akhosrof

Stephen gets a lot of work. Ravens are beat up at RB. Rookie RB Kenneth Dixon from Louisiana Tech was looking like a stud before tearing his MCL last week. Terrance West has been the next impressive guy, and Justin Forsett has been less than impressive so far. If Stephen can play special teams, he has a shot of making the team while Dixon is out (3-5 weeks). #RunningbackU

The formula is there from last year: - Continue the discipline on offense to take care of the ball and aggressiveness for takeaways on defense that allowed us to be the #1 team in the B1G for turnover differential. - Win the games we are supposed to: FIU, BSU, WFU, UMD, RU and PU. That's six games and we are in a bowl. - Bend but don't brake on defense. We will give up rush yards, but we need to make sure those long rushes don't go for TDs. Play tight in the redzone.

IU: 35 FIU: 17

If we win 9-10 games next season any SEC opening will be sure calling CKW. He's a southern boy who has been successful recruiting Florida and Georgia kids to Indiana. Imagine what he could do in the SEC. Luckily Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have all recently filled head coaching jobs. I think those are the among the few hypothetical dream jobs that CKW would value at the top of his list (along with UNC I would imagine). Either way, we win 9-10 games Glass better be ready to open the checkbook again if he wants to starve off inquiring schools.

Nice Florida pipeline there

Thompson, I'm predicting 7-5 as well. Exact same predictions except flip NW and PSU. I think we get hot at the end of the year as Lagow gets better and the home game against PSU is a better chance to win than at NW coming off of the toughest stretch of our season. I'm with you though, we could easily win between 5-9 games, so much is unknown with how good Lagow will be.

We lack depth on the interior defensive line but I'm looking at the back seven and seeing some solid talent as backups. Thornton, Cook, Simmons, Brown, Sykes all have playing experience and figure to be heavy in rotation this season. Then we get Thompson back from injury who was showing playmaking ability prior to going down. Run defense may give up some yards, but if we can prevent the long run TD (our weakness last season), we should be able to continue to play tight in the redzone and get turnovers in the secondary and forcing fumbles. I like what we have to work with this season.

Good question, he was a four star recruit, ESPN Top 200 out of HS. I remember reading he was scout team player of the week a few times last season, so it's good to see he is working hard. Is Hawkins too big for the slot? The scouting report on him said he is very quick and could make people miss.

I don't think Glass has anything to worry about with his last two tweets as we don't host OSU this season. Although, Glass might have been better served directing his tweet at the PSU football Twitter handle[emoji1]

Yeah Johns all but named Lagow the starter. Encouraging to hear the progress he's made. Lagow could be a player who gets significantly better as the season goes on as he learns from game experience. The out of conference games will be important getting him ready for MSU. His potential is just too much to pass up to not give him an extended shot. Man I am pumped!

I don't think we have enough information to judge either QB yet. We don't know how polished or unpolished Lagow is, nor do we know how improved Zander's arm strength is. There isn't much practice footage out there, and reporters haven't been given much field access. The first three non-conference games will be a huge opportunity for our offense to get on track. We just have to trust CKW will choose the right guy. Even if Lagow is streaky, the big play ability he showed in the spring game justifies his place as the starter. With our receivers, we just need a guy who can put it down field for our guys to make a play on the ball. I'm not worried...

Make sure you try the beer cheese with the leftover sauce as well! Looks awesome!

Good tailgating recipe: http://amazingribs.com/recipes/hot_dogs_and_sausages/wisconsin_brat_tub.html Brats are really good for tailgating because they are quick and easy to make. Another simple but awesome recipe is grinding up some short rib to make burgers. I made this last night and it came out fantastic: http://amazingribs.com/recipes/beef/baltimore_pit_beef.html When tailgating it might be tough to constantly monitor grill and meat temperature, adding coals, or waiting more than two hours for something to cook. How long did it take for you to grill the turkey? How did that come out?

I can't wait to beat PSU this year. Honestly, we should have a three year winning streak against them. They aren't going to get so lucky again. Other than that hard to argue the rest of the list. Minnesota is truly a sleeping giant in the West. They have a strong team this year, and the recruiting is starting to pick up with the awesome facilities they have and are building. Northwestern and Nebraska will be tough upsets for us. Both teams should be improved this year. I don't think a ninth place finish in the B1G and a fourth place finish in the East is that big a stretch for us provided Lagow plays to the potential we saw in the spring game.

