Ep 993 - Akron Recap

You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast, Dale and Clavio. Scott Caulfield joining you once again the 24th of September and Indiana's 2 and 2 Scott. Everything's great. Just just push it right through the season where it is a great moment here. I think Indiana. Yeah, I I was playing golf yesterday and my favorite line is you don't have to draw it. You just got it's just a score. It's like 2 and two.

We don't have to talk about how we got here. So hey, it's great. I want to thank you guys for listening. Check out home field apparel. Yeah, we're two and two. I mean we're 500 team. It's great. You know the resilience definitely shown by by IU in that game. Now we're going to, we're going to dive deep to talk about. We're going to dive deep today. We need to first of all before we jump in, how are you doing? You played golf yesterday.

That's impressive. It's well so I know my my extra extracurricular activities are enjoyed by the audience. Yesterday one of my really good friends. When I lived in Houston, I used to work for the Astros and we worked together. He always had a lifetime goal, throwing out the first pitch of a baseball game, so he won an auction with MLB. So my my buddy was throwing out the first pitch at the Guardians game, so I drove out there on Friday. Does does that count as Major

League Baseball? I I. No, I'm not sure. It's it's a wild, wild place because I've been to a couple old Indians games and it's like. I went, we actually had a couple of side bets. I went to the team stores like you think there's anything Indians there and there was nothing. And then like you know I would say 90 to 94% of the fans were

wearing Indians gear. It's very lot of the on the Jumbotron was guardians up until like the 7th inning and then I figure like they just ran out of people like say showing the same 8 fans. But he threw out the first pitch he want he wanted. He paid for a charity auction to get this opportunity. And then he was one of like 3 people to throw out the first pitch. And then it was Kid Cuddy night. So Kid Cuddy actually threw out the the real first pitch. What is that like?

Does that count? Then if they're multiple people threw out a first pitch and then they had a celebrity who threw out the actual first pitch, that's is that like the it's like the starter. Things at the Masters where you know that it's not really the start of the tournament, but it's it's not even really ceremonial when you've got six people doing it or whatever. It's a fairpoint. Although he had a fun time the rest of the game, it was funny the first like maybe three times.

Not the 75th time, but whenever a picture would like. You know, shake somebody off. He's like, I I know what that feels like because when I was on the mound, like, you know, you really have a hard time seeing things like a guy would throw one of the dirt and he's like now I see. I don't know what that feels like because I I give him credit. He threw a strike. But anyway, went to that and I, my brotherinlaw and I went

there. So on the way back, we played golf yesterday like a little bit West of Cleveland, had a great time. Did you have given your neighborhood? Did you have three or four caddies each? No, we played a normal, normal public course stop. Were there every three whole breaks for caviar? Is that how it was? Actually, we're doing neighborhood realignment. We'll talk about that in the next pod. We're letting some people in. We're going to boot some people out. Like the money's getting so hot

here. It's just like we got to do for some some neighborhood realize is Vogue like bidding on the television contract for Scott's neighborhood. That's amazing. Anyway, we are brought to you by Home Field Apparel, US and the entire back home network work. Be sure to go to homefieldapparel.com for more of the best designs in college sports. It's so much home field stuff last night in the tailgate lots and at the game Scott. Of course it was supposed to be

a blackout. Not that many people actually did the blackout part, but by far the most popular shirt out there was that I U. Oval shirt that that that home field put out a few years ago. I was wearing mine. My wife was wearing hers. People were like, oh, you guys are twins. It's like, I guess, sure. I mean, let's be clear, there weren't a whole lot of black options that I U had for its fans to wear. But everybody was pretty much wearing that home field shirt.

And you can get your own I U Oval I. You did a great thing. The football team paid an homage to the 1997 team and how they played yesterday. So they really, they really kind of tied it all together. But no, in all seriousness, use the code Home 23 Get 15% off your first order at Home Field Apparel. And even if you don't, a little trick that Scott and I have discovered. You create an account on Home

field apparel.com. You order great apparel from colleges across the country including Idaho and Idaho State who were just added to the mix items great. You get points for every order and those points actually add up. I've probably gotten, you know I'm not going to give the amount of merchandise that I have accrued just through the points that I have gotten off the previous orders that I have placed.

It is a not insignificant amount of apparel and you can be part of that whether you get points off the 1st order or the orders beyond. Again, home field apparel.com, the presenting sponsor of Crimson Cast, and the Back Home Network. The last thing I will say, yes, I when I check the points, my God, I have a free sweatshirt like that's that's awesome. It's also like that's a lot of points I probably accrued. And the other thing you mentioned is like the, the blackout.

I just thought of this as you were saying. There's not a lot of options. Like, it is a very IU football thing to do, to be like, have the black uniforms on the shelves for 25 years, basically don't sell black apparel and then be like, hey, we're doing a blackout. It's like like you should have. Like Penn State sells a lot of white gear for the whiteout over the course of 30 years. Like this would just be like side notes like my like last week was a homecoming week here at our high school.

The elementary schools they have like Neon Day and Pink Day and right. We don't have a lot of pink as just it would be funny if I you just did like you know we're doing, you know, neon neon out. It's like do you sell any neon gear anyway? Total side note, but probably more fun than talking about the the nitty gritty of this Akron game. Yeah, we'll dive into that now Indiana defeats Akron in four in four overtimes. The the final score of this one? Indiana 29, Akron 27.

And I know, I mean I've we've been getting tweets and and messages like I can't wait to hear what Crimson Cast has to say about this. You know, so we're going to 1st talk about, we're going to try to talk about the game without

necessarily talking macro. Because I think we need to talk about the game because I actually feel like to some degree we have, it's been undersold how bad Indiana was in this game and how desperately lucky they are to be sitting here the day after with the victory and how the quality of opponent that Indiana faced yesterday, it makes all of it even worse. And so let's talk, Let's start

with that. So, Indiana, if you listen to my my preview podcast, Indiana was taking on a team that statistically has been one of the worst teams in FBS for the last, really five seasons. I'm I'm going to. I want to start this off by reading off to you. The games that Akron has won against FBS opponents since the start of the 2019 season. In 2019. In 2020. Bowling Green at home. In 2021. Bowling Green on the road. In 2022 Northern Illinois on the road. So as we, as we, as we. I'm bored.

I do. It comes pretty low with the cricket sound. You got to throw the crickets in right now. I actually think no crickets is better that that's that's literally the full extent of the FBS teams that Akron has beaten since 2000 and and 19. And so I I say that because I think one of the most baffling subplots that has come out of what happened in the game yesterday is Tom Allen's comments in the postgame press conference about his team not taking Akron seriously.

And and you know, Allen had a quote from the postgame press conference and it was, it was something along. I want to see if I can find it actually. But it basically was like, you know, I was, I was watching film about this Akron team and I could see like, you know, how they, you know, they were going to make things difficult on I U And you know, they're just like things like that.

I want to actually find this. One of yes, his quote from the postgame that I I highlighted was in the Indy Star. He quotely said quote. I didn't effectively get the team's attention right. And and it's like this reminds me of what happened in the Ohio State game where he went and said, you know, hey, like in real time we probably should have been more aggressive and it's like you need a course,

correct? Like if you're on Wednesday of last week and you're like, hey, I'm not getting this team's attention and you noticed that enough to like notice it, do something different. And I just like Louis, Moore on the team, said. I'm not saying we took Akron for granted, but I feel like we should have blown them out. I wouldn't say it was a lack of focus. It's just more respecting your opponent. I respect all my opponents, but I won't say I didn't respect

them. But yeah, which is a player's way of saying like, we didn't respect them. But I would argue that you shouldn't have had to have taken Akron seriously. You should have just been able to beat them because this is such that it's that bad of a team. I mean, this is the point I'm trying to make. Here's the quote. There was a question in the postgame press conference what led the Akron quarterback DJ Iron success. It was clearly his partnership with under Kuffler.

You know as as they go out and fight crime. No, but we'll we'll come back to that. Here's Alan's response. They, meaning Akron do a lot of things that put you in conflict with your eyes. So man is a better answer than playing zone you know and and so on and so forth. You know that there were these, there was, there were several comments from Alan about how he had seen things about how this Akron team was, you know, they had talent and they did things that created problems.

And I'm just, I keep going back to the what I started off with, which is this is an Akron team that is is awful. You know the idea that this was a sleeping you know, giant kind of team that that was going to cause problems if they didn't take him seriously. I mean, I'm sorry, no. Last week this Akron team played at Kentucky. They lost 35 to 3:00. Last year, this team played at Tennessee, Tennessee, certainly a better team than Indiana, but they lost 63 to 6. They play that Michigan State

who was not great last year. They lost 52 to nothing. I I I'm sorry. It's hard for me to take seriously the idea that you're well, the problem was Indiana didn't take Akron seriously. This is not a team that even if you didn't take them seriously, you should have been in a position where they were able to move the ball on you the way that Akron did, Where your defense was, you know, was certainly unable to stop them, and where your offense was essentially incapable for most of the game.

