You're listening to the back home network, presented by home field apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Caskey on clavius, got Caulfield joining here it is Sunday. The 25th Indiana, no longer undefeated, they fall yesterday. 45242 the Cincinnati. Bearcats are going to talk about that game. What we learned from it I guess and what we had confirmed from it as the Hoosiers, I think.
If you were being realistic did about what you It expected, although maybe not in the order that we might have expected it, but a loss is a loss as they say. So we're going to talk about all the implications of that first and foremost, just a reminder that we are part of the back home network. In the back home network is sponsored by home-field. Peril your place to go for the best. The most vintage, the softest College apparel hoodies crewnecks.
It's definitely hoodie season. We've turned the corner into Autumn and And they've got something like, 400 different fleece objects that you can order off of the home field apparel site. They also had something yesterday that I had to buy on impulse which was a hoodie that features, the old logo of the Big Sky Conference. And it's like, guys that's just unfair. You can't like people have addictions, you can't just put the thing, they're addicted to in front of them, you would
expect them to deal with that. So you know, that's that's That's what their releases will do for you at a great North Dakota State selection released earlier but then got a bunch of Indiana stuff as well. And I know for many of you in the crowd that's all that you'll want to buy. So go check out home field apparel.com use the code home. Get 15% off your first order if you haven't ordered from there yet again, home-field, apparel.com, Scott is joining us now. Scott, how are you doing this
morning? Good, I've been here the whole time. I've I'm actually looking for the Big Sky Conference sweatshirt now because that sounds like like I try and I love ho feel, but I have to take breaks from looking at their website for that exact reason. But now like I heard that it's like, oh there's well, there's you smack on the street, I gotta get it, I'll get me a hit.
I learned something yesterday, two things, a guy follow home-field on like every social media account that I'm attached to. And so I actually found out about the Big Sky Conference hoodie on Twitter. Right before the game was getting ready to start and it's like, wow, that's okay guys, you're hitting me right when it hurts and where it hurts. I also found out. Did you know that that home field has a Rewards program?
Scott, yes I knew they did. I'm not sure if I correctly signed up. It's okay. Look at this point. I should get the home field, you know, Learjet or so Meadows. That's that's actually kind of what happened to me. I didn't realize this and I logged in and I had to change my password because it was not secure. And when I logged in under that, not Olympics, guy 21 wasn't going to do it, not know, not
only did I discover that home. It has a Rewards program but I've earned so many points that I could have bought both a hoodie and a t-shirt for free with the rewards points that I've accrued over time which that seems like a lot of rewards points. So I'm excited about that. But I also its kind of it revealed to me how much I've been shopping at home field. Let's put it that way. It's a good thing that neither of our wise, listen to the
podcast that we can. It's true into the ER, or are for our financial Planners we don't that they're not listening either so my doctor listens but my financial planner does not so okay. Well you look good. I'm glad you worked out this morning. Yeah. You know ready to ready to rock and roll? Let's let's let's raise the heart rate. I will say I've been just
peeling it off. This is one of the few times I was so frustrated half time I called you normally we try and keep a little more radio silence, not that we're friends. We just realized that we would end up wasting all of our material, right? Fucking versus podcasting. But yeah, I had to call you. They very frustrating.
And to the half, I mentioned to you on the call, I kind of put it out on Twitter and we can talk more about it but it there's a real problem with this team that when the wheels fall off, they kind of death spiral, very quickly, very reminiscent of like Bill Lynch. Now, they did turn it around. The second half, they came out and looked more serviceable, but giving you kind of my high-level view to it's like, but they were, they gave up 14 points and kind of their death.
Errol moment at the end of the second quarter and that was kind of the difference in the game because they played well the second half. And the whole time I'm thinking is like, if we could just not I mean, not in a world that's because it's not have those two touchdowns like this could be a manageable game or something there, but it's like we can't do it. We just gave up another, you know, 40 yard pass and a fumble recovery.
It just kind of fell apart and it's something that needs to be eyeballed and manage because this team has these moments whether it's the first half against Idaho, whether it's stretches of the Western Kentucky. Game, whether it's stretches of the Illinois game. This was just one of the worst examples of it this season, but you saw it even obviously big chunks of last season were, you know, they're just in a season-long death spiral but it
does. There's really something going on here where it does seem like when things start to go bad, Tom Allen and this staff. And last year staff have a really bad habit, unable ability to kind of turn things around. And it's like we almost have to go to the the depths of depression first and then we can kick.
Ourselves back out of it but we've got to, you know, either have five losses in a row or 14 points or it's just it's something that needs to be monitored and looked at maybe your doctor can look at it. But no, it's something that is concerning but I mean it's to me. It's like that's that 28 second stretch at the end of the second quarter is kind of in my mind. What lost the game? Yeah, I mean, I think there's an argument actually, no, I don't
agree. What lost the game was a team unprepared to compete at the beginning of the game, and that has been a trend, not just in. It wasn't just this game. That's been the whole season so far, where this Indiana team has struggled coming out of the gate and to some degree. I think they've been lucky, you know, they were lucky against Illinois because Illinois, I couldn't capitalize. They were lucky against Western Kentucky, because Western Kentucky didn't capitalize enough.
And they were not lucky in this game against Cincinnati because Cincinnati knows what they're doing. And look, you know, it kind of you're right, there was absolutely a spiral at the end of the half and it put the game completely out of reach. And it makes the game difficult to adequately analyze because you can't just say, well, Indiana sucked because they didn't. I mean, they played a really good third quarter. Their defense, really played a great second half for the most
part. Now, the offense was kind of another story but when the you know that what's what's frustrating is you have to play well at the moments when it matters early, so that you don't get down by 24 points or whatever they were down by 28 points. You know, it's like okay, you play better later but the time to play better was when the game was getting underway and then you make the comeback, you get to a point where you are within some degree of Striking Distance, your 14 points down.
And and that's the moment that you decide to stop playing as well as you've played the previous like, 18 minutes like this team, it's like couldn't figure out when they needed to perform. Did perform at points, but didn't perform when it mattered and it ended up with a game that You know, not it's frustrating because you saw glimpses of Indiana being able to compete with Cincinnati, but they were overwhelmed by The Moments When Indiana look like it.
