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The coordinator hires will be interesting. Those should happen fast. Also can he get more from Bryce? He didn't do much last season -- nine passing TDs, six INTs, and 323 yards rushing for five scores, and he wasn't much better at the end of the year vs. where he started. I'm sure he's talented, but someone needs to bring that out of him. Also, an interesting story was that UM boosters were stopping the NIL payments (or threatening to) due to the hugely embarrassing and mismanaged Sherrone situation. Apparently Biff got them back on side to keep wiring the money. A lot of drama lately up there.

Just my opinion, but I think it's pretty TBD if Whittingham is a good hire. He's 66, so older than Cig, and he just got gently pushed out by Utah. Utah I'm sure had their reasons to move on. I'd say Kalen and Kenny would have been worrisome hires. As would probably Brohm and maybe even Jedd. This was UM's 5th or higher choice, as there were probably some coaches pursued we didn't know about. I'd guess he'll want to prove Utah wrong, and he is better than Sherrone (in terms of coaching). Maybe he works out, maybe he doesn't, but this hire doesn't make me worry about Michigan much more than I did before. Edit: I guess the options are one year of Biff and a hire during next season. Or this hire now. Whittingham is good, but there were probably better options.

Not sure where to post this, but he loved Indiana basketball so may as well put it here. Ken Nunn passed away. He was a Bloomington legend with his personal injury commercials and bus ads, Rolls Royce he'd drive around town, and he donated quite a bit to IU. I never met him but he was a character.

Yea, and while he's not the runner Fernando is, he's run a lot of RPO at TCU and he's reasonably mobile. He's pretty darn logical here. Obviously, he's likely looking at Fernando's improvement at IU (stats and draft stock) and thinking I'd like to do all that. Plus there is the longer superb Cig QB track record with Rourke and several others as we know. We'll see what happens.

Keeping Josh in the IU family could finally pay off.

This is a shame. I'm very much in favor of NIL and the portal, but if CBB is has too many impactful players that are not college age, personally that's going to drastically reduce my interest and I'd think many others will feel similar. It just won't look like college basketball anymore. Plus these midseason additions are ridiculous. Fans could think they have a good team, but then midseason a bunch of old pros enroll at opposing squads and start beating them and/or knock them out of the tourney. How can fans get invested in the sport when this can happen? Is what is. Too bad.

Interesting tidbit from the Hoosier Huddle guys on Rose Bowl ticket sales: Per TickPick's data, ~25% of tickets purchased have been from Indiana, ~18% from California, and ~12% from Illinois. I'm not seeing a certain state in the top-3 at the moment. I think we're going to have a pretty darn good Hoosier fan showing...

It's making things messy. Plus they don't have a President either, and it sounds like they may not have that person appointed until mid-2026. That's another key person the new coach won't have clarity on. UM is a good job with a lot of resources, but the uncertainty with the President and/or AD is an issue. Also, there is just something a little off about UM football. I can't really explain, just a sense. Several coaches have struggled there. Hoke and Rich Rod are two that got fired. And Sherrone's on-field performance wasn't good, he was probably gonna get fired for performance after next year or so. So that's three coaches that didn't do well there, that doesn't indicate UM is an easy job. As for Jim, it took him six years to get it going, and once he did, they did win big, but they also got in a lot of trouble that cost UM $30M+. I'm just not sure it's an easy place to win for whatever reason. That said, this is all good with me!

The Saints in the first half.

I admit I don’t get it. The coaches must be telling them to take those. And CDD and Bargen are smart guys who know the percentages. It just seems so… not smart.

Yea. I'd say I'm just noting Beard doesn't appear to the savior a pretty vocal (and slightly annoying) group thought he was. As for CDD, yea we'll see. I haven't really liked what I've seen so far, but he's gonna be the coach here for probably at least three years and it's still possible he figures it out. He did inherit a mess. All I can do is hope for the best...

Checking in on our old pal Chris Beard: He got a new contract and another resource bump for this season. Top five NIL in the SEC now per CBS. But so far this year Ole Miss is 7-5 and around #60 in KenPom (started #24). Also, looking at his previous six seasons since that title game run, he hasn't done much, just one game over .500 in conference and a few tourney wins. Maybe he turns it around this year, but this isn't a great start for a guy given even more hefty resources than he had. Not too good. Perhaps he wasn't a miss in our last hiring process.