Indiana only even gets to overtime because the Akron quarterback makes a bad throw in the wrong spot on the field that the defense returns for a touchdown and the Akron punter who's in for their kicker misses a chipshot field goal. Like the the skin of their teeth aspect of this win is bad

enough. But the idea that, well, this is what happens when you don't take an opponent seriously, I'm sorry if if if Indiana's harboring any aspirations of being a a functional team in the Big 10, I won't even say a bowl team or having a bull bit. That's how you're going to say the the the way like to to argue that somehow, well gosh this is just a case of the players not being focused. You you got to be kidding me with that, that there's a there's a layer of accountability that seems to be

absent in that kind of thing. It's like well, gosh, we tried to tell the players that this Akron team was tough and they didn't believe us. It's like I I was why I was there, Scott. I watched the game. I know you watched the game as well. What I saw out there was not players not taking things seriously. What I saw was players not being

able to execute. There's a big, big difference there and I feel like the fact that what's been jumped on in the analysis of this game and when you go through and look at the numbers is the idea that somehow it was the players fault that they didn't take the game seriously.

As opposed to at least in part, the idea that the coaches didn't prepare the team well, not just in the lead up to the game this week, but in the lead up to the season is just it blows my mind that the the questioning and the answering afterwards has basically been like, you know that the big problem was the players not taking Akron seriously. When if you have a program that is run properly, you're not even

worried about that. You're you're you're, you know, this is a team, Akron frankly, that any team in the conference should probably be sleepwalking through. And I understand that's not always how football works. But to come off of the Louisville game where you didn't play well for 1/2 and then everybody patted you on the back for actually playing football for the second-half and then to turn around and act like, well, it's just a lack of focus.

It's like, I'm sorry, where does that come from? If that's actually, if the Flack of focus is actually the problem, where does that come from? Does that? Did we just notice that so that, you know, this is and we're going to dive into the numbers here in a second. But my big take home point from this is not just that Indiana played horribly for the whole

game. Not just that they got incredibly lucky, but that there does not seem to be a public acknowledgement that this team is not where it needs to be. And it's not just about players not taking the 120th ranked team or I mean they're they're only up to 120. I think in the NSP. Plus this week they were 130th. Last week the idea that we didn't take the the 10th worst team in FBS seriously. And that's the problem. That to me is is a real big red flag in a whole brother, a whole

bunch of other red flags. It's a lot there. I agree with all of it. I I would say, as you were saying that I'm thinking we've seen this before. I think it's fair to say Ohio State came into the season not taking Indiana seriously and they still won 23 to 3:00. But you heard the assistant coaches being like did you guys you know practice against the the, you know the options like not really like probably practicing. It's Notre Dame. So yeah.

I mean you're to validate your point like that is a team that is, you know well executed that's take it seriously Here's here's the so many things that baffled me. But I'm going to highlight one respect I8 different things. I'm going to stick to one right now. The take away from the Louisville game, like you said, was like they didn't play for 1/2, but then they played the second-half. But then what killed them in that game was the inability to do anything creative on the goal

line. And so I would hope and think that moving, you know, we we all this talk of you, we got to be more creative, we got to do more, we got to you know help the offensive line all this nonsense so.

I would look and then all this talk about the Akron game, the reason I hate these, you know, getting into the previews on these types of games, it's like we got, you know, we're going to use this as a learning experience to work on these things and get, you know, positive momentum and get a lot of, you know, good vibes for things that we do. So you go into this Akron game in the second quarter, you get a great interception. You start the ball in the Akron 4. It's a red zone play.

Let's try it like, what do you think this coaching staff should do? Like there's four options. ABCD. Should we try something new? Should we do something to get some positivity? What happens First play, rush to the right for A1 yard loss. Second play, rush up the middle. Have we tried that before? That's for three yards. Third play, rush up the middle for one yard. 4th play rush up the middle. For 0 yards. And I'd like.

I'd like to note those last two rushes were Donovan Mcculley, not Jalen Lucas, not Christian Turner, a guy who's not a runner in the traditional sets. That's the guy that you're handing the ball off to go on. Yeah, and and this is not even part of the point, but it's like, thank you to I U like we'll we'll talk about all of the laps of judgments, but like it literally, the next play, Alex Adams drops what is a 99 yard touchdown like that Should have been a 99 yard backbreaking

touchdown. He just drops it. We then like 2 plays later late hit the quarterback, which gets offset because Akron has like another absurd penalty. And then our very next offensive play, Taven Jackson throws an interception. Just like just a. Complete mental breakdown, but bad coaching. I'm not done yet, though, because we go to the fourth quarter, we get the ball of the first and nine of the Akron 9. OK, we have a moment for Atonement. We can now try something different.

First play, run up the middle for seven yards. OK, you got lucky. You great. You did it. Let's not do that again. Second play, run up the middle for one yard. Third play, run up the middle for 0 yards. And then all this, hey, we're going to make confidence. You just punt. I mean, you're sorry, not punt. You kick a field goal, which I guess you have to do because you

need the points. But it's like you're playing Akron. Like the whole point of these games is to get better at things you're not good at. You were given this opportunity of basically a redo of everything you effed up in the Louisville game. And you do the exact same thing and then it's even more galling and over timing they want. So yes, great, we're two and two. They won partially because one of their two point conversion plays is like a triple reverse flea flicker option. It's like.

You have that, like do you need to get not only your back against the wall, like 3 guns to your head, like the bowl of acid above your head, Like you've got to be like because this if you lose to Akron like this season you are in a deep hole. This season we'll just say that it's like so you need to be that close to your back against the wall to pull that out. Like could you have not tried that play? Any of the other seven plays that you had on the goal.

And so to me that was the part that just drove me nuts that you had six chances at the apple and never once was Walt Bell. Like, hey, we're going to try something just a little bit different. You run up the middle every single time like you're the, you know, 1974, Oklahoma sooner. It's like you're not anyway, that I mean that. Drove me bananas. And by the way, from a game perspective, a touchdown on either of those spots would have

been unbelievably helpful. The it's just so clear that there's so many different things you can cut up with this, and it's been the whole season. But it there's so many things that you can point to that illustrate how little clue this offense seems to have. I mean through through the four regulations that Indiana has played, they've averaged 18.75 points this season, and that includes a game where they scored 41 points against Indiana State.

If you take that game out, the three games that they've played against, like FBS competition, they're averaging 11.33 points in regulation in those three games. You look at the statistics and and this is. I think it's. You can I just hop in real quick because I did a if you and I'm, it's a little bit of pulling stats, but it's 20% of their season, the Ohio State game, the Akron game and the first half of Louisville. In those games you have 28 drives.

You get 13 points out of those 28 drives and eleven of those drives. So almost a third of them ended with a three-year out or no first down. So I mean that's that's a, that's five of your like 5 halves that you've played this year, it's 20% of your season. So I think part of the part of the problem I also have is how much of the focus. I mean, the offense has been terrible. We've talked about the offense has been terrible, and I want to, I'm going to do some stats

here first. But that is to set up the next point. So just hold on a second, all right? In this game last night, Indiana. Offensively was out gained by Akron again and this is this is the same Akron that if you look at S&P plus offensively they are 122nd in the nation. This is a bad bad offensive team. Akron out gained Indiana 474 yards to 282 yards. They out past Indiana 211 to 190. They out rushed Indiana 263 yards to 92. Akron had 24 first downs in this game.

Indiana had 14 first downs in this game. I mean, it is now the I think the thing that we we're going to talk about the offense a lot. But I think that it is important to keep in mind that as much as people have praised Tom Allen's defense. This season and have praised the players. This was one of the most ridiculously bad defensive efforts against an opponent like

Akron that you can have. This is an Akron team that frankly should have won the game by two touchdowns, but they threw 3 interceptions, one of which was a pick 6. They committed 10 penalties for 98 yards, including a completely unnecessary unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that dropped them back from the 21 to the 36 in the third quarter, which they probably would have at least gotten a field goal out of including, if I read correctly, like some strength coaches.

Came out of the stands, came out of the, came out of the and. Got it. I mean, this was, this was an Akron team that was like dedicated to shooting itself. Like shooting its foot off, Not just shooting itself in the foot but making sure it detached from like the tibia and and even with all of that Indiana's defense could not stop them. My my wife and I were at the game. Indiana the you mentioned the field goal that Indiana kicked after three runs into the line largely or or into the short

side of the field. They they kicked the field goal. It was 1710. I looked at her. I said look. Indiana's played awful, but I think that they've got this in hand because I don't. I I just, I cannot conceive of Akron being able to put together a drive. What does Indiana do? They allow a 71 yard touchdown run on the next drive. We were in the parking lot. Walking across the parking lot, I saw Jordan Bailey out there. We chatted for a minute. We leave him. We hear this announcement.

Lorenzo Lingard, touchdown run. And I'm like, what? I was like, audibly, like what had to call up my ESPN sport thing. And I'm like, I look at, I look at my wife and I'm like, you're not going to believe this. And so we ended up rushing home to watch the end of the game. God, that was a great not you football fan. She should like you and I like, you like, believe it, right? No, that was me saying what? I was incredulous.

She actually believed it. She's very she's, she's very realistic about this stuff, far more than I am. I say all that because. The you know the the offense has been awful but the defense in this game like this is supposed to be Tom Allen's calling card. You know we we hear these tales about Tom Allen being this great defensive mind the guy who schemes. You know other coaches find really tricky you know that's that's that's what we're told and yet to allow. So I I was doing some digging.

So in this game, Indiana allowed Akron 6.6 yards per rush. That is the most yards per rush that Akron as a program has allowed since I'm still, I'm going back, I'm in 2017, we still haven't gotten there. 2016 haven't gotten there, 2015 haven't gotten there. This is actually I think Akron's greatest rushing performance on a yards per carry basis. Here we go since September 29th, 2012. When they played Miami of Ohio and averaged 7.04 yards per carry, that's what Indiana did out there.

