You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Patty folks, welcome back to Crimson Cast. I'm Galen Clavio. We got the 28th of September is the day that we're recording here. It's a Thursday night. And a beautiful night in Bloomington as we get ready for a weekend's worth of football action.
Indiana back on the field once again, traveling on the road this week as they take on the Maryland Terrapins as the Big 10 season really begins in earnest And a big hill to climb. Obviously for Indiana, sitting at 2:00 and 2:00 on the season needing four wins to get to bowl eligibility. And frankly, Indiana sits here at the end of September. And should feel pretty fortunate that they're two and two given the way that things went last week.
Obviously, if you heard our show from the weekend, you know that there's a lot of stuff that needs to get fixed. It looks like on this I U Football teams, we're going to talk about that a little bit. We should have Taylor Lehman joining us a little bit later in the podcast. We're going to break down some of the numbers that we'll be looking at for this game against the Maryland Terrapins.
And we'll talk a little bit about some of the matchups and so forth and and what Indiana can do if they want success in this game. Before we get to that point, we just a reminder that first of all, for those of you who don't make it to the end of the podcast normally, I wanted to say right up front that Crimson Cast is now on sub Stack.
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2nd, 33% of the season. I was going to say the second, third of the season, but that sounds weird. Indiana Two and two and coming off of 2927 quadruple overtime win over the Akron Zips. The Hoosiers are on the road for three out of the next four games. They travel to Maryland. They're traveling to, well, they have a bye week after that, Then they travel to Michigan.
They get Rutgers at home for homecoming and then they travel to Penn State. So a pretty tough stretch of games, even tougher if you add the 5th game on there the the the beginning of the third third of the season as they'll have Wisconsin in Memorial Stadium. On the 4th of November. So you know, you look at this middle part of the schedule and you say to yourself like you know, Indiana has to find a way to start playing better, start being more competitive.
You know, in in all phases of the game, very Jekyll and Hyde type of team so far, but to some degree. That Jekyll and Hyde nature is is masking what has not been a particularly impressive statistical performance so far for this Indiana squad. On the season so far they are averaging 21.8 points per game. They're holding opponents to 19.5 points for game, which is is good, but by and large this Indiana team is really struggling across the board
offensively. 915 yards passing on the season, 2 touchdowns, 2 interceptions. 3.2 yards per rush attempt for this I U offense, and you know, there's been some good vibes around the past protection for this I U team. Coming into last week, they hadn't allowed a sack thus far and unfortunately they they did allow some sacks in that game against Akron. But you know, it's really been a mixed bag offensively for this team. A lot of struggles in the red zone, as as anybody who's
followed along knows. And it makes for a very uncomfortable look when you head in to play Maryland, because Maryland has certainly performed at a very high level thus far offensively and really on both sides of the ball. The flip side is that Maryland hasn't performed against particularly good competition. So Maryland on the season averaging 37.3 points per game, holding opponents to 12.3 points
per game. Michigan AR Excuse me, Maryland. 88 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, 11135 passing yards and averaging 5.05 yards per rush attempt and that includes 10 touchdown rushes. Their defense has has really clamped down. They've they've already forced 7 interceptions on the season. And they've they've managed also to to force 4 fumbles as well. So this has been a ball Hawking defense. It's been a defense that's really disrupted their opposition.
Now the flip side of that is that Maryland does not played a particularly good schedule so far. In fact, it's really it's really a bad schedule they beat up on 1000. 38 to 6000 Not an FBS team. They played an incredibly weak FBS team in Week 2 on national television. Weirdly enough, there really was no inventory that week for NBC to pick from.
They beat Charlotte 38 to 20. That was an interesting game because Maryland really struggled for about 2 1/2 quarters in that game, and then they eventually kind of took off and ran with it in Week 3. They played Virginia, and that was a walk over. Virginia has been real bad this year, and Maryland made them look even worse than that. The Terrapins win that game 42 to 14. And then of course, last week they traveled to Michigan State.
