You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast, Galen Clavio, Scott Caulfield joining you. It's Sunday, September 3rd. Happy Labor Day weekend, everybody. We are coming off the first game on the Indiana football schedule and it didn't quite go according to plan, but kind of did at the same time.
We're going to talk about that and talk about Scott's experience at the game, my experience watching the game well after it was played and what we took away from what was kind of an odd weekend when it came to I U Football. Scott, first and foremost, good to see you. How are you doing this morning? I'm doing great, man. Good to see you again one of these days. Like, I think maybe we just podcast until we beat Ohio State in football. Look, man, I got retirement
planned in like 25 years. Okay. I don't know. I mean, what if they haven't beaten them by then? And one could say, wow, that sounds pessimistic. On the other hand, I could say, hey, the last time they beat them was the Reagan administration. So that you know, this is, this is, I don't think it's funny. When I was doing my prep for the game, I was looking at the the list of times I U has beaten Ohio State and they've beaten them 12 times total in the
series, which is sad. What's sadder is that most of those wins came preworld War Two, and of the 1210 of them took place in Columbus, which seems like a bridge too far these days. I use only beaten Ohio State twice in Bloomington. One of them was 1988 and the other you want to guess what it was. Probably like 1927 or something that 1927 is optimistic of you. I think it was like 1904 like it was, it was literally like, you know, pre Woodrow Wilson if if we're sticking with presidents.
I like, I like the idea of you know the the six listeners who followed us on football this whole time like they they they go through the next 20 years. We somehow do beat Ohio State and then it's just like the you know it's like the the Moose isn't here. It's like Wally World like just that's like sorry the guys the pod shut down like I can't wait to hear what Scott and Galen say. It's like sorry we're done like you and I are. We don't we don't even do a recount pod.
We just we just cancel the whole thing. You know we call Connor at home field and say look man we'll pay the money back. It's fine, you know, you know, but yeah, no, I let's, let's keep dreaming on this. That's about the best thing we can do. Those things happen. We lost 23 degrees, so we're back. You're stuck with us anyway. So we're going to chat about the game.
We're going to chat about how we feel in the aftermath of the game in terms of, you know, we we gave our preseason predictions last week and and wanted to update those based on what we see. So we'll talk about all of that, but first just a reminder, we're brought to you by the well we part it. We are not brought by brought to you by. We're part of the home field. Geez, no, I've screwed it up completely. Scott, let's start over. We are part of the back home
network. The back home network is brought to you by home field apparel and home field apparel is the place to go if you're looking for the awesomest college sports gear out there, you've got just I can't even it's we're at a point now where I can't easily or adequately describe what's on
the home field website. There are so many different things and whether you're looking for bomber jackets or hoodies or joggers or tshirts or long sleeve tshirts or three quarter tshirts or dad caps, you're big dad cap guy, aren't you? You look like a dad cap kind of guy. I'm more the trucker cap, and I'm definitely a dad who wears caps, but I have a great home field story. Oh, here we go.
We're sitting in our tailgate at which I want to talk to you about and my wife is like, I need some new gear. Like I just, you know, I want some new gear and it's like go to home field, start shopping and I realize like she I've bought stuff for her, she's never purchased from home field before. So I'm like. Promo code HOME like, promo code HOME like, Oh my God like here like Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding like set the alarms like we found somebody like you can use it and I know you like I'm
married to you. So we we we put together an order at the tailgate. It was that the promo code was used. It was fantastic. So it was nice to to see somebody using it and somebody that I know and like a lot. See, Scott finally found a way to beat the system. This is awesome to see. I know it's it's great, you know, because you see so much home field gear all over the place, not just on the Internet,
but you see it out in the wild. And it's because people know when they go to home field apparel, they're getting the softest fabrics, they're getting the, you know, awesome designs and and just new designs keep getting pumped out on a regular basis. So if you're like Scott and you have not leveraged that first time purchase attempt 15% off, go ahead and do so. Code is home for home field apparel.com. Follow them on social.
They're great on Instagram, they're great on X. If you're the type of person that still goes to X and it's you're going to find things that you didn't think that you wanted, and then they will have to become part of your overall collection. I actually had to rearrange my closet 2 weeks ago so that I could find a place to put all of the hoodies because I have bought so many hoodies from home field apparel and that has now become essentially my entire fall wardrobe. So thank you.
Anyway. Home field apparel.com. Go to check them out folks. Sponsors of Crimson Cast and the back home Network. All right I U Ohio State. Let's talk about the game first and then we'll talk about the other stuff including your tailgate stitch afterwards. So Indiana loses this game 23 to 3:00 and it's one of those games where I I think this is going to be a Rorschach test for a lot of people in the fan base and in the media. You're going to read into it what you want to read into it.
I think if you are a pro Allen, you know, pro program trajectory person, you're going to take a bunch of positives out of this performance and there are positives. If you are an Auntie Allen, you know, I don't like the direction the program is going type of person. There's a lot you could take out of this game where you'd be like I I I feel bolstered in my opinion. You're trying to look at this from a a more neutral
perspective. I'll say this, Indiana both satisfied some of my concerns and created new ones in this game, and I didn't have the the pleasure. I'll put that in in scare quotes of watching the whole thing live. I saw the first quarter I had to leave for a work function. So I listened to a lot of the game on the radio. I came back and watched the whole thing late last night and, well, I knew what I was getting into because it wasn't like a surprise.
You know, I didn't try to be like, Oh no, don't don't check social media because people who do that are just kidding themselves. But I I went back and watched and you know, I think the big thing also start with the positives. The big thing that stood out to me, obviously was the play of the defense. Not just that they were able to stymie Ohio State. Not just that they were able to impose their will physically,
which felt weird. I, I, I a couple of times checked to make sure that I hadn't accidentally DVR'd a different team, but they really looked active and all over the place and we had a lot of questions about the defense. You know, we knew Andre Carter was probably going to be good. We weren't sure about the rest of the pieces, but you know, for a team that looked adrift on defense the last two years, this was a major statement game, even in a loss.
And you know I have to say I I'm really excited and you know it looks already like the hire of Matt Guerrero as defensive coordinator has paid some dividends because they there was a clear plan on defense and I we didn't really see that the last couple of years. No, I mean, no question the defense looks good. That was obviously going to be my positive as well. And and you're right, I mean at the game. You know what you don't know is like how checked out or not checked in was Ohio State.
But even like 1/2 checked in Ohio State is probably better than a lot of teams were going to play this year. But you know the thing that we didn't see, that you see in so many of these games that you keep it close? And then, you know, like in the past, Ezekiel Elliott breaks for, you know, 280 yard runs and it's like suddenly it's 21. Three. Ohio State never really had those big plays and either they weren't really going for them.
