AH1971

Oh good effing Lord, this from you of all people?

Not a chance

Coming off a national title win, the loss of their head coach, and a win at the Shoe? Every Michigan fan I know is still breathing.

Michigan won 8 games last year despite total ineptness at the QB position and the loss of an All-American corner for the majority of the season. Teams who are as deep and as talented as Michigan can survive injuries and inefficient play without having their season derailed. Thanks for proving my point about depth?

Yes? We lack depth in those groups. What was your question?

Of course

Which is exactly what I inferred yesterday lol. And here we are 3 pages and a day later with the mob out in full force. I made an innocent comment about lacking depth and experience (which is obvious) yet here we are.

When we’re as deep and talented as those schools it won’t be as concerning. Derrr

Ohio State and Oregon could lose several starters and still win 8 games in their sleep, they’re that talented. IU isn’t there yet, unfortunately.

I linked the depth chart already. We’re an injury away at several positions from relying on freshman for several snaps.

SMU’s backup QB lead them to a playoff berth last year. You got anything else for me? It’s not a novel concern but since the mob is out I’ll play along.

Acting like OSU or Oregon’s 4 and 5* freshman are at the same level as our freshman is comical and I love what Cig has brought in thus far.

We’re an injury away at QB from being a 5-6 win team. I’m not dying on any hill lol. We’re extremely young and inexperienced team once you get past the top 25 or so players. That’s simply a matter of fact, sorry you can’t deal with that.

Baldwin may be the only true freshman in the 2 deep (for now) but there are several R-Fr in the 2 deep who have never played a meaningful snap.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16pZusTziafkPFkw4q4dwweOtKsWa1t5qlYdi_KQR2rE/edit?gid=0#gid=0 Safety and rover have freshman as backups. Lose Fisher, one of Nelson or the younger Kamara are now in the rotation. DL rotates heavily, lose on of your starters on interior line and now a true freshman joins the rotation. 4/5 backup OL are R-Fr. Not sure why I have to do your work for you.

We're an injury away at several positions from having freshman play heavy snaps if not outright starting. QB, LB, safety, Interior DL all across the offensive line, etc

Not many teams expected to win 8-10 games are trotting out true freshmen if their starter goes down.

People still hand-wringing over this? Jeez

Of course its bad, but when the next guy(s) up are freshman, and in some cases true freshman, stating the obvious that remaining relatively healthy is a huge component in achieving preseason expectations.

Love your optimism but just have to disagree. Losing Fisher would be monumental. We all have high hopes of Hardy taking a huge jump but that isn't always a guarantee. You become extremely thin (and inexperienced) if he goes down. Any time you talk about relying on a true freshman at one of the most important positions on the field, you're generally in trouble. Same with interior DL. I think we're set on the outside, but you lose one of Wheeler, Tucker, or Ratcliffe you're more than likely relying on a true freshman to play a bunch of snaps in a league notorious for producing high level interior offensive lineman.

Spots 1-22 is a very talented roster, but any injuries to QB, WR, Tackle, interior DL, LB, and/or safety is going to be problematic. Last years team was pretty fortunate with the injury bug all things considered, need that luck to continue to match preseason expectations.

And this is why IU should materially be in a better spot next year with still one of the larger budgets in the country. Retain 5-6 guys from the previous years roster, bring in 3-4 recruits whose $$ market is different than the portal and then you still have several million to really hone in and supplement your roster with 3-4 impact guys.

Why wouldn’t Purdue be my example? They’re going to be the preseason #1 team in the country. What about Houston’s NIL spend? You seem to be operating under the premise that every single college basketball player marches into the coaches office at the end of the season, agent by his side, and demands a number or else he’s gone. I don’t believe that is how it works at all. Reality is that there are only a handful of players who can demand any number and an overwhelming majority of players are expendable if not outright replaceable. Basically they’re told, this is the number you’re getting, take it or leave it. At the end of the day, I still believe IU was one of the top spenders this offseason. Maybe not top 3-5, but closer to top 10, worst case top 15. As has been said, you get much more bang for your buck in the portal when you’re supplementing your roster, not building the entire thing from scratch. Unfortunately, IU was in the latter department this offseason.

I’m guessing Smith is making ~$2 million this year and TKR ~$1.5 million. They also signed one of the top transfer bigs in the portal and had to retain Loyer. I’m guessing those four alone account for close to 80% of Purdue’s entire budget which I would guess is somewhere between $6-7million. Smith and TKR alone would command that much as package deal on the opponent market.

Of course it’s a real thing. Purdue wouldn’t have been able to field a complete roster had Smith and TKR not taken massive discounts to stay there. And that’s just one example. You’ve provided names to 3 programs (not substantiated by the way) who allegedly spent more than IU, who are the other ~20 programs that spent more than IU’s $10 million?