Michigan State is in shambles right now, and Maryland absolutely took advantage of that, just obliterating the Spartans 31 to 9 in Spartan Stadium, one of the worst losses they've suffered there to a team like Maryland in a while. I mean, you know, you'll see Michigan State occasionally.
At home, they'll they've been blown out by they got blown out by Washington. But Washington's one of the top teams in the country led by former I U quarterback Michael Pennix. You know, But you know last year they lost really heavily at home to Ohio State. But they generally play pretty well in Spartan Stadium in Michigan State made them or Michigan. Maryland made Michigan State look silly in that game.
So you know, this is a Maryland team that depending on what you think about the overall quality of. Of Michigan State has already you know they've played a Big 10 game and they've wanted handily on the road and they haven't played a whole lot with the rest of their schedule. But a lot of what we're seeing out of Maryland feels like a continuation of what we saw out of Maryland last year.
A team that's got a a really exciting offense with a really dynamic quarterback in in Talia Tiger Vilava. They they've got some excellent skill position players that they can rely on. You know, last year Maryland average. 28 points a game, but was allowing 23. I mean they were a team that they could score points, but they also allowed points. This year they're scoring more points and they're allowing significantly fewer.
So as we bring our friend Taylor Layman from Bite Size Bison in for the preview, first of all, Taylor, great to see you. How was dinner? It was good. We made, I grilled some burgers and yeah, yeah, they turned out pretty well. The the grill stopped in the middle, so I was like, what is going on? But no, it's good. They turned out well. This is, this is the the grill God's way of keeping you from overcooking the burgers. So I like the way that they work on this now. Well, good.
Well, we haven't really talked about a whole lot yet, Taylor, but we're we're just getting ready. We've laid out some of the basic statistics for both of these teams. You've done a wonderful thing for the community in bringing back the the stat comparison sheet between these two teams, looking at some of the various advanced statistics that you would want to look at to try to figure out what the matchup is, is and and what we could expect out of this, this matchup overall.
So let's talk about that to start with. I mean going and looking at that sheet. The the S&P plus win probability between these two teams. Maryland is an 85% favorite in this game. The projected score right now is 35 to 14 in favor of the Terps,
which. I mean, given the stats we were just quoting seems kind of Fair. But, you know, can you talk about some of the things that you noticed when you were looking at this preview that really stuck out to you in terms of what we've seen out of these teams so far this year and and how you think that might play out on the field?
Yeah, yeah, no. One thing that I noticed before even started putting the sheet together was something that CFP Graphs had tweeted out and then it was that I quoted the tweet on Twitter to to bring attention to the number that was next to I U. But Maryland was even further
down the list. So something I noticed but it's the amount of yards that they surrendered before making first contact with with runners and that's about a little over 3 yards from Maryland. It's it's almost about I use average run per average yardage per rush.
But that's the first that's honestly that's one figure that really jumped out to me and you can see it reflected in the sheet and Maryland being ranked 117th in defensive success against the rush and allowing you know 3.3 mine yards per rush is essentially what that what that figure is. So though that's something that jumped out to me but also the number of turnovers that Maryland's defense has forced is second in the country. They forced 11 turnovers.
You know that could be strength of opponent. It, you know, it's it's hard to say, but that's a lot of turnovers. So you know that that's going to be part of this game. So that's those, those were a couple things that jumped out to me. First, specifically about the Maryland defense, but. And you know what we were talking about leading in? I mean, Maryland hasn't played a murderer's role of opponents thus far. You know this, so you kind of
have to take. A little bit of a a grain of of doubt with a little bit of this, but also there's there's teams that are ranked like Maryland who have played similar, you know statistically bad teams and have not yielded as much. And so while you can discount some of the stats, these things do factor in like quality of opponent and where you would rank accordingly. And I mean, I I, you know, I look at overall at what Maryland's doing.