Had no clue what it was doing. Yeah, you know I mean my thing is this I look at this Cincinnati team and, you know, they do not have an overwhelmingly Talent Rich roster, they've got some good players, certainly but this is a team that I think if you lined up all of the athletes for both teams you'd say Indiana and Cincinnati or at least on somewhat even footing. But that Cincinnati team is really well, drilled, they know what they're doing.
They've got a clue. Both sides of the ball of how they want to play in Indiana has moments of inspiration but they are kind of swamped by The Moments When Indiana doesn't look like. It knows what it's supposed to do. And this is just kind of been this theme that we've seen out of this team. The last couple of years, you know, the tendency has been to some degree to kind of like brush off last year. Like it was an anomaly, at least that's that's been the arguments
like. Well, if this is going to work, you kind of have to buy into that theory but realistically What we're talking about here is not unique to this year or last year, it's been kind of a Common Thread throughout most of the Alan era. You know, you'll get good stretches of play. But I, you just has this tendency to shoot itself in the foot, whether that's with bad penalties or just a complete lack of execution or play calling, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Sometimes, all three of those converge, sometimes you're only getting one of them at a time, you know?
But you look at the Cincinnati team and it's like You know, take away the two touchdowns at the end of the half, take away the touchdown that Indiana gave up, you know, towards the end of the game which gives kind of a garbage touchdown anyway on a fourth quarter Drive. I mean you take you can't take those away because that was the difference in the game but if Indiana is playing smarter and executing better, maybe none of those touchdowns are happening and we're talking about a whole
different game. But that really is essentially what this Indiana football program is they they're a team that cannot take the mistakes away and it overwhelms, the good plays that they do actually make And there's also something in this is It's a continued problem, but it's something that I feel like you and I have seen in 20 plus years of Indiana football, so I can't blame this current staff, but I will blame them. They haven't been able to solve
this. You see this in games like this all of the time and I wish we could like track and give this stat a name but you know, Cincinnati goes up. 2:43 and I cope this, this is getting out of hand. The offense has shown no ability to do. Anything they finally put together a good drive, they catch Cincinnati's defense napping, and it's like, alright, 1710 were right where we need to like.
Now we're back in this game. Like now we can kind of get our footing and like now would be a great time for our defense to either Bend don't break or just really put things together and then, it's like, boom. 34-yard, touchdown pass, like just shreds the defense like that. Having the only thing more. I you would have been a kickoff return for a touchdown, like a few claw, your way back to 17. 10, and you.
And I've seen that before. I don't know what we call that, like, the Indiana special like or something, but it's like this play. We're like just don't screw up right now, right? And that's when lessen, the blow coverage has happened, that's when the Miss kicks. It's like and then that was it, it's like 2410. And then you are seeing now is 2410 and we'll give another one.
Boom like another big blowout you know, past 3110 and then fumble 38 cents, like there's your game but we've got to stop doing that. Also we're like we come out like you said, Slow We lock in. It's like right now that we're locked in. We can't we've kind of lost the ability to make any more mistakes. If you went down 17-3, your kind of lack of interest in the beginning of the game, was your first mistake. You're done now you don't get to now blow coverages but they did.
And that's seeing that as always a bad Harbinger and you and I have been seeing that for 20-plus years but it's like I don't know why we can't ever shake that out of our system where it's like, right when we kind of pull things back in. We just Immediately. Give up the most back-breaking play you could think of. Yeah, it's just frustrating. Because, you know, you look at yesterday that stretch that you were mentioning at the beginning of the game, the defense
actually played pretty well. You know, they gave up the the touchdown and it's actually a really good example, what you're talking about even before the big explosion. But, you know, Indiana, they have at 16 yard Drive, they kick a field goal, they tie it up and your Go. Okay, maybe Indiana's going to make a game of this very first play of the next Drive, been Bryant to Tyler, Scott on that horrific blown coverage by Taiwan Mullen. And, you know, just like that. Boom.
Now it's 10 3 and you're just like, well, okay, if there was any hope we've now, absolutely squelched. It it is, it. It's almost humorous in a way Scott. How it's just like clockwork when something good happens to this Indiana team in a stretch. It's immediately countered. By doing something bad. And it's just, I mean, look, give credit to Cincinnati and give credit to the other teams who have taken advantage of this
over the years. This Indiana team, they remind me of like a soccer team that scores, a goal gets all excited and then kind of let their guard down and then the opposition takes the kickoff runs down. The field, gets the ball into the box and scores and now suddenly it's you know, level again or that other team's leading by one. It's like you can't let your guard down in those moments.
And, and Happens later in the game and they have fights their way back into, like something close to distance and they end up giving up, you know, a touchdown right after that. It's just, there's not a lot else you can say about it. Like you said we've been watching this for years. It's not something I can blame solely on Tom Allen, but I can in a way because like, you know, frankly, I used to just accept
that. This was what happened when you were at Indiana and you were kind of you weren't spending a lot of money on the coaching staff, you weren't spending a lot of money on like making the Team good. It was just kind of like institutional accepted that you were going to make those kinds of mistakes and be like second or third-tier. But what is irritating is that Alan's making a lot of money theoretically to bring some professionalism and some consistency to Indiana football.
And yet I feel like we're still like back where we were his first year where yeah, they're going to win some games and exciting fashion and do things that you might not expect, but we're still very Consistent. It's still a very vibey. You no offense and defense as opposed to being one that's grounded in fundamentals. I mean that defense made a lot of good plays throughout the course of the game Indiana's
defense. Did that defense also got absolutely shredded like six different occasions throughout the course of the game. It's hard to reconcile those things you know, because it's just like you look at the way that they play when they're doing well and you're like if this defense could play this way all the time, Indiana probably
would have won this game. Game and you'd like their chances in a lot of games coming forward and that's kind of what we thought was going to happen this year but so far like against Illinois and against Western Kentucky I'm not even going to really bother with Idaho. The defense has led up at very inopportune times and you know unlike those two games it was a good enough opponent that they weren't going to be able to come back at the end and really make
it close. And the problem is everybody from this point forward is at least as good as Cincinnati. I think maybe not. Doctors, but be no but pretty much everybody else is going to be at least in this tier this caliber of team with probably slightly more talent and you know, I think the chances of Indiana like playing like a 55 or 60 percent efficiency game just isn't going to get the job
done. The way that it did the first three games of the year, I want to Circle back on the team's we're going to play because there is some interesting stats coming up and it's a spoiler, it's not great.