They allowed Akron, a team that I'm, I'm sorry, I am going to have to push back a little on Tom Allen's commentary. I don't think DJ Irons is that good of a quarterback. No, they made Desart. Did they made Irons look like Michael Vick out there. I mean, and I'm watching him and you. I have as a I U Football fan, there's the moment where I'm like, I know this isn't true, but I'm like, how did a kid this good go to Akron? It's like, Oh no, it's our defense.

Like I went and looked it up. He was a dude. He played great. This is no knock on irons but he was a two star recruit who had one offer from Akron. So it's not like this was you know Antoine Randall L who like could like and and it's no not but like you know I'm watching the game and it's like this guy is he looks like Michael Vick out there but. He's not. There's no knock. I mean, but it's just, I mean, I'm sorry, you know DJ Irons. This was his career high in

rushing last night. 141 yards on 18 carries, average 7.8. Would have had more if he didn't get injured. Or if his team hadn't held constantly on plays where they didn't need to. I mean, I mean last year with this year, his previous high in rushing yards was 30. That was last week against Kentucky. Last year he he went to triple digits in rushing once. It took him 23 carries against Bowling Green to get there.

In 2021, he rushed in triple digits once 9 yards carry against Bryant. So like the and Bryant by the way is not an FBS team. Just just to clarify for you folks out there. So look the offense is bad but I'm just I'm consistently amazed at Indiana's and we talked I talked about this on the pregame podcast like their ability to play down to opponents and this has been a constant throughout Tom Allen's time. I mean, and to be fair, it happened during time, Kevin Wilson's time as well it it's

happened a lot, but. For all the talk about culture, for all the talk about Leo, for all the talk about how you know I U is, you know, they may not be the most technically sound team, but they play with emotion. The the idea that I U is like incapable of taking either taking an opponent seriously or just playing well, which I think is really the thing that needs to be talked about. Not we didn't take them seriously. It's like be professionals, go out there and play the game.

You know, things may not go your way, but the idea that you're going to go out and yield Akron's best rushing day in 11 years, that you're going to make this this quarterback who is a two star recruit look like he should be a second third round draft pick is insane to me. That that's where Indiana football has gotten to in 2023. I will pile on this. I agree with everything that you said earlier about, you know, taking them for granted all those things.

But like, so you get into halftime, it's a close game. It's what what's the score at halftime? Sorry. I mean, no, It was 7 to 3. Indiana led. OK, sorry. So it's seven to three at halftime. So obviously, like, you're out. I knew it was close. Sorry. It's like 7 to 3 at halftime if you're out. And it's like, OK, now things are for real, like you, you know, they're not taking them seriously. You know your team isn't executing correctly. Like, you're seven to three

against Akron this game. That should have been a cakewalk. You start the second-half, what happens? Akron comes out, to your point, to his defense, A9 play, 74 yard drive for a touchdown. Also aided by the fact that we had a roughing the passer call, so we roughed the passer there, which helped them out. And then immediately in on sides where Akron just on sides the ball. I mean, that stuff can happen, but it's like how it happens because he kicks it at our

player and just bounces off. It's like, how are you not prepared for it? Just. We still most we opportune times they come out unprepared. We still haven't watched Gator Bowl footage. Apparently. I mean, I know that they're doing, they're doing practicing on site because we did it the week before like you you. It's like at what point halftime. Then, like, do you just stop, like just get everyone centered and like, hey, focus, like do

the right things? But it's yeah, it's baffling, but that's that would have been a great time to stop and get it, you know? But no, you you give up one of Akron's best drives of the of the game. Scott, I think it's time to bring back a segment we haven't done in a while, which is recite the drives. Oh no, no. I just want to run through Indiana's offensive drives that they had in this game. All right, first drive, 3 plays, one yard punt.

Second drive off of an interception, 4 plays, 41 yards, punt. Next drive, 9 plays, 51 yards. Turnover on downs. Of course, that was the that was the the the incomplete pass by Taven Jackson at the Akron 34. Next drive, hey, some sunshine. 6 plays, 80 yards. Touchdown Christian Turner runs it in. Next play after an interception, which you talked about earlier. 4 plays, three yards. Turnover on downs. Next drive. One play, zero yards interception. Next drive. 5 plays.

Four yards. Punt. Third quarter, first drive after Akron is scored to make it. 1073 plays, Three yards punt. Next drive after Indiana scored on an interception return for a touchdown. So, real chance to put the game away here. 3 plays, two yards punt. Next drive. 11 plays, 72 yards. Chance to salt the game away. Ends in a field goal. 14 to 10. Excuse me, 17 to 10. Next drive after you've forced a three and out from Akron. 3 plays, six yards punt.

Next drive after Akron ties it up. 3 plays, zero yards, punt. That's hard to do. And then here's. And then you're in overtime. Yes. Go on. No. But here's the thing. It's like when you're playing a team like Georgia with that kind of defense, we shouldn't be scheduling teams like this. But I mean, that's a really good defense. I mean, you're talking atop. Oh wait, no, it's Akron. Clearly. Clearly we need to buy out of the Akron series as well.

Real just a side note to that I saw you joke about that but like the the might we we haven't talked about the Louisville bio but what I would what I said to a lot of people about that is like it's fine but then you've got to win the games that you've scheduled to backfill in like this.

This is the problem. It's like, if you're going to lose the accurate, you might as well lose the Louisville and like, just like you could do this stuff, but you've got to then win these games convincingly. Yeah, well that's and convincingly is the point. And this was this is the thing I think gets lost. I mean, a win is a win and ultimately it it still counts as a win regardless of how awful it looked.

But. The whole idea with this program is the, you know, the the idea of momentum, the idea of building the idea that okay, we saw what happened last year and that was clearly not good enough and what happened the year before was clearly not good enough. And the argument that oh, this is a down cycle for the program, but they're showing improvement and I think a lot of people they they we've talked about the Indiana Rorschach test.

They looked at the Ohio State game and they're like, oh, hey, we actually were in that game for a while and that's good. And then they look at the Louisville game like, wow, look at that, come back. And then you look at this game, It's like, well, this game, to some degree, the way that it went invalidates a lot of what you saw in those first two games because it just kind of makes you wonder, you know, is this Indiana? You can't just perform in

certain moments. There has to be some level of consistency and what you're doing as a program. And what worries me, you know, about the way that this game went was how bad both offense and defense were for Indiana. And there was no reason that they both had to be bad. You're going to have, obviously with a young quarterback, you know you're going to have games where that quarterback isn't going to play particularly well, but.

To You've also, in that game, taken away a lot of things that were working for no reason whatsoever. As was pointed out by several people, Jalen Lucas gets 10 targets or 10 catches in the Louisville game. He's a huge part of the passing offense as well as rushing. He isn't even targeted in this game. No, no passes thrown to your best offensive weapon.

You know you. You try again and again, we know this is something that kind of crosses over into being a larger issue about I U. In general, you again try fruitlessly to run the football. Overall, throughout the course of this season, Indiana is averaging 3.2 yards per carry in games that don't involve Indiana State Indiana's per carry average. Have been 2.15 yards per carry against Ohio State, 2.15 yards per carry against Louisville, and 2.71 yards per carry against Akron.

And this is coming off of the season. Where your per carry average for the entire year was 3.36 yards a carry, and it was actually worse if you take out the 6.64 yards per carry that you had in the Idaho game last year. I say all that because we heard all offseason about how this was going to become a power running team. They came into the season specifically running the triple option and talking about how that was going to be a big part

of the offense. And Scott, as we've talked about with the way that this program and coaching staff have evaluated their quarterbacks, relative health and relative talent levels, the way they've evaluated, evaluated some other things, we've got enough evidence right now, I think, to say that Indiana can't block the run effectively. Why was that considered to be the folk point of the offense

coming into the year? And why did Indiana focus so much on that in this game against a horrible defense, Like statistically a horrible defense, and still come away with nothing? Like if you can't run on Akron, who are you going to run against? And if you can't run against Akron, and you know that, like that does not leave a lot of hope moving forward. I also love the fact that we, we were told all offseason this is a triple option offense and we, I don't see it.

It's gone now. We're four games in. It's like I would love another percentage of plays We've run triple option versus we haven't. The Jalen Lucas thing is is baffling and you know, everyone saw it. I'll hit it now like in overtime. You know, he had the play where he went in motion and was just completely wide open. But you know, again, I blame the I don't want to keep blaming the coaching staff, but, you know, Jackson is a young quarterback. I'm sure he's told to go through

his progressions. Obviously, Jaylen Lucas either was low on the progression chart or Jackson didn't hit it far enough or he was a decoy. I honestly went back and watched the play like five times because my question was, honestly, I think it was a blown coverage because he went in motion. Akron didn't move, the safety didn't pick him up. I think they were in zone. It was a blown coverage, but I

honestly had the thought. I wonder if it's so obvious that, you know, our play calls are being tipped in a way that Akron was like, oh, we know he's a decoy. We're not even going to follow him. I don't think that's what happened, but I'm not 100% sure. But it it's obvious that like Jackson isn't reading all of his progressions and that that wasn't the number one option on

that play. But it's just it is it's it's mind boggling that like he hadn't gotten a target up to that point and that you could just miss something that wide open. Yeah, well, and I think. The nail on the head like and I was like I can't believe that Jalen Lucas could not have been more wide open. But I think I I really believe that it it at least it feels like Jackson's being told to just do these things and there's just not a lot of flexibility in terms of how the offense is

being run and. Again, which is weird because the triple option quarterback, that's all you you have to put a like, you can't be like in the middle of the play, like look over and look at the guy doing that. You know the exes and pulled up the picture of the Chickfila Nugget, like whether I should pass the ball or not. It's no, I think it's a great point. And so you know just I guess to put for this game to kind of summarize my final thoughts on it before we move to the bigger

picture. This is the kind of performance that. It is almost feel I mean it feels like a loss whether or not you win and it's almost to some degree you know it's it's like the worst kind of result because you get you get you know your your team gets kicked around and your your coaches get kicked around.

