Aaron

NW will almost certainly finish near the bottom of the league. Winning games against this level of opponent in the league is a must if they are even going to match the last few seasons of decent but not great. More interested if they can take down some of the better teams, especially at home and compete for NCAA Tournament.

Not quite. With 11 teams now and 10 games in Big Ten play, it is still too early to say that. If they catch fire and win out, they have an excellent chance. Doesn't look likely right now. However, said the same thing the last couple of seasons in the same position, and a perfect October won them the league. The difference is that this time, the non-conference was so good, another near-perfect October means a much better NCAA seed with multiple home games, if not all three in Bloomington, before the College Cup potentially. With all that said, I didn't see these struggles coming, and it's really disheartening to say the least. Need the calendar to hit October, where squad is always perfect.

Took our great start and threw it straight in the garbage to begin conference play. It's as if the team thinks they can give a half-hearted effort because they are in the top five. Right now, they are the hunted and appear to be a squad that thinks they can win simply by showing up and giving minimal effort, which is obviously not the case. That might be the worst offensive performance I have seen in my 30 years of watching, and I am being dead serious. MSU's goal was a bit unlucky, but they certainly had enough chances and deserved to put one home. With that said, I thought the backline was mostly fine, and this result rests solely on an attack that looked completely dead. Once October hits, they will probably catch fire as they always do. However, I thought this slow start issue was fixed after the non-conference, but it has just hit to begin Big Ten play instead. Computers still seem to love IU, and a mediocre conference season with a great RPI can still get you a really solid NCAA seed, as happened in 2014 and 2016. With all that said, the team better do some soul searching and give 100% effort every night, which has been lacking recently outside of the second half of PSU. Maryland still awaits later on, as does a solid Ohio State and UCLA squad, not to mention a trip to Washington. Those are all winnable if the Hoosiers we saw pre-league play start showing up again. Otherwise, it could be a rough conference slate if this performance from the first three Big Ten matches continues. We can definitely drop the 2017 and 2018 comparisons for good. This goes even if Indiana catches fire again going forward.

All the goodwill the team had built up to this point early in the season was set on fire tonight, getting swept by Western Kentucky. Every time a coach goes on the Hysterics Podcast, their team immediately suffers. The Hilltoppers are likely to win Conference USA and are not bad. However, the Big Ten is much better, and if you can't beat them, it raises questions about whether the team can compete with the better squads in the conference. This program has come a long way and will likely win 8-12 games again in the league and dominate the bottom. However, this defeat almost certainly puts the NCAA Tournament as a bit of a long shot and cancels out the good win against Miami (FL). This program appears to have ceilinged out at the moment as a mid to lower pack squad in an elite league, which is not good enough to make the postseason (and with no conference tourney in volleyball, getting in is that much harder). We might as Hoosier fans have to be OK with where the program is now at this plateau. It will not take the next step until it wins matches like tonight and doesn't suffer a competitive sweep to elite mid-majors.

That's more like it, and it shows why IU's offense has not been this dangerous since the 2017-2018 season. Palmer Ault and Collins Oduro give you a dynamic scorer and speedster combo for 2025 that fully unlocks Yeagley's offense at its best. Have not had that since the Rennicks and Dorsey combo in those aforementioned years. I still have some small concerns about the backline, and Holden Brown is unfortunately showing he is a solid but not elite goalie, similar to Harms recently, but bigger. I was hoping he was closer to Muse or Celentano, but that does not seem to be the case. Also, not IU related other than tonight, but what in the world has happened to PSU's program? For years, IU, Maryland, and Penn State were head and shoulders above the league. While the Hoosiers and Terps have gone nowhere, the Nittany Lions have looked like one of the very worst squads in the league the last couple of seasons. Good job taking care of business, and they need to continue that in every game besides the Terps. Outside of IU, Maryland, and Michigan, the league appears really bad, and Penn State might be the worst of everyone.

Maryland is amongst the worst in the Big Ten. Going to be another rough year. As I discussed this program is here solely to satisfy Title IX. Not win as coaching hire made clear. I totally get it from administration standpoint given the lack of interest and influx of money needed for college sports now for rev sharing. Someone has to get short end of stick and for IU its women's soccer. Just take all this into account when analyzing results and following this program.

Total failure to perform. I'm not sure if IU got fat and happy at number one, but that was the worst performance I have seen from the Hoosiers in a VERY long time. IU scored first against the run of play, but were dominated for 90 minutes from start to finish in a way that should NEVER happen to this program. Very lucky Wolverines didn't end up running away with this, and it's a minor miracle Indiana had a chance at the end. IU's missed PK at the end to tie was total sweet justice from the soccer gods, as they had no business taking anything but a terrible loss. The team went from looking like the best in the country to one that doesn't even deserve to be ranked. Hope the Hoosiers enjoyed being number one because they won't be there anymore if they play like that again this season. This team, which I thought had regained the 2017 and 2018 form, can't be said to be that again in 2025. Those teams' off nights turned into ties or a loss to the very top of the country, which Michigan is not close to. IU can still have a relatively special fall if they make sure this is a one-off, but the best Hoosier soccer teams don't give efforts like that and get dominated on their home field. Now I am not sure if this is a top-five squad or another borderline-seeded team, as they have been since COVID. We will find out quickly after some soul searching from Yeagley and players if this is one of the special Indiana teams or another pretty good one. I really thought we were headed towards special, but after tonight, that is very much in the air. One note that shows metrics can be questionable: IU is somehow still number one in RPI, and Michigan vaulted to six. Guess the computers like the Hoosiers so much that they only reward the squads that beat them and don't penalize them for the loss. Lucky, the computers essentially gave them a mulligan, but won't again, as everyone else in the league outside Maryland and now Michigan has horrific metrics. This is a quad one loss, but everyone else in the league outside of Maryland is a quad three, so I would recommend taking care of business if you want a high NCAA seed. The committee showed two years ago that when the league was terrible, they would penalize accordingly, giving Hoosiers who were Big Ten Champs no seed and not inviting a single other squad from the conference.