Yeah, but you mentioned this, you know, the defect that That defense piece like this is again where I get frustrated is I'm seeing trends that I've seen multiple times before things that you and I have talked about in this podcast and starts to get annoying seeing the same Trends because it that's what was different about 2019 and 2020. It was like, this is this is different. This is this team is doing kind of kick it off the mistakes that
this team has normally made. And like this feels like a different program and very quickly we've kind of snapped back Into old habits. And what I'm saying is, what I'm seeing is also this feel like we talked about as a lot during the Kevin Wilson era and even the Lynch era. It's like this inability for both sides of the ball to play
well together. So you have the first half where the defense just kind of falls apart in the second quarter but then give the defense credit they come out and it's like oh they basically for the most part holds Cincinnati 20 points for the second half and they give up a touchdown, very late but they
hold them. Cincinnati's 38 points for this the entire Fire the majority of the second half and then our offense it does score two touchdowns but in the seven other drives that half that they didn't score, they gained a total of 88 yards. One of those drives was an 81 yard drive that they lost they didn't score in the red zone. So if you take that drive out, there are six other drives where they gained a total of six yards or sorry set.
Sorry, 77 yards. It's like your Is now holding up your defense is stopping Cincinnati Cincinnati. You know, the quarterback looks injured are losing wide receivers like this is your time to, this is what all other teams pounce on us. Like, when would we go to Tuttle, or we go to our backup quarterback. This is when teens just lay it on us, like this is not the time for our offense to go I'll read you taking out that 81 yard
drive. Here are the other non scoring drives in the second half - six yards three yards - five yards. Four yards - 2 yards - seven yards.
Like that's not good enough. If you just cash in on to get a field goal and a touchdown on two of those six drives which isn't asking a ton, you know, this might be a completely different game because now maybe Cincinnati's offense, actually feel some pressure to do something which even though our defense is playing great, we were never within 14 points of them. So they never really felt pressure to like oh we've got Start moving the ball, it's kind of like. All right, we can go.
You know Cincinnati was probably we can go 36 and out. It's like, as long as we get a kill a minute or two minutes. You know, we know Indiana's, gonna go three it out or negative, seven yard. It's just like to have our offense completely seized up at that point. Is also not good and that's something.
Again, we've been seeing for years, it's like our offense is playing great and that's when our defense get shredded and then when our defense plays great, that's what our offense seizes up. It's like guys, you got to both lock in on both sides of the ball? Yeah, I mean, Hey look it's not An untalented team.
But it's a team that just struggles a lot in the areas that you can't struggle in. If you're going to be consistently successful in college football, they just I don't know how to say it. Like it's you look at what this team has done more often than not. And, you know, and this is where, you know, There's this weird thing right now. We're, you know, criticism of Tom, Allen's coaching is in some circles like looked upon like
what are you talking about? He's the most successful coach that I use ever had and that, you know, or at least since Mallory and it's like that's that's technically true. Yes, but he's also by a significant margin, the highest paid coach that Indiana has ever had in football.
And, you know, you look at certain things in the program that have And certain things that haven't worked and you have to call into question, I think like what we're doing in terms of a program because that ultimately is something that you know if you're going to look at Allen and say Allen is doing a good job, you have to point to either.
Well they haven't got talent which isn't true because they've recruited pretty well while Alan's been here at least related to IU. And this is where you can't say. Well, gosh, compared to the rest of the Big 10 East they've struggled. It's like, well, you know what, the, you know, the rest of the Big 10 East might be recruiting above them, but guess what? Cincinnati, not in the Big 10 East Western Kentucky, not in the Big 10 East, you know,
they've recruited. Well, enough over the course of the last four or five years that I get. If they're losing all the time to Michigan and Ohio State and Michigan State and Penn State fine. But when they're losing these games, there's not much of an excuse. There's not much of an excuse to come out against this. Fnatic team that lost a bunch of pieces from last year and you know is a really well oiled machine, but isn't necessarily this great talented roster.
There's no real excuse to go into that game and lay an egg in the first half the way that this Indiana team did. That's a coaching issue. That's an organizational issue. You get to the second half, they get some credit for coming back. I was actually really impressed with how they came back. I was getting excited and then the offensive line just completely Springs leaks all over the The place and essentially makes it impossible for Indiana.
Do anything offensively for you know, most of the fourth quarter and it's like again, that's been a long-standing problem. This offensive line. If you go back and you look at the statistics from the last several years, you look at the grading. It's been a consistent problem. There's been nothing done about it at all. And you know it's so Allen's this weird case where he does enough things that get people excited and his attitude about
IU football is excitable enough. That he has a lot of people who defend him, essentially, regardless and look. Indiana was a 16 and a half Point Underdog in this game.
So where they expected to win. No, but if you were Indiana, you kind of had to win this game and you're at least be competitive in it more so than what you you showed here, because you can project out a little bit into the rest of the Big Ten and the winnable games by and large from this point, forward are all on the road at Nebraska at Curse at Michigan State.
Now, apparently out of the blue, but as we've seen in this game and we've seen with several other games in the Tom Allen era, the game at Minnesota back in 2017, you know, any of the games at Ross Aid Stadium, this team really struggles to execute and do things on the road. I looked to this game and said this is going to tell us a lot about what we might expect out of what this vintage of Tom. Allen's Indiana can do in this sort of a circumstance in front of 37,000.
People not the most intimidating environment. Aunt, and they laid an egg in key moments in. And it's just, it's frustrating because you can kind of see the train coming down the tracks with this team and it just makes me wonder, like, where is when is the Improvement going to manifest itself in the areas that we were talking about last year? You know, the offense is marginally better, but they still can't block.
You know, Shawn Shrivers is going to, you're going to look back at this game, five years from now, but I know Shrivers had a had a pretty good running game. I mean this is this is actually better than I would have expected. 19 carries 79 yards, except 47 of those yards. Came on one run and that one run was the one time that chivers didn't run up. The middle, tried to eat a had to bounce it outside because the blocking was so bad.
