they get, try Galloway back and he's healthy. I think there's a really good chance of this team may be slightly. Exceeding my expectations.
But as of now, I'm going to stick with the 12 and 8 in the conference because I think that will easily get them back into the NCAA tournament. And that's ultimately the most important thing for this year. All right, a couple of other quick items here, before we wrap things up.
So first of all, we didn't really dive into the numbers per se. But we normally do and I Sports podcast and just a reminder that if you are interested in numbers and you're interested in the way that for instance, the bowl games are playing out. And who do you think is going to win a game either for wagering purposes or not? You need to check out the power rank.
The power rank is sponsor of the back home network and And of course Crimson cast and our friend, Ed Fang uses data analytics and a mathematic approach to things to help to understand and explain what's going on in sports. So be sure to check out the power rank.com /. AC. This is a free newsletter that you can sign up for. There's a big March Madness guide as we get a little bit closer to the NCAA tournament. Go ahead and check that out. Again.
It's the power rank.com / AC, you can Check out that right now. And so I'm I'm hoping you go check that out. It's a really good newsletter and some really good information whether you're wagering on sports or whether you just want to understand how things are going in the Sports World on the college side, especially so be sure to check that out. Last question. I want to tackle. I'm actually going to jump back to a couple of questions that we got on Facebook.
We do have a Facebook account. By the way, if you want to check us out you just search, Crimson cast on Facebook. And you'll be able to locate us there, but we had a long question from Jonas more who actually wrote in on Christmas Day. Jonas, saying it's first time reaching out, but he's been listening to the podcast for a while. So he had some interesting statistical observations that, we've maybe touched on a little bit in pieces on the podcast before.
But I wanted to go ahead and you know, we'll we'll just kind of lay them all out. In this case. Ace. So to summarize. From 2019 to 2021 with records of 8 and 4 6 & 1 & 2 and 10 and that excludes bowl games on the 2019 and 2020 Seasons. IU is 2 and 14 against teams with winning records or Bowl eligible teams. So 6 & 6 are better and then they're 14 and 1 against teams with losing records.
The two wins against winning teams were against Wisconsin last year and then Western Kentucky this year. They're only lost to a losing. Non bowl-eligible team. During that time was to Rutgers this year, who finished five and seven. And I have of course as many of you know Rutgers actually ended up in a bowl. It took a cancellation by one team and permission by the NCAA to allow Rutgers to go to the Gator Bowl, but they're in it.
So they are actually, they technically will not count in the statistic because they ended up in a bowl game. So, anyway, he says, I thought that was fascinating and curious. If you guys have any thoughts with a really worse this year, or did they just not improve? In the previous years. I think we'd all agree.
They were terrible. The last three games, but they were competitive and all the other games even up to the the game at Michigan, which could incidentally was where they were knocked out for a Vulcan tension. So interesting thought and you know, this has been bandied about quite a bit. This idea that a lot of people, the trump card for the Tom Allen era, not being a good one as well. Tom. Allen hasn't beaten any teams with winning records or they beaten one team with a winning record.
Record as the case may be, I guess it's to now. Well now there's now it's too so I'm I'm hoping that that narrative kind of goes away because I think what you'll find is for a lot of teams like Indiana, you frankly are going to pick up the vast majority of your wins against teams that don't have winning records and you're probably going to struggle against teams that do have winning records and look.
I think that overall you take a team like, for instance, Michigan State. This Here and you kind of go down the list of games that they won and most of their wins were against teams that had losing records or were right around 500. And most of the winds that they picked up the, obviously, the Michigan game was a notable exception. It wasn't like they had, you know, of the, of the what 11 wins or ten wins that they had on the season. It wasn't like of the tan.
Like five of them are, six of them were against top-notch competition and five were against. A mediocre competition. You generally pick up a lot of wins against teams that just don't win a lot and this is why scheduling so important. It's also why for Indiana being in the Big 10 East is a constant challenge because you're always going to have four teams, maybe five that are going to be at 500 or better. You do need to win those games.
No question, but I think the idea that IU or the Tom Allen is somehow unique in that, they haven't won a lot of games. Against top level competition. It's probably not that big of a, of a finding. I think what you'd find again is that that is consistently how it works across most of college football where I think Alan needs to get better as they have to start picking up some scalps, as our friend and co-host.