Again, don't know if Ohio State just wasn't, you know, opening their playbook or if IU was providing enough issues on defense. That they weren't doing it. But you hold Ohio State 2 for 12 on 3rd down and a lot of the two of those were really short downs which unfortunately is why Ohio State was 2 for three from 4th down. But you know and the the yardage numbers you know 237 passing yards, 143 rushing yards like those are you hold them to 23 points. You have Marvin Harrison Jr.
I think you held two catches. Well under his thanks. You know, I appreciate the defensive effort. I kind of wish you would have let Marvin Harrison get over 93 1/2 yards based on my gambling aspects. But just you know seconded. Yeah, I think I only can only can win so many things But you also hold Ohio State to 23 points and that is you know if I just tell you that Galen last week like hey, nothing else we're going to hold Ohio State to 23 points. I take that and I run with it.
And so, so I completely agree. The defensive effort, they look crisp, Chris. They look good and and like you said, they they kind of pushed around Ohio State at times. Yeah, I mean, I think you brought up a point. I don't know if Ohio State was checked out. I think is the wrong word. I don't think. I don't think they were checked. However, however, I will say this is clearly not the same Ohio State team from a personnel
perspective. You know, you don't have, there's no Justin Fields, there's no CJ Stroud. You had two quarterbacks and honestly, you know these look like John Cooper era Ohio State quarterbacks, not modern day day quarterbacks. You know, I mean, I don't know if that's what they're rolling with. They're going to lose two or three regular season games this year. I mean McCord was just really met and the other guy, Brown, I mean they were hyping him up
when he came in the game. Like this guy's Uber athletic. And then I think he was in for like 5 plays and really did not impress. So I think Ohio State certainly has some offensive problems that they're going to need to sort. But even putting those aside, Indiana holds Ohio State to 380 total yards on offense. That only happened to them twice
total last year. One of them was against Iowa, but they won 54 to 10. The other one was that game at Northwestern that that kind of had everybody questioning whether Ohio State was really good. They only had 283 yards. They still won that game 21 to 7. You know, Ohio State does occasionally have games where they don't play that well, but it hasn't been that regular. I mean, you go back through the rest of 2022, you go through 2021.
I mean, they're normally at at minimum at like 450 yards on offense, if not more. So I think from my use perspective, yeah, Ohio State isn't up in Top Gear yet, but that hasn't stopped them in the past, you know, And and so I'm not, I'm not the type of person who's going to be like, well, Ohio State didn't have their own game because I do think that Indiana had a lot to do with that. It's not like Ohio State chose to score 23 points.
You know, this is not the type of program where they're like, yeah, sure, we're just going to, you know, pull some punches. They have no punches to pull, I think, at least in the short term of things. So all of that said you know you look at the performers on defense, I think Aaron Casey you know clearly stuck out. Rita looks like another really good middle linebacker in the mold of the Micah Mcfadden's and and you know some of the other folks that have been here.
You also got the no, no sacks on the day but you got some tackles for loss. Andre Carter was in the backfield a lot, lot of plays blown up before they started and even some of the past defending, you know, I mean, Jacob Mangum Farrar had two passes defended effectively. Kobe Minor played well. Louis Moore played well. Nick Toomer played well. Josh Sangredetti had that nice breakup at the end of the first half, you know.
So these were all names that we were looking on the depth chart and couldn't quite get our heads wrapped around. Okay. How are all these pieces going to fit? And they all seem to fit pretty well. Like there was a clear role for a lot of these guys and they seem like a system that could be a little bit flexible in how it was being applied. So I don't want people to gloss that over because that was a big issue the last couple of years without you.
It's early yet, but if that's the baseline that you're going off of, you can feel pretty good. Well, something we talked about in the season preview was the, you know, like in 2020 that the big thing was the takeaways and how last year it really flipped. You know, this year, you know this game I, I call it 20 because that that that what was called the interception or incomplete past the end of the first half was definitely a fumble. It just was. But you know, I, you also got an
interception. So I mean, you, you got to turn over like the defense also got to take away and really they got 2 takeaways in the first half. And that's again like, you know, 2 takeaways in there, you know, 1 1/2 takeaways in the first half and 23 points. I would take that from the defense all day long. So no, I'm I'm with you. You know, I just I was pointing out you know Ohio State did seem to be playing a little bit vanilla.
But again a vanilla Ohio State is still probably top half of the big that still might be the best opponent, you know one of the best opponents we play all year. So you know like you said both teams are playing both teams, you know, no matter whether you're playing vanilla are trying to score and I you look really, really good on defense. So that that is very encouraging.
So then we jump to the other side of things, which is the offense, which I, you know, I listening to it on the radio, I was like well, maybe this isn't that bad if you watch it, maybe the the way it's being talked about it, I'm just not getting the picture in my head. And then I came home and watch the game and wow, this is not a functional Division One offense that Indiana's running. It's just not 153 yards of total
offense in this game. I was texting back and forth with Taylor from Bite size Bison last night as I was watching the game and I think we've determined and he may have done additional work and and and clarified this further. Since 2006 Indiana's only had one game where they had that low of an offensive a total offense total. That was the 2021 game at home against Ohio State, where I think they were at 118 yards of offense in that game.
Now you have to keep in mind that game, Indiana, they've lost. Michael panics. They the season had basically been set on fire and left to drift through the harbor. And that was one of the worst weather days I think we've ever had for a game at Memorial Stadium. It rained all day. Jack Tuttle couldn't get any grip on the ball. Indiana could do literally nothing on offense.
The fact that that's the only other games since 2006 that had a worse offensive output than this one in perfect conditions is real concerning. Indiana didn't look like they knew how to throw the ball and it and they clearly looked like they knew that they wanted to run the ball. But the problem was they couldn't. They couldn't block for the run. They couldn't find holes. They, they kept doing the same things over and over again, I guess expecting different results and those results were
not there. They tried to run a triple option. They ended up running for 2.2 yards per carry and 71 total yards. That's not going to get the job done. And you know, you can look at it and say, well you know, gosh, that's it's Ohio State. How could you, how could you think that you could do that? And I'd just like to note that, you know, all of last year nobody had that low of a yardage total playing against Ohio State.
The closest again was Iowa. But Iowa, you can't even consider them really like an offensive football team. They're they're more like they're like a really bad I PO on offense as opposed to being an actual, like, offensive company. You got to go back a ways other than that Indiana game in 2021 to find a game where teams had this few yards. Like one of them was Miami of Ohio in 2019 against Ohio State who had 130 yards.
This was, you know, I'm not expecting I you to win this game, but I you have to have a functional offense if you're going to compete. And you know, Allen's explanation in the press conference seem to be, well, it's, you know, we're still trying to work the quarterbacks up. Like, no, that's that's not sufficient. You have to have a functional
offense in a Big 10 game. And frankly, it's it's incredibly frustrating that Indiana gets a defensive performance where they only allow Ohio State to score 23. And three of those points were due to another issue, which
we'll talk about later. So that you really kind of hold Ohio State to 20 points on the game and you are still 2 score, 3 scores away from winning because your offense is so inept that all you could do was put a field goal on the board that almost bounced out as opposed to bouncing in.