You know Connor basil, like there's 466 do 66 times in this game and you know, I would say what 15 20 of those were throwaways and like impossible scramble throws. One of them should have been intercepted and up going for a first down. Has he never had time to throw
the ball? He was constantly Under Siege and the defense, which Tom Allen was going to fix by taking over the defense back from Charlton. Warren, who's also struggling, let it be known at North Carolina this year, the defense, when it needed to make plays when it needed to give the offense time to get going ends. Up surrendering a 354 yard for Touchdown performance to the Cincinnati quarterback. I mean, that's just not going to Get the job done.
Tyler Scott 1010 receptions 185 yards and three touchdowns. And so I'm not sitting here saying this team sucks because I don't think they suck, but I'm saying this is a group of relatively talented football players that just has these long stretches where they look like they don't know what they're supposed to do. And I don't know who you're supposed to point the finger at their other than the head coach whose job it is to get them better prepared.
I just don't think the no-talent argument carries water so I don't know, Scott. I mean it's like, It just, this is the type of game that just kind of, it feels like the same type of disappointing game that we've seen out of Indiana. Not just through the Tom Allen era, but through the last 15 or 20 years, but Tom Allen is supposed to be able to fix this and put Indiana in a better position in my off base with this. No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna apply a
lot, unfortunately. Sorry, Tom. But, you know, I give you credit. You didn't get me onto home field. Although you did you actually, you got a home-field sweatshirt? This is the most comfortable sweatshirt. You also got me. You got me a couple years ago back in to Pro Football Focus, which if people are not on its great statistics. It's kind of like Ken Palm for college football at a very layman's terms.
But let me just go through some stuff for you to kind of let you know where we're at, to highlight your point. And what's funny is when I'm done with this, well I'll wait till I'm done with it to say it. They great things out. And this is really, I was playing around with us this morning, and this is kind of shocking, because when you look at the Big Ten, everyone's played four games and you know, some people play hard Or Worse opponents.
I would not say that Indiana's played the toughest opponents in that four games. Here's where we're at. When you look at often ranking offense, Indiana is 13th in the Big Ten. We're only ahead of Iowa. So like, we can make all the I can make all the Iowa safety jokes. I want. We're pretty close to there, when you look at passing grades for offense, where 11th in the in the, in the conference compared to all other conference teams pass blocking.
Hey, we're 13th. What do you know receiving? We're 12th running, we're 12th and run. Walking take a wild guess we're last. Okay. So you can say all right well our offense isn't great. You know under under Tom Allen our offense has never been good. We lost a lot of offensive pieces you know that we're not we're going to make our bones on defense like that's in 2020. How we did it? Okay defensive ranks We're worse than the conference like we are worse than that. We're a different color.
Everyone else is green and blue. If you do PFF we're different we're turning into orange. When you look at run defense, we are we have a little bit of a pulse here. Where 7th in the Conference tackling were 13th past rushing were last and conversions are coverage, against receivers. We're last. Yeah, I mean, so our defense like this is one of those, the Special Teams. Hey, were third. We're third in the conference and special teams. So there you go.
This is one of those things where if I was, if you and I were doing a podcast middle of the Big Ten basketball season and I haven't you, I took a couple weeks maybe, I haven't watched all of the games, it's like I just go on to Ken palm and look at the some of the stats and like To see Nebraska play in a while and they're Bottom of Everything. A big man, they suck. They are really like, have you
seen Nebraska's numbers? Like, they blow on offense and on defense, if I made Minnesota football fan and I'm just looking at PFF, this would be like, man, India, I wish we had Indiana this year, they suck. I mean, like, that's the tough thing here is. We are bad across all metrics at offense. We are bad across all metres and defense against the Big Ten. Which spoiler alert, that's who we're playing there. Rest of the year. Well, normally this is where I would say.
Or I remember you you might stop me and say, but Scott, you know, you'll find a way to win one or two Guild things aren't going to go exactly to plan will find a way to win, you know, one or two games here. Their teams might get worse, we might get a little bit better. Yes. But last year didn't work that way last year.
We just lost out. And so I'm not saying that's going to happen again, but I have a pretty damn bad taste in my mouth from Last year because we saw it happen where this team desk spiraled, the entire season we just saw them have a mini death spiral against Cincinnati. And so I have a tough time here saying that were the worst greatest team in the Big Ten. We could just lose that mean, there are winnable games on their Michigan state. Looks like a mess.
I don't think Rutgers is a world beater. Purdue looks like they could be beatable. Oddly Penn State doesn't great out here very well, but I don't think we're going to go into happy or they're coming up. We're not going to beat them. But, you know, there, Are winnable games on the schedule but the numbers don't look good. And then the recent history of last year, this team showed that it could just basically pack up start October 1st and be done
with the year. Also really doesn't look good. So no, it doesn't. This team is going to have to do something that the numbers don't indicate that the eyes don't indicate like they're going to have to do something different, because if you're Tom Allen at this point, a three win season and losing out from here, just isn't good enough. One more win. So, and again, he's not going to be fired. The contract doesn't allow it.
But it's like you spend all this time talking about fans and fan engagement and interest and we got to pack the Rockets like well you gotta win some more games. Like he just you've got to do it. You've got to find ways to do it and win these games. This is a, I don't know man. But yeah the the looking through PFF it's frightening how bad we grayed out.
Well all levels of football and you know just to make sure everybody's on the same page like these are observations A tional grades where you're going through and you're looking at the way the teams are playing, you know, combining that with some statistical analysis. So you know, there's look there's some there's some subjective qualitative stuff that goes into it but there's some quantitative stuff too and I, you know, all the things you just said there is.
But when we're last inaudible, probably do not like, not like, when your fourth or fifth, it's like, okay, maybe we should be first, like, when your last across the board? It's like, I'm agreeing with you and what I'm going to say is, you know, you look at it. And the problem is, ultimately, we've got four games in the can some teams have played five games. Like we've got enough of a
sample size. Now we've got a third of the Season played that you can look and say with some certainty here's how teams are likely going to grayed out. So all those things that you mentioned regarding IU and the way that they compared to the rest of the Big Ten in the PFF grading, I think are very valid, the other one that's really valid. Do you know what Indiana ranks among all FBS teams in terms of like All of those factors offense, which you do breaks down into past success.
