Ep 996 - Goodbye Walt / Maryland Recap

Hi folks. Before we get to the main program which we recorded this morning, Sunday, October 1st, we had to record an addendum to put in front of the program that we recorded earlier on today. Because, of course, news broke around 1:00 in the afternoon that I U had fired Walt Bell, the offensive coordinator for Indiana University football and replaced him on a permanent basis with Rod Carey, the

quality control coach. First of all, hi, this is Crimson Cast, Galen Clavio, Scott Caulfield joining. I'm assuming you will know that if you're listening to this, but Scott, we try not to put inaccurate or out of date information out there regarding anything that we do and we felt compelled to record. We almost rerecorded the whole

podcast. We decided we debated that we were going to leave the original podcast we recorded in its entirety because most of our conversation about the loss to Maryland and the overall state of the program is still there. There's a lot of Walt Bell talk in there, which is going to sound either out of date or prescient, I can't decide which.

But Scott, let's go ahead and just kind of dive into this and talk about the fact that Walt Bell's been fired after one and a third seasons as I U offensive coordinator. This was during obviously a couple of seasons for I U that have not gone very well at all we talked about. In the main podcast, which you'll hear a lot of the offensive inadequacies in Walt Bell's tenure.

I U only scored more than 24 points once against an FBS opponent and that was Maryland team that they scored 33 points against last year and then only scored seventeen against this year. So your initial thoughts and reactions to I U firing its second offensive coordinator in the last 22 months. Yeah, it. I'm surprised that it happened now I I mean the offense was was really bad. What what's hard to parse here is how much of it was Walt Bell's offense.

How much was was this something that the you know Tom Allen wanted to run That because it's not like this is vastly different than what we saw under Nick Sheridan. When you go back then things do get vastly different and other coordinators so so you know it's hard to parse. You know, whether this is what Walt Bell was being told to run or whether this is the Walt Bell's vision. There's also what we talked about, just, you know, you you

can only do so much. It's like, hey, even if everybody wanted to run an option set up, you need the right players in the right places to run an option set up. But I don't think we have that. I mean, I'm not, it's no knock on the players. I'm just not sure we have the right set to run kind of any offensive set functionally or at a high level. But I'm surprised that it happened now. It's funny because I was thinking during our pod today, I was like, well, we'll talk about

it later in the season, like. I think it's I thought it was interesting all of the like angst of toward the Walt Bell we got to get rid of Walt Bell because I don't know what that I don't know what that solves. Like the the thing about this move is it does feel like all right we we hear you fans you're pissed so here's Walt Bell as a sacrifice and but but it also means like you know we talked about it last year like you know Darren Hiller had you know years of an aptitude with the

offensive line. You fire him mid season and it's like that's OK like I'm happy you're you're realizing the changes you made. It doesn't solve anything for last year because you can't just now having a better offensive line. And I feel the same way with the offense here is like okay, I guess, like thank you for hearing us that you're unhappy or that we're unhappy. But it's like this doesn't, I don't think it's fundamentally solves anything for this year because you haven't changed the

players. You can't do that and you can't just install a new offense in two weeks before you go to Michigan. That's like not exactly an easy place for Indiana to play. So I guess. It's good. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I don't think it fundamentally changes anything that's going to happen this year. Maybe we run a couple more, you know, a couple less draws up the middle, but I don't think it changed anything. But I guess it means that people are higher than us are hearing

that the fans are pissed. I don't know. That's kind of my initial reaction. I agree with a lot of that. I think there's, it's a weird setup. I mean, so let's and you folks will hear some of this. Like we said, we talked about the Walt Bell conundrum on the main body of the podcast. There's no question that Walt Bell as offensive coordinator, as play caller was just not getting the job done.

And as we mentioned in the podcast, you know, I like the things that Walt Bell said in a lot of the the press conferences. But it was clear this year, you know, if you lose last year is like, well, it's a new coach, new off, new offensive coordinator. They got a new quarterback. They're trying to learn the personnel. You've got an offensive line coach that gets fired in week five of last year, I guess it was week 6 actually, they fired Darren Hiller after the Michigan

loss, which was on October 9th. So almost a year to the day, you know, you could maybe make excuses for Walt Bells lack of performance, but there were no excuses this year with the offense as anemic as it looked with the complete lack of imagination in the play calls. I don't think you know this.

As we've talked about many times, it's a it's a results based business, coaching at any level and it's a hair quick on a trigger as you would normally get for an offensive coordinator and I'll come back to that in a second. But if you were trying to defend Walt Bell, the only defense you could really give was, well, he wasn't given enough time. And that's not really a good excuse.

And so I don't philosophically from a purely football perspective, I don't have a problem with the firing because I use got to learn how to score more points. But you know, the larger issue here is why was Walt Bell hired in the 1st place? Because as we talked about on the main show. So I just just kind of give you guys heads up for what you will hear again. Why would you, Why would you hire Walt Bell as offensive

coordinator? Like everything that happened during his time here at I U could have been predicted by what happened during his time as offensive coordinator at Florida State, offensive coordinator at Maryland, head coach at UMass. I mean, all of this was there. He was not an effective. Offensive coordinator just by the numbers at the FBS level.

And you know what? What made the higher galling at the time was the the realization that most people who follow I U Football closely knew that you know, there was a quote and I'd like to hat tip our good friend and longtime Crimson cast listener Sam by Sizing, who went back and found. This quote and this was in relation to the people talking about this yesterday, Walt checked all the boxes that we were looking for, Tom Allen said in the hiring press release.

His experience, creativity and leadership make him an ideal fit. I was looking for someone to be the leader of the offense and Walt will be that. We welcome him and his family to Bloomington. And so this was Tom Allen's hire. Tom Allen decided that Walt Bell would be the offensive coordinator. And you know, it's important to

keep in mind the context. The reason that Walt Bell was even in the position to be hired was that after Tom Allen went and hired an unproven offensive coordinator in Nick Sheridan and that went S incredibly quickly, Allen found himself in the position of having to go higher. This offensive coordinator and I have a hard time believing that Walt Bell was really the first

choice. Like I have a hard time believing that there was a national search that Tom Allen looked at all the options and said Walt Bell's the guy we want it. It feels a lot more likely, especially with him being jettison so quickly, that this was the best that Allen could do given the circumstances around the program and the circumstances around the program seemed to be there's a certain style of offense that Tom Allen wants I you to play that is. Largely out of step with how the

game is being played, and Allen at the time seemed to be very protective of his existing coaching staff, including the former offensive line coach. Now whether that actually factored into the equation, we don't know, because we got very little information about how the hiring process went. But a lot of people called out and not even just us. I mean, I'm talking about people across the I U Media diaspora with I U Football called out. Like, why is this the hire?

And so it's no surprise that we sit here on the 1st of October of 2023 and Walt Bill's no longer the head coach or the sister, excuse me, the offensive coordinator. But that does kind of fall in the lap of the head coach pretty significantly when this was the guy that you said was the ideal fit to now just kind of unceremoniously dump him, you know, five games into the the second season that he's

coaching. Illustrates that there's some much larger structural issues which we already knew about, but it's like another underline and an exclamation point on that. And so again, I'm not going to shed tears for Walt Bell. I think you know you you put yourself in situations where. You know you. Don't perform. You're going to get fired, but I think it really does even more call into question the entire process that's surrounding I U football right now. Agreed.

You know you and I have talked about that like it we talked about this like we're we're trying to to keep a level head at this. But you know it was Tom Allen's hire and now that you've gone through two coordinators and like you said 22 months you've gone through a defensive coordinate. That was the thing that we talked about going into last season. It's like all right you've changed all your coordinators like now you have your new coordinators like this is your

setup. Tom Allen like this is. This is where you go. And now you've gone through that and now you've, you know, gone through an offensive line coach and you you've now fired an office coordinator in the middle of the season like that. There comes a point where I don't want to start a weekly Tom Allen contract fire thing, but there does come a point where it's like we're out of other

moves. Like at some point you know that it's like moving, you know, chairs in the Titanic, like at some point we have to stop moving other chess pieces around. We can do this and see if it gets better, you know, but. I know we're talking about offense. We're talking about Walt Bell. It got me thinking. You know, this is, as you mentioned, with not you like it is Tom Allen's defense and his

defensive scheme. I was just going back and looking at the number of points this defense has given up over the last couple seasons, just FBS opponents. I'm taking out the 2020 season just because it was such a wonky season, but I could add that back in. But in 2018, the team gave up on average 30 points a game. 2019 and went to a ball. They gave up 26 points a game. 2021 they gave up 35 points a game.

In 2022 they gave up 35 points a game so far this year, getting better, they gave up 28 points a game. The last time we gave up single digit points to a non division two team was Northwestern in 2019. Since then we've had 21 games. We've given up more than 30 points. You know and this is the this is where I kind of like you know say all right the the defense is also a problem like if we're going to be firing coordinators before I fire all the coordinators.

But I'm I'm getting off a little bit on what we're here to talk about. But it's just no, it's a good point in that it really does feel like this is it's it's it's hard to get your head wrapped around. I mean this is now you you know over the course of the last four years you've you've cycled out a starting quarterback. You've brought in and cycled out another starting quarterback.