Welcome back to 2017/2018 IU Soccer as a legit national contender as one of the top 5 squads in the country. It's been too long. This Notre Dame game is a bellwether for how serious the Hoosiers are about getting back to the College Cup and maybe winning a title without divine intervention like in 2022. Test past! Getting back to Cary, N.C., for another College Cup will very likely be attempted the easy way, with at least two home games, if not three, and likely only one heavyweight battle coming in the Elite Eight. Doesn't mean you get that far, as happened in 2019. However, they will almost certainly get two home games in the Round of 32 and the Sweet 16, where they are the clear favorites. Similar to 2017, where 2016 saw longtime veterans gone, and the season was basically a birthday present waiting to be unwrapped. 2025, after 2024, is similar, with the talent of new players coming in vs. ones departed taking the squad to a whole new level from solid to elite. In 2017, it was Trey Muse, Mason Toye, Griffin Dorsey, and Justin Rennicks replacing Colin Webb, Grant Lillard, Richard Ballard, and Tanner Thompson, to go with veterans coming into their own in Andrew Gutman and Francesco Moore, among others. It's not that the losses are not big. It's just the replacements are even better and move the team to a whole new tier. Similarly, now in 2025, you lost JT Harms, Tommy Mihalic, Samuel Sarver, and Patrick McDonald. However, the veterans are coming into their own in Collins Oduro, Josh Maher, and Alex Barger, with newcomers in Palmer Ault, Jacopo Fedrizzi, and Colton Swan being even better than their predecessors, unlocking a whole new level not seen in several seasons.

Looked like a serious championship contender for the first time tonight, which was good to see. Hopefully, it continues, and the team can play well all year in what is shaping up to be an extremely weak Big Ten.

Like I said, this hire makes sense if IU has no interest in being competitive in women's soccer, and the program is solely there to comply with Title IX so we can compete for national titles on the men's side. I have always thought that is the case, but the actions last year to let the last coach leave to be an assistant elsewhere, and this new hire only reinforce that. I can't blame the athletic department, given all the money they have thrown at the other sports to improve. As fans, we just need to adjust the expectations for this program accordingly. If the men's team were not elite, soccer would be the first sport to be cut in the new era of college sports. However, with the men's success, Indiana has determined the best path forward is to let the women's side limp along with very little support, and I can't say I blame them. When you look at it through this lens logically, this hire and the lack of success is very sensible for better or worse.

These are the wins you need if you want to win between 8 and 12 games in conference and make the NCAA Tournament. IU has had this win amount in conference, but still has not made the postseason recently due to an awful non-conference season with no signature wins. You got the hardest pre-Big Ten games out of the way and now need to run the table before league play. This is how they last made the NCAA Tourney 15 years ago, and can expect a similar resume if they are 10-0 heading into the gauntlet that is the conference, where 2-3 signature victories at Wilkinson Hall and 10ish Big Ten wins overall should do the trick. Volleyball is the only sport without a postseason tourney in the conference and an auto bid, so a good at-large resume is a must for the 15-year NCAA drought to end. This weekend was definitely a start towards that.

You hire a coach from a lower level with minimal success, and you get these results. IU has made it very clear that the women's soccer program is in existence only for Title IX purposes, so they can continue to be in compliance and have their elite men's program. When your last coach leaves a Power Five head coach job here at Indiana to be an assistant elsewhere, you know this women's program is not getting support to ever succeed. I have no issue with Indiana handling this way, but as fans, we need to understand this and evaluate results accordingly. The other women's programs have taken massive steps forward at IU, and those can expect to win at a relatively high level accordingly. Meanwhile, women's soccer is clearly around, so we can have a top men's program in this sport and nothing more. Every action by the program and athletic department in the last few years has only reinforced this.

Not worried about the injuries/cramps. Yeagley indicated afterward in his postgame presser that everyone should be fine going forward.

First massive transfer portal get for offseason adding Aiden Stewart from Delaware who will play in Cerny's place and fill in seemlessly. While it was at a mid-major level on a decent team (Delaware), I would be shocked if most of his .326 average and 9 home runs don't translate to Big Ten. This is a case of a player who outplayed his lower school and rightly wanted to move up a level and IU pounced. Assuming the four elite freshman come back, the offense should hum again, and it will be about the pitching as usual which will make or break team and this Mercer era at this point as he has clearly hitched his wagon to Glant and will sink or swim with him (which is a huge risk). So far, a couple portal guys here with not great numbers but really hard to know how that translates. IU has had anywhere from guys with great numbers previously struggling here (Seebold is an example of this), to a guy with not great numbers at last stop thriving (Giley is example of this). While offensive numbers are easy to read and will almost always translate between every NCAA team good or bad (and in Stewart's case very good), transfer pitchers are really hard to predict regardless of their stats.

Exactly on all of that. PG and Bird were like a married couple who were both at fault for acting like morons and refused to listen to each other and consider each other's views (ironically my parents got divorced for exactly this reason and are much better for it).