You won the game, but you look like you were completely impotent and you frankly got really lucky because Akron seemed absolutely committed to shooting themselves in the foot and they did that multiple times and. While you you get the win, you also lack, you lose. The clarity that would have come either from losing the game where it's like this is, there's a clear problem because now you can always say, well look, a lot of things went wrong, but they

still won the game. And I think that that masks for a lot of people the reality that this was. A huge problem, not just in terms of the game, but in terms of where this program is right now. And as much as we had hoped through what we thought were promising signs in the Louisville game, potentially promising signs defensively with the Ohio State game, this resets all of that back to zero. At least I think in in my mind it does. And now it's like well.

There's not a lot to get excited about at this point with this football team because as much as we wanted to say yes, they're going to be competitive, it's really that they they they clearly cannot run the ball again and they clearly tried to make that a key part of their offense, which means that they really haven't developed a passing game that works.

They don't have a red zone. Game and the defense has now shown that it can be gashed by a bad team, and you're about to head into the teeth of a Big 10 schedule that is full of offensively competent teams, if not significantly better than offensively competent teams. And that's that's a horrible combination, you know, You know. Again, the win is better than the loss, even when it's this type of a game against a team like Akron. But.

It feels like the IT you almost get a lack of closure one way or the other because realistically it felt like a loss and it felt like a a barometer of where Indiana football is at. And I don't think anybody likes the millibars at this point. We did podcast titles. Nobody likes the Millibars. There you go. That's it. I mean here's here's one really good take away outside of the loss, The final drive of the first half with a minute 42 to

go, we had all three timeouts. Like that's hey that's a nice thing to have a drive at the end. We we we got one first down and then we had an intentional grounding play and then we only got 4 yards on that and we punted the ball off and got zero points out of it. It is. You know these state like this is a broadcaster thing. But the TV broadcast right before Tabin Jackson gets swarmed and gets you know, the intentional grounding because he just gets complete and up.

They're talking about how you know he's he's telling us before the game. He likes it when the game speeds up and that's when I play my best. And the coaching staff told us this is this is a really concerning quote, if it's real, that he considers himself a much better. Game player than a practice player. It's like you've had four games. Like, anyway, you know, I heard that Tom Allen said that in the previous press conference that like, well, Jackson plays better

than he practices. Like, OK, sorry, go ahead. Oh, no, no, it's it's concerning and this is the I'm just nitpicking here, but kind of moving off, you know? Allen said this after the game too. This kind of talk of, you know, hey we're five and O on our last overtime games. You know we're over good overtime team or whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. It's like this, this unawareness of what you're saying. I went back and looked the the last games that we've won in

overtime. So we won this game against Akron, which I would say is a pretty pretty important win that we get. 2022 we won at Michigan State in two overtimes. That was a Big Ten team. But I would say that was at a point in the season where if you don't win that, that's a completely. You lost season like that's

You're hanging your hat. Last year on beating Michigan State, the year was so 2022. You also won an overtime game against Western Kentucky. Western Kentucky is a game that you if you lose that your season's over. In 2020 you beat Penn State and overtime Pennix. No problem there. But in 2019, your other overtime game was 2 overtimes against Purdue 4441. That's a bad Purdue team. You were on your way to the Gator Bowl. You could have pissed all of that away with a loss to Purdue. Yeah.

So it's like out of the last, you know your your last five overtime games, four of them I would call, you know are like. Incredibly must win games and three of them were against really bad opponents. So it's just like that the awareness to be like these aren't great stats that make you look like some amazing you know come from behind or when the chips are down team. It's like no, like you got to be Akron. You got to be Western Kentucky.

You had to be Purdue and then like last year Michigan State. Like you don't win that game. You're going basically over for the entire second-half of the Big 10 season. You know, I I think if you covered sports or follow sports long enough you you realize that coaches aren't in most cases going hold on. I'm getting somewhere with this. Coaches aren't going to be honest or in their postgame press conferences in their statements about where their teams are at. Some some coaches do it.

But most coaches, and I think especially coaches like Allen, their their whole conceptualization of of how they do this is wrapped up in this idea that they are trying to project an attitude for their team. And you know, so you grasp for whatever positive, well, hey, you know we've, we've been resilient. We've managed to win these games in these in these key moments and there's always a flip side to that story.

And you know what I find really depressing about I U is just in the last two years of the last 372 days, so, you know a little over a year, Indiana's won four total football games. One of them was against Western Kentucky where they needed the opposing teams kicker to miss a 44 yard field goal at the death to send it to overtime where they eventually won on a 50 yard field goal of their own. One of the second win was the Michigan State game which they won in double overtime which

they deserve credit for. But they only got to double overtime because the Michigan State kicker missed a point blank 22 yard field goal as time expired and then missed another field goal in the overtime. Then in this season they beat Indiana State who I would remind everybody is an FCS opponent. And then last night they only get to overtime because Akron trots out their punter as opposed to their kicker and misses a 32 yard field goal at the death that would have

finished the game off. So our field goal defense is just great Well, but it's like, I mean to some degree, if you think about variance, I mean I use post game win expectancy. Last night I think I saw it was 3433%, somewhere in that range, which is terrible for, you know, playing Akron A-Team, that's

120th in S&P. Plus, you know, that is an incredible lucky streak for I U to have won those three games the way that they did, where at each turn your opponent had the sword at your neck and somehow managed to avoid connecting with any of your arteries and allowed you to get back up. Now I credit I guess for Indiana finishing those games off in overtime, but that is not a sustainable model.

And if you think about it, you know Indiana's, you know the fact that of the the games against BCS opponents that they've played in the last two seasons that they've won. They've only they they've they've only won four games against FBS opponents. Sorry, no FBS opponents, power 5 opponents. They've only won two games. Those were both last year against Illinois and Michigan State. But their their margin of victory in those games. They beat Illinois at home by

three. They beat Western Kentucky by three and overtime. They beat Michigan State by 8 and overtime. But as we mentioned they should have lost that game and and that's that's it and then of course last night they they beat Akron by two and overtime like the the as much as we. Love averages are not the law.

I mean, well, well, they feels like they are though, because if you think about the other games that Indiana has lost in that time span, it's not like they were particularly close to winning any of those games, you know? I mean the the closest that they came was losing 38 to 33 to Maryland at home and and that really it wasn't like Indiana like had a chance at the end to win that game.

Like Maryland, Maryland won that game soundly, even if it was only by 5. And so I look at that and I say like, how bad is the situation without you right now when you look at it like that. You know if we take the the Zimmerman corollary as we'll call it, the idea that you know, Indiana's you know, greatest moments are the close losses.

You know, you can't really hang your hat on, hey, we, we only lost by 7 points to Louisville or hey, we only lost by 5 at home to Maryland. Like the winds matter. And then you look at the winds and we can say, well, gosh, they beat Akron. So you, you know, even though the way that they beat them wasn't good, that you know it's still a win. But you can't do that with every game that you win against the FBS opponents.

And that's exactly what you've had to do essentially over the last two years with this program. They're really the last three when you consider that, you know, you go back to the 2021 season and they didn't beat a Power 5 opponent that season. They beat Idaho and they beat Western Kentucky and they barely beat Western Kentucky at that. They only beat one that game by two points.

Like this is a program that now through the last two and a third seasons has been right on the precipice of not winning any games against Power 5 opponents and they've gotten lucky to win the the two that they've won in that time. Like that is that is not just a red flag Scott. Like what I what I'm fascinated by is how the you know the the the commentary in the post game and the analysis has been Tom Allen needs to figure out how to fix this offense.

And it's like, no, Tom Allen needs to figure out how to fix this program because you're talking about a program that is barely keeping its head above the waves and has been since the start of the 2021 season. And it's like, at at what point is, you know, is somebody going to come out and say there's a real problem with the way I U. Football is running right now? There's a real problem with how they're performing. This is not a oneoff issue with the Akron game.

It's not a oneoff issue with the Western Kentucky game last year. It's not a oneoff issue with this is the program as it is right now. And it feels like to some degree, so much of the commentary around Tom Allen in particular is still so caught up in the 2019 and 2020 seasons that as good as those seasons were, I U hasn't been that program since the ball was kicked in the Outback Bowl.

And you know, since that point, I U has devolved like back to a point where and you and I've been doing this for a long time, this looks exactly like how Indiana looked in the Bill Lynch era. It looks it may be even slightly worse. It looks exactly how they looked

in the Donardo era. You know, this is a program that has some talent at some positions but has zero consistency, has very little discipline in terms of how they play week to week, and is a team that will beat itself more often or just as often as they get smashed by better opponents, they also beat themselves against opponents that they should win. Like so much of the romanticism about the Allen era is about the atmosphere. It's about the vibe, it's about the Leo stuff.