You've brought in an inexperienced quarterback to be your starter who you now look like you might be in the process of of cycling out. You've you've hired an offensive coordinator and fired that offensive coordinator and then hired an offensive coordinator that a lot of people said, hey I don't know if this is a good idea and then fired the offensive line coach and now you fired that offensive coordinator

and. They went to the defense where you fired a coordinator and then yes, and actually yes, and then you fired a defensive coordinators. You did fire a defensive coordinator and you made yourself Dave as a coordinator. For a year. And now you have it's just, I mean it's just a wild chain of events. I mean the one thing I'll, I'll say that I'm a little bit concerned with which well the one OK about about the new hire like so this is the thing and

this is where. We have to podcast sometimes on these things relatively quickly after they happen. I I do think it's weird that the reporting from Zach Osterman, who I think had the news 1st and has done a good job of of of following up on it, noted in his report that Rod Carey who is the new offensive coordinator is not an interim offensive coordinator but is fulltime offensive coordinator.

And I'm. I'm hoping that that's a miscommunication or that there is something that we're not seeing because if. You know, it's one thing I think to replace and again I said like I don't have a problem with that Bell firing from a purely football perspective. But you know, Allen's under contract for the next 4 years. A lot of fans already have it in their head that always going to, you know, get fired this year or get fired certainly at the end

of next year. I don't think you can assume that necessarily In either case, it may be that that happens, but I don't think you can assume it. So to sign someone. As a permanent offensive coordinator with a contract that extends after December 1st of this year, if that's indeed what happened and again big caveat if that didn't happen, if it's just until the end of the season, this is all for not.

But if it is beyond this season then I think that it's a real disappointing thing to see given what we've already seen in terms of the decision making around this football, programs, coaching staff because. This will mean that you've now hired multiple offensive coordinators on multi year. Multiple coordinators with offensive and defensive on multi year contracts fired them with Nick Sheridan.

You didn't do a national search. You hired internally with with Walt Bell. You did a national search and what you came up with was wasn't great. But now you're not going to do another national search and instead you've hired someone who hasn't been an offensive coordinator since 2012. And you know, Rob Carey was a very successful for the level of football.

Head coach at Northern Illinois was not that successful at Temple. And and in fact, if you read about the end of his tenure at Temple, it really didn't. And well, I mean there's there's literature out there to, to check out on that. There were a lot of problems at the end of his tenure. I know, but carries up. He's an I U alum. He played football on the

program during the Mallory era. You know, maybe things are different here, but it's like it feels like you can't make a permanent change in the middle of the season. You make a temporary change. You put somebody on staff in that role and then you you have to make some kind of a national search to figure out who you would bring in you. I think just handing the baton off to a coordinator who hasn't been a coordinator in 12 years, who was on staff.

I think everything we read last year, specifically Rod Kerry didn't want to be a coach. He wanted to be in that quality control role. That's your new permanent offensive coordinator. Again, we'll see what that ends up looking like, but that's just a very weird sequence of events and it doesn't feel like what you would do logically as you're trying to continue to build your program back up from the the depression that it's in right now.

Yeah, well, you put yourself and it's not lost on me too that, you know, Tom Allen was also just ran not randomly but named as the just official head coach in a point where you feel like it could have also been interim when you went from Wilson to Allen. But no, I I agree. Like now you're in an odd spot where. Again, what this could all be for not but to not name him interim is odd because it's like, all right.

So if if he's going to be your offensive coordinator next year, it does beg the question of like are we no long like that was kind of the issue is like Walt, you know, Walt Bell was like that's the best we could get. Like is this? Is this the best we could get if we don't even do a search?

But then if you do go for a new offensive coordinator next year that I, I have us down for, you know, that's for offensive coordinators in five years, which is not normally how a successful program is run unless you're like Alabama where everyone's getting hired to NFL and other jobs and you're having to replace them. But that's not what happening here normally. You know you need some sort of stability at Coach and it's like this is.

This is where a lot of this cognitive dissonance is happening, where it's like the the only logical reason to say we're going to continue with, you know, this craziness is like we need to have some consistency at the head coach level because you need consistently consistency in coaching. It's like, but we're not doing that anywhere else.

So it it does put the IT puts I U in a conundrum where basically they they're kind of have no good options here where you either go with somebody who's unproven or you know just another internal candidate which you've done that or you're again doing. Four and five years, which is just. It's not a path to success at a program like I that's what I continue to tell friends is you know we did pretty well in the portal. It's like that's you know I I always quote you and you're

right. You look at programs like Iowa and Wisconsin like programs that don't have the the the recruiting pool to go from like how are they able to build a program be successful. You know they they they find players. They build players like they do. They have very bedrock things that they go with that they're not able to just live in this kind of crazy frenetic. World where that we don't times are changing and you can look at

Colorado like oh Dion did. It's like all right well Dion is a one and one like that's a one of one. You know you you have to have some kind of core value. You can't just continue to have this change and do an offensive coordinator every year or two anyway. I'm It's all that's well. Taken and you're right and and there is no consistency and it just it really does feel like desperation on the part of Tom Allen.

I mean, it really does and and. There there's I mean, and we and we talk about this in the main show the the all the talk in the postgame press conference about evaluating everything. It's like that that ship sailed, man. I mean it. The evaluation period was the offseason. The evaluation period was supposed to be after the Akron game. I don't. The team is what they are at this point. And look, I mean the the what

they do with the offense. I don't know what's going to change with this offense with a play calling, get better, I guess. But what confuses me is, you know, Alan spent all that time in the postgame press conference talking about execution, not play calling. So is is the problem that the coach hasn't gotten the offense to execute? I mean, I don't know exactly what a quality control coach does within Allen's system, but is that part of his job? Is is he going to get the

offense to execute better? It does feel like you said at the beginning and we'll wrap up with this and get you guys to the main pot. But it does feel like here's, here's the red meat you were asking for. Please leave me alone. Which is what the Hiller firing felt like. And it's what the Nick Sheridan hire or firing felt like. I mean it, Really. Leave me alone. Partly. Here you go. Just talk to me in 3 weeks. And look, I mean, I'm not surprised it happened now.

I mean, we were joking about how we were surprised it hadn't happened when we were doing the original recording this morning at like 9:30. So you know, look, they've got a bye week. If you're going to do it, you better do it fast and you better really give yourself an opportunity to try to fix whatever you think is going to be fixed by changing offensive coordinators. Maybe. Maybe it has an impact.

I severely doubt it. And I do worry about the longterm ramifications if they hand rod carry a contract is permanent offensive coordinator that lasts beyond December 1st of this year because regardless of whatever. You think the longterm prospects are of Tom Allen. Tom Allen needs to be coaching like he's going to be here for the remainder of his contract. You don't just punt another

season into the sun. You know with it with you know, without at least having looked at who, What are the options out there? Maybe we maybe we increase the pool. Maybe we allow the next offensive coordinator to pick his offensive coaching staff. You know, maybe maybe we do it differently than we did last time. And maybe you get somebody in who's got ideas who can actually make something of the offense.

I mean, to me, as much as people are ready to give up on the Tom Allen era, I I get it. I'm certainly very skeptical that they're going to be able to pull out of this tailspin that they're in. But the you can't make moves like this in my opinion, without broadening your search and thinking, okay this is. I U this is a big 10 program.

It's it's one of the the wealthiest programs in terms of revenue generation in the whole country to just be like, well, we're going to let this guy be permanent offensive coordinator when he might not be the best fit long. Term that's different than saying he's going to be interim now. I'm saying go ahead name of interim now that's fine. But that's where I'm curious about what the contract extension is. And I'm also skeptical that this has it makes a dent.

But it you know again going back originally, I don't think the firing itself is unjustifiable. I think it's actually quite justifiable. It's just a payment went down the way that it did. I need to like, start prefacing.

This is going to be a joke. So letting people know, like, these are jokes, but, you know, maybe if you're Dolson, you're like, all right, you know, we, we keep, you know, the buyout is big for Alan, but we're just going to make him pay for an offensive coordinator firing every year. So it's like every year, just like, hey, you're, you're actually losing $1,000,000 your salary because like.

At some point, it's got to be like I this job's great, but I'm tired of paying for coordinators every year. You know that and I will say, I mean financially, you were going to pay Walt Bell the $175,000 remaining on his contract regardless of whether he coached the rest of the. Season or not, that's not really a big element. It is. But I do get the joke that you're making. It is funny. I am curious to see if something gets leaked, like, well, Allen

had to pay for this too. I doubt it, but it'll be. Interesting to see. Anyway, Scott, I'm looking forward to taking a week off frankly from talking about I U Football. But if if news breaks, we will come in and talk about it. So we appreciate you folks tuning in. We're going to now. Let you listen to the podcast we originally recorded. We hope you enjoy that. As always, feel free to to contact us if you've got questions or thoughts. So thank you for Scott hopping on late.

We'll talk with you in just a second. Here's the theme music. You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast, folks. Happy October for those of you who celebrate October 1st as. It's time to talk to my youth sports. We are coming off of another disappointing Indiana football game as they get boat raced on the road by the Maryland Terrapins 44 to 17. Scott joining me as always here on the recap podcast. Scott, how you doing?