Agree on the G5. I like the idea of the G5, but unfortunately the G5 is now much weaker than they used to be because the portal/NIL results in all their top players being taken by the P4. I guess the G5 has to be included because if not there are antitrust lawsuit risks. Not sure how to get around that. Not that anyone cares but I like 12 teams. I could live with eight though, which will almost always capture the teams that can win it all. OSU was #8 ranked last year. Adding more than 12 I just don’t get because that’s just adding teams who aren’t good enough to win it all. And it starts to devalue the regular season too. Regardless, it seems like we are heading to 16…

I’ve got say it is a little annoying when they talk great defenses and they bring up OU, TTU, and OSU. Even Miami now. We were #2 in SP+ on D. Held Oregon’s offense at their place to 13 points and OSU to 10 on a neutral. I know we had an injury but we’re still darn good. Is what it is. Probably just down the our name and lack of recognizable high end recruits. Add it to the bulletin board. As usual it will be on us to prove it on the field.

It's a slow Sunday and I like thinking about what Memorial Stadium could be, so below are some more random thoughts. I'm just shooting the sh1t, not trying to argue. A) This stupidly nitpicky on my part, but I think this change is doable. Agree it's tight and the doors are there, I'd just add rows of bleachers down to about door level. It fits more people than the bar seating and gets our fans closer to the field. But, I 100% know this doesn't make a big difference either way and it probably won't happen, it just annoys me. At the least, add the bar seats to the East side so I don't have to see those green mats. C) Yes -- ribbon boards everywhere please! When our older fans complain it looks like a nightclub that will be a sign we have enough flashing ribbon boards and LED screens. Yes, seems so. I get what you're saying, games at Lucas Oil would be convenient for some (including me), but I'd hope that we can do the renovation in stages and keep games on campus. It would good for the students, Bloomington biz, and I like the gameday experience in the most lovely small town in the land. If PSU can redo their whole stadium without moving, I'd hope we can do the West side without moving. Though KU just spent a season at Arrowhead during their renovation/rebuild, so there is precedent of playing a season in an NFL stadium. The big question will probably be if the core infrastructure of the West stand can be worked with or does it need total replacing (as in knocking down the whole thing)? These stands can last a long time, I'm looking at OSU and ND who have built up over their old stands. But I don't know. It sounds like the West side is the focus, I don't know if this is true but some have said East side press box/suites would have the sun in people's eyes. Not sure if that's a real issue, I guess it is I just haven't noticed it when I sit over there. A West stand renovation with suites/press box/premie seats will likely reduce capacity of that side. Adding some rows to the East side will give us that capacity back and some nice balance, and of course we've got to get more seats in the SEZ which as we've all seen has tons of space. Last thought -- I hope Scott and IU keep atmosphere in mind too in addition to all the amenities stuff. Keeping our steep stands and getting fans close to the field helps. As does a better PA system and all the ribbon/LED stuff, there is nothing wrong with manufacturing some atmosphere, most schools do it.

How did ND not get in over these teams? :-)

This is a common take, but the on-campus environments are so much better than the neutral sites (except the Rose Bowl). I wish the quarterfinals were also on-campus and the semis and final are neutral sites.

If I were AD, so this is just what I would do, if CDD can’t make the field of 68 with $10M for players in addition to a huge staff budget, I wouldn’t give him a dime more until he proves he can use $ wisely and efficiently and get results. Until then, send the $ to football, they know how to use it.

Ha. This year our roster is ~$22M and theirs is $35M+. However, we are closing the gap. Our FB NIL fundraising is up quite a bit for the ‘26 season.

It seems the bettors didn’t see anything from Bama that changed their mind about the match-up with us. IU was -6.5 before last night, and IU is -6.5 now (Fan Duel).

These are just the TV coverage start times. Indy green flag time is the same as usual (12:45pm).

I'd say he embodies the mantra: "Every play has a life and history of its own. Not affected by success, not affected by failure."

I’ve got no intel, but IU accounts are discussing him. He was committed to IU at one point as many will remember.

Exactly. It's great. With basketball, the players can more easily be scouted and our fans are suspicious of what IUBB does. But with IUFB, I just assume with every commit we did it again and nailed it and got our guy. If they're highly rated that's awesome, and if they're not highly rated we got anther diamond in the rough. It's a blast.