So you know, not to say that the offense is irredeemable, but if you look at what you saw out there and you saw it in person, so you saw more than I did, it looked really bad, like at a level that is not going to be sufficient for the season. Yes, Doctor. I mean, I I will. You'll point this out. I actually didn't notice. Like I just. Didn't realize this till the end of the game. I you never was in the red zone. Like just never made it to the red zone all game.
To me. I'm going to encapsulate it all into kind of 1 little series that I think shows the issues and maybe just is the I'll I'll hit on this. So I wanted to get to the quarterback back and forth but you know so it's in the second quarter. It's nearing the end of the second quarter. Indiana is in the game. It's seven to three as Ohio State 7:00 to 3:00. We get the ball on our own 42.
We have a great field position. We we run up the middle for six yards, run up the middle for one yard, run up the middle for six yards. Great. It's now first and 10 on the Ohio State 45. There's like 2 minutes left in the first half. You are still, it's a seven to three-game. And by the way, you've now somehow gotten first down, running up the middle three times. You then run up the middle for two yards, run up the middle for three yards, run up the middle for one yard.
You you leave 11 seconds on the clock. When you run that last place, there's still 42 seconds. And then you call. Ohio State calls a timeout because they know what's going on. You then do a short pass to Carter, which is not it's already going to be short of the line. It gets broken away. Ohio State immediately gets the ball, dries it down, almost scores a touchdown, save some. Again, good defensive play. This is what bothers me.
Is that? So Jackson was under center at that point and you could say, well, you know, he only threw for, you know, one for five, but it's like one of his two series before that he threw like a 40 yard pass to camp camper that wasn't there. But like they did open it up 12 seconds ago. And this is, you know, in the postgame, Alan even said, you know, we were way too vanilla on offense. And it's like, OK, but you? You've got to change that real time.
Like the game is 7 to 3. Now I'm I'm not saying that there were opportunities like maybe Ohio State what they're doing on defense isn't giving you the ability to throw, but you can still call play where you just you'll go back and just throw it to the just try one play that's not a run up the middle try something. You know, if if history is shown us, you know, we talk about these games where Ohio State gets beaten by a Purdue or by, you know, an Illinois, you know,
lower level teams. It happens because there's some of these crazy freak plays that just happened and they're not going to happen with you running jail and Lucas up the middle between the tackles. Like, I'm sorry, it's that's the unlikeliest of of where it's going to happen. The fact that you didn't take any shots there, you know, maybe you're able to get it to 6:50. Maybe. I don't know if you win. It's a different feel but it does feel like we were playing so much.
Just hang on to attend A73 game and then you see the difference or how state in 40 seconds just plows onto the gas and goes for it and it it. That's the frustrating part for me is it felt like and I was listening to the postgame show or the postgame calling people are calling in like you know do you think we were holding back our, you know, holding back our playbook for Indiana State and Louisville. And it's like I don't, I don't know if that's the case.
But if that's the case, like that is idiotic. Like you actually are in the game with Ohio State in the second quarter. It's seven to three like you are there. Now is the time to throw everything you have at it And if all we have at it is like is runs up the middle that I'm very nervous. So it did feel like we were holding back or playing vanilla or not not willing to let our guys at least take one shot.
And that's what that's what frustrates me is like, I'm not saying it's got to be an all air raid, but. Like take you, you have 7 plays there. Take one shot, one shot at the end. Yeah, I okay. So there's two parts to this that I think we have to consider because you're right, not taking a shot there is on the face of it, wild. I think the issue is that I you does not have the offensive line, nor do they have the quarterback. To actually do what you just described.
And so then you get into the issue of, well, should you be trying to take shots when you know that you've only got like like last year and like the year before, maybe 2 1/2 seconds in the pocket before it collapses. You know, you saw that with this that sequence at the end you were talking about. I mean, Jackson had to get the ball out pretty quickly, even to try to get the pass. Go out because he wasn't going to have enough time. Now that's a systems failure and
that is a preparation failure. And this is where it has nothing to do, even with the mentality in the game itself. It has more to do with the way that the offseason was set up and the way that the players are put together, The way that Allen decided to pursue or not pursue quarterbacks. We talked at the end of the year about Allen wants to be now a running team. He wants to, he wants to run the option. He wants to use the run to support the quarterbacks, I guess to pass.
That's kind of what he said. But he had an ingame interview with Jenny Dell where it was like late in the second quarter and there was some kind of question about the quarterbacks like, well, you know, our plan was to play both. Thanks Tom, for telling us that. And you know, we need to run the ball to help the quarterbacks out. That was his exact words. So if you take that and you're like okay, that's his mentality. We got to run the ball.
He doesn't have a team that can effectively run the ball to support the passing game, and he doesn't appear to have quarterbacks who are able to pass the ball to support the running game. That's a real problem, and that's a team building issue. And I'm sorry. I look around the country and I see all of these teams that brought in quarterbacks who were throwing the ball, we're running offenses that were taking advantage of their weapons.
I look at all these weapons that Indiana's accrued, you know, both in the backfield and at the wide receiver. Session. You know, areas. Cam Camper, EJ, Williams, Dequees, Carter. Donovan, McCauley, Anderson, Kobe. I mean, that's five good receivers. You know that group of players ended up combining for 8 catches total out of the nine that Indiana had. Sorry, 7 catches out of the nine that Indiana had. And. There was no real attempt to get them involved in the passing game.
They were being used to block for a running game that was nonexistent, in part because there's no tight end that you can reliably have out there as part of that process on the roster. So part of the offensive issue in terms of things is the is a team building thing. The other though, I think the mentality is we want to play to not lose up until the point where we can play to win.
And that's a terrible mentality. If that's what Alan did against Purdue last year, where he was so fired up to essentially run out the first half, When you knew that if you watched I U football and you watched I U under Alan, you knew that Purdue was going to make adjustments. They were going to really push the envelope offensively in the second-half, and they did. You knew Ohio State was going to continue to score. Going in whether it was 7 to 3:00 or 2:50 was not going to be
enough. And so you do have to try different things to try to get the ball down the field. And you can't simply say, well, Indiana's not capable of doing that. That's that. You have to be able to like the idea that Indiana is just incapable of doing anything that goes to Ohio State is not acceptable, Scott, like it's like every other team in the Big 10 was able to figure out at least how to do something on offense to score a touchdown against Ohio State last year.
It's hard for me to get my head wrapped around the idea that Indiana was so inept. In terms of how things were structured that they couldn't be able to at least try to do that in this game. And yet most of the play calling was about as conservative in vanilla as you can get. And as you said, you you got to adjust to that in real time when you are that close. Yeah.
