Lebowski

This is devastating to read. IUFB desperately needs to address two areas, OL and what I like to call development. Development falls into strength and conditioning along with what Dr. Rhea did. His title was "Football High School Performance Coordinator" whatever that means. He and Ballou basically minimized injuries and increased performance. Because whatever Hiller and Wellman are doing, it ain't working.

With the Brian Kelly news this might actually be something worth looking into.

I wondered the same exact thing. Maybe Castle allowed it? Has me shaking my head on the future of HS football in the state of Indiana.

Yeah I was thinking of adding OL coach Stacy Searels but he's never been an OC. A couple of OL coaches that I would love to land as OC but don't think it would happen due to schools they are currently at and loyalty: Doug Marrone - Bama (Probably can't afford him and coming here might be considered a demotion?) Jeff Quinn - ND (see above and probably loyal to Brian Kelly)

Two OL from Castle, both were 1st team all conference their Jr. season. These two never left the field (#63 and #72) this year. And a LB (#43) from Robinson, Illinois. I don't know much about the Illinois kid. That's who I know of for sure. All three of them were major factors for GS's success this year. Anybody telling they weren't is either bias or blind to the game. I know the two that left Castle really did damage to this year's Castle's team as I witnessed that in both of Castle's regular season losses. Had they stayed Castle might have been undefeated regular season and a good chance to repeat of last year's 5A tournament success.

I would say we already have one? Kevin Wright came from IMG. And prior to that Dr. Rhea and Ballou had a stint there. Man, losing David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea to Bama still hurts. But that's a completely different topic.

Trying not to hijack this thread.. First I'm happy for him and his team for what they accomplished, glad to see that community bring home the hardware. But Allen doesn't get past Regionals if not for a few kids transferring in. Two in particular. The two never left the field and one had a key 4th and 8 play on defense. And during his HS career his competition level week after week wasn't something to speak about. I've seen him play and I'm a firm believer had his HS career been played in the conference the two players I spoke about above came from we might not be talking about him like this at all. Allen is good but let's pump the breaks here on just how good he is. We'll find out soon enough now that he'll be playing in the big boy league. Best of luck to him for sure but I'm not believing the hype, keep in mind he's never won a Sectional up until his team was built by the transfer portal. It might actually be a good thing he's going to that school up north. Time will tell though and I hope I don't eat crow for posting this.

Just to start the conversation here are a couple that come to mind. Coach Mike Hart - RB Michigan Has a history with CTA and was taken away from UM last year. Might be able to get him back if promoted to OC. Coach Andrew Sowder - OC Kent St. In his 4th season, his 2nd year as OC moved the team up to rank 66th total offense, 3rd year 1st in total offense, this year his offense currently sits at 8th.

Here's a link to players in the 2022 Transfer Portal. https://247sports.com/Season/2022-Football/TransferPortal/

The questions you bring up is what I've been trying to explain on here. I appreciate you bringing them up. I really don't put a lot of stock into 4 star vs 3 star ratings. For example Mullen was a 4 star rating on rivals and a 3 star on 24/7. So it appears Rivals might have been a little more accurate on the ratings with Mullen? But, I mean, does it really matter? It's not like OSU or Clemson gave him an offer. Player development is key to a school like IUFB because they just aren't going to have a recruiting class like OSU, PSU and UM. Somewhat going off topic here but personally, I value the character of a player. These players are deemed good enough to play at the next level and having character guys on the team really adds value to all aspects of the game. I'm thinking locker room chemistry, off the field social life, etc. etc..

What he was able to do with those classes was develop the players. The past two seasons have been without Coach Ballou and Dr. Rhea and it's starting to show now. Losing that duo to Bama was a major blow to the program. Hopefully, CTA makes changes here as well.

That's cool man. To each his own. In my opinion I think you might be overlooking Schiano. He's an ex-NFL HC and DC, coached in a CFP playoff game as the AHC/DC, and was named National Recruiter of the Year in 2018. Like it or not, players are attracted to that (ie see MSU). In his second season he's one win away from a bowl (where he currently holds a 5-1 overall record in bowl games) and currently holds a recruiting class ranked higher than IUFB. In that class, 50% of the commits aren't from the state of NJ, one of those being an OL from Leo, IN. All this tells me two things, he's taking potential players out of our home and he's developing his players. He's basically taking a seat at the big boy table and based on his past, I won't be surprised to see him compete in the division.

You're not lying and some folks would take that to Vegas.