Run success, blocking success in the passing game, running game, defensive success, special teams. What do you know what Indiana grades out to in terms of ranking? I didn't want to look at that. Yeah, I just prefer not so they are there. 131 teams in FBS Indiana's, re-rated 117th out of 131. They are the only team in outside the top hundred that has more than two wins which tells you that essentially they've won three of their games despite not playing well at all.
They've gotten lucky to some degree. We talked about that before. And you know, look luck is part of football, but you look at the teams below them. The only teams that they're better than right now. This is not exactly a murderer's row Colorado State, Miami of Ohio, Nevada, Western Michigan UMass, Charlotte, New Mexico, South Carolina, who has truly looked off.
This year, so I guess there's something small to cheer for Louisiana, Monroe, Hawaii, Ford international Akron, New Mexico, state and Colorado, who has seized the worst team in FBS mantle from Washington State and is running around the field with it. Right now, that's it. And what what's funny is those teams you just listed. It's also, I just, I have a weekly call. Kevin Warren. Those are all the teams are looking to add to the big city west.
There was looking bad that entire group, just for the Big Ten West. And we're going to get Alabama and cleanse it yet. Go ahead. So you know, look here. Is the thing the the team I would really like this. I you team to go to a bowl. I would like this team to play. Well, I really would, I would like Tom Allen to have a successful career at Indiana. He's going to be here for a while so I wish him the best. But I'm really frustrated like to go into my garage and have my
2016 pilot, just be a 2022 pile. Like I just, I would love to see that happen. I just really frustrated because this is not an untalented football team. And, and last year's team was An untalented football team and yet they've not played well. They've won three games and then they got kind of boat raced by a group of five team on the road. It could have been a lot worse. It could have been better but it could have been a lot worse. It's so, you know.
And we talked about this at the beginning of the year. There's a lot of trust issues that I, you fans who are not like, you know, the type that just roots for the team, regardless of what happens, but is actually trying to be intelligent. About the way that they're approaching their fandom and how they feel about things. It's it's not been good enough like they're not playing well even in Victory and then you see yesterday the you know the pass
blocking number for that game. If you look at the PFF ratings is 29.8, they'd already had a 35.6. You go back and look at last year's offensive line ratings the lowest the lowest pass blocking rating that PFF gave Last year was against Cincinnati. It was a 42.7. This is on a 100 scale. So you've already had two games offensive line, wise worse than your worst game last year in the offensive line.
And you have to go all the way back to, you know, a couple of games in the 2020 season to get numbers that were lower than what you're seeing and it was Penn State. Which as you remember, Michael penix is running all over the place. In that one, Ohio, State, same thing, and that game it was concen, which Indiana largely one through Wisconsin, just being terrible on offense.
It's this is a consistent issue. Defensively is, I mean, so I'm kind of expecting the offensive line, I guess, I shouldn't, but I'm expecting them to not play well, but it's like, why hasn't that been addressed in a more direct manner? Because it's actively hurting Indiana's ability to compete and then you go on the defensive side, there's like coaches, who focus on offensive line, like, there's a wealth of wine
coordinator. My understanding is like an that's a job that can be Placed and you can have new people there and I just, you know, it's just that that other programs do at times but it's also wild to me. Like if it's like Supreme Court Justice, like maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I don't understand college football. Like, maybe when you get the offensive line coach job, it's like a supreme court nomination. Like, oh, you're just that's it
for life. Like we, he believes in a right-wing view of offensive line coaching, and that's just the way it is. We gotta, we gotta pack the court, but we gotta get more offensive line coach. Coaches. But, you know, it's deeper than just that what's Wild to me is what's like this defense is so inconsistent and and it's really, it's really bizarre because, you know, all that all the talk and particularly where the defense was supposed to be good, which was the secondary.
You got Taiwan Mullen back, you've got Josh sanguinetti, you've got Brian Fitzgerald who's been around forever. You know, you've got these really talented players back there and and they just looked like They're not sure what they're supposed to do at Key moments and it's been through
all four games. And so look I think the offensive line is a big issue and you know your points are well taken and funny to me. But I guess my concern to some degree is I see the same sorts of lack of attention to detail and the same like letting your foot off the gas or not paying attention to what you're supposed to be doing and it ends up hurting what your team is doing now on the defensive side as well. And this is a A real concern.
Because momentum wise, this is a program that we've seen these Cycles where the team just stops playing well and you start to see these systems failures at inopportune moments. I mean, you know, the big, the only time that I remember I you football being like just completely unwatchable from start to finish every game, was the jury dinardo era.
You know, people forget in the bill in Shara like those teams competed in certain games, but they would have Keet like to Three or four key plays, where they would just like, it was like, they left their bodies and they were incapable of understanding, like, what they were supposed to do in that moment and then they're back and they're playing decently on the next drive. But by that point, they're down
21 and the game's over. And what I'm a little concerned because I see those same Tendencies right now. And I think Indiana has gotten lucky frankly in the two games that they want against FBS teams, where it didn't come back to bite them in this game, it did. And I guess I've just got some PTSD. ESD from previous Seasons where this has happened with IU. Because as you said last year we saw these Trends in September and we were like, oh surely it'll get better.
Or they'll fix this or that and it never actually got better. So yeah, it's a real concern right now. One other Trend that I'm starting to clicking in as you're talking, you mentioned Taiwan Mullen, you know, two years ago. He has just a fantastic year. I remember last year, you know, we had the home-field shirt, you know, it's like Taiwan All-American. That's what I wore to the Iowa game.
He was injured for the majority of last year but didn't look great and believe me, I understand safety. It sucks. Like there's that one player. He plays basically perfect coverage and the ball just drops in like in the only spot that he couldn't be. But I would say, he doesn't look exactly what we were expecting a All-American safety to look like at most of the points of this year. And that's another weird thing
that's happening. Again, this kind of like, I don't I don't know where to put my footing because it feels like there's quicksand everywhere you're starting to get it. A history of guys, who we part of the reason. We thought we were going to be good last year. Is that we expected guys, were going to have growth or at least stay where they're at? So it's like, well, we knew tie.