And yet there's such little consistency in how they play from week to week. And the the one consistency is that they're generally going to find a way to play down to to wherever their opponent is at at that point.

This to me is almost the nadir of that particular thing where it's like you are you're sitting around on a Sunday morning and you're counting your lucky stars that Akron was so bad at kicking and so bad at not committing penalties that you managed to escape on your home field with a two point victory in quadruple overtime like this is a much bigger deal. I think that people are making it out to be and they're making

it out to be a big deal. It's not like people haven't talked about it, but I think they're concentrating on the wrong things right now. The trouble with all of this is, and we've talked about this in the build up to the season it's been, my concern is for years under whether it was under Lynch or Wilson or Cameron. You know, as you and I were were getting to you'll go to games in college. It was like, all right if we could just, and this is a Zach Ostrom in quote, which I agree with.

Like, you know college football programs like battleships, like, you know they they're kind of moving in a direction. They're hard to turn around. And it was always like, man, if we could just get some momentum, like if we could just get some good vibes going, you know that that's all is like nobody could get that going. It's like everyone's just stuck in the mud. You're in quick saying, kicking out to me the really frustrating part about where we're at.

Is, you know, the people have that romanticism toward the 1920 season with Alan, which is true and is great. But to me, what I loved about it is like it for 2 1/2 years there, me even 3. If you take, you know, a little bit of that 2018 season, it's like he had done it. Like he had done something that was so cool and promising is. He had the momentum at his back. He had great coordinators. He was bringing in new coordinators. He had a really good quarterback.

Like he had won some games. You know the the Penn State, like we're having things happen that just hadn't happened. We're beating Michigan. We're beating Purdue. It's like we did it, man, like we're out of the quicksand. I'm not saying we're going to win the Big 10 when the roads like we're. We have some momentum. Like now we can raise the floor just a little bit. And it's like the last three years have felt like.

What it feels like and you and I know this all too well, when you have a new coach, it's like we're rebuilding everything. It's like what happened, you had the momentum like that was really hard to build. You got it. And what really frightens me, Galen, is, you know, for somebody as Tom Allen, his staff that did that to to me, I've been searching for him to kind of be like, you know, we're going to go back to what we did in 20/17/2018 and 2019 to build

that. And I think he's trying and he's grasping. What scares me, man, is like he's doing stuff like this year like we're going to run, you know, the option offense. Like we didn't do that. And we were good. Like when you were good, we weren't running the option, you know? And it's like, we're going to try it. We're not going to name quarterbacks. We're going to do all this BS. Like you didn't do that when you, like, go back to do what you did.

And what worries me is I'm not sure either he knows or he he's trying different things or like. But to me it's like that's what you would do is when things get a little bit wonky, it's like, OK, reset everyone, pretend it's 2018. What are the 12 things we did that got this team back on? Let's start doing those things. But all the things we're doing now are none of the things that happened in 20/17/18 or 19.

The in the real estate market, the houses that have the most internal problems, that the decor needs to be updated and it's going to take thousands of dollars. The floors are a mess. The foundations cracking the listing. The text in the listing is always great neighborhood or you know or you know, great

opportunity. Yeah. And. And what you were just talking about with Alan and the way that, you know, he's decided to focus on certain things, it's like clearly the foundation is not there and Alan is grasping at straws. It appears to try to come up with subterfuge to keep people from noticing that there is no foundation. Either that or he doesn't know what he's doing.

I'd rather believe that this is a concerted effort to try to get the hey look over there aspect of things to take the attention off of the core issue, which is that, you know, despite all the accolades that Alan has gotten about the recruiting being so much better, the fact of the matter is hardly any of the recruits that Alan has brought in over the last four years

played or made a contribution. Yeah, despite all the accolades that people want to give Tom Allen for hiring hiring Kaylin D'amour and hiring Kane Womack and and how much success Indiana had in the two seasons where those two were the offensive? Well, Debord was the offensive coordinator for one year. Womack was the defensive coordinator for two years.

The fact of the matter is that Indiana's won 18 total games in the game in the seasons where Tom Allen didn't have one of those two guys as a coordinator, and the wins that they've gotten have been progressively less impressive. I mean, you have to go back literally to 2018 to find a time when Indiana beat a Power 5 opponent by double digits in seasons where you didn't have De Boer or Wamak as a coordinator. And people can be like, well, you're cherry picking.

But it's like, no, the point is not to. Not to dismiss that I U was good when De Boer and Wamak were coordinators, but to highlight that they're not coordinators here anymore. I'm not sure if you've checked the the notes, but last I checked, Kaylin De Boer was coaching at Washington and had maybe the best team in the

country. Last I checked, Kane Wamak just upset a Power 5 opponent on the road as the head coach of South Alabama. Those guys aren't here and and what is here is Tom Allen and it's Tom Allen's program through and through. It's all his players, it's all his coaches and what we've seen over the last three years. To me, increasingly it's hard to get away from.

This is a coach that doesn't seem to understand why his team isn't good and has made a lot of decisions that have both contributed to that and also don't address the core problem. And you can go right back to, you know, we, we, you know, we've talked about this on the podcast so many times, I don't

want to go over it again. But you hiring an untested offensive coordinator at the time, when your program is at the point where you said where they've shaken off a lot of the muck and it looks like they've gotten out of that that terrible 2345 win cycle. Then you hire a guy who apparently you're not satisfied with his defensive coordinator, and then you shift back and you're the defensive coordinator again, Despite that having not worked the previous time.

And then you shift again and you hire another guy, but you're insistent that you run this system that you believe is the key to success, even though it's a bit of a stale system defensively. And then you fire the offensive coordinator that you you're forced to fire in you and you have to pay for that out of your own salary. Why? Because that was a ridiculous

hire in the 1st place. And so you go hire another offensive coordinator who was incapable of regularly having top 80, top 60 offenses in college sports as an offensive coordinator before and. Well, oh God, you have the worst offensive line in the conference and you don't fire that coach, right? I mean you're forced to, you know and what do we hear about that stuff? No, we hear about what Indiana doesn't have NIL money or

Indiana this or that. And it's like, you know, the at some point there has to be, there has, there has to be an acceptance, a focus internally from Alan that maybe what he thinks works for a program doesn't actually work. And look, I'm sorry. And on our friends at Assembly Call pointed this out, a couple of other people as well.

Go back and read the comments that Alan made in the postgame press conference and tell me if you see any personal accountability from Alan for the way that they played yesterday. You know, I mean there's there's we stuff in there, but it's like, well, we got to figure out what's wrong with the offense. And you know, we're going to, we're going to reevaluate everything. It's like that's not personal

accountability. That's all our players seem to have screwed up or our offensive coordinator seem to have screwed up. It's like this is your people. This is the job of the head coach like. You you need to go out there and take some accountability. It's very cream like, like you know if you remember when things started to go bad for cream, it was suddenly the players fault.

It was suddenly like, well, this, you know, it's never, there never seems to be that sense of personal accountability and this is not a personal thing against Tom Allen. I would have this reaction with any coach, but you know, it gets really, really irritating when you look back at this last, you know, 2 1/2 seasons, two and a third seasons, whatever.

And you see, I think, a very clear pattern of a lack of development of players, of offensive systems that don't work, culminating in a season where you're averaging less than two touchdowns a game in regulation against FBS opponents thus far. You can't run the ball despite saying that was going to be what you were going to focus everything on. Like, yeah, I see all of those things. It's like it's okay to come out and say I'm not doing a good enough job.

I need to figure out how to make this team better. Like just just do something to show some level of leadership, You know, take some of the the the stress and pressure off of your team. There's other things to think about which is like you, you've clearly not made the right offensive coordinator higher if this is the results that you're getting and this is a rough business. And again, I have nothing personal against Walt Bell. Actually, I like Walt Bell in the press conferences.

I think he says a lot of right things. And I often wonder, is this Walt Bell making decisions that are bad on the play calling. Is it Tom Allen saying at the goal line against Louisville we're going to run it in? I don't know. And if you know there's such a curtain of of obscuring the decision making process with this program you have no real clue what's going on. But you know the the I, U football right now feels like, as I said, it's barely keeping its head above water.

And the what we've seen this year is just a complete continuation of what we've seen the two previous years. I see I'm not only do I not see improvement, Scott, I see regression. And I didn't think that that was possible after last year because you know, that team got a bit lucky with the four wins that they got. But it felt like there might be some pieces to build on.

They go out and get a bunch of guys in the portal and as our friend Taylor Layman pointed out, like last night looked absolutely like a bunch of transfers who would never really played together before on defense, like they looked completely discombobulated. The offense doesn't have an identity, doesn't have a focus, doesn't have a a system that they can rely on and say this is what we're going to do and I'm sorry, you can blame the offensive coordinator all you

want. You can say the players aren't executing, which has been now said on multiple occasions, like the head coach's job is to run the business of the program. That's part of the business of the program is making sure that you have that foundation agree. With all of that, like, thumbs up emoji. No, it's. And you know, to me, it's little things.