It's it's pretty fascinating, you know, their defense is actually performing better than their offenses, even adjusted for opponent overall. Maryland just looks like a really solid football team right now, a team that's got balance on both sides of the ball. You know, a team that is able to to gain a lot of yards and also not give up a lot of yards. A team that is, you know, he's got a pretty high offensive
success rate. And a team, you know by and large that does all of the things that advanced statistics are tuned to like and and you know, you can say, well, that may not be the full story. But the reason advanced statistics like things like explosiveness or points per drive is that they are really good predictors of success. And that's really a big reason why Maryland's 4 know so far this year. Yeah, because it maintains some
of those statistics. You need consistency and you know that that that's something we haven't seen out of Indiana. So that's why they aren't as friendly for some of those analytics. But yeah, that's a really good point and that's also why the struggles and run defense kind of stood out to me because you would think in this type of schedule, these first few games here that those numbers would be
a little bit better. So I think that you know that that could be something that I you could try to exploit, but I just, I don't have any confidence that the rushing attack. Well, I was going to say, I mean apparently I U is still a running team, they're still a run first offense. So this is your big chance, Tom Allen, to actually make that stick.
I mean, I think if there is, if there is an opponent left on I U schedule that you, you know, you could really exploit the running game against this may be it like this team or maybe Purdue, because Purdue's rush defense has not been particularly good either. But you're playing Maryland
right now. And I will also say that if Indiana is able to get the running game going, which again, it seems a little bit unlikely given how poor that's been in basically every game so far this season, that might be helpful against Maryland because you're going to have to eat some clock
against this Maryland team. You know, not having Maryland's offense on the field I think is is going to be where Indiana wants to be. Because you know, Tyga Viola and and some of the weapons he's got at his disposal are going to take advantage of weaknesses that we've seen thus far in Indiana's overall defensive approach. Yeah, yeah, I want to touch on that real fast. But something that something that kind of jumped out to me also is the stark contrast in Indiana's success in pass versus
rush. They they are 16% more successful in in in passing situations on offense than they are rushing and and and third worst success rate and rushing in the in the country so you know not that I know that he's surprised everybody he's listening but but but no the what I what I what I now I think I forget what I was trying to talk. About No, it's fine. I mean, we were, we were talking a little bit about trying to keep Maryland's offense off the field.
And it is tough, though, because you, as you just pointed out, like you, on the one hand, you look at what Maryland's you know, the struggle they've had in defending. The run. And yet it we look at Indiana struggles running the ball, it's like well if something's going to give there, it'd be great if Indiana could actually figure out a way to control clock through running the ball a little bit more than they have at this point. Right. Right. Yeah. No.
And and and on the defensive side like you were saying, you know they're they have they have weapons to attack you know through through the passing game. And you know I think Corey Dykes is going to be a huge that's he's he's scary. I thought he was scary last year and it didn't really they didn't really pan out because they had CJ Defree and and some other weapons in the passing offense. But that guy, I think this is the year that he could really
pose that major threat. But he's there leading receiver, the tight end, he plays a lot in the middle of the field. We saw that happen with Kate Stover with Ohio State. You know that's it's that's going to be interesting to see how they play another athletic tight end.
But then you know I kind of wrote in my in my preview from Maryland that the front seven is looking a little shaky and so they're kind of I'm kind of watching them because they have two good running backs especially Hendy he's he's really good so and just you know staying on top of those two guys is going to be difficult and they they've run a lot of, they don't run a lot of play action but when they run play action it's successful. And you know, yeah they can.
I think, you know I don't think they're the most explosive offense the top 30 in explosiveness but I expect that to be a little lower. But they can, they can, they can take the top off and I think that the linebackers have to play better than they did against Akron. Yeah, I know, without question. It's interesting cuz you know you mentioned. The passing attack from Maryland a little bit. They're they're incredibly balanced in how they get the ball all over the field.