Fry Fogle is here, right? And if he goes up here, he could be an All-American. But, you know, we feel like we understood what the floor was of these guys and it's like, oh no, fry Fogle is going to have a huge step back. It's like Taiwan Mullen is here. It's like, well, he's not quite here anymore. He's going back. You look at Stevie Scott. I'm not saying he was ever going to be an all Eric and like his first year he averaged four
point nine yards. A carry 1,100, 1,100 37, yards of 2018. He went down to eight forty-five yards in 2019 and 2020. He had 561 yards, he had different carries, get a team going to more past, but it's like you're starting to see this. Even the guys that are good, we can't confirm that the next year, they're going to come back and be like. Now, this guy's going to be at least have a floor and get better. And I think that's also concerning to. This is a fangs.
I don't know what to do. Like what do you expect? If everyone's like if it's just going to be your good for one year and the next year, it's like we're all just at just sketching the entire team and it's like you're not good anymore. I don't know. And that's, that's a problem of program building where you've got to have that floor of guys where it's like Arduino fry
fogle's good for 10 touchdowns. Now we're getting another wide receiver up there, you can't be playing whack-a-mole with this stuff. It's very, it is very odd, I
agree. I mean the and it's I don't I don't have a really good answer for it and that's it's one of those things where when you look at the Player Development I mean this is this what made last year so confounding was that you had all this experience you know, guys that have been through the wars and it didn't work at all last year and it's not really working much this year and you do see guys kind of taking steps back and it's just kind of surprising, you know, it wasn't
that Stevie Scott, you know, was a bad back. I mean guy like, you know, got on an NFL roster for a bit in the preseason but it is you have to say looking at the numbers that he just kind of dab. No. Absolute least every year. Absolutely. And I don't know what the answer to that is. It's very odd. So look I think take a step up. Yeah. As we look at like just this is a massively important stretch their going into like you have at Nebraska home to Michigan home to Maryland at Rutgers.
See your point if you want to get A bold and if you want to be in a spot where you know, so you got to get to five wins playing Purdue and Purdue is doing what they normally do, which is like, they look tough for a second then they aren't. So I'm not. I admit, I gotta say, I admittedly fell asleep during that game last night and I feel like I missed a lot. It looked like pretty was on the ropes there a little bit. I think they were I didn't watch
much of s all the scores. Yeah but so I'm not confident with the team. We're going to put on the field but my confidence. Team produce going to have butts, like, you got to get to five wins to get there so you need two more. You know. It's like you almost. You got to get those two in this this next stretch of four games that I talked about. Yeah, that cuz I mean, Michigan, it's like, again, the schedule
gods do us no favors. Like, I wish we could play Michigan State sometime in the next couple weeks like playing them after Ohio State. I watched Ohio state looks phenomenal. Like I'm not sure what team were going to have healthy after that autistic. There's a part. We maybe should just send like our JV team or just be like, look what score do you guys want? Like, are we cool thing?
Fifty six to nothing? Or fifty six to three, let's just call it that will place them, you know, Checkers out here. Maybe we'll do like a Connect 4 Tournament and then we can just go on our our way. You don't want to get hurt, we don't get hurt. Was going to go to East Lansing and see you guys next week but it's like I don't. So you really got to get to in the next four and I'm I'm, I'm very nervous. This team can kind of pull it together, especially at Nebraska, I think he's placed by.
I think the frustrating thing is They've clearly got the talent that they could beat any of those two even Michigan. I mean, I was actually surprised at how pedestrian Michigan, looked at home against Maryland, you know, it's and as much as We've joked about that game, being one of the, like, the two or three games that just feel like they're off the table for
this IU team. I mean, what I saw from Michigan and that game yesterday, I was like, if you put together a good 60-minute game, you could beat that Michigan team. If you're Indiana, if you put together a good 60 panel, Doug stuff that we're not doing. Well, hold on, you know, if you put together a good 60-minute game, you could beat Nebraska, you could definitely beat Maryland.
You could be truckers. But the problem is, when was the last time we saw in Indiana, play a 60-minute game, when was it? I mean, even the wind's they had last year, I don't think you could classify maybe Idaho last year. You can't even say that they play the 60-minute game against Idaho this year. And so what's frustrating is? We sit here three and one point and do it last screw into the year.
Yeah. You know, and and you look at it and you say to yourself, Self. When Indiana has been able to put together full performances front to back, they are able to compete with probably anybody except Ohio State in the Big Ten because the rest of the Big Ten, I don't think is that good. Actual. Maybe Minnesota, is the other good team and Indiana doesn't have to play them unless they end up in the Big Ten championship game unlikely. Not worried about that. I'm not really worried about
that. But but, but nothing I've seen through the first four games, this year tells me that Indiana is going to How find religion in the next 6 days and go in and Nebraska and play a 60-minute game. That just doesn't seem like it's within the reach of this group of relatively talented for Indiana, football players, you know? And then you look down the the rest of the schedule and you know, the Rutgers game looks more winnable but when was the last time Indiana played a
60-minute game at Rutgers? I mean it's it is a it is a concern. That I don't think it's going away anytime soon and so I do get frustrated because I think Alan deserves credit for having recruited a higher caliber of player and I think that he did a good job in the portal. I like Connor basil, lack on the whole. I wish I could see him in a full game where he had a bunch of time to throw because he seems to be able to get the ball where he wants to get it to when he has time to throw.
He had that one really bad pass early on in the game. And really after that when he was not under I thought he made a lot of really good throws. He found his receivers for the most part. I like to see him get DJ Matthews involved a bit more but can camper you know, that's another player. I think you take your hat off to Tom Allen for pulling in. And there's a quilt the trouble with bass lack is that he doesn't throw great.
When he's under pressure on the run and unfortunately it's like 60% of his throws are going to be coming that way especially moving forward. Well that's well I mean you can't have it all you know but and it's it goes back to the bank. It goes back to the Michael Annex conversation. We had last week where it's like
panics looks like a new man. Panics is no throwing the ball everywhere and is performing at a level that reminds a bunch of people of what he looked like at his best here at IU and he's doing it behind a line that's giving him time to throw, you know, that is that is, you know, kept him from having to deal
with a lot of duress. He was 22 or 37 for 309 yards and two touchdowns yesterday, you know, you just It's hard to watch a talented group of players, lose games, because there are like, systematic failures, in certain aspects of the team that we've seen consistently over the course of the time and where they have these, these kind of brain fade
moments. And as you said, where you don't have players like living up to the Legacy, they've already created for themselves and actually taking steps back the further into their careers, their growing, which is not happening with everybody. But it's happening with just enough of the wrong people. All that, it creates a problem that Indiana is not able to overcome.