Got Caulfield says, because that's ultimately what gets people excited about your football program and whether that's scalps in the regular season, Talked about /, do a lot with that, you know, they were able to beat Ohio State in that, that big game a few years ago, or, you know, this past year, they're able to knock off Iowa. And then, of course, they just had that remarkable bizarre kind of silly Music, City Bowl, victory against Tennessee. It's those sorts of wins that
really galvanized the fans and let you look at Indiana, you know, the the winds that galvanized the fans, the most during the 2020 season where the winner Penn State brand name and the win against Michigan. Also a brand name. I guess you could also say Wisconsin.
It's to some degree. A bit of an accident that Penn State ends up with a losing record in that season because I think if they'd played a normal, you know, 12 game season, they would have probably ended up as a seven or eight win team that year, but the reality is that's not what happened.
And for Indiana, it becomes a situation where you have to settle, you increase your talent and you have to be able to go in. Ooh those sorts of games and pick up wins, and I guess I'll push back a little bit on the idea that maybe Indiana didn't get worse this past year. Maybe just everybody else got better.
I think both happened. I think Indiana got worse and the other teams got better because if you think about Indiana's football season in totality, they had as we've talked about on this podcast, one of the worst offenses in the history of the 14-team Big Ten and just from a point scored perspective from a yard. Perspective, it was a putrid offense. That is a huge step back from what they had done the previous year. And defensively, they had a step back.
You know, that everybody was concerned about turnovers not being replicable, but it wasn't just the turnovers. It was also the inability to make stops at Key moments. And then that evolved into right around the time that they lost, the chance of Bulge ability that evolved into just not being able to make stops period. And, you know, when you whether it's the Whose game or the Minnesota game? Or the Purdue game? Indiana looked absolutely exposed the further that the season wet.
And I think if they're special teams in there as well, Indiana just took a bunch of steps back and unfortunately, for Indiana, this happened simultaneously to Maryland. Taking a small, step forward, Rutgers taking a big step forward. Michigan State, taking a big step forward and Michigan, taking a big step forward as well. So it's not nothing happens in a vacuum. And I guess that's a key point to think about, In, you know, but Indiana by any metric.
Just wasn't good enough and it wasn't a situation of well, we stayed the same and everybody got better. It was this case of everybody got better and Indiana got worse. So that's got to be addressed as we go into this upcoming year. So, anyway, I think that's gonna actually wrap it up as that was a pretty long question. We appreciate you writing in, like, is the last one, I'll tackle. This was from Ghost of a ghost
and this something applies. I think to both football and basketball, what has made you the happiest about this team? And what would you ask for for Christmas? For them? This was obviously written before Christmas, but let's we'll set it up in a New Year's resolution for both IU football and I, you men's basketball. So, for IU football, what's made me the happiest about the Is there does still appear to be a spirit of hey we're doing something special and different here.
And even if the results on the field aren't showing it. I do like how there is a positivity that has remained among the coaching staff and and at least among some of the players. I don't know if that actually translates into anything tangible. But when that works it is a it's kind of a special sauce that is fun to see, and it does kind of warm your heart. The however, my New Year's resolution for the football
team. The thing I would ask of them is to stop thinking that that kind of positivity is going to pay the bills. At the end of the day. This team really needs to rethink how it approaches a bunch of different areas. And I think you could make an argument that 2019 and 2020 both had unique events that led to them being better than they should have. Been 2019 was a Really talented offensive coordinator.
Figuring out how to take some imperfect pieces and use them in a way that generated a lot of wins and 2020 was kind of a perfect storm, sort of situation that allowed Indiana to take advantage of some teams being down the weird situation regarding covid and their own ability to, finally, get over the hump in a couple of games. But neither of those situations is going to be exist in 2022. At least. We hope that they do at least. The these though the covid thing
we hope isn't existing then. So what Indiana needs to do football-wise is get a lot more serious about details. Get a lot more serious. About the little things that win games, the other one of the complaints early on in the season. And I think something you could point to the Syracuse or skews the G Syracuse game, the Cincinnati game, the Michigan State game, even the Western Kentucky game which they want, but it was very close. Is this team is, is still in year.
Five of the Tom Allen era struggling with small details. Whether it's penalties, whether it's blocking schemes, whether it's technique, especially from receivers and, and, and things of that nature, they're just there has to be more attention to detail, and that's something that is as much on the players as it is on the coaches. But ultimately, it's the job of the coaches to get the players, doing what they need to do. So need to see more of that and really need to see.
