Lebowski

Most coaches probably already knew this but, to me at least, he just basically attracted some of the top assistant coaches in the country with that 'interview' if that makes sense. But I'd imagine most if not all coaches probably already knew this and a large percentage of them have an attraction to coach football in the 812. He gave his flowers to all the coaches specific to the questions Rece Davis asked.

Folks from that school are some of the smartest dumb people I know.

Insane. Let's just hope the DBs don't downgrade because some of those sacks are coverage. Moore and Ponds were very special back there. If we can get consistency from them we might run it again. Coaching matters.

Insane upfront on the D. Might be the best in the nation.

The AD was focused on IUBB first and foremost but this kind of makes sense if you think about it. It's a great recruiting sell and Corso was "turning the corner" by 1976. It was his 4th season with his recruits on the field and it looks like it might have worked because the following year in 79 we got 8 wins!

I'm not really a big follower of preseason polls for various reasons but the coaches poll, which is the one I typically think carry's weight, had 17 teams represented from the Big Ten and SEC combined while 8 represented the ACC, Big 12, and Independents. That's 68% of the entire poll belonging to the Big Ten and SEC. I started to think about this and asked myself the question: Is that a true representation of today's college football? https://www.afca.com/polls/ 2025 Season (Postseason losses in Italic and 2026 Preseason Ranking) ACC v SEC: 8-6 (Losses from #10 Ole Miss, Miss St., #25 Mizzu, #8 Texas A&M, USC, UK, Florida, #11 Bama) Ole Miss finished the season 13-2 and lost to Miami in the CFP. Mississippi St. finished the season 5-8 and lost to Wake in the Duke's Mayo Bowl. (How they got asked to play the game is beyond me but that's for a completely different discussion.) Wake finished the season 9-4 and is currently not ranked with zero votes. Missouri finished the season 8-5 and lost to Virginia in the Gator Bowl. UV finished the season 11-3 and is currently ranked 32 with 40 votes. A&M finished the season 11-2 and lost to Miami in the CFP. UK finished the season 5-7 and got boat raced by UofL 41-0. UofL finished 9-4 and is currently ranked 26 with 153 votes. Florida finished the season 4-8 and lost to Miami. The Gators received 147 votes just missing the top 25. They are currently 27th ranked South Carolina finished the season 4-8 and lost to #23 Clemson. They are currently tied for the 30th rank receiving 50 votes. Bama finished the season 11-4 and got boat raced at Florida State in week one. FSU finished the season 5-7. ACC v Big Ten: 2-4 (Losses from Minnesota and #1 O$U) Minnesota finished the season 8-5 and lost at California in week 3. The Gophers are currently not ranked with zero votes. O$U lost to Miami in the CFP. Big 12 v SEC: 3-1 (Lone loss was #13 LSU) LSU finished the season 7-6 and lost to #24 Houston in the Kinder's Texas Bowl. Big 12 v Big Ten: 4-3 (Losses from UCLA, #22 Iowa, Nebraska, #14 USC) UCLA lost to Utah in week one and finished the season 3-9. Iowa lost at Iowa St in week 2 and finished the season 9-4. Nebraska lost to Utah in the Vegas Bowl and finished the season 7-6. SC lost to TCU in OT at the Alamo Bowl I didn't even look at records of the Independents because there's a small sample size and I tend to think, regarding the poll, that's a solid representation of that group. Also, I might have missed some records because I didn't double check my work so if you see something off please correct it. Breaking it down, I think it's fair to say the ACC is not being represented properly due to last year's head-to-head against the SEC. Louisville, Virginia, and Wake Forest are pretty much getting the shaft. I'm assuming Wake has some sort of major change this season because them not getting a single vote is strange to me. Also, I was surprised Georgia Tech didn't reach the top 25. BUT VIRGINIA! They are returning a ton of experience!! 8 returning starters on the O and 7 on the D with 2 transfer starters on O and 1 transfer starter on the D. Look for the Cavs to make a ton of noise this year. They have a favorable schedule as well. I'm not sure what the coaches are thinking when it comes to Virginia. It's pretty clear that coaches think the Big Ten and SEC stand alone to everyone else but the numbers just don't suggest it.

It definitely allows Haines to get a little creative with pressure packages. But there's no replacing Ponds or Fischer. Those two were incredible football players with extremely high IQ.