I think your your turn of phrase is perfect like you're playing not to not to lose until you have to play to win like that that's what and it you definitely felt that in the stadium. It's just like we're like it's like we're really happy to be 7 to three of Ohio State. Like that's not going to do it. Like you're not going to get three more field goals and win nine to seven. Like it's not going to happen. You know the thing with the the
option that is it was tough. So I watched part of because it was hot we went to the like the nutrition center which is where you you did the you sat there last year above it. So kind of that behind the end zone looks. So it was actually a really cool way to watch us play the option. And you know, there was multiple plays in the second quarter where Jackson made the wrong. And I'm saying this very lightly because it's not like he's a freshman.
It says he's trying it, but it's like he made the wrong reading the option. And like, had he kept the ball, he would have gotten the first down. Or had he pitched it in the other situation, he would have, he would have had the first down. That's fine. I'm not, this is not a criticism of that. What It's more criticism or the system of it is like, you know, this idea of like we're suddenly gonna become like a double or a triple option team.
It's like if you went to go see Aerosmith and it's like, hey, Joe Perry wants to play drums tonight, it's like, well, this is, this is really hard to just do overnight. Like, yeah, he's a musician. Like it could maybe go all right, but, like, can we just get guys back normal and dream on? Like, I'd like to just hear dream on. You know, it's the option takes a long time to learn and if you're getting quarterbacks who didn't play it a lot in high school and you don't have it and
so again, it's not. I'm not knocking the players. They look like they were running the option for the first time against a really good team. And and then it's like, you know exactly what happened is what I thought would happen is Ohio State gets up what is it, 14 to three in the second-half. And it's like, all right now we're going to bring sores me back, and now we're going to suddenly run a traditional offense where we're throwing a lot because.
We we can't go three and out every time and it yeah so. So there's all those things I do want to circle back to the to the quarterback like yes, Tom Allen. Oh sorry. One thing real quick on that because I think it's important to point out I mean we get frustrated with Alan on this show and I and it's not. I mean, other people get frustrated with Alan too, but like our frustration a lot of times simply comes from Alan.
Has got to understand how all the phases of the game work as a head coach, but he has consistently shown an inability to really understand how the offense works and how it should fit into things. And it it, you know, we had this complaint earlier in his time at I U. Where it almost felt like the offense was supposed to be an adjunct supporter of the defense and you know, under the board it
felt that way. And then he hired Kaylin Debour and it felt like, oh, maybe things have gotten better and then the last couple of years the offense has just been bad. I'm really concerned that his focus on a a running game is because it supports his defense or or Gary's defense now. When he doesn't have the personnel to pull off what he's trying to pull off, like you can't just snap your fingers and say, well we're going to be a power running team, we're going
to run the option. I mean that is that is you know, it's a particular type of player that you're recruiting. It's a lot of training. It's a lot of prep. We know this offensive line has struggled in all phases of blocking. They were not awful yesterday in the traditional sense, in that, you know, it wasn't a free for all to the quarterback like it traditionally has been, but a lot of that was because we were. You know, rolling out and running these these option reads.
So they were pursuing anyway and it kind of masked what we've normally seen, pass rush wise, pass rush wise it's. But it's frustrating because we've talked about this. We know this. This is not a team whose personnel set is focused on being that type of an offensive squad. They haven't recruited for it. They really didn't get the players in the portal to support it. And they've got all these skill position players that are really good.
And you know, instead of really trying to focus on, for instance, getting Jalen Lucas into space and throwing him the football and putting him in a position to succeed, what he doesn't have a bunch of. Tacklers bearing down on him when they're going forward and he's going laterally. Instead we're making him go laterally or we're plunging him into the line. I mean, Gary Danielson, I think
it was, or maybe it was. Brad Nesler made some comment on the broadcast about if you have to establish the dive, if the option is going to work. And the other one said, well, you normally don't dive a guy who's 57, you know, you know that 190 pounds, which is what you're doing with Jalen Lucas,
it's. The personnel that we have does not fit the offense that Indiana's trying to run when the Jalen Lucas thing is like the the the returns that he has are electric when we're not getting holding penalties that are pulling them back. But his his kickoff returns are electric and he's amazing. Wow. And he watched that and it's like we need to get him in space. And you're right, like we're doing everything to like, hey, can we minimize space and get
more people around him. It's like just, you know, we threw behind, like I mentioned a bunch of times, we threw behind the line basically 70% of the time last year. Like just do that. Just have Jayla Lucas out in the, you know, out in the on the, you know, wide receiver out in the corner. Just throw back to him and it's one-on-one and like maybe that'll work. And you know, the last thing I'll say about the offense is like we did run a little like triple, like a triple reverse, I
think in the first. Quarter, the second quarter, it wasn't a triple reverse. It was, it was just a jet sweep basically. Yeah, like, but you know, I think it went for like -1 yard, which is fine. And on the radio they were saying like, you know, you know, sometimes these don't work, but sometimes you're just setting up, you're setting up the defense and I'm like for what?
Like we set it up for like to basically then just run up the middle of the rest of the game until we were down 20 to 3:00. But yeah, the the Jalen Lucas thing is frustrating because when you do see him out in space on kick returns, it's like dude, this guy is he's he's breaking tackles he's you know missing getting guys to miss like he is unbelievable.
And then our offense it's, you know again the triple option doesn't normally get people in space or a power running game does not get people in space and it doesn't really feature guys 57 and 120 you know £154.00. So it is it's frustrating and and you know I end with this it again, it does feel like at times being like you know this is you know it feels like the coaching staff is like this is what I want our offense to be without looking at what the the personnel is.
When it's like you should look at the personnel and be like, OK, based on this personnel, what kind of offense can I build around that? Well, and and look, the argument for the people who think that we're being overly negative is like, well, look, it just going to take time for these quarterbacks to settle in or we got to wait for Dexter Williams to come back. And I have two responses to that. Hey. You can't throw away games in the big 10 which is it felt like
that's what Indiana did. You waste a great effort by the defense because your offense is not ready for prime time that that's one issue. The second is, I mean look, I was more impressed with Tavin Jackson than I thought I'd be, even given how bad his stats actually looked at the end of the game and and there was 1 stat and I'm sure you can read about this in Bite size Bison later, but. If you look if you look at player usage, Jackson was only used on 14% of I use offensive plays.
He was really in there to hand the ball off. By and large, where is Soresby was used more, he was used on more passing plays. Jackson did have that one nice pass to Camper, but he also had some throws that didn't look that great. I don't see either of these guys as being able at this point to get up to the level that you would need to be. I you know better than replacement level Big 10 starting quarterback. And at least this year, I think in the future different story.