I believe CWK said Ricky Brookins and Kiante Enis are working in the slot to back up Paige. I don't think moving Patrick to WR helps us any for J-Shun's injury. We have a lot of depth on the outside at split end and flanker, which is where Patrick would play. Maybe Ricky Jones moves inside on some sets.

Once CKW names a starter I'm sure business will pick up around here! We're getting close!

IUFBsnap on Snapchat will show practice footage. Not much but still something!

According to ESPN he had offers from UVA, Dartmouth and Buffalo, must be an extremely bright kid. Nice to beat out elite academic schools like that for an instate recruit after missing out on Jovan Swann to Stanford last year (although I'm positive most of the young men we get are extremely bright as well!) I am loving how we are attacking in state with this class!

Thanks for sharing. We are extremely fortunate to have Greg Frey. More than anything I am excited for this season, I am pumped about the talent we've assembled on the coaching stuff. This is a true B1G staff now. I love the decision by CKW to help with the offensive position coaches so the defense could get an extra assistant coach. I truly think the investments we've made in the coaching staff will pay big dividends.

I kept saying Zander wasn't going down without a fight. This is the year (22) Zander should be physically mature and his arm strength is what it will be. It is unfair to judge his throwing ability based off of the last two years, which should have been developmental years without seeing the field. I also think a lot of Hoosiers are underestimating the advantage Zander has of knowing the playbook for two years, then compound that by how smart of a kid Zander is. Not to mention the amount of reps Zander has gotten with the first team and the chemistry developed with the receivers. CKW's offense requires a lot of on the fly thinking due to the audibles. If Lagow is having trouble with that, then the rest of his rhythm will be off (footwork, accuracy, spiral tightness, it's all connected). I have a feeling Lagow will get better as he becomes more familiar with the playbook. His ceiling that we saw in the spring game is too high for us not to give him the reps with the ones and every chance to win the job. With that said, we have a huge benefit of having all our out of conference games at the beginning of the schedule. Hypothetically, we could have ugly games for each of the first three games and come out 3-0. SEC goes into conference play week 2. It's a good chance for Lagow to get game experience and tune up the offense for Michigan Stare in October. If Lagow is bad in those first three games, we know what we have in Zander, and can adjust our game plan around that. Not ideal, but hopefully Zander's added arm strength and another year of experience can yield different results.

I'd love to beat PSU this year. They've gotten lucky the last two years as they didn't have to play us with Sudfeld. If our offense is firing on all cylinders I think we'll beat them. Franklin is notorious for having bad offenses. They won't be able to keep up with us.

I agree but look at what we are doing instate. We are locking down Indiana. If we can get a commitment from RJ Potts, we will pretty much have all of the top players outside of Hunter Johnson and Pete Werner. Recruiting will take time. While improving, the HS talent in Indiana is not nearly to the depth of Michigan or Ohio. We are making impressive progress in Ohio and playing in the B1G East helps. Honestly, even if we win a bowl game this year we still might not get four star talent. Ohio is very difficult to recruit top talent in: even outside of OSU, Michigan and ND, you have Kentucky, MSU, Pitt, and WVU to compete against. As Indiana HS football continues to improve, then our recruiting classes will naturally get better. In the meantime, we'll continue to make progress in Ohio and supplement our classes with CKW's Chicago, Georgia and Florida pipelines. Getting consistent four star talent out of Ohio, Chicago or the South may be far fetched. I am perfectly fine with getting three star guys that fit our system. As long as we are competing against other P5 schools and not MAC schools. CKW talked about this at B1G media day: we have a system on offense that is good for developing guys and maximizing talent. We need that same type of system created on defense and have guys buy in. We have the right leaders with Coach Allen and Hagen and are finally investing in the required resources.

I second this! Keep the updates coming Lucel. I might not always reply but I love reading your posts!

Coach Allen, Hagen, Inge and Shelby are killing it on the recruiting trail for 2017! The sort of knowledge and recruiting talent on the defensive coaching staff is on a different level than anything CKW has had before. We are building a nice defense with true B1G talent!

Potts would be a huge get. I love the way we are attacking in-state. This looks to be one of the deepest IN classes in awhile. Overall, I also like the defensive approach to 2017.