Old Friend

I'm not sure I see anyone beating Michigan.

Yeah...Missed Paige's fumble. Good catch.

I've been lurking. Good for the team to win. We missed 6 kicks, turned it over 3 times. Failed in the red zone on multiple occasions; and Rutgers is so bad, we won anyway.

It is truly amazing that we had no QB ready to replace Sudfeld, and now have to resort to an offense that tries to trick people. Diamont is okay for maybe a couple of plays a game, but they've adjusted to the wildcat. Lagow is abysmal. Almost embarrassing save a few plays early. Wilson has to be better than this. Play football. Screw stretch plays and relying on a read option with a 170 pound kid who is mistake prone.

That has been true for 75 years and when we had our best teams under Knight, it didn't matter. My comment is "so what?" Apart from Kentucky, not a school on that list has anywhere close to offering Indiana does. Illinois? Purdue? Notre Dame? No. Indiana spends by far more on recruiting than any school in the Big Ten, misses on more prospects than all of them, and still settles all the time for players who have no chance to help. I'll refer again to Priller, Robinson, and Hoetzel among others (Muniru, Michel, etc) from all over the place. If Indiana can't compete with the schools you mentioned (while they're getting our in state kids), we don't have the right approach or perhaps the right guy telling the story. Until we have a focus on the area (and it's more than just the state), we won't have any idea what we can do. Crean does not have a focus.....he shotguns. I don't mean this to be critical of him necessarily, I'm just answering the recruiting spending question that was posed above.

We consistently spend 10x more on recruiting than Wisconsin does. Think of that. Why does Indiana have to spend $600K on recruiting? With our tradition, facilities, and everything that our program is, why do we need to spend 10x more than Wisconsin to get players to come here, only to miss on so many? Because our coach shotguns it and doesn't recruit to his system. He says he does, but then we go get a Tim Priller. A Stanford Robinson. A Max Hoetzel. (Why????) Kids that have no chance to succeed here. I wonder why Crean thinks he has to prioritize so many kids, and especially so many kids who from all over the place. Own Indiana and build relationships in the neighboring states. Go outside the area to get a few highly rated kids sometimes; and build your team with kids from around here. Not like there's ever been a shortage of talent within 300 miles of Bloomington. That cuts your budget by a ton, and probably builds you a team that can compete year in and year out.

There are some (Swanigan for example) who have made choices based on stupid things like what shoe company the school has a contract with. There are a lot of kids and coaches who didn't like Crean early, and that was detrimental to him. I think he's gotten better. Facilities have also improved dramatically, so his job should be easier. No excuse to lose the best local kids at this point. We literally have no in state competition except Butler if everything else is equal. Purdue will always be our step child, and Notre Dame just isn't on our level nationally in basketball. They're good, and I like their program, but no matter how good we get in football, we'll never be on their level nationally. Same thing here. (And I mean nationally as a brand...we're talking local kids. I get it) Crean has missed a lot of kids. He missed on Trevon Blueitt. A couple of examples....He never really made an effort with Gary Harris. His offense is so good when he has kids who can run the floor and shoot. Indiana is loaded with that kind of kid. All he needs to do is start locking those kids up, and he'll get whoever he needs from other places. Wilkes and Phinisee are the top 2 guys I want right now. Maybe Langford, but I don't think he's coming here. We get those two guys? We'll get others, too. I have always been a fan of sticking with Indiana kids along with Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan. I think you can build consistently great teams staying close to home, and going out and securing the occasional Thomas Bryant, etc. To me, one thing that's hurt Crean is a bit of a shotgun approach to recruiting.

LOVE the number of local kids on this list. Crean starts to own Indiana, he'll never have to worry about recruiting again. He'll get who he needs nationally, too. Close the border and go outside to get who you want/need.

Wondering if you watched the game today? The defense was flat awful. And they had the ball first. Blaming the offense for the first half? Really? Seriously? The game plan was horrible. We adjusted well, but statistics can lie. Turned the defense around? We're 3-4 and we've been down 2 touchdowns in the first half to every decent we've played. Better numbers aside, he is not a good game planner. He is a good game manager and makes good adjustments, but seriously....watch the games. The offense has to help, and I said so. But Allen's defense came out and gave up 3 scoring drives in the first half when we didn't even challenge them. It's not quite as simple as you make it sound.

Wilson's mistake was not having a quarterback ready to replace Sudfeld. That's killing Indiana right now. Tom Allen is an excitable guy, clearly. Can he game plan? I'm not seeing it. He can adjust, but his preparation leave lots to be desired. Between the QB failures and weak defensive game plans, we find ourselves in a hole week after week. We were able to dig out against Michigan State. Wake? Nebraska? Northwestern? 3 very winnable games? We were not.

Really sick of being close. That we didn't have a QB ready to replace Sudfeld is ridiculous. Zander is not the answer. Not even close. He is a one trick pony and his trick is easily prepared for....heck, it didn't even work 5 times today. This team is very good. We're without a QB and we have lots of injuries to key people. (Linemen and Cobbs, mostly) The TV guys were all over the people Nebraska didn't have, and I wanted to ask him if he'd heard about IU's injury problems.

Right. The "true fan" argument. I have 3 boys playing football, and they all have basketball tryouts next weekend. I live in Indy. I'm not a true fan, I guess. God, how I hate that argument.