Three main issues in my opinion. That front 5 is awful. I mean, it's really bad. Like atrocious. Like hard to watch. It really doesn't matter who the QB is. It could be Tom Brady or Peyton Manning at QB and they'd struggle to score enough points to win a game with that front 5. Anyone that understands the very basics of the game fully understands the issue on the offensive side of the ball. They've gotten worse on the defensive side as well. (But lack of depth might be the contributing factor for that.) And every team has gotten better to where IUFB hasn't. (Development of players dropped this season.) The other issue that hopefully through time will correct itself is lack of depth. For example, losing DJ Matthews to injury early really hurt the deep ball threat, apparently there isn't anyone on the roster to replace him. (But to be fair if he were playing now I'm not sure he'd even be a threat because the QB has zero time to throw the deep ball. See issue #1.) And there are many more examples at each position that are facing injuries. There's a major talent/skill level difference between 1 on the depth chart to 2 on the depth chart. That's not the case for the rest of the Big Ten teams. Folks, like it or not Rutgers has a good football coach. Get used to the Scarlet Knights winning games. I won't be surprised to see them compete for the division here in the future. I'm not making an excuse for CTA, I'm just pointing out that the division is loaded. Basically, it's the big boy table. Based on CTA's post Rutgers game comments, a change is coming. Hopefully he knocks it out of the park on bringing in staff that addresses the 3 issues I've pointed out. Otherwise we Hoosier faithful will continue to have these types of conversations on here.

Yep, not winning another game.

In my opinion, it all starts and stops with the front 5. It doesn't matter what you call if the front 5 can't execute. And that's been the case for this front 5 the entire season.

Completely fair and no argument from me.

Overall I agree with what you're saying here. However, I don't think competent play calling would help. That front 5 is the reason we're seeing no production from the QB and RBs. Which you pretty much covered in point number two. I would add a new strength/conditioning coach to this list because this team hasn't developed like I've seen in the past.

Losing the dynamic duo Ballou and Dr. Rhea to Bama was a major blow to the development of players. And it's now showing. There's a reason Saban hired those cats and took em from our beloved Hoosiers. Losing Mike Hart was a big blow. Losing DeBoer was a big blow. (DeBoer will end up being a P5 HC and probably a pretty successful one at that. Dude can flat out coach and win.) Success has its pros and cons. IUFB is now getting the cons of being successful and not being able to reload staff. In my opinion a lot of changes of the current staff from top to bottom are coming in the future. The offensive side of things is more than likely going to get shaken up dramatically. As it should. I think this might be the first year that CTA will have to let folks go instead of staff leaving him? Also, there might be something going on with chemistry in the locker room. Because this team is basically the same team minus the DC and Mike Hart. Who knows.

Not sure they're going to win another game.

OU, MSU, Wake and even Cincy can blow this whole thing up to force an expansion of the CFP. Assuming all those schools go undefeated I don't see how the committee would pass up 3 P5 schools over one loss schools like Oregon and/or Bama and Georgia. But then again, I also thought they'd have Cincy in the top 4 right now. Having said all that, I do think the top two schools in the country are indeed Georgia and Bama. Still a lot of football to be played though.

Insert foot in mouth.

I mean one can argue this year is a total fluke. I'm not arguing that but it's plausible. The circumstances last year certainly provided an element of last year's success. But I don't think it was a total fluke. Keep in mind Penix wasn't coming off an ACL injury last year, the running game was much better (see player personnel difference here), a completely different DC calling the games, injuries weren't as bad as they are this year, strength of schedule difference, not a full season and so on. And some have already pointed out that the teams IU lined up against were playing in an empty stadium as well. It's not like they played games against the wind. I'm not making excuses here, I'm just pointing out the circumstances. Every year has a set of circumstances and this year is no different. I think the biggest issue IUFB has is lack of depth (see injuries). The second biggest issue is no production on offense (see player personnel difference). I will be surprised if CTA doesn't make some coaching changes on the that side of the ball during the off season. CTA's record against unranked teams is 18-3 (He had a 13 game win streak prior to this past Saturday). Kevin Wilson was 24-30 against unranked teams (5 of 6 seasons one win was against an FCS school). This tells me things are going in the right direction. We're talking about IUFB here.

If Cincy runs the table they're in the CFP. Even with the SoS argument. They're a good football team and the coaches and AP know this. They're currently ranked 2 in the country in both polls. Even if a team in the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 go undefeated Cincy is still in just so long as they stay unbeaten. They still have currently ranked #19 SMU on the schedule, so we'll see what happens there. They also have to win their conference championship. A lot of football to be played for all of this to play out.

Updated post.