They've got 6 receivers thus far that are in double digits and catches. Caden Prater is leading in, I think total yards per game. He's at about 52 yards a game. Corey Dykes is second. Just on Jones third, Ty Fallon is in that mix. Octavian, Smith, junior, Roman Hembree. And then in the rushing attack, they were balanced there, too. Hembree, they're leading rusher. McDonald has about 200 yards rushing. Antoine Littleton has about 100 yards rushing.
I mean, they've really and some of it, I think it's been the blowouts, but they've been able to get a bunch of different guys out there and figure out ways to get them involved in the offense, which. Is I think a really key thing in a game like you've got against Indiana here and it's going to make it difficult for Indiana because if you're the Hoosiers, who do you cue on? Like where's the focus go?
I mean, you mentioned some of the danger people that they've got on their roster and certainly that, but I think they've already shown they don't have to go to those guys to have success offensively. Yeah know exactly. If I you if I you keys on the running backs you know keying on running backs isn't great when you're trying to defend a great tight end. And I think that's going to be a really good thing for Maryland for the season moving forward.
Why they're probably fairly successful on offense. So you know you go after the running backs you lose the tight end. You go after the tight end, you lose the running backs. And then like you were saying the the receivers they have their disposal too. I think are you know they're not the most talented but I think they're growing and so there's I think there's like some some budding talent there at receivers. So yeah, I think it's going to be a challenge for.
I talked before about the multiplicity of of I use defense, I think there's some multiplicity and then the offense of this Maryland team, and I think that's going to be a struggle. The one thing I feel fairly good about, I don't think they're going to. We will see. Mike Locksley might have a trick up his sleeve here, but I don't think they're going to do a lot of design quarterback runs with, You know, we saw how DJ Irons really shredded. I use defense with that.
But Tiger by Low is not an immobile quarterback. I mean, this is a guy who can move. He just. Doesn't have to. Right now he's completing I think 65% of his passes. He's got two rushing touchdowns. He's running when he's needing to and it's just feels like a real after. And again, we're we're a little bit shell shocked I think, from having to sit through the Akron game and watching Indiana get shredded by that particular team.
But even if not, I mean, even if this was coming right off the Louisville game, this feels like a real tough task. For Indiana defensively, and you know, you think about last year, you know these two teams obviously play. This has been a really close series historically. Indiana did not play badly in that game versus Maryland last year. They only lost by 5:00, but they gave up 38 points in that game, Taylor.
And it just it felt like every time Indiana needed a stop last year in that game, they just could not come up with one. Yeah. Yeah. When when I look back on the defense last year, I think about how you know at some certain positions the the personnel. Well, I don't think it's what I you would have hoped for specifically like Brian Fitzgerald at safety. I I think that there are some positions that they they probably feel better about this year's defense.
You know, because they've pretty much recruited the whole defense out of the portal. But I think, I think yeah and and I think I, I I maybe texted you this during the after the Akron game. But that defense looked like it
was it was built with transfers. It looked like there was a lot of miscommunication and especially in the 425 defense is really susceptible to misdirection and if you don't keep an eye on the quarterback you give up 86 scrambling yards and you know it it just kind of it gave me, it gave me that feeling that you know there is there is a kind of a razor's edge to this to this defense and and I think Maryland team could
exploit that. I'm not super optimistic about about the defense going into this one. Well, I mean you look, you look a little more closely at what happened last year and you know, I mean it was, it was a shootout. In a lot of ways, it was a weird game. Because, I mean, Indiana yielded. 442 yards to Maryland. They yielded 25 first downs. Indiana picked up 23 first downs themselves.
Indiana was leading in the fourth quarter, but Indiana had three turnovers in that game and didn't force any Maryland turnovers in that game, and that was really the difference. And you think like one of those scoring drives gets turned over Merritt maybe. Maybe Indiana walks out of there with a win, and maybe they're going into the last game of the season. You know, without with a chance of winning and going to a bowl. But that's not how it played out, and that was in Memorial Stadium.