So, look at this point, this Indiana team could win three or four more games, they could win 0, more games, but I think the big take home point for me in this game is just that I was hoping that Indiana would have learned some lessons, not just through the first four games or three games of the year.
But also out of last year about the need to be more detail oriented about the need to not have a A such an inconsistent approach to playing games, to try to figure out a way to be a 60-minute team, and it just doesn't feel like they've gotten anywhere close to that. And in a year, where the Big Ten is you starting to scratch your head and be like, I love this conference, is that good, it's starting to feel like, you know, a good opportunity for Indiana, but it's hard to have faith.
That they will actually be able to take advantage of that opportunity based upon literally, all of the evidence that we've seen. So we do have a question. I want to get to this is from Scott from Crimson cast. It's just just for fun because we're at a point in the season where, you know, this is not for, it's not a fun question but it's a point where we can play a little hypothetical.
You know, as we've mentioned before, I'm taking, you know, Alan is not going to be he he's going to be the coach after this season. Yes, on contract pieces. So I don't want to get into a fire discussion. I'm just curious to ask you. I, I will say, I don't think this is going to happen. I'm not Sure why it's not. I don't see us losing out. I agree with you. I think the Big Ten is softer. I'm not sure where we're going
to win. I'm not sure where I would say, like, that's a game I think we could win, but it feels like this will be like all other Seasons. It will find a way to win one here or there. That said, based on all the metrics, everything we talked about. There's and we did it last year. There's a path, we're starting October. We lose out, right? If I'm just curious to play that right now. If that happens again, let's just say, we lose out again. This year.
We finished the year. Three in 10, we won one more game, but again you had a year where you just lose out, what do you, what do you think is going to happen? Nothing. Besides people being unbelievably checked out. We think it's just nothing's gonna happen. Nothing's going to happen. I mean if they lose out they lose out and and we'll run it back laughs. I mean, I'm not being flippant,
I just look. I know they're nothing's changing with this program for another few years and this is where you, you have to. Just hope that The coaching staff. Is able to make incremental improvements in the way that Indiana plays on a week-by-week basis and are able to build off of that because I don't I really honestly don't think any changes occur. I also think like you said, I think they're going to win at
least one game in conference. Like it would be it would be shocking if they went one and eight at this point in the Big Ten, you know, I think two and seven or three and six feel more. Like the types of records that we would expect this team to have, which Yeah. Is you know, it's an improvement over last year and I guess that, that's what you have to have. You have to hang your hat on,
you know. But it's frustrating to me because I think that the way that this team is constructed and you look at the way the rest of the big tennis playing right now, they should be better now. And, you know, I think it's perfectly reasonable to say, you know. Yes, they've won, but they needed to play better in those victories. They shouldn't be having to go to overtime. To beat a Sun Belt team at home. I mean they did that just that shouldn't be in the cards.
Indiana should have had the floor raised at least enough that that's considered a disappointment and then to go onto the road and and you know show that you can compete in spots but end up being undone by just a bunch of careless mistakes on both sides of the ball. That's not acceptable either. But I just don't, I don't see.
Either from a financial perspective or an Institutional perspective, anything being likely to change regardless of what happens the rest of this year because you can always point to. Well they won a Big Ten game already and they didn't do that at all last year and they've won one more game already then they want all of last year. So that's an improvement, you know? So look, I don't know. I'm sure others. They'll be some people who would be like, why are you guys even
having this conversation? And they'll be others. Who are like, how can you not say gosh we have to have a change. I'm just being realistic is not what I want or don't want. This is where Indiana is, this is, this is who they are. They've for For Better, or For Worse, they have locked in with Tom, Allen is his program and he's the guy in charge and he's not going anywhere for a while and there's really not a whole lot else to say about it at this
point. No, you're you're right, because, yeah, I don't want to I'm not trying to go down the road of we'd change out. Like I'm not, I'm just But we are staring at at there's none of the metric show. This is going to end well, this season. It is, is there? But you're right. Like the contract situation is such that. Tom Allen is going to be the coach next year, but you also you made the moves you had to make but you're also kind of boxed in where it's like there are no other moves.
You can make you, you change both your coordinator so you can't. After one year fire your offensive or defensive coordinator without looking completely insane. So you can't do that and it's like that's that's about all you can do. Like those are really. The maybe you can make some smaller low-level coordinator changes. Like I don't know. Offensive line could be done. Like maybe you do that but I don't think that's going to solve everything. Yeah, it's I think you're right.
It's this is where it sucks. It's tough to be in marketing because like, hey, last few years with two and ten, three and nine lost out since October. Can you please get more people in the stadium? Well, if you please, yeah, programmed it to get people fired up against like, this is I mean and for those for those who have not been fans for a while, And are doing the, you know, hey, you got it, you got to show up and you gotta support this team.
It's like live through these next two years with us and then you can you engage a human being and Galen can, all reminisce about how I'm tired of being told, as a fan, how I should react to this team after years of this. Well, that's then. Look, ultimately what? You just described the two and it would have been to a 93 and ate like that's a lot of IU football history where it's like, well, it'll be, we'll get em next year. It was data that very Chicago Cubs ish meant Tality pre 2016.
Where, you know, you have a, you have a group of fans who are just going to root for the team, no matter what. And, you know, good for them and look, rooting for the team and and refusing to point out any flaws, I think are two completely different things. I just I get frustrated because I think there were definitely years where I, you clearly had the least amount of talent the conference, and clearly was just not pulling in Tammy. That was the big frustration of
the building share. It was that those teams Or were whatever the opposite of chalk full is, you know, the cupboard was Barren in terms of depth and Talent on a lot of those rosters. That's not the case here.