The government may not have shut down, but we are like, so I just want to let you guys know like this, you know, not Crimson cast is shutting down for a while. I thought. I thought you meant Indiana football. That too. It's like Wally World. Sorry folks, the park is closed. I'm doing well, man. I'm doing very well. Yeah, good. I'm glad. It's good to see you and good to be back talking with you, obviously. Before we get started, just a reminder that we are part of the

back home network. Be sure to tune in to our brethren and cistern across the the back home network is it's basketball season and that's when the entire back home network fully activates Assembly call. Back up and running, do the work, Back up and running. We'll have, you know, film room with Tony Adrani. He's been dropping some gems on Twitter or X or whatever it's

called lately. So be sure to check out the Back Home Network. First and foremost, we should have some fun things coming up that I think you'll enjoy. And then just a reminder that we are all sponsored by home field apparel. Home field Apparel your place to go for the finest in college fashions, the softest fabrics, the coolest designs. They launched all kinds of cool stuff this last week. It's it's amazing.

The stuff that they keep finding, generating and coming up with and getting out to you, the consumer, you know, the the different types of things that we saw in the rotation. We saw a Boise State Ringer T-shirt, where there was a Georgia shirt, there was an Auburn shirt, there was a Memphis State University shirt. I mean all kinds of cool stuff. You can check out home field apparel for yourself.

Go to homefieldapparel.com. Also check them out on social media if you've never been use the code Home 23. And get 15% off your first order. Again, that's Home 23. Go check them out. Home Field apparel.com, Proud sponsor of the Back Home Network. Also a reminder to all of you that Crimson Cast is on sub Stack. We would love to have you join us on Substack. It's free. For you. To sign up, just go to crimsoncast.substack.com.

What you get with your free subscription is digests that we will send you, which will include every time we post a new episode, you'll know it'll be in your inbox. We occasionally have some goodies for those of you who decide that you want to. Purchase a subscription. The subscriptions are I think very reasonable, $5 a month, $50 a year. It's it's our way of helping to keep the lights on. And so we appreciate any support you guys can give and we try to give you a little bit of

something extra in return. So but you don't have to if you don't want to pay, it's always going to be free. You'll always get the podcast here for free. So again, crimsoncast.substack.com, we appreciate you checking it out. All right, Scott.

We look back at the game that closed out Indiana's September, their second Big 10 game of the year and unfortunately their third loss out of the first five games Indiana travels to College Park. This has been a pretty close series over the course of the time that Maryland's been in the Big 10. Of course, a relatively new addition. These teams have traded back and forth in terms of who's been on top. Maryland was was pretty down right when Indiana was up.

The tables have turned significantly, and Maryland No contest, was the better team in this one from the beginning. They you know really from the first play when they connect on a 60 some yard pass where Indiana has blown a coverage that set the tone for the entire game and we see Indiana just really not able to compete Indiana. They made a little bit of an offensive move late in the second-half. It was far too late and it really felt more like Maryland was just trying to get some some

second stringers, some run out there. 4417, the final score. What were your overall impressions from this game? I mean, you know, I got to say this, for the first half, I was actually really impressed with the Indiana offense and the strides they made. I just wanted to see your face for those. Just wanted to see like, what can I say that really gets you kicked off? I mean, you know, yeah, I I will say, you know, Indiana had as many first doubts as Marilyn had in this game.

So clearly something was going right. Yeah. I mean, so here's kind of I'm not even sure how to say this correctly, but my my higher level thought after the entire game was that, you know, like when. When you really don't have an identity or a plan, you're kind of stuck with this, like just grasp it. It feels like you're grasping at straws. And what I mean by that is, you know, last year we were a passing offense until you know.

Days lat gets kind of just benched and then we have one good game with Dexter Williams running kind of an option because he's a limited quarterback that's we can do it and something we're gonna do that It's like are you doing that? Because it's what you've planned and you know like football really isn't a throat against the wall and see what sticks. Kind of sport. Like you have to plan your team around what you want to do. And it it felt like we're just like we're going to do that now.

It's like, all right, well, are we built to do that? Do we know how to do that? And that that kind of permitted the whole offseason. And now, you know, with this season and this game, it feels that way where it's like we start seeing some option again. It's like, oh, is that what we are now? Are we doing option now? You know, our defense looks confused, But, you know, it really hit me with, you know, so you bring in Soresby, which I get it, like nothing's going right, but.

Now Soresby has, you know, two touchdown drives where the beginning of the game you had no drives, and there probably isn't going to be a quarterback controversy. But you've because you didn't ever name Jackson the starter until game three. Now you, you know an observer would come back. All right, well, maybe a Soresby the answer. And I'm not saying that's a real question. It's just because no one's ever told us, like, what the hierarchy of how this goes.

Like, what kind of offense are we running? Because I don't know. Because we keep changing it. It's like whenever something works do that five more times like well it doesn't work that way. And then you know so I I just you know I'm picking on the the source B Jackson thing and it's they are not the problem here.

But it's just you know under a normal circumstances under a normal year where you're like I know who my starter is and like hey we're getting blown out we're just throwing the backups in You just be like all right that's you know hey he had a good couple runs against the bad Maryland team. Like I could see a story coming out of this week, of off season, of this week, of by week where it's like. Who is our quarterback? Like, I can see them just going

back into that spin cycle. It's like it's because we just don't seem to have a plan and this game was really evident of that and and you are 100% right. You know, this is where that you know, the frustrating thing is, you know with with Louisville, they had one speedster. And he got open like immediately, like second drive, like he's just wide open. And you saw that a couple games against and it's like, all right, well, that's the speedster guy for Louisville.

And then for Akron, you saw a couple wide receivers just get wide open on blown coverage. And then here it's like Tiger to his brother. I can't. Cannot say that. Name go Viloa. How about that? He needs to go to the NFL. He needs to become. He's like, you know he's a potent quarterback. You know this is an aerial attack. To have two blown coverages in the first three drives where guys are just like it wide open, it's really got frustrating to see.

It's like how are you not somewhat prepared for this and even one of those blown coverages we were we were rushing 3, so we had eight back. You had eight guys back. It's like just play a shell defense, just be like hey, we're not eight. I don't know. It's all fresh that that's my high level thoughts. Without getting too nitty gritty, is it just?

Which feels like we're at the point we're just throwing stuff against the wall to see if it sticks and then if something works once, it's like, all right, that's what our team is and it's just that's not a good way to run a football team. There's been a lot of focus on the offense and the struggles

with the offense. And that, you know, not just last year, not just the year before, but also this year and rightfully so. I there's a stat that I keep updating every week and because it's so terrifying. Through four games against BCS competition. So taking the Indiana State game out, Indiana with a 17 point effort yesterday is now averaging 12.75 points per game in regulation. That's wild. That's so bad. And you're not talking. I'm sorry, it's not a murderer's row of teams.

You have an Ohio State team? That's. You know, really good, obviously. But it's not the great Ohio State teams have passed. You have an Akron team. Who? Scott, I I don't know if you knew this. I was told after the game last week that Akron was actually going to be one of the better teams in the Mac. They turned around and lost at home to A1 win Buffalo team yesterday, 17 to 10. A Louisville team who has, to their credit, been good, relatively speaking, but it.

This is still a Louisville. Team that you know has like Dukes Mayo Bowl written all over it and then a Maryland team that had given up, you know, quite a few points per game. This is an offense that I think is rightfully been derided and been questioned because it just hasn't produced. Hold on. When you're stat like that, those 14 points against Maryland need to be highlighted as like that was garbage time go. Ahead, right. Yeah, no. Well, that's the thing.

I mean, I'm actually doing I UA favor by crediting them for the the points that they scored at a time when the game was completely out of hand. But it's not just the offense that is lost. The defense, as you pointed out, is getting burned on a regular basis and. Maryland, if they wanted to, could have scored 70 points last night or yesterday. I mean it. So the interesting stat the the Miami Dolphins, as many of you know, had a historic win over the Denver Broncos last week.

In the NFL, they won 70 to 20 is the first time since I think 1966 that a team in the NFL had scored 70 points in the game. To A tag of Iowa. In that game through for 309 yards and four touchdowns against Indiana, his brother Talia threw 352 yards and five touchdowns, so actually threw four more yards and four more touchdowns. Against Indiana, than his brother threw in a 70 to 20 blowout win. So you know.

For all the talk about Tom Allen, as you know, he's a defensive coach and you know he's got this system that works and he just needs to find an offense. It hasn't really worked out that way. This is a defense that is full. I think what you have, two returning starters, essentially, maybe 3 if you want to be

charitable. You've got a huge influx of people from outside the program and it hasn't really made any difference in terms of what Indiana has been able to do or been able to stop out there, you know, last year this team. Surrendered 34 points a game. They're not doing as badly this year. They're only surrendering 24 points a game. But again, if you take that Indiana State game out of it, that average shoots pretty far up and you also have to take into account that.

Ohio State, once they got up was like, we don't really want to show anything else in this game. Louisville essentially shut their offense down in the second-half because they knew they didn't need to score anymore. And I'm not just saying that. I mean you get to the the post game win percentages. It's not. I mean, I know we saw Indiana was at the goal line. They certainly couldn't have scored there but.