It's big things. You know, I hate to nitpick on emotion but there is you know the I I go back to thinking of like you know let's take this all seriously and let's act like a serious program. And and again I know you're fired up. No, not you. Like as come on you're fired up last night when Akron misses the field goal. But you think of like imagine if you know Georgia was losing to a, you know, division two opponent and FBS opponent and they you know that that happened

to them. I don't see Kirby Smart like running and jumping and screaming the field. It's going to be like, all right guys we dodged a bull let's get this done. Like let's be done like there's kind of like a professionalism I feel like is missing. It's like yes, I know you're excited because you didn't lose to Akron. Like there's still an overtime. Like you shouldn't be this happy that they missed a field goal.

But I I was texting a couple of friends this and you know I'm I'm I'm going to just like you got into the the you know relegation narrative you know didn't want to like it's marketing thing. I don't want to talk about the fans supported I U. But this is my thought after last night and hearing a little bit in some postgame stuff about like you know how you know bad attention and it's all it's like look and this is through the program.

It's to Allen to everybody. It's like it you you want I you football to be taken seriously like a serious program. Then like go act like a serious program like look like you are prepared to win against Ohio State. Look like that you're prepared to play the first half against Louisville. Look like you're prepared to come out and beat Akron and then when you realize it's not going well, look like, I mean, that Akron, Kentucky game was close

for a little bit. And the Kentucky's like, all right, we're going to dust you off. Like a lot of games are like, you know, 710 three at halftime and then the better team is like, all right, we're done with that. It's like the Ohio State Indiana game, like Ohio State was sleepwalking and Ryan Day probably kicked him in the ass. And it's like, all right, they came out and they still didn't do great, but like, they won 23

or three. Like, act like a serious program, Do things that serious programs do. And to your point as a coach, admit that it's wrong. Because by the way, if you said, like, if he came out and said, hey, this is not good enough, no one's going to be like Tom. I disagree. It's like, I agree with, like this is not good enough. Like, not even for Alan, just for any football program. Like you're you won no big 10 games two years ago. You won two last year, you snuck

by and one of those this year. I mean we'll see how many you're going to win. You know and this is where I will say, you know I'm, I will keep my thoughts about where we go the rest of the season private as we get going. But you know our our preview, I thought we would win one game against Purdue. We're still on track for that. You you thought we'd win one game against Rutgers. There's nothing that I've seen that's going to scale my

expectations up beyond that. And, you know, and that and that's where it's like, again, if you're going to win, let's just say that is what happens. I don't want to get too much into theoreticals, but if you're going to win three Big 10 games in three seasons, like that's not a program that needs to be taken seriously. When I had friends texting me making fun of me last night, it's like, look, don't take. I like we're not a serious program.

Like because they're just not acting that way at all, I mean.

Yeah the the the cognitive dissonance and again our friends at Assembly Call pointed this out of Alan running around and slapping everybody on the shoulder pads and and being all excited when I you stop that two point conversion and quadruple overtime against Akron and then going in the press conference and throwing everybody under the bus including the offensive coaching staff is I mean that is really jarring and and look you know on the one hand I am I think anybody in that position

is going to try. To deflect blame off themselves. It's tough being asked questions. It's tough knowing that your team didn't put in a good performance. But this is a consistent problem with Alan, where when times are good, everybody loves Alan without everybody. But a lot of people love Alan jumping around. They're like, oh, this guy has so much passion for I U Football, and he does. And it's like, I don't think Alan is dispassionate about I U football. I think this is just who he is.

But it's it really. Makes it for a ridiculous looking representation when and it happened at half time at the Purdue game last year we talked about this where you know they they they they essentially killed the last four minutes of the clock in the first half and the you know the guys running around and and it's just like it it really does feel like the lack of professionalism that the team exhibits in the penalties in in playing down to opposition.

Flows a lot from that. And it's like if you celebrate everything and if every every accomplishment, however minor, is considered to be reason for celebration. It really makes the the standard that you're supposed to have set for your program pretty well. And it feels that way. Like, I'm sorry, beating Akron by two is embarrassing. It's it is. It is. You know, go back to the beginning of the podcast, the teams that Akron has beaten, you know, we should have lost.

Like, that's the thing. Like just when you look at this game, it'll go down as a win. But like they they missed a field goal, like they dropped touchdowns, like tons of penalties. There's four different plays. You change them, we lose and like the field goal's 1. Of them. I mean, look, I, and I'll say this, it's not a question for you. It's so important that Indiana football be good.

It really is. I mean, it is, it is so important financially for the university, reputationally for the university, in terms of recruiting students and getting students interested in campus life. It's so important competitively for Indiana to be good, especially in an era where you don't know what's going to happen down the line with television contracts and with the order of things like I, U, Football has to be maybe, maybe good is is a bridge too far. I don't think it's actually a

bridge too far. But they have to at least be competent and professional about what they do, and they're not. And they haven't been for three years. And you know what worries me? You know the when I look at Alan. I I see a guy who does not appear to acknowledge that in what he does. He might say that he does if you asked him.

But then you look at the actions that have taken place over the course of the last three years, and none of them add up to a person who is conscious about why the program is barely keeping its head above water and that that never ends well. I mean, we've seen this in other sports. You know, I mean, to some degree we kind of saw it with the ending of the Green era, even with the Big 10 Championship in the year before he got fired. And we've seen it with other

coaches. Like when you're when when the when the, when the professionalism levels aren't able to sustain, when everything else is going wrong, that's where you really start to get into problems. And I and I just worry that, and at a juncture when Indiana has to be putting its best foot forward in football, they don't appear to have. The set up in place right now to take advantage of that and I really do worry that you know, Indiana's back themselves into a corner obviously with Alan's

contract. I mean we've talked about this, you know, throughout the course of the season. I would be really concerned not just for this year but for next year because there doesn't appear to be a plan. I mean the they're going to go back. I mean, this is, you know, I think about what happened last year where, you know, during the offseason.

You know, there's the rare question you get about Darren Hiller as the offensive line coach and people pointing to how how underperforming the offensive line has been is like It wasn't even a consideration that Hiller would be moved on to a different job. And then only in October, when it got to the point where Indiana could not ignore. The fact that the offensive lines lack of play was creating problems that their offense couldn't overcome. Did Hiller get relieved of his duties?

And it was treated like it was this, you know, dark day in in Indiana football history by the coaching staff. And it's like, no, that's a move that should have happened a couple of years earlier. Again, not anything personal with Hiller. It's a performancebased enterprise. Now you've got the same situation starting to transpire with Walt Bell.

What are they going to do? They're going to go back and look at everything of the offense, which is essentially what Allen said in his postgame press conference. It is the 24th of September, Scott, 1/3 of the season is over and guess what? There's no more easy games. They got to go to Maryland, they got to go to Michigan. They got a a Rutgers team that does not look incompetent for homecoming. They got to go to Penn State. I mean, that's the next four games that Indiana's got.

You've already named a starter. You can't now unname it when you go back to the no starter. What are you, what are you going to reevaluate with your offense at this point? What are you going to do about your defense? I mean, how do you get four games into a season, coming off the season where a lot of shit didn't go well and say? Well, now we got to go back and look at everything and really see what we're doing. Like you don't know at this point. But the flip side is what's the

remedy? You're going to fire Walt Bell halfway through the season? No. Who's going to take his place? Why would that be any better than what you've currently got? I mean, people, you know, Walt Bell's play calling has been bad. I will be the first to say that. But you know how much of that is what Walt Bell has to work with with the offensive line? How much of it is, you know, the fact that? You you didn't go out and get a veteran quarterback to come in and try to quarterback this team.

You decided that you were going to reorient the offense towards something that Indiana cannot do, and now you're trying to back out of it again like you can. You could fire the offensive coordinator or you could tell the offensive coordinator, hey, we got to go back to the drawing board. It's too late for the drawing board when you're a third of the way through the season and, you know have no more margin for error games to try things out.

And as you pointed out at the beginning of the podcast, in a game where you could have thrown the ball and tried some different things, their approach, they really thought the best thing with those goal line situations was to run a bunch of running place. And it's just like that like we know that doesn't work. We know that that's not the case. So that I just and I'm going to

let you talk here in a second. But the the idea that that's the rhetoric coming out of the press conference and we got to go back to the drawing board. Should highlight how off the rails this program has gotten under Alan and it's it's year

seven. I'm sorry it's not he didn't just start it And and you know again this is, this is a professional critique for I U Football to be at the point where they're at right now where they're they're licking their wounds but celebrating a win against Akron. That what we've seen on the field from this team really paints a picture of a program that is is out of out of answers and they don't even seem to entirely know what the questions

are in the 1st place. I I'm, I I have a question to ask you that hopefully gets us on a positive note. But before we get there I just. I want to go into the sorrow pit with you for one more minute because you said something about how important it is you know for for football to be good for all

the reasons you laid out. The other thing that is concerning to me that I saw last night about those runs wasn't just from a gameplay perspectives that they're not working and you can speak to this, but I heard it on TV in the third and fourth quarters on some of those times where we ran

and it was like end of downs. I was hearing a lot of boos, like I was hearing people booing and and this is something I mentioned on the pregame or sorry, the the preseason pod that, you know, we're starting to get some of that like antagonistic feeling back between the program and the fans, which I don't like. You know, under under Wilson every year they had this like spring kickoff where you could go on the field and see the players.