Like Alan, you just look at the numbers has done a pretty good job overall in bringing in players and even in the transfer portal I think he's done a good job of bringing in players but the same types of mistakes happen over and over again, with this team, you know, I mean, you had a Big play erased by a dumb
personal foul. And you know, you had a you had a fair catch on a punt at the with the for the are three yard line and you know, in both cases the camera flashes over and Alan's yelling at the player and I'm like get look into a mirror like this is like you can blame those individual players but this has happened every single year that Tom Alan's been the head coach and it just it becomes clearer.
I think if you watch this team in-depth enough That they they really struggle with fundamentals and and again it's
not solely a Tom Allen thing. This is stuff that stretches back through, Kevin Wilson it stretch back through, Lynn should stretch back through Hefner this its kind of the unit in our do but do not ye well I yeah, he who shall not be named but you know, it's been a long-standing issue with OU football period And it but it's more frustrating now because before you assumed that the mistakes were due to a lack of
Talent or lack of ability. And there were ample your you could look at the recruiting ratings and say, yeah, clearly they're not getting the caliber of play, they've got good caliber players now at a bunch of positions and they're still making very, very basic mistakes. And it's the problem is, you know, most most Big Ten teams aren't actually able to just live off their talent.
Ohio state is, and Ohio State actually, is also a really well-coached team, but you look at most of the other programs and they survived Of off of being better in the fundamentals. This is Iowa system, it's Wisconsin system. Its Northwestern system. It's Penn State system. Like they get all the little
things, right? And you know, most of the time they lose when they play Ohio State or when they play like a really, really good team, but that's what they're based upon an Indiana under Allen. As we've said many times before is really based on emotion, they're based on Vibes. They're not based on details and it rears its ugly head. That lack of attention to detail at the worst times.
And it doesn't mean that they're the most penalized team, but it means that in situations where they get bad penalties, it's almost always in the worst possible situation. It doesn't mean that they're a terrible defensive team because they're not, but they make boneheaded lapses in Judgment at the worst possible times, which that's how you end up with 45 points scored against you. So that's the kind of thing that I was hoping to see some change on.
And it's also, where are you? They could turn around and win two of their next three or three of the next four and I wouldn't be shocked if they were actually able to put it all together. I just I need to see it first and I hope that I do. I really, really hope that I do on the positive side and you mentioned this on Twitter it was very funny at the time but it's true. It was really nice to have an
end of game situation. We're having all your timeouts came into play, you're able to actually use them effectively like that was that was fun. So I'd love to see us grow on that and continue. You to not blow art like actually use our time outs as as they could be used effectively at the end of game. That was fun. Yeah, they're what I mean. Oh and I was you know it was nice it was better in that area. That's great.
And let's just see that every game now you know because look I Indiana like God if they don't have that fumble at the end you know. They're they're within seven points at that one juncture. You know it's 3124 instead of 3824 and you know, maybe the Nothing changes and the whole second half had been managed properly up to that point and
then it just kind of fell apart. And again it's like there's a flash of something that looks positive and then it's overwhelmed by bad things so yeah, that's I don't know. Anyway, anything else podcast titled the the something good over a flash of positive overwhelmed by a bunch of bad things. Yeah, it is winning for good, you know, this is I know, you'll do it.
We'll do a Nebraska preview at some point, but it's like this is a, this is not an unwinnable game, Nebraska is not an easy place to play, but this is also not Peak Nebraska. They are dealing with their own issues, you know? So this is again, this is not a road too far and for a team that you know, just what 13, 14 months ago, we were being told like that, you know, the new Norm is eight, nine wins.
This is a team that Should be able to go in and beat a struggling Nebraska team, even if it's on the road. So, you know this, I'm very curious to see how this goes. I'm going to be very upset if again, we look like we're just completely outclassed for a good portion of the game by Nebraska. I mean Indiana went in three years ago and pulled off a win in Memorial Stadium, the other Memorial Stadium and so it can be done and certainly Nebraska looks like they're in worse
shape now than they were. Then the Difference is Indiana, had Kalin Deboer and Michael well then I'm like appendix - they had pain Ramsey. You know, they had a system that worked on offense and they had a defense that was I think playing a lot better on average than what we're seeing right now and that is unfortunately, I think for Indiana, like none of those factors are in play at this point. And, you know, so I do worry how Indiana ends up going into that
game and what they do? And I think it's worth pointing out that Nebraska lost that game to Indiana, but Nebraska played pretty well. That was a close game like Nebraska was, I mean it was really in doubt that Indiana was going to win that game until the final drive and it was really exciting when Indiana pulled that game out but it wasn't one of those situations like where Nebraska just you know wet the bed from beginning to end. Indiana really had to play smart
football. They had to play a full 60-minute game in order to pull that one out. Out. And that's why I guess I'm so concerned about it is that yes, Nebraska is struggling Nebraska
overall. I think I would, I would say this despite being one in three, has generally looked pretty good in those games they've lost tight ones, they'd obviously got blown out by Oklahoma. But my, you know, my concern is that they're they're actually playing better than their record indicates and Indiana's played worse than their record indicates. So it's going to be really fascinating, really? Task for Tom Allen and his coaching staff to have to get this team back up off the mat.
This game, get them back on the road and get their mindset right to take on a Nebraska team, that desperately needs the victory at this point. So, we'll see what happens. Anyway, we will preview that later on in the week and we will also have of course, Crimson cash coming up in the middle of the week. So be sure to freak this week. We're cruising cash. It was not a not a good week, Michigan State didn't help but I wouldn't help rough week.
Yeah, there was a it Was rough all the way around. This is why wagering is bad. As you know, we are want to remind everybody on but you know I guess it's a fun thing but anyway it's fun. I bet 10 bucks here and there and my God on I think you do it for fun. It's okay. But yes it's there. Helping swear you. You think you fly too kind of the sun like three weeks in a row. We're doing great. It's like oh this is why as the old joke is why the hotels are big in Vegas.
That's right. Nothing nothing will make you feel less adequate about your analytical skills then trying. Figure out what side of a line to bet odd because you're almost always you to get it wrong. Anyway, Scott always a pleasure and thanks to all you folks for listening in. Sorry, it wasn't more optimistic, but hey, there's plenty of season left to go. Maybe Indiana figures it out as
they move forward. Anyway, we'll be back later on in the week with more for Scott. I'm Galen, this is Crimson cast. We will catch you folks on the flip side, bring back the Bison. So long, everybody.