Ohio State or Indiana's post game-winning percentage expectancy against Ohio State was .1%. Against Louisville it was 5.5%, meaning that even if Indiana had scored there, Louisville was probably going to figure out a way to win. Their post game win expectancy against Maryland yesterday was 0.0%. That's not good. Can't really get lower than that, so to highlight your point, just doing a, sorry. Just to do a drive point in in reverse, here's, you know, we

played name the drive. We might do it again later. But let me just here's the drives and I'll tell you who I'm talking about in the first half. Three plays, 8 plays, one play, 2 play, 3 plays, six plays, five plays, two plays. We're doing reverse. That's Maryland. They scored. 4 touchdowns off of that play. Dr. Oddly the eight play drive, they didn't get there. The ones they score touchdowns on was 3 plays, one play, 2

play, 5 play. Those are all touchdown drives and it's like it's this is where it's like all systems failure because the the defense is giving up these just massive plays and I I don't think I remember this season us having a two play touchdown drive like we just our offense also is incapable of having those first. It's like that's a it's a really

bad combination. Well, I mean, anytime you've got two defensive backs as your two leading tacklers, it's generally a bad sign, which is what happened with Indiana yesterday with Noah, Pierre and Phillip Dunham. I think the thing that irks me the most, and I alluded to this a little bit earlier, is to watch Indiana, you know. So let me let me put it this way. Are you? We've watched them for a long time. Different coaches, different

areas of the program. Traveling to Michigan and getting blown out, that happens for to Indiana. Traveling to Penn State and getting blown out. Traveling to Ohio State and getting blown out. Those teams have a huge reservoir of talent that Indiana just hasn't been able to to tap. You'll occasionally get blown out in the bucket game. You know, it certainly happened

recently. But this felt like a threshold was crossed because it is pretty rare that Indiana goes on the road and gets obliterated by a team that's essentially in their class of teams. You know, we're talking the Maryland's, the Northwestern's, the Illinois's, you know, the Rutgers. So for Indiana to just be non competitive for a full 60 minutes against the Maryland program that frankly has no natural advantages over Indiana

in the Big 10? And when you think about where Maryland football was five years ago, I think people have forgotten this Maryland football. You, you, if you most of you remember, they had that tragedy with the player dying in practice and they had to fire DJ Durkin. But that that was a program in 2017, DJ Durkin's last year. They were four and eight. They had Matt Canada as an interim coach. In 2018 they were five and seven. They hire Mike Locksley as a fulltime coach.

They go three and nine in 2019, the year that Indiana won eight and five. They go two and three in 2020, the year Indiana goes 6 and and one or six. Six and two, I guess. And then Since then, they've won seven games, eight games and are now five and oh, they've got 2. Not just bowl appearances, but bowl victories in the last two seasons. And they just, yeah, jocking.

And then and then of course, last year Indiana did not have a great season, but they only lost to Maryland by 5 and it was legitimately a back and forth game.

Indiana look like they didn't belong on the same field as Maryland and so. For these two programs to have flipped positions so definitively in such a short period of time, and to do it in the same window where not only was Tom Allen given a huge contract extension, but Tom Allen was allowed by the departures of people to bring in very much his people in all of the roles and be in charge of all of the recruiting, It is about as damning an indictment

as you can have on the trajectory of the I U program, and I don't say that lightly. You know, I you, as we know is always going to struggle to get up into that that middle class or upper middle class echelon, we're not even talking. About the Michigan's, the Ohio State's, The Penn State's. We're talking about the Iowa's. And to some degree, Michigan State seems to be dedicated to to cutting off each of its appendages and throwing itself into the sea.

Wisconsin's in that mix, though. You know, Indiana is it's constantly a battle in the Big 10 of can we be better than Maryland, Rutgers, Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, maybe it's in that category now. And Northwestern, I think you throw into that as well. It feels like Indiana, this is another program that's exceeded them in the pecking order. And you look at the way that Rutgers is playing right now. You look at Maryland having clearly gotten better, and it's

like Indiana had an argument. For being the 4th best team in the East. Now, I'm not sure what the argument is for Indiana not being the worst team in the East. And you know, I'd love to say that they're better than Northwestern. But Northwestern's won a Big 10 game so far this year in Indiana has not. So I'm not even sure if you could argue that Indiana isn't the worst team in the Big 10. And that's really, really sad. And this game?

Watching Indiana just get just pushed around by Maryland across the board. Was really. Really hard to to it was it was hard having seen where Indiana had been just a few years prior to watch that happening, that there was a question that came in on Twitter. It's like are you more, are you more irate or sad or something like that? And I'm really more sad about it at this point. I was irate last week. Last week was you know, that's a that's a terrible team that they

almost lost. You should have lost. You were lucky not to lose to I did. I predicted in the pregame podcast that we did with Taylor that Indiana was going to get destroyed in this game. But I was hoping that that wouldn't be the case, because what we saw really illustrated how far Indiana has fallen and

that there are just no answers. And whether it's what you saw on the field or whatever that gobbledygook was in the postgame press conference, it's clear that there aren't a lot of answers internally on this either. You know and on Crimson Cash, our our biggest bet of the week was you know Maryland to cover the 14 1/2 point spread and that and that might be the last time you get value on Indiana.

Like at this point I was joking like it might we're easily going to be probably double digit you know underdogs for the rest of the season. I I don't know. I mean Purdue and Michigan State aren't awesome either but it's like it's it's it's going to be some wild numbers coming up. No, I agree. And this is, you know, this is where I. Those those early season games against Indiana State when some people get kind of fired up, it's like oh we saw this pretty good stuff.

It's like no, like this is these are the I'm with you. I'm more saddened than angry. But it's like the the frustrating part. It's like these are really the games where you can see where you stand up against the teams that matter because and we just like you said it wasn't even close and. To say we don't have answers is true. It's also like this game was was frightening because it wasn't like when we when things went well, it's because we were exerting our will and it's just

we couldn't do that enough. Really felt like, you know, Maryland got up 14 to nothing and then 21 to three in the second quarter. It felt like Maryland's like, all right, let's do some prep for, you know, the Michigan game. It felt like they were just literally using this as a walkthrough and they were doing some, you know, they kind of stopped throwing for a while and started running. It's almost like they grabbed Tom Allen, you know, Walt Bell's playbook.

And again, it sucks like nothing but running plays up the middle. But it it feels like our only chance to be competitive is competitive is is a team. Like just they're making a bunch of mistakes or a team just kind of forgetting what they should be doing. Or. And that's again, it's like it's a bad place to be where there's nothing that I could say, hey, if we do this really well, I think we have a shot against that team.

It's like it has to be in conjunction with that other team doing 12 things wrong and making a lot of mistakes along the way. Yeah. I mean, it's at this point, it feels like if you wanted to, you could score in Indiana. If you wanted to, you could keep Indiana from scoring. And it's not that simplistic, but it just doesn't feel like against teams that have a pulse, Indiana is going to be able to be very competitive. Now a lot of things happen in

the course of the season. Certainly by mid-october last year, we felt the same way in Indiana turned around and they were able to win at Michigan State. Kind of a special circumstance there, but that's that's fine. But it felt like it felt like last year and this is probably the primary difference. And why? Because I could hear somebody you know arguing like wait a minute, they're, you know, they they won games last year. You guys thought they were bad then.

It's like there feels like a very, very perceivable difference right now in this program versus last year. Last year's team was very flawed. They were, they were not well coached, but they did have some fight in them. You know, they they did manage to come back and win that Illinois game even though they were, they got some lucky breaks along the way. They did come back and win that in Western Kentucky game, you know, they were in the Maryland game.

Like that team felt like it was really, you know, keeping up with things, even if they couldn't do things. This team is really starting to look like they're just tuning out altogether, you know? There was a lot of talk about that that that, shall we say, you know, perhaps not well planned video of the team singing the fight song after the win against Akron last week. A lot of people.

The fight song, let's say correctly, a lot of people focused on the body language in that that video and and noted that a lot of guys looked pretty embarrassed about having to do that and just kind of the whole thing felt cringy. You know, I understand why those videos get put out. I don't think that there should be necessarily criticism of the program, but it is an interesting window into what it looked like immediately after that game.

And then you hear all these proclamations in the postgame press conference about we're going to evaluate things we heard leading up to this game. Oh, we had a good week of practice this time because of course a bad week of practice was blamed on the way that they played versus Akron. Then they go out and play significantly worse and it really just looked like the team was going through the motions.

To a large degree, it's hard to even get excited about the Brendan Sorosby piece, about him coming in for Taven Jackson. Because of course, a quarterback coming in in the third quarter in a blowout that the other team hasn't scouted and prepped for is probably going to be able to throw the ball a little bit better than the guy that everybody watched film on for a

week. But again, the overall atmosphere of the team, the way that they approached the game, what we saw on the field just felt like a team that was they were there because they needed to be, not because they wanted to be. And that's that's a that's that's the difference between last year and this year. Like last year's team, it felt like there was still some kind of engagement and I'm just not seeing that out of this team

right now. And that's really concerning because again, yeah, you're going into a bye week. But as we talked about last week, you're now heading into the teeth of the Big 10 season. You can't afford to just be

going through the motions. Like that's what leads to, and we've seen this before, Scott. It's what leads to getting blown out by 60 points by Wisconsin. It's what leads to, you know, the the the kind of games that you look back on the Di Nardo era or the Lynch era and you're like that's that's that felt like an era that was passed and it feels like suddenly it's back again. Well, and again, I don't want to go, I don't want to take this too large.