Now that that hasn't mattered too much in this series. We've seen these teams win on each other's home fields a few times since Maryland joined the Big 10. But yeah, it's it's, you know, it's going to be interesting. I mean, if you look at the way the defense played in its two best halves of the season, the first half against Ohio State and the second-half against Louisville.
You know the the the problem with like both of those games in relation to this one is that it was clear, I think it's become even clearer that Ohio State was holding every single card close to its best in that game. They really were kind of practicing what Tom Allen is, preached about, what we're not going to show anything. And then in the Louisville game, it really does feel as I've gone back and watch that that game again. It really feels like Louisville.
Was like, let's just do just enough to win in the second-half where you know we're not going to let ourselves get too stretched out here and it ended up working out for them. Maryland's not going to have that attitude like Maryland is. I think they're looking at themselves and saying we have a real legitimate shot at beating any of the teams above us because of how quality our offense is. We need to get into the top 25. We need to get some buzz going
around this. We want to make a statement with this game and. You know, I do worry with I use defense, the the mentality they're going to have coming off that Akron game. We heard Tom Allen and his presser today say he's like the focus this week, which I mean, I would hope you're going into a Big 10 game on the road, but I I don't have a lot of of confidence in that because ultimately you've already given up 445 yards to this team on your home field and they look better offensively.
This is a game where it feels like Indiana's going to have to force at least three turnovers just to try to blunt that, the spear edge of what Maryland's doing, and also give their offense a short field where they can start to operate and do some things differently than they've done in the last couple of weeks. Yeah, no, definitely. And you said they have to force 3 turnovers. That's as many as Maryland's committed all year. So they don't commit a lot of turnover.
So I think, yeah, Galen, I mean. Let let me let me let me let me take this and and go with it. What Let's talk about Indiana's offense first and foremost before we get to that. Like the kind of the final segment here. So I can't figure out what Indiana's trying to do offensively anymore because they've gone from running a power option to passing the ball a bunch to the not passing the ball in situations where they they could. I mean, that feels like the most charitable.
Evaluation of the Akron game is that they were really focused on trying to get their running game to work against a weak opponent. So they didn't feel like they had to pass and it almost bit them but ultimately did not. So they go into this Maryland game and I have to think that in their minds they're like we're we're going to have to move the ball through the air at least somewhat. So what is Indiana, in your opinion, need to do offensively? In the air.
And then how do you and you know, based upon what you've seen and assuming that they're not going to have, you know, they're the normal compliment of running backs. I think Josh Henderson may still be out. We don't know because nobody's going to tell us anything. But if it's Christian Turner and Jalen Lucas in the backfield again, what do you think Indiana can do against this Maryland defense to give themselves a shot? Yeah, well, I mean, First off, pass the ball to Jalen Lucas.
Is that is that allowed now? Apparently Week 4, you can't throw to Jalen Lucas, though. I, I, I he has the best receiving record of any pass catcher in the Big 10 or not receiving record receiving grade of any pass catcher in the Big 10. And they didn't throw the ball last week. That's amazing. But no, throw the ball to Jalen Lucas. I thought, I thought Chris Turner. I thought he looked. Actually, I thought he looked good. He did, yeah.
No, he was. I mean he didn't have a great yards per carry average, but he was effective at the times that they used him properly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No. And I think you if you fit, if you fit him into like a if you game plan for Chris Turner skill set, I think, you know, he can give you something there. You know, I think, I think you have to pass. I think you have to pass. Even though Maryland's defense is susceptible to the running attack. You know what do I think
Indiana's going to do? I think they're going to try to run and but I think that they, I think they have to pass the ball and and I think they need I mean man, Galen, like Cam Camper has the 4th best receiving grade in the Big 10. They have two of the top five receiving grades in the Big 10 on this offense. Why would you not pass more?
And so I mean, yeah, I think I know I've talked a lot about rushing direction and things like that, but and a lot of people complain about, you know, running Jalen Lucas up the middle, which I get, you know, seeing seeing a little guy go up the middle is, is frustrating. But I think that they do. I think you need to get Chris Turner and you need to run him North and South because if they surrender this many yards at the line of scrimmage, you can't be running laterally.