And like there was like just it was just a, you know, walk around the stadium and like it was just a spring day. That's all gone. Like we get no updates as season ticket holders and fans. We've lost all access to this team. And then, you know, I'm not saying that fans know what's best for the team, and just because the fans are booing, it's bad. But you know, part of the part of the engine is driving. All of this stuff is money, but part of it is like it's

entertainment. Like, I'm there to watch a fun product. Yes, I'd love to see wins. I'm not saying you need to run the playbook based on what the fans want, but there is a world where, like, if you're going to win two or three games a year, let's just have some fun. And this this whole idea of like we're just going to keep running the ball, kneeling and killing the clock and being happy with these moral victories, it it is baffling.

And then you know truth be told you I'm hearing from some other fans that I know that you know I use getting annoyed at fans for not showing up to games like talking to season ticket hole folders. Like you know you're selling your tickets. You shouldn't. It's like what are we doing here? Like you need to energize this fan base. And I'm not saying you call plays to do that.

But I will say that when you're continually doing the same thing, it's not working on the field and then fans are booing you for it like we're we're not in a good space. To exactly your point like part of what makes Indiana a very desirable university, as we have this active and engaged alumni base. Unfortunately, it is just all to basketball because football has been relatively uncompetitive.

But you get these moments where it does feel like the program becomes, like, actively antagonistic toward the fans. And as a fan, an alumnus, a season ticket holder, I'm starting to feel that too. And there's a part where I'm like, I'm not saying they have to win. I'm not saying that like I I go, I deserve a win. What I am saying is, if the game is going to be 4 1/2 hours and I'm going to be there and spend the money I do, I'd like to have some kind of entertainment like something.

Well, it is fun to watch. You can. You can get away with really dull offense. If you're winning games, I mean, but look at what happened to Iowa yesterday. You know, Iowa. Iowa's entire thing is like, what? We're not going to score a lot of points. But the other team isn't either, and they they accrued 76 yards of offense against Penn State and lost 31. Nothing. And their fans are freaking out.

And they should be. Because and and I was had a lot of success but that's that's not I mean Iowa ran 33 total plays in the whole game yesterday which I didn't think was possible even with the new clock rules. That's insane. Don't don't say it too loud. Alan might go for 32 next week. But but it's clear. Here's the problem and this that really does tie back into the coaching staff situation. It's clear that that's what.

I U Alan and his coaches think they have to do to win and that is a terrible indictment on where Indiana's program is right now. If they feel that they have to, to make the offense that unattractive because they don't think they can win any other way, I mean that's that's about, as you said, that's about the worst case scenario for Indiana football because you are going to lose fans. I mean, there were not that many people in the stands yesterday and I think the official attendance was.

Was 44,000 or thereabouts, I think is what I saw. They were not 44,000 people in the stadium and you know it was a beautiful night. It was a beautiful day. The tailgate was great. Like the stuff leading up to the game was just fine. And then the game itself was really hard to watch. I mean you know and I was I was up in in my normal section and I'm just like this is it was it just wasn't good football and the IT it wasn't just.

The bad play calling, it was also just a huge number of mistakes that Indiana's players did make. You know, whether it was McCauley dropping the wide open play or, you know whether it was some of the penalties that were accrued or whether it was some of the passes that were wrong or you know what. And those are always the things that get focused on. But the missed tackles, That was the thing that got me like for as much as the defense is supposed to be, I guess, what carries this team?

The number of missed tackles, the people around me who were not real, these were not, you know, these are parents of of. Of students, they don't really care that much, but they were getting frustrated by the second quarter with all of the missed tackles. It's not an attractive brand of football. It's not something that people want to go watch. It's not something that people

want to get excited about. And the fact you know it's it's so disappointing because you know 2019 and 2020, it wasn't just. The the way that I U played in terms of the way they were set up for the play calls on offense, but they had exciting players who were making exciting

plays and that's gone too. It's you know, unless you really like Aaron Casey, having to run all over the field trying to be the the tackler of last resort, which is essentially what the poor guy has had to do here for the last couple of weeks, there's very little that an I U season ticket holder. You know, would have to entice them to come into the stadium and watch the game or stay past halftime.

There's very little that a a a neutral or somebody who has a a bit of curiosity, you know, there's very little to make them want to go and buy a ticket and watch this and that's not going to get better I think as the season goes along. And so you know what? What Indiana does with that, I'm not totally sure. Because this has been the direction that things have gone over the course of the last two and a third seasons. This was not an entertaining

team to watch in 2021 either. It wasn't an entertaining team to watch last year. They would have individual moments when things opened up. Even that looks like a bridge too far right now with this 2023 vintage of the team and. You know, again, the only, the only, the only constant in all of this is that Tom Allen has been the head coach during this time period. And you know he's had the time to set things up the way that he wants.

He's had the time to hire the coaches that he wants, he's hired, had the time to bring in the players that he wants. And right now this is the most recent vintage of what that particular batch of grapes has generated. And this is not a good tasting vintage right now. Scott totally agree. And the thing that that always bugs me heard it talks the last night as we got, you know, now it's just going to be everyone's going to give up. You know now the basketballs kind of starting, everyone's

going to check out. It's like, well that happens because of all the reasons you laid out. But also like I just get so frustrated as a fan. It's like I'm, you know the all of these TV deals like the prices are going up. Like being a varsity club member is going up. Like all the prices are going up. It's like I don't have unlimited money. I wish I did. I know we joke about it like I you know that I do have to pay for my, you know, my wine tastings, my caviar tastings,

all that. It's like, you know, there's a reason why people focus more on basketballs because it's entertaining. It's like your budget is 0 sum. Like I have so much money to spend on entertainment and I'm going to spend it over here and that that's going to take away from that. So it bugs me.

I want to change. I want to pull us out as we try and wrap this up. My question for you is, you know, and I'm as guilty of this as anybody starting to look at things and being like, you know, assuming what I think is going to happen is going to happen, all of the Big 10 games are still available. There are still four to five more wins out there that are possible. This team can still make a bowl. There's still, I mean that path is obviously still there. They can still surprise and do

something. So I will ask you this because I, I don't hop on a lot of the previews with you. But you know, if Alan is going to go to his team and change some things up, like what are the couple 1-2 things that you think? Need to be fixed to make this team more functional in the Big 10 and have a chance to win some of those winnable games. I mean, I think at this point the number one thing is they have to pick an offensive identity and stick with it. I mean, really, I mean, it's so

true. What's our identity? What is it like? What are you what are you leaning on? I, I, I. This is where it's. It's hard again, to understand where not tell anybody. Like to say we picked it, but we're not telling you here. Here's the thing that I keep coming back to when Nick Sheridan was the offensive coordinator, the play calls sucked, the execution sucked. I mean, they won two games that year and they were lucky to win

one of those games. You know, they had some bad luck obviously in some certain things, but I think they still would have lost the Cincinnati game. They were still going to lose the Michigan State game. I mean, it was, it was a so you had all that happen. And then the last two years under Walt Bell, the offense has really not been good either and they've struggled so much in terms of the personnel they brought in. They don't seem to know what they want to be.

I don't know if that's the fault of the offensive coordinator, but the fact that it's happened now under two different offensive coordinators, it's like, what's the threat here? The threat is Tom Allen. You know, when we've talked a lot about Allen doesn't seem to quite grasp the offensive side of the ball, but he wants it to be in support of his defense. We talked about that all the way going back to, you know, Mike Debord's offense back in 20/17/2018.

This is not a new thing. Indiana has to settle on something and say this is what we do. And if that's a hard thing to do because we're still in a year where this is not a good offensive line, it's, you know, they're not able to block for the run. That you know, for all the talk about what they you know, Taven Jackson hasn't gotten sacked. He got sacked three times yesterday against Akron. He threw an interception. You know he's going to have bad games.

It shouldn't. And this is what pisses me off about the way that people talk about Michael Pennix right now in in in relation to his time at I U. You know, coming back from a devastating injury, it's held against Michael Pennix by certain people that he wasn't good enough in the games that he played in the 2021 season. And it's like, so everything is dependent on one guy doing everything right. And if not, well, we can't blame the offensive coordinator or we can't blame the head coach.

I mean that's that's basically been what the the defenders of this regime have decided to dig in on. So you know last year Connor Basil Act was good until he wasn't and then Connor Basil Act got blamed for the offensive woes this year. OK, last night, what was the talk in the postgame press conference? In part it's, you know, Alan at two different times when he was like what David Jackson was not at his base today it's like guys, it first of all wasn't even named the starter until

last week. He's, you know, he's growing as a quarterback. You need to know all of these things and you need to create an offensive system that's tailored to those skill sets that he does have and make it easier for him throughout the course of the game. And ironically, that's what Tom Allen said in the postgame press conference. But you've Why aren't you doing that already? Like why?

Why are we just talking about that after game four where your team isn't scoring on offense, they're not able to to seal the deal on these things. So that to me is the number one thing. And I don't, I, I'll be frank, I don't think it's possible at this point.

But if, if they're going to make something of the season, if they're going to be competitive against the teams that we've talked about, that they could potentially beat Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois, Wisconsin feels like a bridge too far right now. Michigan State, Purdue, like that group of teams, They have got to have something that they can point to and say this is what we do, They work on that constantly. Is it going to be predictable? At times, yes. But you know what?