But you know, to people who would say just kind of scare core argument, you mentioned, you know, it's like, well, hey, they can still win a game. And it's true, you know, Rutgers are still there. You know, Illinois is still there. Michigan State still there and pretty we're still there. You could win all four of those. But you know if if, if the argument is like, hey, they could still win one or two of those, it's like, all right.

But the problem is, you know two years ago you finished the season. Oh, and eight. Last year you finished the season one and six. So you've had two years on the road just finishing on fumes. And it does feel like this year could be similar to one of those years. And so let's say they finished the year now going one and you know, well they've lost, you know, 1. So it's like they finished the year going one, you know, with one more win or even two more.

It's like all right, but is that, you know, again, not to take it too big, but is that is that fun? Like, is it fun just where you're checking out the end of the year and that that's what's concerning. But you know, back to the Sorosby piece. Like, yes, like it it it's good. But, like to me, it's like it's a problem because now you're going into a bye week and if we're going to now have a, you know, if he ends up, like maybe he's able to move the ball better, it's like great.

So now you're a two and three team has been blown out, and now you're getting a quarterback controversy in Week 6. By the way when you started the season with a quarterback like so now you're just you're just tossing it up like it they. And this is where I don't give the the coaching staff and like

I don't. I would say I feel bad, but I don't because you've created this mess like by not naming a starter and having this like balance for the first couple weeks to to play around or do whatever you're doing. Now that now that it looks like you're not sure what to do, it's like now you you've created this own like now you're juggling this thing. But you know that that's my biggest concern going into this bye week.

Is again, instead of saying, hey, these are the things we're going to work on, it's like, now let's, hey, let's try that. Here's 5 new things, like here's one little nugget of something that worked in Maryland, that we're going to try and build an entire new offense around in one week. And as you said, that's not going to lead to us doing better. It's like it's going to lead to us doing worse. Because he like by this point in the season, you are what you are.

You need to do what you do. You cannot install a new offense and it feels like we don't have anything to like work on and install. There was a quote in the postgame. There were a lot of quotes in the postgame press conference, but one in particular that goes right to the point you were just making from Alan. We obviously will use this bye week to make a lot of evaluations on things. We've got to find ways to get better. Every positions got to get

evaluated and I'm sorry. I you know, we heard nothing about this team in spring. We heard very little about this team in summer and theoretically that was about evaluating players and evaluating systems to do that. You know the they they Akron last week, they almost lose that game and what are we here afterwards? Well, we've got to evaluate everything. Well now Indiana gets blown out by Maryland and now we're going to use the bye week to evaluate everything.

It's like at some point how much evaluation can you do and what exactly is going into the evaluation Scott, I'm kind of is it one of like a, is it like a one to five form it's like well very good not very good. Well like how is this being done? It's. Well, you're a teacher we like. We even bring signs of the game, like build a better rubric. Like just like, come on. Better rubric. Better rubric. That's right. Blues taxonomy. No, it's it's it's maddening. It really is.

And and look, a quote like that is clearly like corporate coach speak. I get it. But that's all that seems to exist with Alan and his coaches is corporate coach speak. If they if they knew what they were doing to fix the team, they would fix the team, not talk about how they were going to start fixing the team. They clearly don't know how to fix the problems that exist on this team. And I'm sorry we're not idiots.

K it's it's week five. You're not going to fix the team in Week 5. And it look the the idea that somehow there's a piece that's been missed. Now we've talked about like there's there's been a lot of questionable talent evaluations or readiness evaluations for this I U team over the course the last few years. Going back to when they stuck Michael Pennix junior under center at the beginning of the 21 season thinking I guess that he was healthy and ready to conduct business.

And that was clearly not the case. Like that. You know, everything along the way. There's been so many missed opportunities to structure things in a way that could lead to victories. It's like why would we trust now in this week off that Indiana's got some kind of a direction for fixing things. It's I think that's probably the most depressing thing. Not that I mean Indiana being bad is very depressing, particularly where they were

three years ago. But the fact that they're bad and there doesn't seem to be any recognition of. Why they're bad or how to fix it? That this was the roster that was chosen to go into the season. You know what, you talked about the quarterback thing and and look, the I to me pulling Jackson and putting sores, being made sense from a protection perspective because you don't want to leave your starter out there and get, you know, have him get pummeled by an opposing

defense. On the flip side, you know, talking about how well he didn't execute in the Maryland game doesn't make any sense. It's like the whole team didn't execute and. The larger point here is you, as you mentioned, you didn't have a starting quarterback named. You came into the season as I you a team that really needs veteran leadership at the quarterback position, a team

that if you look historically. When they have veteran leadership at the quarterback position, whether it's Nate Sudfeld or Richard Lego or Peyton Ramsey or Michael Pennix, they tend to do better. You came in voluntarily, as we talked about all offseason, with two quarterbacks that had barely taken snaps at the FBS level, and you're suddenly surprised that there's not execution happening, that there's problems with the offense. That's nuts.

That's absolutely like, I don't know how you could go into the season thinking that you were going to have. Success with that. So and then you know, the problem though is when you know, look the offense could be bad, but the promise of the defense from the beginning of the year, the defense has gotten worse against good competition. You know, based upon what we saw last year, maybe not so much in point scored but in an inability to make stops when it matters.

I I'm just kind of taken aback at the idea that you could evaluate your way back to success. Alan had a quote. On Thursday, like you know, well it's a long season and we've still got a chance to get

better. And I think the operative question there is OK, Tom Howe like where specifically and it can't just be our team has to execute better because you know Alan in the post game press conference yesterday said you know essentially yesterday was about not executing well enough, which is wild because you know what, OK, that first play from scrimmage when they line up the bowl.

On a wide receiver in a Cover 3 and the receiver releases and there's nobody covering and there was nobody within 20 yards of him, How is that an executional issue? I mean, I can you can go down the list when you go for a fourth and when you let go for a fake punt on the 1st Dr. of the third quarter in your own territory and you don't make it how that's not an executional issue. That's a What the hell are you doing with that play call issue?

Yeah, you know, so there. And we could go through a litany of these. I mean, I'm not going to cherry pick every one of them, but it's just, again, to me, it's wild that here we are. It's Week 5, There's a bye week. This team is who they are at this point. I mean, could they get better down the road? I mean, sure. And and a Unicorn could pop up in my front lawn while we're doing this podcast. But we know there's evidence based stuff that you have to

look at with the team. I'm just curious what you would point to from an evidentiary perspective that would say, oh, here's where we're going to get better. You know, Indiana last night with two different quarterbacks only averaged 5 yards per reception. Taven Jackson was at 3.9 yards per reception. Christian Turner actually had a fairly decent running game, 15 carries, 61 yards, and that was a relatively small part of the offense and the offense really couldn't do anything throughout

the course of the game. Defensively, they had no answers. When you know in in the first half when it mattered for Maryland, I I don't see what you would point to and say we can get better at these things because. It's I think we've seen over the course of this year and last year that that's not really how this program works and they've had to rely on kind of unexpected events in order to win games and that's not a

strategy. Well, unfortunately when you talk about like how are they going to get wins, it's also like you know Michigan State can be worse. Again, it's like we need our competition to come down to our level. If I was looking at this off week, I mean one thing that I would try and do from a higher level because everything you said is dead on. But you know when you look at our off again, there's there's two sides. You got to fix defense too.

But when you look at the offense, the thing that I see is a real problem is you know it comes down to play calling and the plays that are called and how they're worked. But our offense has a double sided problem which is it either does one of two things. It'll either and I'm not I'm not sure I've seen this much in I U Football. Like I've definitely seen the hey, they're always through doing 3 and outs and they can't get a drive going.

I've been there. This team and then also but normally like but those still those teams would find a way to put a drive together and then get some points here and there. This team has the the problem of they go with a lot of three it outs the drives that are just kind of dead on arrival but now the drives they do get the movement going. They then can't complete to finish to get points and so it's

like. You know, you go through the Indiana drive shot first, First drive, 8 plays, 32 yards for a field goal. It's like, alright, it's great, but like at some point you got to get a touchdown, But whatever, field goal early in the game, although you're down I think 14, nothing. The next four drives are three plays, three plays for -15 yards, 3 plays. So you now have three just complete 3 and outs whatever.

But now you get 2 drives. After that 15 plays and 10 plays but neither result in any points. And that's something that's becoming a problem is like if you have a 10A-15 play, 79 yard drive, you got to get something

out of that. But you cannot turn that over on down like that has to come on with points and you know, preferably A touchdown, but it's got to do something And then yeah, the next, you know, the next two drives are three plays interception 455. So it's like we're in the spot with the offense where it's either a complete waste, you know, 3 yard, three and out. Or we're moving the ball, but then you're not getting anything out of it.