You have to run at them. And so that's what I want to see when they run the ball is I do want to see them run between the tackles. I want to see them run forward. I don't want to see them go side to side.
And the option thing gets a little frustrating and I know everybody's voiced it. Taven's not the most mobile quarterback and when you compare them to some others who run the option and you know I would like I would like to see I would like to see them you know rip off like you know at least four yards a carry. So so yeah I mean that's that's what I think will give them the best shot.
I think they can. I think they can cuz Wat Bell said that he wants to use the play action and so if you run if you run the ball at them and if they are really this week at on at the line of scrimmage and run defense and and I mean they have a decent pass rush though the linebackers are pretty good at pass rush but if you can get the play action going you can negate
some of that. You can open up some space behind those linebackers and which are you know the linebacking core is kind of weak for Maryland anyway. But I think you can take advantage of some things in this Maryland defense and use it to your advantage and take some clock off like you were talking about. Yeah, I mean it's. It is. It's a really interesting thing because I you. Who has put themselves in a position where any opponent Maryland or anybody else. It's like why would I respect
the run at this point. You know if I can defend the run with with four guys or or or five if I'm going to throw in the middle linebacker, I mean that allows me to do man coverage with everybody with with either a one or two deep zone. And now I'm, you know, I'm basically covered like in Taven Jackson doesn't have the experience to be able to pick that apart. So you're either going to have to figure out a way to do a lot of shorter yardage stuff to try to get Marilyn to look elsewhere
other than the backfield. Or you're going to have to have some early success with the run where they can't commit minimal guys into the box and instead they're leaving Camper or they're leaving Donovan McCauley open or at least single covered where you can take advantage of their size. Obviously we help if you could catch the ball when it's thrown to you as well. That was that was a little bit
of a trouble last week, but. You know it it is a really tough spot that Indiana's found themselves backed into and and they've only got themselves to blame at this point because it just isn't an offense that's demanded a lot of respect. And that's even, I mean, you know, you can even look at the the second-half of the Louisville game. I mean that they had one really good drive that didn't yield points and then they had a short field drive and it's you know
that. We always hear about Ben, but don't break in relation to Indiana and their defense. And if I'm the opposing defense, I'm like, we don't have to give up any big plays because Indiana's running game isn't going to generate them, at least from what we've seen so far. And Indiana's passing game probably isn't going to generate those as well. And as you said, I mean, I think the the defensive pass rush, it's not stellar coming from
Maryland, but it's also not bad. And Indiana's been it was. It was interesting, kind of watching the regression to the mean happen with the sacks last week, because while they hadn't let Tavin Jackson arrive, any of the quarterbacks get sacked up to that point. The offensive line pass blocking grades have been pretty poor for this I U offensive line thus far and that was eventually going to yield something bad. Yeah, no I'm I've talked about like how I'm watching the front
seven on the defense. I'm watching Khalil Benson this week. He's he's had a couple of really rough pass blocking games. I mean surrendering like an insane number I think. I think he surrendered 13 defensive pressures in two games and and the most all season for in the Big 10 is 14. He's tied for the most but that he surrendered 13 of those in two games. So I'm watching Khalil Benson a right tackle and yeah, yeah, I
mean yeah, you're right. And so it seems like for some reason the past blocking it started Okay and that was kind of trending downward. And yeah, no, I'm curious to see how that, how the offensive line holds up. And like I said, I don't think this defensive front from Maryland is super strong and I think that could come back to bite them in this game against Indiana. But I mean, I don't think Indiana has necessarily a really big bite. So how badly is that going to
bite them? Yeah, absolutely. And I think, yeah, yeah, no, I'm kind of, kind of, I'm at a little bit of a loss here. I've managed to. I've managed to. Tongue tie Taylor on this game. But that's the thing though. I mean and and it will finish off with this. I mean this is kind of the conundrum with this I U team. We're we're waiting for phase two of the 2023 season to kick in.