Could not disagree with you more on your first point. Play calling today was atrocious, and their DB's were far faster than our receivers. Lagow didn't have open guys. He has an NFL arm, and he's just fine for what Indiana needs. He is by far the best we have. Play calling limited him today....we played that game not to lose it. Maybe we had no choice against that team, but I think he's just fine.

Pathetic for a team that has been to two bowl games since the mid 1990's at a stadium you can't get to or get home from? Disagree.

Was the case prior to MSU, too. They had 46K for that game, and they will for Nebraska, too. These uniforms are SO much better than I thought they'd be when I saw the headline.

I was thrilled to see Indiana play 4 quarters and end the game by far the better team. I was a little disappointed with play calling and some of the personnel decisions in the 2nd and 3rd quarter, but at the end of the day, the players who needed to be difference makers late were difference makers. Thought the pass interference call on Fant was ridiculous. If a kid can't do that, defense has no chance. Nice win and nice start. Lagow is a great find. That Diamont even had a chance tells me one of two things : 1) Diamont really got better or 2) Anyone who said there was really a competition is full of crap. When we get everyone back from suspension, we're going to be a tough out. Really like the addition of Coach Allen.

And Indiana has had a bad defense for.....how long? You're making an awfully shaky assumption that our defense will magically be decent. Randle El was the best small, shifty quarterback in Big Ten history and perhaps in college football history and he could throw the ball. Zander can't. So....you're basically telling me Zander at QB is no big deal even if he's a weak passer because our defense is THAT much better than it was when Randle El was the quarterback, so this is a bowl team with Zander under center. Is that basically right? If so....I just have to shake my head and laugh at a pollyanna fan. Reality is sometimes difficult to swallow.

If Zander is our QB, we will not win 6 games. He is a novelty. Can't throw the ball downfield, which means teams can stack safeties. He is okay as a relief pitcher when teams don't prepare for him, but when they do? He's a bad option. And shame on the coaching staff. Sudfeld was a senior a year ago, and that was no secret. To go into this season even discussing Zander as our #1 QB is embarrassing. He IS tough. He IS fast. But we had one of those for 4 years under Cam Cameron, never went to a bowl game with him; and he COULD throw the ball. There's history here, folks. Zander is a million miles short of Antwaan Randle El. It's very easy to think this team is different and Zander will be just fine and the team will overcome his weaknesses. But.....he's not. It won't. To win in the Big Ten, you need quality QB play, which means you need a guy who can throw it; or you need dominance in other areas; and Indiana doesn't have that. Zander as the #1 QB is a horrible idea and an ominous sign for the football team. He is what he is....a small, quick QB with very limited skills. He's not going to be 6'4" with a Big Ten arm. I hate the idea of him under center.

I would really like to understand the lottery talk. He is currently projected at #38 in the second round. I know we're all famous here for over-inflating the ability of our players; but this is a kid who is still in need of a few NBA skills for a kid his size. Namely? He needs to dramatically improve his jump shot and ability to score with the ball. OG is a terrific talent, but he ain't close to lottery yet. Breathe, folks.

Gelon is a far better player than Priller. He (Gelon) has at least one Big Ten level skill. His Indiana All Star team mates all loved playing with him because he understands the game. Not everything needs to be measured in terms of production and numbers. Gelon will be fine, but if anyone's expecting greatness as a freshman, they need to re-evaluate,

I just love when people take things to the furthest extreme possible. Michael McRobbie spends nearly 100% of his time working on research grants. That's what he does. He's not into sports; and IU has had plenty of presidents who were. John Ryan and Herman B. Wells, to be specific, The IU administration made a conscious decision many years ago to go away from having a men's basketball coach or program that was - in their eyes - bigger than the University. Which was foolish because it wasn't, but it WAS the world's window into IU whether they liked it or not. McRobbie may or may not care about that, which is why I said "perhaps McRobbie," I don't know how he feels about the basketball program; but I do know his mission is for IU to be a top research university, if not THE top research University in the midwest if not the country. Whether or not he understands the role the basketball team plays in his ability to achieve that goal, I don't know. I DO know the BoT has played a major role in hiring presidents who were as clueless as they were apathetic. Myles Brand was a good hire from the academic side; awful for the athletic. Herbert is a clown and always was. He was hired for one reason and one reason only, and it's the same reason IU caved to Davis when he bitched about his contract.

This can do nothing but help. I've said forever that the former IU administration (and perhaps President McRobbie) have gotten what they wanted by hiring Mike Davis and allowing the program to fall as it did. Now? We have a guy on the BoT who gets it and understands why it's important for Indiana to be good at basketball. The men's basketball team is the window into IU for 98% of the world. Sports programs do that for universities....and IU Basketball is as high profile a program as exists in the country. Crean has made positive changes, and now the BoT is inclusive of at least one guy who will fight to keep the expectations high. I can't think of a reason not to love this.

Yes. Doris Burke. Good gravy is she annoying.

If Skip Bayless doesn't win this bracket, it's rigged. His odds have to be 1:9, and nobody else lower than 7:1. But....Bomani Jones, Jamelle Hill, Mike Greenberg, Curt Schilling, and that lady who does NBA games are all viable contenders.

Kid was all conference, all region, and the MVP of his regional post season tournament. I think he's got some upside, and probably some ability. Better than Hanner or so it would seem; and he has the ability to step out and shoot it. Perhaps he's Steve Hart? (A little bigger) Who knows? I still say Indiana is better without Williams. One man's opinion.