Like something has to be figured out where on the drives where things are working. You've got to be able to finish those off and cash them in two points. Maybe the easiest thing is just not running up the middle when you're really close to the goal line would be an idea. But you know that that's something that is truly maddening with this team that I'm not sure I've seen before them. You know, the the inability to to at least finish off the the good drives.

But you couple that with a bunch of three and outs and it is just, it's just it's awful. Yeah. Well I I don't know. I mean we got a lot of comments from the audience members. I wanted to hit a couple of these before we. I mean it's not I mean again to some degree we do these podcasts. Last week was was I think it was important to talk through some of the issues because there's that was an unacceptable game.

This one was expected. And so it's like we're not going to spend a huge amount of time going over things that everybody saw. Using using corporate speak, we're also kind of saving some of our dry powder for later in the season. Well, I mean you got to have

some material right. You know it's it's let me let me hit a couple of these comments because I think it's I mean there's some interesting stuff from folks I mean from Jeffrey Harrison. No words can describe the ineptitude of play calling on offense. How Alan can hire Walt Bell is beyond me need to think past this. I mean, it's, yeah, I said there were a lot of comments about the the offense and about Bell. And you know, here's the problem, I think is as follows.

I mean, if you did your research before or when Walt Bell was hired, this is kind of what you get. I mean, he hasn't been a particularly effective offensive coordinator, certainly wasn't very effective as a head coach. I like Walt Bell personally. I like what I hear from him in press conferences, but it just doesn't translate onto the field. It's also not a team that's built particularly well. It's a team that seems to try to focus on things other than what its strengths are, which we've

talked about numerous times. The team that decided to commit to the triple option without having the personnel for it and then tried to switch back and doesn't seem to have an identity on offense. And even in a game where they are running the ball, well, it's it isn't something that you can utilize. It's funny when you say commit to that, it's like I U Football is the worst girlfriend. Like I committed to you, but like 2 weeks later, like, yeah, I'm not really committed to you anymore.

It's there's there's just no coherent philosophy and I and I you look I think there's you could certainly attribute that to Walt Bell but for the people that are calling for his head I'd say there was no real coherent philosophy under Nick Sheridan except for Mike Pennix throws ball and people catch it like that was the that was the philosophy it's it's not a structure that you can work under effectively within.

A college football environment, particularly in the Big 10, which is so difficult, so it's very frustrating. But you know, it's hard to parse out what is Walt Bell's fault and what is the personnel's fault. And the personnel is not just the offensive coordinator. I mean, this guy's been here for a year and a half at this point. It's not. I don't know. So look, I think for those of you who are calling for a firing on the offensive coaching staff, you may get it.

I mean, if there's one thing that we've seen over the last few seasons, whether it was Sheridan or whether it was Darren Hiller last year, is that when things get tough, Allen has shown a propensity to fire coaches. I guess to show that he's doing something because you know it's it's certainly not to get results because we haven't seen much improvement in the results in any of those firings which is

pretty scary. But I also think this just a fundamentally flawed team in the way that it was built because of the decisions that were made in the transfer portal this past offseason in the recruiting the previous year, in the recruiting the year before that in the recruiting the year before that in the overall talent evaluation. So it you know I blame sure blame the guy that's calling the plays. I think he certainly deserves some blame because the offense has been future.

We talked about the point totals, but the flip side of it is I don't know that it would be any different with another person calling plays because I just I think the fundamental structure of what you got in this team is, is not there Brian Hicks at the comment. The decline since 2020 is simply stunning to the point that you wonder how the same man could have been responsible for both halves of his tenure here.

And you know that's an interesting point, Scott, we talked about this a lot kind of the duality of the Allen tenure and how it's hard to reconcile how down the program is right now with where it was at the end of the 2020 season. I mean, what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, and I think we can. We talked about it in the preseason as well. You know it. I never want to take away those

two, two or three years. I think 2018 was also a good kind of lead up year into it. But you know when when you look back on it, that was a period where you had, you know, Kevin Wilson had done some good things with the team. There's been some things that have been built up and Alan definitely kept that going. Alan made some really good coordinator hires and he did some good, you know, prospect research and getting Michael Pennix onto the team.

But there's also a way that you can look back and say, OK, you know, like I said, it's a bunch of times as you know what, what made that team successful and maybe it was and what made Alan successful in that time, which is, you know, you had two really high level coordinators and a Heisman level quarterback behind center. And if if you have those things, I do think a lot of coaches are going to be successful and then.

You know that team kind of gets some wins and then Allen's kind of Elio kicks in and now you got the tailwind and like the the mojo kind of gets going and the inertia of good vibes gets it going. So you know, unfortunate that's kind of how I look at things is like things were set up really well for Allen to do what he did in that two year span. Unfortunately, those things are no longer here. Like those coordinators left because good coordinators leave.

And that's where you have to. Then you don't. He still gets credit for hiring those guys. But now, like, after Sheridan and Walt Bell, it's like you have to do it again. You can't just go continue like, oh, I got the right guy in place before. It's like, well, you have to do it multiple times. And then, you know, like I've said to a bunch of people a

bunch of different times. Like if you need a Heisman level quarterback to be successful at Indiana, like you're not a successful coach here because we just don't have that. Like, that's just not something that normally walks through the doors in Memorial Stadium. I mean unfortunately that's kind of how I look at it now is that the, the climate that made that those teams successful and gave Alan the, the pieces that he needed to be successful are just not here right now.

And unfortunately it's not like an aisle where you can just say, all right, we're going to go back to our, you know, our blocking and our tackling and our fundamentals and we're going to do that. Like there isn't any of that. And I'm not trying to be negative.

It's just it is the case like I just so that's how I that's how I reconcile the two things is things partially of Allen's doing like it's not like it just did he did a lot of good things made the right hires and made the right recruits that he built a little bubble that was perfect for those two or three years. That the trouble is it's increasing looking like he's unable to make those same hires and recruits to be able to create that. Again Scott Shoemaker comment.

Does Alan honestly look himself in the mirror and think he can do the job Three years of horrible teams would make a sane person begin to wonder. I mean I think look I think any here's the thing I think a lot of people myself included get angry at what we hear in the press conferences from Alan. And you know, it's tough because I think most coaches, not just Tom Allen, but most coaches, are going to approach their jobs and their perspective on their jobs, thinking of course, I'm supposed

to be here. I I can do this job. I've done this job already. I've been clearly successful before. So that that doesn't change just because you lose games. I think the the problem and the kind of cognitive dissonance that has popped up around people's perception of Alan is that there doesn't seem to be in any of his public comments any level of selfreflection

whatsoever. Yeah, everything is what we got to execute better or you know, we'll evaluate which is a cop out thing to say in a public press conference. And look, I've always felt with a lot of successful people in any walk of life, a lot of people don't understand why they're actually successful. They they don't understand what brought them success in the 1st place.

And so when that starts to go downhill, they don't look at themselves and say I've done something wrong because that that's not how a narrative of a human being works. Like, you attribute what you think got you somewhere with success. But when that stops working, generally you're going to look outside first because as far as you're concerned, you're still doing the exact same things that you were doing when you were successful.

I think that's likely what Tom Allen believes, and that's why you hear the things you hear in the press conference. And look, I think most people would say the same kind of things. And you hear this from other coaches in similar situations, so you know, that's so that's

how I would answer that. I mean it's very frustrating and I think, you know, this is where it's really hard because you can have personal critiques and professional critiques of people and and personal critiques I think kind of really need to be left out of a lot of things unless a person makes something personal, which hasn't happened here. But I think the professional critique of Allen is yes, he

believes he can do the job. I think that the larger issue is I don't think he understands why the team isn't good. And that to me is the bedrock issue across the board with most of what's going on with I U. Football the last three years. And it is hard to get your head wrapped around when you consider the success that they had the couple of years prior.

Yeah, I mean, I always, I do feel bad for coaches when like you're in these stretches and if you're going to O and eight and you got to keep going to the podium and like there's nothing you can say. And you know, the defense I will say of Alan is like, you can't. You can't just go out and be honest every single time, Like, well, you know, we're really going to not pay attention to mission. We're trying to beat Rutgers, which is kind of the truth.

We all know that. But like, you can't say that. So I do feel bad. But you are right. Like the cognitive dissidents like this is something you'll see even like, you know, Woodson do this like, you know, coaches that that seem to have a little more confidence they'll come out. McMahon. We suck tonight. Like, I suck. Like, just kind of like. Say, say what we're all thinking for a little bit and then go back to the coach speak. It is frustrating to just continually hear nothing but

coach speak. And it's like at some point during one of these eight game loss streaks, you know, can you just be honest for 12 seconds and just be like, man, every, you know? We suck and like and just even to hear, you know, again, it's not going to change anything. It's not gonna make anything better. But I do think that is where Fran fans get frustrated is we understand you can't come out and say everything.

That's a reality. But just little Nuggets to be like, hey, like a little Easter egg to let us know that you, you understand what's going on, just be like, hey, that was awful and you know. I I I'm not sure. You know just say something that like you understand it not just kind of put a smile on and do the coach speak like it does.