They're both young. They clearly both need a lot of seasoning and I don't think waiting for Dexter Williams is a reasonable thing to do because a. We've had experience recently with players coming back from major knee injuries and the idea that that he's going to be ready 10 months after that injury happened to go out and run a triple option attack effectively. I have my questions about that, Scott, but I also have the more fundamental question of Okay, What if he is 100% back?
He was, you know, he was in uniform, he wasn't active. That was a good sign. But even if he's 100% physically ready. Again, Indiana does not appear to have a personnel set that is well suited to run the kind of offense that Tom Allen and Walt Bell apparently want to run. That's a real concern as we move forward. I'll take a step back, but I will make one of my favorite
jokes. I was like you know Galen how many, how many committees are in the Indiana You know university Sports Hall of Fame. Like not a lot. And you know we we joked, we joked about this under Kevin Wilson like when it's like oh gosh you know quarterback guy committee. I think it was a Trey Roberson Sudfeld year where it's like we're going to have two. And those were diametrically opposed to quarterbacks, which
was also a bad idea. I'm I'm nervous not even because of their play but just I would I'm I'm really parsing my words here but it's like this is what you do to a fan base when you you don't name a starter you play games with that and then you come out and you basic you know you start sores be you have two kind of you know DOA drives and you bring in Jackson.
The offense seems to be moving at least a little bit better And then it's like you know I I looked at you know the in the third quarter you know you're now down I think you know 14 to
three or something. It's a really important drive and you bring stores be back in. Now that drive did go 14 plays 51 yards so you know it did workout but it's like the most important play you're not going to go with the quarterback who's been play like I just don't know what is our plan for quarterback and are we looking at A2 quarterbacks. It's not suddenly Tom Allen is named Jackson the starter for next week. So great, like we're now, we're
now in naming starter mode. But it's like is this going to be we're going to run Jackson for a while until we need passing guards and we're going to bring sores be in like it. It it feels like we're in a platoon quarterback system, which is not good. And to your point like if we if if they need seasoning, you know let them have their full season. Again it's one game. It's Ohio State. I don't want to take too much out of it, but it does.
It makes me concerned if we're like, hey, we're just going to platoon until Dexter Williams comes back and then we're going to bring it. It's like, all of that sounds like you don't have a plan at all for quarterback. I'd much rather say, hey man, Jackson's our starter or Sorosby's are starter. We're going to like we're going to. We're just going to run with
that. I think more fundamentally, the problem is Indiana. With all the other things Indiana has to contend with, with, you know that they're rebuilding their offensive line. They're, you know, they're they've they've struggled the last couple of years to have a functional offense, period. I still think it is baffling strategically that I you didn't go out and get an experienced quarterback in the portal and build their offense around that
quarterback. It is so much more efficient to be able to throw the ball if you can give that quarterback some degree of pass protection. We heard a bunch about Bob Bostad, the new offensive line coach. You know, there's a lot of hope about what that would provide, you know. So on the one hand, I mean, Tom Allen in the postgame press conference says, you know, it's not fair to judge Jackson and sores be based upon what they played in. So I state 100% agree, yeah.
And. You know, my judgment about them maybe not being ready for prime time this year is more based on the idea that, you know, Soresby has barely, had barely a year and a half of experience at quarterback at the high school level. And Taven Jackson is clearly still very raw. Because I think if he was more polished, he would have been probably wouldn't have transferred from Tennessee. He would have been in the mix
for starting quarterback there. This is clearly two guys who have a long way to go and need a system where they can be brought along gradually. You know, you absolutely, in my opinion, looking at what Indiana is now trying to do on offense, you you really had to say what's going to help Indiana the most offensively to move the ball and to be in games. And it's not this offense, it's this is this is the wrong
offense. This is an offense that a Wisconsin that's had Barry Alvarez and then has had, you know, other people of their ilk. You know, coaching for years and has built a system up. This is not something you can just decide to do because you had a couple of good games running the ball at the end of last season. You know, forsaking the passing game to the point where you throw 20 passes total for 82 yards isn't going to get it
done. And I don't buy the idea that that's Ohio State's. You're the team you're playing against because. I mean, it should be easier to throw even short passes against Ohio State than to try to run the ball into the teeth of that defense. It just, it feels selfdefeating. And it also feels like, yes, you know, you're going to move forward, you're going to play a lot of teams that are not as good as Ohio State, especially
defensively. But I don't see the infrastructure on this team to win. Well, you know, many more games with their offense. I think their defense is going to keep them in more games. If they play like they played against Ohio State, that's going to keep them in more games than perhaps I thought. And that's great. That's encouraging. But you have to have the offensive side of things up and running. And the way that they decided from the end of last season until now to set things up.
I got a lot of questions about what direction they're planning on going because it doesn't look like a good trajectory right now. And the last thing I'll say is I don't, I don't agree with you, but like, I just don't agree with that idea like it's Ohio State. What are you going to do? It's like because they, they basically stop passing for like 1/4 and 1/2, like the end of the second quarter, all of the third quarter. Then by the end of the third quarter, like I said, they bring
in stores before that drive. It's 14 plays, 51 yards. They're, they're passing to the point that on the rate they're talking, you know, they're they're picking on Ohio State's second, you know, safety number one. It's like they they keep on going to that side. They're getting passes. They're moving the ball.
It's like you can like there is almost a crisis of confidence with his offense like hey you you like stop looking at Ohio State as they like you can move the ball like it's still a 10/3 game or 14 three at that time. Like this is not over. Like move the ball and go score. Like take some shots, but it. That was the and. Anyway, I think I'm I'm sounding more negative because I will take a step back like I came away from this game, you know, thinking like hey, the defense
looks good. The offense has some issues. But I I'm, I'm concerned because this offense has got to get things figured out, and they have to, they have to open it up just a little bit more and be willing to take some risks. And maybe there's some sacks and maybe there's some interceptions. But that's kind of better than, like, laying down your king and just saying, you know, hey,
we're we're done. Well, my thing is this, like if if they, and we don't know this, if they really were pulling punches and keeping it vanilla because they didn't, they wanted to save stuff for later. That's stupid, and it's stupider when it's a 10/3 game at halftime at home against Ohio State. If the and I maybe that isn't what they did, but a lot of people have been saying, well, you know, they didn't want to bring it all they did.
People have said that if that's what happened, that it A, it fits what's happened here over the last few years and B is really not smart and really disheartening as a fan. I'm tired of just acting like we sorry, I You can't compete against Ohio State or can't compete against Penn State or Tom Allen. Just wanted to keep the podcast.