And I think everybody just kind of hoping that what we've seen out of Indiana collectively over the first eight halves of the season is not actually Indiana in 2023. There have been some good individual moments. But when you put it all together and you really think about like how they perform or take the Indiana State game out of it to a large degree because that that's such a bad team, unfortunately. So you just take the six halves, it really doesn't paint a very positive picture.
And you know, Maryland, this might be the worst opponent to face at this point in the season. Because I feel like if you're facing Michigan here, if you're facing Penn State, there's a justification if you get your doors blown off because obviously those teams are light years ahead of you. Talent wise, Maryland should be on your level. I mean, Maryland was, I think, demonstrably below Indiana. In 2019 and 2020.
And to watch Maryland, you know, have a pretty good season last year and look better this year thus far through four games. You know, and especially a team that you were right there with for the game last year when you weren't that good, if you know this is an interesting barometer.
So I'm hopeful that you know Indiana's able to put what's happened behind them, really come out with a solid, well focused game plan that effectively moves the ball and that they get some some better performances out of their defense than what they got last week. Certainly, because I think if they can show that they can play with Maryland that. Creates an environment where you're you know you don't feel like you've taken significant steps back from the start of the season.
You can be like Okay we shook off the Akron game. You know win or lose. In the road trip to Maryland. We performed well. We were competitive down the stretch. I But I also feel like of all the opponents other than maybe Rutgers, this might be the worst opponent if Indiana plays very poorly against. Because now you've lost another game to a divisional opponent. Now you're 2:00 and 3:00 and you're facing Michigan in the next game and so you're likely to be two and four.
And it's like now things have really started to spin out of control. I don't know. I mean it's it's weird to think like you know we we it's not I don't believe in must wins until they're actually must wins. But from a momentum and an atmosphere perspective, you know. Struggling with Akron and then really struggling against Maryland will be a really tough 1-2 gut punch combination for this program as it's trying to find its footing and kind of get back up on things.
Yeah, no, absolutely. You can kind of explain away some of the things that happened in the in the first four games, right? Like, you know, you have that first half against Louisville with the defense, but the
second-half looked much better. And so you know, I remember leaving that game and thinking do we actually know more about this team And then Akron kind of proved that maybe we we did so, but, but you then, I mean you could say for Akron, even you could say that, you know, maybe they were. Maybe it's like a trap game. They're looking to head to Maryland or in the Big 10 season or something. They didn't take them seriously. They know you can try to explain
away those first four games. But this one, I mean you, you can't explain anything away in this one. This one. This one is like you were saying, like you, there is no excuse for this game. And so, you know, what we see is kind of what we're going to get. And I think there is, I think there is some room for optimism. Absolutely. But but yeah, I think after this game it's we're going to know exactly how long this season's
going to feel. No, I also wanted to say GAIL and I forgot to mention earlier, the three specific players who I'm watching on defense are Andre Carter, Aaron Casey and Jacob Mangum Farrar. They played terribly against Akron. They were not good at all. And so those guys are going to have to play well in this game for if they want to win and and I think that's I'm going to be watching them on defense. I think that's going to be pretty telling of the defense as well, Yeah.
And I use in general. No, it is. I mean, I think. You know, there's a lot of guys on defense that really need to have kind of the game of their lives in this one, you know? And this is a good time to do it because hey, you're coming off a really bad performance where everybody underperformed. You're going to get games like
that, you know? And that's not, we can highlight that guys had games where they really struggled without it being, you know, anything other than just a professional critique of how they were playing. But this is where you make right and you know if it's again, if it's true that Indiana just the the the the core issue was that they didn't take Akron seriously and that now they're taking it seriously and that they're they've gotten their attention.