That's where it does that. There's a fine line there, but we're missing that line where it's like we're just we're deep into like you said, corporate coach speak, which is like where they, I don't even think you believe anything you're saying. We had a lot of comments from people about that, some Mark Parrish asked. The question is, did they really think they were ready and prepared to play? Like, did they feel actually good about the adjustments they made after Akron? It's so.

And they thought that right of the ship and then this happens that tells me they have no awareness whatsoever. I mean, this has been kind of the point we've been trying to talk about over the course of of the whole preseason and even

into the beginning of the year. You look back at the last couple of seasons and you get these total systems failures from I U. Football. It doesn't really feel like they've got a clear bead on what it is is creating problems and and that is I think one of the big concerns. I don't think it's the biggest concern but it is a big concern when it comes to I, U. Football because ultimately if you don't know what you're not doing right you can't really fix

it and if you. But but I also think you know to some degree when you look at Alan in particular you know in and I've listened to a lot of Tom Allen press conferences I've watched a lot of Tom Allen coached football. We'll. Get you counseling at the end of the season. I mean, you know, Allen. It really feels to me like Allen believes in a very, very rigid definition of what leads to winning football.

And it's weird because he's almost had more success when they've deviated from that a bit. But it's fair. But, but point aside, Alan seems to think that if you do this and this and this, you're going to win games. And maybe that's right in an ideal world. The problem is that I you rarely has the collection of talent set up in the way that you would need to win games like that. And you know, we've we've seen over and over again across college football coaches that

can adapt. And we see this in basketball too. It's not just college football, college basketball also coaches that can adapt to their personnel, can develop their personnel and can play a style of football that is off the beaten path because you can't compete headtohead with some of your opponents can still win games. It doesn't feel like I use

anywhere close to that. And so I actually do think the answer Mark is that yes, they did think that the adjustments they made after Akron fixed the problem. But the issue is ultimately that I don't think they understood what the core problem was to begin with and that's not going to work. It's it's really it to me from my perspective. I look at it and I say to myself, I'm not, you know, I I we always talk about. It's almost I'm tired at this point of the caveat.

We don't know nearly as much about. Football as the coaches, It's like it's not our job to know as much about football as the coaches. It is our job to. Evaluate what happens in the output. You know the input and the throughput. I mean, you can quibble about certain things, but the output is ultimately what matters. And if your job is to know those things and you repeatedly don't make the adjustments or don't do the developmental things or the

choices beforehand that. Would lead to success. It's hard to believe that you're making the right changes that'll make it work better the next time. So no, I mean I think they they have full, I believe this. I think Alan has full faith that what he thinks they're doing in practice is actually the stuff that's leading to success. It's not actually, and that is a real problem and that should be

a real concern for everybody. A couple other things real quick here, Scott, because I don't want to go with CSW Hoosier. Rd. Feels like you guys have been warning that this has been coming for a long time. I considered you to be a little too negative in years past, but now it's coming home to roost. Take a victory lap, I can, I suppose for having your concerns validated, this sucks. Nothing much else to say. This is the thing. I would have loved to have been wrong on this.

I mean, really, I I just it's. And this is this is honestly you. The signs were there early, but I was hoping that maybe maybe I was wrong. Maybe you were wrong. Maybe there would be some adaptation and and maybe you know the okay last year was a blip on the radar and maybe 20/21 was just a you know a season where everything went entirely wrong. But it's so I don't take any pleasure out of this.

I mean I really the so this as we've talked about many times a it's so important that I U football is successful for such a large number of reasons. We feel that even more keenly than many people because we are actually I U football fans like we we are season ticket holders. We've gone to games for decades and look at, you know, Alan is a great story in terms of like the the one paragraph profile that you would put up about I, U Football is A, I is a Hoosier native.

He's an excitable coach who, you know seems to get a lot of media attention. It's just not working. And I, you know it feels to some point it's funny. I you know, like the Pittsburgh fans are going nuts right now. Pitt Panther fans are going nuts because their team has started like one and four. And you know this is after A10 win season, they're flipping out. This happens in every fan base where things go sour.

It almost feels like being critical of Tom Allen is like being critical of the Easter Bunny. You know that there's this attitude that you know well, Alan, hey, but Alan loves the program and Alan's Mr. I U and all of that is true. But you know, to to have the record that Indiana's had over the course of the last several years is is kind of wild. I mean, you know, there was a quote or there was a statistic that our friend Taylor from Bite

Size Bison put out. Indiana's point differential against FBS opponents since the start of the 2021 season is -431, which means that in the last 2 1/2 years, Indiana's lost FBS games writ large, all of them by an average of 16 points a game. Since then, you know Indiana has, you know what, eight wins, I think, against FBS opponents since then, and and multiple of those games were very lucky wins for Indiana. It's just not working. I don't take any joy out of that.

This. The last three years of talking about I, U Football has frankly sucked. Not just because of the results on the field, but because, you know, we don't want this to just be a miserable podcast every time. Which is why a lot of times we resort to humor, which a lot of you take is being mean spirited, which is not intended as it's really just a way to try to keep things entertaining while we talk about something that has

been inherently unentertaining. And that I think it's not a whole lot different from talking about I U Basketball when Archie Miller was here. You keep waiting for something to get excited about on a weekly basis, and it just never. There's always this kind of hope out there that maybe they're just about to turn the corner and it just never actually happens. Once it the answer, sorry, I was I agree with you a million like I I don't want to be negative.

I don't want to take a victory lap like it is. Kind of what we expected to see, but I I will, you know, try and put this silver lining that this may be the frustrating part, but it's true. You know there's still 4 winnable games out there. Like Rutgers is no amazing shakes. You know, Maryland is probably the best of these kind of mid level teams we're going to see

this year based on the offense. You know, Illinois just got throttled at Purdue. Michigan State, as you said, like they are a a hot mess and who knows what kind of a mess they'll be in at that point. Purdue was kind of, you know, not looking great. They just throtted Illinois. That's just two. Those two bad teams playing, there's still 4 winnable games out there, you know, and this is, I don't want to take. I'd love to be proven wrong.

I think the the problem that you and I are talking about is there's just like no evidence to show how we're going to successfully win those four games and how we're going to turn it around. So everything else just becomes, you know, kind of a hope and a prayer. And you know, I would love to see them figure out a way. I'd love to see other teams at this point just make a bunch of mistakes and we capitalize on it, unfortunately, like.

He said in some of those wins, like that's kind of already happened the last couple of years to get us the wins that we got. But you know, it, it's, I think this is what you and I continually harp on is I I would love to not look at the rest of the schedule and see maybe, you know, half a win or a win, but there's no evidence to show that it's going to be there. And I think your point is valid. All we can do is go off with the results.

We don't see the input. We don't see what's coming in. We're not the coaches, but we see the output and the output's been off. Like if it's just a results based, it's been really bad and there's no reason to think it's going to get better, but it it still could. And like things are definitely salvageable and it sounds insane, but that this team could still make a ball.

I mean you have 4 winnable games ahead of you, you have two in the bank and you've got to find a way to start turning things around and doing it. The problem is I don't see the evidence and you know being honest to myself, not doing coach speak is I just I don't think that the pieces are in place for it to be done with this team and that in this coaching staff. It's really hard to make the argument. I mean I I'm with you. It's very, it's very hard. Well, pardon me, sorry, outside

just I want him to win. Like I just I'd love to see him win. Yeah, I know it's so much of it really just comes down to and then look the problem it's, it's interesting because I think, I mean look we've we've been through multiple bottoming out periods. I mean, even even the Indy Star was calling this rock bottom and then and then, you know, there was a followup column where it's like, well, actually actually there's no such thing as rock bottom. It can always get lower.

That's not me talking, That's the Indy Star talking. And then they're right. I mean, it can get worse. You can go, oh and 12 as opposed to two and Akron, you can lose to Akron. I mean it, it could always get worse. We've been through this cycle before though. I mean, you know, we've, we've been through it with Mallory. We were through it. I mean the Cameron era was a was largely just unrealized expectations and we've been through it with Dinardo and we've been through it with Lynch.

You know, like it's it's this is not new territory for I U. The difference here is, you know in the in the past sometimes I U would wait a year too long to do something, but they they would generally make the change. And you know what worries me about where the program's at right now is, you know, the the all of the things that make the program work, the recruiting, the overall vibe around the program, the, you know, people like fans being excited or not excited.

Like it's it almost feels worse now. Cuz like the last time you saw Indiana really bottom out was probably the end of the Lynch era. And that was still at a time when I U. Football hadn't really kind of gotten its pathway back to some level of respectability. You know, people hadn't really fully started coming back into the stadium. It was very much like what happened with the Dinardo era where, you know, interest bottomed out.

That was probably the lowest ebb of I U football since the early 1950s. The problem here, I think is that I U had made so much progress in how their football program was positioned. They had a six year span where they won, you know, six games, six games, five games, five games, eight games and in a shortened season, six games.