Going I'm sure that's I'm sure that was the idea anyway the other thing I'll mention the other the one other negative that I I took away and we we've talked about this the last seven years the the and really longer than that the lack of. Of discipline and focus in key moments. The lack of strategic play calling in key moments again rears its ugly head. Did any of it matter? Ultimately, where was Indiana going to win if those things
didn't happen? Probably not, but it certainly didn't help first play of the game. Sores be. Doesn't know where to throw their pitch the ball on an option. They get tackled behind the line. You know they have a key penalty that negates a good play a little bit later on. They you you see another penalty later on which is part of that whole thing that happened at the end of the first half where Alan like catastrophically mismanages
the clock. You know at that point it's clear Indiana is trying to run it down there. It's 7, three. They get a couple of good plays in a row. Camper that was the camper pass was earlier, but they had some nice runs up the middle and. They're in Ohio State territory with under 2 minutes to go and it's like, well go, this is great, you know, run the clock down and then leave yourself time to run a few plays, maybe get into field goal range, maybe you can get it to 76.
They're snapping the ball with 20 seconds left on the play clock. With the clock running, it's like what are you doing? They they run a give up play on 3rd down and then Ohio State calls a timeout like you mentioned earlier. At that point, you punt the ball because you're you're not in field goal range, you've shown you've shown no ability to complete a pass. Instead, Allen decides to opt for a fourth down attempt.
That was not a great play, you know it was, it was essentially an out pattern by I think, dequees Carter. And there was no real chance that Jackson was going to be able to get the ball there, because Ohio State knew what was coming, and now you've given the ball to Ohio State at midfield and then you commit. A dumb penalty on the very next play, another undisciplined penalty. We see these five or six times a year.
You know this. This team just has a way of shooting itself in the foot at key moments, whether it's taunting penalties or personal fouls. I you got really lucky. And also unlucky they got lucky that Ohio State wasn't able to drive down and score a touchdown. They got unlucky that that the the fumble that wasn't a fumble was called an incomplete pass on
the field. But you know this happens all the time under Allen and we know that when we say this team is is not organized well or it's not mentioned the losing to Jaylen Lucas returns based on a block on the back. Absolutely different. Two different times the same penalty. I mean you're. No, I mean I'm, I'm glad you mentioned that because it's not just one area of the team. It's it's offense, it's defense, it's special teams. It is endemic to the team.
Yes. That they they make mistakes and I you as we talked about time and time again does not have the margin for error to make those mistakes but they always seem to make them And you know the the game management we've we've we've criticized Tom Allen about his game management in the past and this is another example and again I'll reiterate I use not winning the game if. They play that end of half differently. That's not the thing that made
the difference. But at that point, if you have the ability to pin Ohio State deep and go into half seven to three, if you took the names off, if you took the coaches off and you just put that stretch of plays, the time that things were done, the time that things were snapped, you put that down on paper and you asked a football person, does this make sense, They would say no, that's idiotic. That's that's the problem. That we see over and over again.
And I keep waiting for it to get better and it never seems to get better. The the, the decision. I mean Gary Danielson, if you go back and watch the broadcast was aghast when Indiana snapped that ball on 4th down. He could not believe. And I'm not a big Gary Danielson guy, but in this case he was correct. Like what are you doing? So look, we we say every year they've got to clean that stuff up. They never do. It always ends up costing them
games. I'm afraid that we've got another year where that's just part of the equation. Yeah. No, it's it's true. And it gets, especially against these top tier teams, it's you can't have any of that. And like you know the the taunting penalty was, I don't think it should have been called. But The thing is like we as Indiana, you've mentioned this many times like you're just you're not going to get the benefit of the doubt. So don't even put yourself close to that situation.
Yeah, like it was a hairline trigger call. They're not, you know, I I'm talking like, you know they wouldn't call that in the BCS. You know in the the final four-game it's like, yeah, but like where are you? Right. It's like that's like you don't like, don't even get close to the line. Anyway, what the last positive I'll say, yeah.
James Evans I mean the the punting from I UI mean it feels I'm so happy you mentioned it. I mean punts were amazing and there in real time like dude this guy is crushing it. I mean to the point that I think in the you know the third quarter Ohio State had three you know two returns and then the the the third return in the second quarter they started fair catching it. It's like I mean it's in that to me like that's a huge win. It's like you're getting Ohio
State to fair catch punting. They were high they were no his punting. I'm so happy this punting was. Unbelievable. I mean, look, I you looks legitimately good, at least in 2/3 of of the special teams area. I mean, Jalen Lucas is a punt returner, is a kick returner. That's that's a big spark and that's awesome and I'm glad that they're doing that.
And James Evans, I mean, he had that one that was so long, it was like a 70 yard punt in the air and he was mad at himself afterwards because it ended up being a touchback as opposed to, you know, being something that pinned Ohio State back a little bit more, but that. Especially with as bad as this offensive system looks right now that's that's going to keep Indiana in some games because that will bail them out and put the onus back on the opposite the on the opposing team's
offense to do some things. And I just didn't want that to get lost in the mix, that is that is great to see And so I'm hoping that. I mean, I hoping, I hope Indiana doesn't have to use James Evans as a an offensive weapon, essentially, but that. Maybe what they have to do and at least they have that on the roster. Great call. So anyway, so coming out of this, you know, I think we know some things that we didn't know
before. We know Indiana's defense has the capability of playing at a pretty high level. We know right now Indiana's offense apparently does not. That could get slightly better. But as we mentioned, I'm not sure with this system offensively that they've chosen to go with if that's really plausible. And you know, I think. Again, it goes back to what I said at the very beginning of the podcast.
If you're a negative person, you're going to take some things out of this and that'll cause you to be more negative. If you're a positive person, you're going to take things out of this and that's going to make you more positive. You know, I think the the trap a lot of I U fans, ourselves included, fall into is we see one thing succeed against a good opponent and we assume that I U will play at that high level for the rest of the season. And that is rarely how it actually happens. And so.
You know, it's it's one thing for the defense in the first game of the season against the top five rated opponent to play as well as it did. I'd love to think that they'll be able to replicate that against every opponent this year. I would pump the brakes. But similarly, it may be that we're overreacting offensively. It may be that they've got some things that they will work in that they're able to do. You know where the offense won't look as putrid as it did in this game.
So I think at this point you can hold your powder. I just, I'm more worried about the offense because we've seen the offense not be effective now for a couple of years in a row. There's a lot more evidence that it will be bad. Then there is, you know, evidence that it's going to be good and you know it. So at this point we'll see how it plays out. But anyway, that's kind of my final thoughts on the game. Anything left from you on the
game itself? No. I mean we probably sounded more, I probably sounded more pessimistic than I really was. You know, I I said beginning of the season and I still stand by it. You're just you're not going to take much out of this game and next week's game. And you know we we played it and there's obviously things to take out of it, but I think you're dead on. It's like the the offense probably isn't going to look this bad the rest of the season.
I hope the defense looks similarly good, but it's like you know Ohio State is just a different team. I just I my biggest take away is like it it it felt like we went into the game already being like the it's Ohio State we can't win and then the the game presents itself as an opportunity where it was a really close game and it didn't feel like we had we were ready to like take advantage of that. But I'm I'm not as negative as I probably sounded on this pod.