I think this is where maybe it isn't out of the question that you see the defense has a really good game and you have C individual defensive players have really good games. Indiana's going to need it because. You know, you look at what Michigan, what Maryland did to Michigan State last week and that's a Michigan State team
that is certainly on the ropes. They were coming off a really bad loss to Washington, but they didn't look like they belong on the same field as Maryland for large stretches of that game. And you know, as bad as Michigan State's been and as much of A cloud is over that program, I still think they've probably got better overall talent from you know recruiting stars perspective than Indiana does which. You, you, you add in that Maryland's going to be at home
at this. I mean, it's really going to take some guys stepping out and stepping up. Coming off of what happened last week. Yeah. No, absolutely. I agree. Yeah, I don't really have anything else to add to that. I think you summed it up pretty well. Yeah, I I could see it.
I could see it going many different directions and and I think, yeah, that's why I remember you and I talked earlier before the season began about which games are we going to learn the most about IU and you had mentioned Louisville which I believe we did. But this one, I think this is the one that I was watching for and I think we're kind of I think we're gonna learn a lot about this team in this one.
We didn't anticipate that Akron game being the way that it was, but I think we're gonna learn a lot about this team. Yeah, I mean, look at the. End of the day, I mean, this is a Maryland team that has, you know, they they struggled in a lot of games last year and they won them. I mean, they were really on the razor's edge. They they, they only beat SMU by 7. You know, they lost at Michigan by 7, which was impressive.
But then they turned around and lost at home to Purdue, which was one of the more baffling games of last year. They barely beat Indiana on the road. They barely beat Northwestern on the road. They they lost to Wisconsin. But then you know they but they won their bowl game. They beat North Carolina State and you know they they kind of squeaked. If you can squeak to an 8 and five record. They kind of squeaked to an 8 and five record last year.
But they they do really look like a a team that needed a season like that to learn how to win and now they've learned how to win. And there's just a real, I mean, and even in the, like I said, I think before you jumped on the podcast, even then that game against Charlotte where they struggled for about the 1st 2 1/2 quarters, they really put it together in the last part of that game and then left with basically no doubt about who was the better team.
And so that'll be interesting. I mean, I'm, I'm hopeful maybe we'll get a reverse. Maybe Maryland won't take Indiana seriously and Indiana will be able to use that to their advantage. So yeah, look, do we have the S&P prediction was 35 to 14? What would be your prediction in this one? Oh man. On the road. Can this offense score 14 points? I I OK, I'll say.
I'll say, like I'll say 2710 Maryland, OK, I think, I think Maryland. I unfortunately feel like they're going to score a lot of points in this game. Like this feels like one of those death Blossom kind of games that that gets out of control. I also, I have my doubts about Indiana's offense on the road given that they troubled at home even. And so I'm going to say probably I'll say Maryland wins 41 to 16.
I think it's going to be one of those games where it look I think to some degree I think Indiana's going to, they still haven't demonstrated they can score in the red zone. So like, even if they get into that area, I worry about their ability to execute. And I think you might end up with Indiana moving the ball a bit because, you know, I think they will play better than they played against Akron, but having to settle for a lot of field goals because they can't get the
ball into the end zone. So hope I'm wrong. Hope you're writer but not completely right. We'll see what happens with everything. But Taylor, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to to hop on and always a pleasure to talk with you about I U. Football. Yeah. Galen, you know I've been. Watching I U football for 10 years. Been writing about. I U football for seven years and my section is very happy to be on Crimson Cast. It's a business. Taylor, I just want to make that
clear. No. Anyway, Taylor Layman from Bite Size Bison. Thank you. Thanks all you folks for listening. We'll go ahead and wrap up here. Indiana of course 330 kick in College Park. They take on the Maryland Terrapins on Big 10 Network. So be sure to check that out. I'll be back with Scott Sunday morning. We'll do our regular recap of the game, so be sure to tune in for that subscribe to Sub Stack. Thanks to our friends at home Field Apparel. For Taylor, I'm Galen, this is Crimson Cast.
We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back to Bison, so everybody.