I was extremely happy with the Cig hire. It told me Indiana University was finally getting serious about the football program. I wasn't sure it was going to work though because I didn't know what kind of resources were going to be available to the staff. At one point during the coaching search I convinced myself that Coach Cig wouldn't even consider taking the job. However, once I heard in a presser the goal was to stay in the top 1/3 of the conference regarding resources/spending I started to tell anybody and everybody that would listen that IUFB is about to take off. I recall sitting at the 2023-2024 IHSAA Wrestling state finals in Evansville and telling a buddy that IU is going to turn heads this year and don't be surprised to see a 10 win season. No joke. My buddy looked at me like I was smoking crack because if I'm being completely honest I told him IUFB was going to turn heads every year! Also no joke. But the max was always set to 8 wins where most of the time it was 6 wins. So when I said 10 wins that perked his ears. He started asking more questions and after sitting in Pasadena during the UCLA game I got a text from him saying, you're right, 10 wins is possible, I'm a believer. I'll be shocked if we ever have anything worse than an 8 win season under this administration. Coaching matters. But so does the top brass to help feed resources to a coach.

In my opinion, Beebe was our best RB last year. Or at least looked that way the two games I got to see. The DBs will take a big hit this season due to not having D Ponds. He was one of one and will go down as one of the best DBs IUFB has ever seen. There is no replacement for Ponds and Coach Haines will have to make play call adjustments due to that gapping hole missing. The silver lining is that front 7 and boy is it ever a silver lining.

I've been saying this for decades!!! And it would have happened if we'd just put a decent product on the field, not a top of the mountain type of product. I'm so thankful for Pam Whitten coming in and making this come to fruition. I'm looking forward to the stadium expansion and further investments into the football program.

Yeah, Wyatt might be a real possibility. He's also checking in on Holden Staes.

Highly doubtful. I'm not even sure Daley will get a ton of reps due to his injury. If I had to guess he's probably not 100% and we won't see him on the field until mid season or so. Unless of course he's a freak and has some sort of super power of healing. But I could be wrong. He might be ready to go for all we know. Holy poop do we have depth in the front 4!! The great thing about getting Daley for another season is it really ups Daley's NFL stock should his progression improve. Last year during a presser, Coach Cig mentioned he wished he had him for a couple of years. Wish granted.

Holy poop we're so effin deep in the front 4!

UofL v UK is pretty set in concrete so who knows. Maybe it'll happen due to some sort of agreement between the Big Ten and SEC where they do something like a ACC-Big Ten Challenge in basketball. Personally I foresee something like happening. Where the result being no Big Ten or SEC schools scheduling ND and they'll be left out.

Dust is starting to settle. Looks like SC wouldn't budge thus more than likely a discussion occurs between SC's AD Jennifer Cohen and Dolson. Or maybe ND telling IU to "play later dates or cancel". I really really wanted ND on the schedule but it opens the door for a possible Barrel game renewal.

Maybe. I'm in a holding pattern for the dust to settle. Who knows what Dolson has in the works.

I got nothing. I don't know the ins and outs and what have you. I would like to see Daley and/or Wyatt back! Benson and/or Michalski? Is Louis Moore eligible? I can't keep up with the all these NCAA rulings.

I was there. I sat next to a more older-timer than myself; He flew from Fort Myers, FL and was at the Rose Bowl game when the 1967 season team played against SC. We both got teary-eyed after Sarratt's TD in the 3rd. I rewatched the game multiple times and at one point Herbstreit mentioned what the history of the Rose Bowl means to the conference and how much it means to some of the fans sitting in the stands. He hit the nail on the head. Because think about it, prior to the BCS, it was the ultimate goal. It was an exclusive bowl for the Big Ten champion to play. It's the grand daddy of them all. And for me, all that pinned up frustration of losing season after losing season was just released in that 38-3 beat down over arguably the most prestigious program in college football history. I was a grown ars man sitting there in tears and it was glorious.

To be fair, legislators might be referring to a different type of lobbyist. Like Disney aka ESPN or what have you. But you can bet your house they have subject matter experts (SMEs) aka lobbyist helping them with this proposal. They do for every single bill. And quite frankly, I would worry if they didn't have SMEs helping.

That's near impossible in today's legislative branch. Probably has been that way since the 70's regardless of party control. Crap, it might have been this way since the birth of the country! I say this because they need subject matter experts to help them along the way. They always have and always will. For example, both the SEC and Big Ten are lobbying for a deal while the other conferences are lobbying for a different deal, correct? LOL!

For all intensive purposes, it should have been an L. Iowa made some crucial mistakes and basically gave us that win. Credit to IUFB's defense as well. They made the plays that kept us in it. It was this game I knew we had something special. The PSU game was when I knew we might actually win the whole effin' thing.