The only thing I will say going in the next week, that'll just be a little bit like grading to me is if against Indiana State we start running a bunch of random, you know, crazy throw plays and you know, passing plays and stuff. It's like any of these would have been fun to watch last week against Ohio State but but in the end, you know, you equipped yourself well against Ohio State. You kept it under the spread. You look good, nobody got
injured. You know, hopefully they can clean things up a little bit and. It's funny, I generally agree. I'm a little more concerned about the offense, I think, longterm. Because of this game. So I, you know, I don't think it's an overreaction. I think if you score 3 points and have 153, I know. But I also think that of the two teams, you know, both of them leave this game with some big
question marks. And and if I'm Ohio State, I'm looking at at the way I performed against an Indiana team that couldn't do anything offensively. And I only scored 23 points. I only won by 20. That is not going to get the job done if you are Ohio State against what you've got to face this year and that's that's going to be really fascinating to watch. Now they get a couple of really easy games, but they got to go to Notre Dame on the 23rd of September.
You know that's immediately you're going to be presented with a team that's going to give you some problems and you're going to have to score against. And I don't know, given what we saw out of Ohio State, if they're going to be able to rise to that occasion. So we'll see. I mean, you know, if I'm looking at their schedule right now, I'm like, God, you know, at Notre Dame, at Wisconsin, at Michigan, you got Penn State at home, This was not a good. Showing by a team. I don't.
I'm not worried. They'll be fine. Yeah, we'll see. I I would really, if I'm them. I'm really worried about my quarterback situation. Yeah. Anyway, my Indiana. So just in general, rest of the experience, how was your time out at Memorial Stadium yesterday? It was great. Ohio State fans were were there plentiful, but they were all pretty nice. You know, I think they had the same feeling going in.
I did a tailgate and I was thinking it's very you know, my analogy is and this is probably too close to real life too like I'm very much like the guy who hasn't worked out in a while going into the gym and just, you know, trying to throw a couple weights around, doing it lightly. And it's like you could make fun of that guy. On the flip side, you could be like, hey man, at least he's here and he's doing something. And so my tailgate was very
small. We have a little, we know, Weber cue, we did hot dogs and chips and had some store, bought cookies. I brought everything except for I forgot a table. I even made a list last year of things I need to bring. I didn't reference the list. So that's bad coaching on on my part. But no, we had a great time. We made some hot dogs, brought a game of washers. We were playing there, had a tent, had some chairs, had a really good timing. Very, very small. I was, I was thinking I had you
in my head of like what? What can we do that we don't need plates and forks and so you know dogs and brats and drinks and chips kept it real small. But we don't we had a great time. The atmosphere was great. The weather was great. Everybody was was having a really good time. And so I was definitely the the guy in the gym that you could make fun of. But my I look at it much more is like, hey man, at least I'm out there and I'm trying. I mean, that's that's what
matters. That was a tough game. To do that in, you know, I mean it like it was a hot like the the conditions we didn't get to tailgate yesterday for instance. And I was. I mean it was soupy. The moment that we it was it was hot and in our, you know, my original, sorry, you know the fans to break the veil. My original plan was we'll get there at like 1231 o'clock, which we did set up. We'll have a couple hours to tailgate. We'll go in and then we'll
probably leave at halftime. It's kind of my thought again, I'm not a fair weather fan. I have a 10 to 7 year old. It's hot that, you know part of my experience is based on their experience and how much they want to stay. And at half time I look at my wife and I was like we should be leaving by now. Like we're not because it's 10, three. Like I'm not leaving. I stayed through the third quarter into the 4th, which the the boys were less than enthusiastic about, We'll say
after a long day. But yeah that was my original plan. But no, we I we had a great time. It was. It was awesome. Good. No, it looked like a good time. I mean, some people were complaining about the lack of attendance. I mean, first of all, you know, the, the reported attendance was 50,000 with great when the game started. Yeah. No, I mean, you know, the the beginning shots, there were some openings in the corners. It was real hot up there from the people that I talked to.
I thought, look, I thought Indiana fans showed out an e-mail. They let you bring in water. Yeah, no, it was. It was a nice adaptation from the Cincinnati game a couple years ago when there was no water and people just were baking. In the stands. So what's going on at Coachella right now? Go out there. It's Burning Man. But yes, yeah, actually, I like the idea of an I U football Burning Man. We got to figure let's workshop how we set that up moving
forward. Can we get the doc The doc deal. We can do the Like the Fire Festival Fire. Fire Yeah No. I U Football 2023 by Crimson Cast via Home Field. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, the Fire Fire Fest, that's, that's what we want to aspire to is you heard there's another one of those coming. I did, yeah. Tremendous. We should do that together and vlog it just to see, you know, how it goes. But anyway, that's good to hear. I mean, overall, you know, for for I U, these these home games
are tough. People freak out about playing Ohio State. People freak out about it being hot outside. There's not really Indiana.
Of all the schools in the Big 10, I feel like might have the worst kind of. Home game weather set up because it's generally along with Maryland probably the hottest but Maryland has no culture you know so I you you're you're trying to tailgate and it's baking hot for the first three weeks of the of the season and then it's nice for like 3 weeks and then it's insanely cold and awful and rainy the rest of the time it's it's just it's a bad set up but it was nice to see
the number of people that went out there and and part hook in not just the tailgating. You know, from what I was getting from people, but also the game itself and the fact that people stuck around as long as they did, given how inept Indiana's offense was and how, you know, really by the time Ohio State scored that first from that first drive in the third quarter, you kind of knew that where this was going, like Indiana was just showing no signs of life.
I thought the crowd you know did what they could for as long as they could before it kind of became inevitable that what they were doing wasn't going to make a huge amount of difference. I I completely agree I've. Yeah. The the crowd it's it's at some point you know you you can't the argument is you know it's 2:50 I know we weren't going to talk about it but now we are you know it's like I'll be real quick. You know it's like it is 2:50 it is Ohio State.
It is a beautiful day. It's a hot day it's a nice day. So. So all of those should should you know people shouldn't leave like you're there. I I do understand that in a vacuum like for this game like yes. Ten to three against the number three team in the country. But it's like, that is forsaking 30 years of baggage that most fans have where it's like, I've seen this movie 30 times and let you know what's going to change. It's funny, I had a kid sitting behind me who's like, you love
this. He's like a student with his parents. But he's like, you know, talk about how he went to the Ohio State, Michigan game last year. It was awesome. And he's like, I just, I want to change the culture here. Like, I'm going to change the culture. We're going to make it better here. I'm thinking like, hey, like yeah, that was me 20 years ago, man. So like hope you have a better 20 year run than I did. I started a podcast. What are you gonna do?