I'll take predictable in a based upon and within the enclosure of what Indiana is capable of doing with their talent levels and with what they've got personnel wise as opposed to what we've seen so far this season where they've gone from heavy triple option in game one to zero triple option in game four with no explanation as to why things change. The other thing I'll say that I think that they really need to do. You know and this is it again.

I mean what the first play of the game I think there was a penalty on Indiana you know they they they had it was it was taken back it was actually I wrote it down it was they they kick because I was going to that was like I'm watching the game and it's like they they they called a possible penalty for

too many men on the field. And it took for it was like the guys on TV are like now there's eleven there like 11 there like wasn't a false start like was like they're like I'm not sure what's it was a long penalty and I was going to make a joke about how like oh like too many men on the podcast. I was trying to think what the joke. Was it in the Game Unfolded? I'm like, yeah, there's other things to talk about from this game. Yeah, it was taken away. Thank you, because I was.

I was still walking into the stadium at that point because I had been jumping at the dead Battery in the parking lot before I went in. There's a great, great 20 minutes, let me tell you. But did. It say I U offense on it. Yeah, there you go. But no. But if, If I U is going to be this, if they're going to struggle this much offensively, they have to spend time on special teams. They have to spend time on eliminating penalties.

It's clear through four games that this team does not really have a margin for error, and that's an awful place to be as a football team. But if you know that, then maybe spend some time in practice making sure that everybody is well drilled and you're not committing the penalties that are going to create problems or take you out of field goal range

or whatever like that. So those to me, the two things like you can only control so much at this point because you're a third of the way through the season. But having an offensive identity and living with that, whatever the consequences, and also making sure that you eliminate a lot of the silly stuff that's been happening with this program for, you know, time immortal, that's got to be where you

start. Because otherwise, you know, as we've talked about it happen with the Louisville game, you shoot yourself in the foot at the wrong time and you don't have any way to make up for that. That's the only way I see this team and I can look and I think, I don't think they're going to go winless the rest of the way. I think they'll win one maybe even two more games just because that's the way the cookie crumbles.

And and you know Michigan State certainly did not look very good yesterday playing against Maryland. But I I just worry at this point that without some kind of recentering, Indiana's going to continue to find themselves both not able to score and giving up yardage or giving up first downs at key moments defensively when they shouldn't. And and that, you know in a in a season where your team doesn't have a margin for error, that could be what ultimately is the undoing? Yeah, I agree.

I I would say I agree with all of that, that the two things that I would say to answer my own question is that one. I do think that Tom Allen just needs to pick something and focus on it like just be find something this team can be good at because it it feels like they're all like there's a lot of problems. It's a 55 alarm fire in eight different areas, partially because it feels like there's just a lot of scattered directions and directives given.

It's like let's just pick one thing, defense, offense, but just pick something and get really good at that. But I would also say. You know, if you're Alan, this is where you've got to not let 2021 happen again. You know, as you look at the schedule, you know a lot of the wins are at the end, which is unlike a lot of Big 10 seasons. You know, you finish the season at Illinois, home to Michigan State, at Purdue, those are all winnable games.

I think they will continue to be winnable games no matter what this team does as we get to November. The trouble is, in 2021, because the way the schedule broke, that team was broken and done by November and it's just they were on fumes. I'm bothered by that because again, this is the coach of vibes and feelings and like, you know, good vibes, Ellie, all that. So if I would just talk to Alan, I'd like look focus on one thing, but most importantly. You're you're going at Maryland.

You're probably going to lose that. You're going at Michigan next. You're you're probably more likely going to lose that. You're going to be home to Rutgers for homecoming. That's a huge must win. If you lose that, you're at Penn State which is lost your home to Wisconsin. Like even then the season is not oh you cannot let this team give up because you could win at Illinois. Michigan State. You could win the bucket at Purdue. Like there are options at the end that don't have the word

bowl in them. But you have to get there and you've got to keep this team focused and positive up through there. And I my my point to him and be like dude, and that's what you're supposed to be good at. Like in this whole 10 year you've never been a great like hey this team is well disciplined, this is great X's and O's like it has been vibes. As you've always said, it's

vibes and like mentality. Now is really when you need it because I think it's going to be a rough stretch between now and November 11th. But you've got to keep your team in a good headspace between now and then, because if they check out, they could check out, in which case we have some real problems. So that would be my advice.

Yeah, I know I look and and what I worry about I agree with all that And what I what I worry about with Alan is that he's already shown a propensity for wanting to just like if something's not working rather than work on getting it to be to a point where it can at least be competent.

It's something new. This happened last year, You know, You know 2/3 of the way through the season they just stop playing Connor Bazelak. And you know, suddenly they're they're not making many pass attempts in games and they're trying to run, you know, things. And it it yes, it got them the Michigan State win which relied on the opposing teams field goal kicker missing a kick at the buzzer. But it it was, it's not it. It it wasn't a sustainable thing. They only got one win out of

that. Well, the good news is we're running out of offensive systems. He can try. That's the thing I. Mean there's only somebody left in the Techmo Bowl. You know game plan bring. Yeah I know I get the Wing T back. I don't know. I mean, there's there's. Very big fake punts in second down. Yeah. So I just, I I worry that what we've seen so far over the course of the last three seasons, which you know really feels like it's like it's like Alan's tenure has had three

distinct periods. It was that the first two years which were pretty underwhelming. When you really go back and look at them, there were the middle two years which were really nice and successful and then you've had the last three which feel more like what this is going to be longterm if we maintain this particular coaching staff and this approach to things. And, you know, I think there needs to be some soul searching about okay, what is really happening.

Like what? What is what from the from Alan all the way on down, like what is causing this program to be the way that it is right now? And you, you know, history, fine. You could talk about history, you could talk about a bunch of different things. But realistically this belongs to the people that are there right now. It belongs to the coaches, It belongs to the players. That has to be evaluated

internally. Not just what we got to go back to the drawing board, but maybe we need to change drawing boards, You know, maybe we need to write on a different type of of material because it just isn't working right now. And you know, we've done 90 minutes of a podcast after a 2 point win. But but what we what? What's the problem is? That thing is just such a microcosm for all of the problems that have happened with this program over the course of the last couple of years.

And I, I I would love to see a scenario where Indiana figures it out, you know, gets to four or five wins to close out the season, maybe comes up with an identity that they can stick with. But nothing that I've seen over the last couple of seasons would indicate that that's what's

going to happen. And that's really my big concern because yes, the fans drift away, but again, it just, it's so important that Indiana be good or at least competent at football and not fall victim to the things that they've fallen victim to the last three years. And. And it's it's so critical for Indiana as a whole, the athletic department, the university, that this football program do something positive. And I just really worry about

the trajectory of things. And I was worried before the game, you know, and we try to put a positive spin on things to some degree because you want to do that as a podcast. You want it, you want to, you know, it's like we're we're both, we both, you know, season ticket holders. We both watch every game. We've watched every game for

decades. It's like the the importance of the program sometimes gets lost in the criticisms that we will lob, but the criticisms come from the reality and we've been talking about the last three years. It's like this does not look like it's headed in a good direction and now it's arrived and it was not a good direction. And the question is what happens next?

And I got to tell you, Scott, I'm not seeing a lot that's giving me a lot of confidence that there's going to be a course correction towards a more positive outcome. So you know, everything we've said, it's like, yes, make these tweaks, try to focus on these things. But ultimately I just, I wonder if there is the selfreflection right now in the coach's office that would allow the changes that need to be made to get this thing back on track.

And that really is concerning. Agree 100% so so 90 minutes on a on a two point win. Anyway, we'll wrap up thanks to all you folks if you made it. To the end, just a reminder that we bless you if you made it to the end. By the way, if you made it here Home 24 just free Home Field Apparel, it's like up to it that I'm totally kidding, it's not real, but put it in. Who knows, maybe it'll work. Just a reminder, we are on sub stack.

If you want to get you know, happy action Fun time podcasts about I U Football directly to your e-mail, please subscribe. It's Crimson cast at substack.com. We certainly welcome comments and questions in the chat. We we you know that we've got on sub stack we we try to respond to those on a weekly basis sometimes not as fast.

We have a VIP section you can subscribe for free but there's also a paid subscription will you get some extra goodies from me and Scott And so anyway we really appreciate you folks listening and those of you who are you made it through a 93 minute podcast about IU football after that game. You're a real fan. All right.

So our hats off to you and hopefully things get better cuz God, I think that the one, the emotion that overrides me coming out of yesterday is just I'm I'm so disappointed that this is where are you football is at right now and and I'm so disappointed that the custodianship of the program has allowed things to get to where we're at right now. And I'm. I'm very, very concerned about where things are going. And and look everything can be

fixed. I mean you you can you can find you can find personnel you can find people that nothing is irrevocably broken. But realistically speaking, I'm just moved disappointed than anything else that we're having to even have this conversation at this point when it looked like as you said, you know you're coming out of 2020, it's like this is great. We won't have to have those conversations again for a while and here we are again. So anyway, thanks to everybody for tuning in.

Thanks to our presenting sponsor Home Field Apparel. Thanks to our friends at the Back Home Network, we will be back with a preview podcast later on this week. I'm gonna try to get Taylor back on. We'll talk about Indiana, Maryland, Maryland looks pretty good. So we'll see what happens with all that. We'll also have some basketball content coming as we get into October. That's coming up for Scott. I'm Galen. This is Crimson Cast. We'll catch you folks.

On the flip side, bring back the Bison. So everybody.