8bucks

Down to eight ... 

The World Cup has been great all around. The US team played good except for Belgium. A B for them and hopefully they can build off it. The game experience A’s all around. I think having games in cities like Indy where you could enjoy a walk to several pubs/bars after could have made it an A+.  The international fans experience has been awesome. Many expressed great enthusiasm for outreach country and it was great to see how people are great when you get politics out of things and just enjoy different cultures and their people. And the best part, it provided a fun distraction while we wait for our version of football.  What a great summer. Let’s land a local 5* receiver, start summer camp (we have that right?) and get this 3.0 version of Cignetti ball started. 

The World Cup has been great all around. The US team played good except for Belgium. A B for them and hopefully they can build off it. The game experience A’s all around. I think having games in cities like Indy where you could enjoy a walk to several pubs/bars after could have made it an A+.  The international fans experience has been awesome. Many expressed great enthusiasm for outreach country and it was great to see how people are great when you get politics out of things and just enjoy different cultures and their people. And the best part, it provided a fun distraction while we wait for our version of football.  What a great summer. Let’s land a local 5* receiver, start summer camp (we have that right?) and get this 3.0 version of Cignetti ball started. 

The World Cup has been great all around. The US team played good except for Belgium. A B for them and hopefully they can build off it. The game experience A’s all around. I think having games in cities like Indy where you could enjoy a walk to several pubs/bars after could have made it an A+.  The international fans experience has been awesome. Many expressed great enthusiasm for outreach country and it was great to see how people are great when you get politics out of things and just enjoy different cultures and their people. And the best part, it provided a fun distraction while we wait for our version of football.  What a great summer. Let’s land a local 5* receiver, start summer camp (we have that right?) and get this 3.0 version of Cignetti ball started. 

Belgium also just played really smart and disciplined.  They knew they were better and if they didn’t blow it they would probably win. 
 
They basically Indiana footballed us 

Cape Verde just tied Argentina early in the second half?!!?
wow

It especially sucks because of how dynamic Flo has been and the level of dropoff between Flo and Ricardo Pepi, his replacement. Pepi kinda sucks, especially in the box (and as a striker that's not what you want to see). Caveat: Pepi was very good (mainly in midfield and defensive territory) in his 10 minutes replacing Pulisic last night.
This isn't like replacing Dest or Robinson with Bernhalter or Reyna; that would be a negligible dropoff with some new skills that the replacment would bring. This is an undeniable dropoff in our ability to creat scoring opportunites. We're going to have to grind out a 1-0 or 2-1 game without Flo.

Down a man, Tillman scores! 

Welcome to IUFB prior to Pam Whitten. ;-)

A very reasonable path to the round of eight and then, as it should, it gets much tougher. No gimme games, but there’s a path and a way.

Of course he could coach, but there was no way he was freely going to get away with how he operated nor should have it been enabled. 

Recent blue blood hires
Mark Pope—-zero tournament wins at Utah Valley/BYU
Mike Malone—-zero college HC experience 
Hubert Davis—-zero head coaching experience 
John Scheyer—-zero head coaching experience
Mick Cronin—4 tournament wins in 16 years Murray St/Cincinnati; never made it past first weekend 
Yet Tom Crean (F4) and Archie Miller (E8) were meh hires? What do you call the hires above? At least those schools above have been relevant this century. It’s not 1985, the allure of this job doesn’t exist anymore. The last 3 national title winning coaches came from FAU, San Francisco, and Rhode Island. What is a serious hire today? What serious coach is coming to Bloomington? Blue blood means absolutely nothing in today’s climate.

The Tartan Army was great though and even being outnumbered 70/30 they were loud and fun. We got lucky with a cool night in Miami too with temps around 87 when the game started. 

Is it weird to reply to your own post? Nah..
Apparently, it seems a 4 year D2, NAIA or D3 athlete can move up to D1 for a year 5. Talked with a couple coaches and while the player has to be able to offer something, if they can, it could work. 
 
 

The Tartan Army was great though and even being outnumbered 70/30 they were loud and fun. We got lucky with a cool night in Miami too with temps around 87 when the game started. 

On a podcast Cig hinted we were around 25-27mm.  OSU, Oregon and Texas were all allegedly in the 40mm range.
I absolutely think we could get outbid and/or decide against giving a freshman x percentage of our total “payroll”.

Has the applicant pool really gotten worse?
DDV was at WVU, IU took another P5 school's coach. Archie had a lot of national hype at the time he was hired.
The cycle where Woodson was hired seems like the anomaly where we hired a candidate nobody else would've. And people can make their own interpretations as to why before and after Woodson, IU was able to hire coaches that were considered rising stars or already at P5 like DeVries, Crean, Sampson

One of these things is not like the other.
Crean rebuilt IU from the ashes of Sampsongate, won B1G titles, took us to multiple SW16’s, gave us Yogi, Cody, Vic, Wat, OG, etc. He wasn’t a great basketball mind but he doesn’t belong in the discontent over the abomination of coaching that was CMW or the failure of CAM

I got that impression as well. Both are younger guys and Bryant has a baby. I think the fact that Bryant can spend time with his family plus do what he loves which is head coach the defense is keeping him here. Not to mention they see what happened with Tino. It’s a risk to leave. I’d venture to guess Bryant would be ok if he failed as a hc…he’d likely get a D coordinator position quickly. But how much would he like working with the next guy. He’s been with Cig forever. I think the comfort level he has coupled with his success and his family time may just keep him here a while unless the NFL comes calling for D coordinator. Not convinced Shannahan would be as successful. Cig has a lot to do with the offense coupled with Bostad. I think it’s a collective and they are all pieces of that puzzle for success. While I know Haines has all of his coaches as well, I do believe he is the reason that D is as successful as it is. 
 
We continue to be lucky Cig can retain his staff. Have to enjoy the ride while they are all around. 

Ghana gonna getta knockout round spot. Just tied England.

Occam's Razor - the most obvious, logical explanation is usually the correct one. So in this case? The year Dusty was moving up to a big time job Woodson was still at IU. After getting that big time job IU would have been a lateral move at best. The timing just didn't work. 
Now an NBA job came up, and with a potentially generational player as that franchise's cornerstone. And the NBA is quite simply just a better job than a major college gig, especially with the current chaotic, illogical college situation and for a guy that already reached the mountaintop as a college coach.

Uh, wow. 

Their 3rd game is in Miami....in June. They all may roast to death.

It has been so cool to see all the these venues packed.  We always enjoy watching the World Cup games but having them here and having so muc enthusiasm has been awesome.  We are headed down to Miami this week to watch Brazil vs Scotland.  I will be wearing yellow behind the goal, should be easy to spot right?