That's right. But you know my other thing is like all it's gonna change is wins. It's like it really is very easy. Like you know how you change all this? You know, you get fans stick around like you win the games. Now the hard part is how do you get this team to win? I don't know the answer to that, but like how do you change the culture is super easy. Like put together 10 plus years of winning 10 plus games. It's all going to it that that's
going to change everything. Like that's the answer. But anyway that that's my thought. It's like yes, this in a vacuum people probably should have stayed but most people have seen this movie a million times and unfortunately once again like the the movie ended the same way. So at some point in the end even if I you were to win this game it's like the next time it's not it's it's going to take multiple times of them winning games like this. But again I hate this conversation. It's like.
No, but well, look, ultimately I and we've talked about it many times. You know, ultimately the big issue that I have with it is you have to stop blaming the fans when I U gives them no reason to stay in the stands. Now there have been games when, you know, fans have left early and then I U has managed to stay in it, but they almost always lose those games, you know. So ultimately, you know, I U went or yeah, they went through this big thing this summer where
they sent out this marketing. You know survey about the Memorial Stadium experience and which is a whole other podcast but but you know the the the idea of improving the culture at I U Games. It really all comes down to you've got to win these games or at least be close like give people something that feels competitive. Just the score being close is not a good enough metric for whether or not people should stay in the stands, because if the atmosphere around the game is one of.
Well, yeah, we're close. But the chances of Indiana actually pulling something off are minimal because they've shown no actual, like, ability to get close closer than what they're currently at. You know, that's the problem as far as I see it. You're you're asking people? To take on faith things that they are at this point probably long since having having given up on in terms of reality.
And so I just I look at it and I say to myself ultimately you're you're going to have to just win one of these games at some point or or still be competitive and trade scores. I mean, we've, I remember back was that I think it was 2010, that Michigan game against, you know, when Ben Chappell was the quarterback. People didn't leave that game. Why? Because both teams are happening. People are driving down the
field. Stuff was happening to expect people to sit all the way through the fourth quarter. When you've never really won a game like this, you know against this level of opponent, when fans are in the stands, at least not in recent memory, is a bit of an unfair ask, I think. And I agree and and I sorry, the last thing I'll say is like the other like, yes, Penn State with Michigan, we won those games in 2020. There weren't fans, but it's like you won those games. But like it wasn't like the
Pennix play. You know, if that was this game, it's like that that wasn't the. The first time they were in the red zone, like they had done other things that game. Like this is a game where like literally, you know, I'm okay with people leaving because it look like at times the offense didn't want to be the. It's like like they're just comatose. Like you're never in the red zone. Indiana went past the Ohio State 40 yard line twice in the whole game.
They they they got to the 24 on the field. Plays. Did they run when they got there? Right? Exactly. So after a while, people can't just sit there hoping and waiting for something to happen. Something actually has to happen. And that that's a key thing anyway. Anything else, Scott, before we wrap up for the show? No, I mean I I don't you know, we we may or may not talk before Indiana State. You know I I think that is just a completely classic like you just got to win.
Like it would be really nice to put them away. I, I know it's like you don't want to be in the same thing with Idaho you had last year where it's like wow we're really going to you know piss this game away and lose it. Like this Indiana State team. I think they lost like 20 to nothing. Yes, last week or something. You know it's. But to me it's like it would be really nice to put them away. I just think it doesn't matter. You just obviously you got to win that game and I don't think
style points matter. It would be nice to not be in a game with them but that's what you have to do is you have to be one-on-one going into a little well, not only actually I do think style points matter because at this point I think the onus is on the team to demonstrate that offensively that this was somehow some kind of an aberration as opposed to reality. You know if if they go out.
And so for instance last year we tried to explain away the Idaho game by saying oh you know the weather was bad and you know that it was tough for anybody to get anything going in that game. When in reality that was a great indicator of what actually I U was going to be like on offense for most of the season. They were not able to get things going until the second-half. You know the IT was not a situation where I U just had a bad game. That was their offense for most
of the year. And what worries me if you don't go and really blow out Indiana State, you know you don't show some teeth on offense. You don't show the ability to throw the ball effectively. You don't show the ability to be effective in this running game that you've now committed the program to. That to me is a big red flag going into Louisville. Because the idea a that you would at this point hold things back. You don't need to hold things back.
You need the guys to get reps in game situations running what they're running. The subterfuge, you know, I the subterfuge didn't work against Ohio State. It didn't the all the subterfuge was around who was going to start at quarterback and guess what? It didn't kick her and it didn't work because Indiana scored three points and had 153 yards of offense and couldn't throw the ball. And you can talk about how will all these different programs, you know, they hide who they're
starting and this and that. Fine. It didn't help. That's, that's the whole point. It didn't help to not start. Name a starting quarterback. It may just be that you don't have a starting quarterback, which is a problem, and that's not something that you can hide. And so my thought on this is you better not hide things by not running them against Indiana State. You need to give your team game practice because they clearly are not comfortable yet running this.
And if they were, they wouldn't have only accrued 153 offensive yards against Ohio State. So that's my hope is that what we see is Indiana goes out and hang 60 on Indiana State. Not because I dislike Indiana State, but because I really want Indiana to feel confident in their offense.
Because I don't know if you watch that Louisville, Georgia Tech game over the weekend, Scott, or actually I guess it was Thursday, Louisville. It took a little bit of time for them to get going and once they did, they look real scary. You go out and you do 153 yards off. It's against Louisville. You're going to be hurt. You do double that. You're probably still going to lose because you're not going to be able to keep up with Louisville offensively. So that's that's my big want
going into this week. Take the brakes off, focus everything. Worry less about hiding things, and worry more about getting your players comfortable with this system that you're asking them to run, I guess for the whole season. Well said. All right, working at on that point, last thing we'll say, just a reminder, if you've made it this long, that must mean you like Crimson Cast. You can get Crimson Cast delivered to your inbox via Sub Stack.
Go to crimsoncastsubstack.com. It's a free subscription. And for that free subscription, you get episodes and thoughts and other items delivered right to your inbox. You don't have to go on X or anywhere else to find it. It'll be right there. There's also a paid subscription option. It's it's really cheap. It's $5 a month, $50 a year, You get extra bonus goodies.
Scott and I are actually putting together our first official subscriber newsletter that we're going to send out this evening, and it'll have a little mishmash of things. Some extra thoughts from the game today, some thoughts from elsewhere. We'll be doing some videos. We got some other fun stuff that we're planning on giving to subscribers. So going to crimsoncast.substack.com, no obligation, it's free. Just put your e-mail in. We'd love to have you as a part
of this. We'd love to be able to communicate with you directly rather than having to rely on unreliable third party social media outlets. So our thanks also to home field apparel and all of our friends at the back home network. We'll be back later on this week. We'll have a preview of the Indiana State game and we'll also talk through some other things going on in the I U sphere. Scott, great to talk with you. Good to see you.
Thanks to all you folks for listening 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.