I think a full re-evaluation of game management. From top to bottom, you know, when plays are getting called and when timeouts are being used and things of that nature. It's been, it's been loose for five years and it can make the difference between winning, four games and winning six, or seven games next year. In addition, to all the other factors that are going on as far as what's made me happiest about men's basketball. I think it's just that it feels
fun. But it also feels serious again, you know, the is it Been a perfect start to the Mike Woodson are obviously but it also has been a start to the era where there's a different energy is an energy that I think for old-time IU basketball fans. They look at it. And they say, you know what, this feels like something that I recognize this, there's a vibe to this IU season, that is special. And you know, the players are not perfect by any means, but their players that appear to be
having fun with each other. Or to feel like they can win games as opposed to feeling like they're going to eventually lose games. And that's a big change of pace. I think that's a positive and you know, the I really enjoy Mike Woodson's demeanor. I enjoy what he says in press
conferences. I enjoy how he interacts with his players on the floor and I think he's gotten some really interesting performances so far out of several players that I had some questions about coming into the And he's also gotten some, you know, accelerated and advanced performance as out of guys who I wondered if they'd hit their ceiling.
Like I didn't know if we were going to get more out of Trace Jackson, Davis than we got last year and Mike, Woodson has gotten that and I think that he deserves a lot of credit for that for the way that race Thompson's played. There's a lot of small Nuance details that just, you know, you're still struggling with offense on this team and you're still going to have moments. I think where this team's going to not completely know what they're supposed to be doing.
And to me, that's just an artifact of a new coach, a new coaching staff and new system, but there does seem to be a core belief in what the team is doing. And so that's what's got me. Most excited. What I would ask for for them, for for New Year's. What's the resolution there? You know, I think it's It's
both. I think the team needs to just remain patient and realize that they're going to get incrementally better as the season goes along if they keep doing what they're being asked to do. And I think my biggest ask is that everybody be more patient with this team? I think there's a lot of IU fans who have been burned time and time again over the last 20 years by false hope. And now the default reaction is negative all the time, and there's still a lot of
information. Infighting between IU fans on social media. There's a lot of recriminations, the moment, the team loses a game or struggles in a particular moment in time in a game and I understand where that comes from because I think that the IU basketball fan base, has been to some degree asked to believe and to perform all the acts of supporting a top-level team, but what they've actually gotten has been a second or third-tier team in many cases.
Over the last 20 years. And at this point I think people are just tired of waiting. I think this is going to be a team worth waiting for this, is going to be a program worth waiting for will. They get all the way back to where people want them to be this year or next year? Probably not. But I think already this team has performed at or slightly above expectations.
And let's be honest, that is better than what we've seen out of IU basketball, for any of the last five years, so, That in and of itself is some progress and I'm excited to see how Indiana is able to continue to build on that progress. And my hope is that there's just some additional patients as people realize that you're watching a transformation taking place with the basketball program.
And I think it's going to lead to some really good things down the line, but it's not going to happen overnight. Anyway, that's going to wrap it up. I appreciate everybody who took the time to listen and ask questions and will continue to answer questions. As we move forward. We'll be back with Podcast, probably at the beginning of next week. As we recap, what happened with IU? Basketball, obviously UNC Asheville. That game. Got canceled. Probably not the biggest loss in the world.
Would have been nice to get one more game in. But Indiana going to just start off the Big Ten season with about a ten day break. They'll take on a Penn State team that will not have played since early December that game taking place on Sunday of this upcoming weekend. We'll talk about that and we'll cover. Or any other materials that need to be talked about as well. Be sure to check out our other friends on the back home
network. You can always check out the assembly call as they do podcasts after every game. They also do assembly call radio, which takes place every Thursday. And so I would check all of those items out and also check out Tony had Rania on Twitter and go to IU film room.com., You'll find all of His material and while you're doing all of that, you can also hop on the premium communities that we have here. Check out the Discord that that we have here.
You can always check that out through any of the links on our podcast Pages, whether it's assembly, call or IU, film, Rome or Crimson cast. So anyway, thanks to all those folks and happy New Year, everybody. Really appreciate all of the friendship and all of the thoughts. And it's always a joy to be talking about out IU sports, or food or whatever with you, folks, and I'm always humbled and an honored by your continued patronage of the podcast and your willingness to kind of
follow us through. As we talk about the things that we find interesting, and it's always heartening that some of you find those things, interesting as well. So anyway, that'll wrap it up for us for 2021 on behalf of Scott and on behalf of everybody, that's in the Crimson cast and back home network communities. I'm Galen. Klaviyo. We'll catch you folks on the flip side, bring back the Bison. So long everybody.