I mean, that's that's the backdrop for what's happened over the course of the last 2 1/2 seasons, which I think makes it even worse because you you've got much further to fall in terms of fan interest and in terms of recruiting and positioning. And it's happening at like absolutely the worst time in college sports history for this kind of thing to be happening if you're a program like Indiana. And so, you know, for all the people who are writing, like,

you know, what should they do? And you know, you know what kind of changes need to be made. I don't know what the answer that is, and I think there's a whole bunch of very complicated things that go into that. But realistically speaking, what we're dealing with is a situation where just looking at the situation, not the solutions to the situation, this is about as bad as you can get right now for a program that didn't really have the ability to be in this position again and that.

And this also doubly hurts like no, you you hit it on the head with, you know that that that trailing run of, you know, five wins, five wins like and that's. Again, that's what the 2021 hits so hard. It's not that you were bad, is it felt like at that point like based off of 2 back-to-back bowl seasons like a six win season and a short season, people are like, all right, I I've been burned before, but like I'm

going to now trust this. I'm going to trust that this team has figured it out and they've raised the bottom and they didn't and they just completely like torched everything. And this is, you know, mark this moment. Save this clip. If I you gets back to a point where they win back-to-back seasons of five games and six games, I know what's going to

happen. They'll be the, you know, let's say they win 5-6 and seven games in three years in a row and win, you know, go to two bowls and win two bowls. And then people are still leaving at halftime and there's gonna be the stories like, you've got to give it to this team, you've got to go there. It's like This is why like this right here is why fans IU football has such a hard row to

go down is we did that. Like we like the recent memory we had a couple years where things were good and then it just got completely smacked in the face. We're here now, and This is why I always get so frustrated with the fans are the problem argument because.

Completely getting the the football polled Lucy style like it's happening every time and even after a couple years successful it'll happen we'll be we'll be doing all right and it's like the fans are still not going to be there's back you got to stop and support this team at you know Ohio State levels like no because this is what happens. You and I will still be there because I don't know, we're mentally deranged or something, but it's like this is this is that.

Not understanding that larger context and why you are right, this hurts so much more than it has when it just seems like you know it's like a car. That is the engine stops. You're just rolling to a stop. There was a A staff that was just tweeted out by Mike Schumann over at the Daily Hoosier Follow Daily Hoosier on on X folks and they do some great work. They really do.

But MM wrote in this In 13 games against Power Five teams over the last season and a half, the I U football offense has topped 24 points in regulation once, and that was last year against Maryland when they scored 33 points and lost. So it is. And that to have an offense that's been that inept for that long and also coupling that with the lack of a defense that can win games when your team only

scores 24 points or less. It's a hard ask and I don't know what the solution is. I we had a bunch of people asking us to explain, like why should we pay attention to this team at all moving forward the rest of the year? I have no answers for you. I don't know why you're even listening to this podcast. I mean I really I I and I appreciate those of you who are listening.

I mean I don't. I I we do this because it's it's like a it's like a morbid fascination at this point with I U. Football and every offseason we talk about should we stop podcasts. But I U Football because it feels like we're just nothing but negative. I'd love to be positive but I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to make things up to try to make the program look better than it is at this point.

And I'm and it's just unfortunate I mean I'm sure we've said things in the past that have been interpreted as unfair or have actually been unfair that's that's a fair thing to say. But at the end of the day it's it's a program where I feel like there's very little scrutiny on why things aren't going right and and you know why the coach doesn't seem to have any answers despite you know having some of the best job security in the country at this point.

And that's it's really depressing that things are where they're at, because it'd be great to have Indiana football even back to where they were four or five, six years ago, where they're winning, you know, in the five, six game range. And they're at least competitive in some of these contests where they're they're able to score points occasionally.

And I, you know, at the end of it all, it's hard for me to just look at Walt Walt Bell and say he's the problem When before it was Nick Sheridan was the problem, before that it was Mike Debord that was the problem. The offense wasn't good enough then either. There's one common thread throughout. All of that. And it's it's not just the coaching. It's also frankly, a bunch of other things. You know, the recruiting, the overall atmosphere, the program,

the way things are put together. I would love it for all to turn around. Maybe the evaluations will work here during the bye week. They haven't worked up to this point. They haven't worked when you've had the whole offseason to evaluate, but maybe it'll work this time around anyway. Any final thoughts? No, I was. I want to just real quick answer that question too because it's funny. I was having you know my wife and I were drive we I watched

the first like 3/4. And then we went out to dinner and went drive with my wife. And I'm just like, I like and just being completely honest here. I'm like, I've had season tickets for football since 09 and we moved back here, back to Indiana and I was like, I don't, should we keep them really like, I mean, I enjoyed. We've talked about it. It's like, how much do you have to? I like doing the tailgate but it's like you know we're we're going to fall break.

We get back like you know late on Friday night before the Rutgers games that's that's and that's on us. It's an hour drives like. So, like, do I really want to get up early that morning? Right after? Like, do I want to do? That probably not. And then it's like now you get into weather games and it's like Wisconsin and it's like it's just like we're going to fewer and fewer games every year. Part of it's on weather. Yeah, maybe I'm a shitty fan or a fair weather fan.

That's fine. But you know, I have, well, I have kids and they're doing basketball, by the way. Like, I'd much rather at this point go to my son's basketball game than an I U football game. Like I get way more enjoyment out of it. I I like it a lot more. Plus he's related to me and I I dig him a little bit. But it's like I'm having this conversation for the first time in years where I'm like, I don't know if it you know.

And like the Ohio State game, we went with kind of the plan that we go to tailgate and leave at halftime. We stayed because the game was close. But it's like the, like, I'm what am I paying for? Like as a season ticket holder, like I'm kind of using all the wrong things. So like I'm going and planning to leave early because I'm assuming we're going to get blown out. It's like I'm just.

Not going to games. It's just it is as somebody who doesn't want to give up his tickets like to me, I I should be a real problem for IU football and IU athletics to see somebody who's like I'm trying trying to figure out why I should be doing this because again, money is finite. I don't have unlimited amounts of it and so. Football is supposed to be a sport but also an entertainment product and it's not. Anyway.

And I think to back to what you said to me years ago and I was like, I love going to college football games and I like the atmosphere and you're like, well then go to a real program. I don't go to IU games and it's but anyway I don't, well, I, you know, I don't want year, but it's like I'm really having that debate. So to answer that question, like I'm really having that question, I can't, I can't tell anybody

why they should go well. And look, I'll say this, I think people get hung up on the wrong things. I mean people complain about the game day experience, so they complain about the parking or they, you know, look, I've been to a lot of college football games all over the place. There's a few places that run it like an NFL team does where it's it's actually really well put together and really well

managed. 75% of the places I've been, it's the same or worse than Indiana in terms of of, you know, what you get. Indiana is not an outlier in that. I think the difference is even places that have, you know, not the most ideal game day experience win games and give their fans more often than not something to cheer for.

And that is the thing that is always, or not always, but pretty consistently over the course of I U Football history has been missing from the I U Football experience, even the the fleeting moments when you do get that generally. They go away very quickly and that you know every time Indiana has a chance to deliver for fans in terms of the on the field experience, which is the one thing you can't control as a

marketing department. They've managed to figure out a way to screw things up. And you know, even just in the last decade, the Minnesota game in 2013 with the with the lateral that Minnesota recovers and Indiana loses that game, You know, in 2015, the Rutgers game. I mean, you can go down the list of all of these games where you know it was, should have been a coronation, should have been a celebration.

And it ends up being just another reminder to those people who do brave the elements or do go out and and fight through crowds or whatever, that it's just not. It's it it it ends up not being fun. And right now, I mean, this is just not a fun product. It's it's not something that you want to watch and we can talk

about execution all we want. You know what you're executing out there is it still doesn't look particularly engaging or exciting And I think you've, you know at this point unfortunately this group of of this, this coaching staff, this particular regime has used up all of their mulligans with fans.

And I think you now you're starting to see real anger and and apathy coming out of the fan base because they're like all right we've given faith that this is going to get better and it's not getting better and so fine, we'll just stop paying attention. And the problem is I, you know, I I don't know what the solution is at this point.

Like there there's not really. There doesn't appear to be the internal selfreflection of why things aren't going right from the coaches, so the on field product just feels. So that's like you said, this is the absolute worst time to be a program. Not having functional football. We can end on that anyway. Yeah. Well, so we'll wrap it up. Thank you all for listening. We appreciate it as always. Scott, always a pleasure

chatting with you. For those of you who are around, obviously we won't have a preview podcast this week because there's no game, but we'll be back. Are you doing Crimson Cash this week? Yeah, we do every week. So Crimson Cash will be out on Thursday. So keep an eye out for that and also we're going to have upcoming here a relatively special episode, our thousandth episode. So keep an eye out for that sometime in the next couple of

weeks. A lot to talk about obviously with I, U Basketball as that season starts to get going, they just they've had multiple practices already. Things are are starting to percolate on that side of things. So we'll we'll be hopefully having you folks along as we approach our thousandth episode and we'll look forward to chatting with you all over the course of this next month. So anyway, thanks to our friends

that don't feel apparel. Thanks to our friends at the Back Home Network. Thanks to all of you as always for listening for Scott, I'm Galen, this is Crimson Cast. We'll catch you folks on the flip side. So long, everybody.