Pagoda

Well, Kevin Wilson's feelings towards Purdue have not changed.

Cig presser updates: Kamara and Sarratt will start vs. Purdue. "Will know more after today" on Evans. That was it on injury updates.

This sounds like another situation where the player spoke with the staff and it was a general mutual parting of ways. Or put differently, IU isn't upset they decommitted. I'm a little bit of a homer on this view, but I suspect we may be shifting to better prospects. This season has opened some new doors as Cig likes to say. To some these decommits/parting of ways may seem kinda harsh and cutthroat, but it's what the bigger programs do and just the nature of hyper-competitive CFB.

It's definitely not an exact science, but eyeballing the ticket map I think we'll have a pretty good crowd -- something like 15.5-16K, balconies half full type of thing, which isn't too bad. I'd guess people aren't working much this week making this an easier game to attend, which helps offset no students. I think the crowd will be looking for any reason to get into it, so if we play hard/smart and shoot reasonably well it should be a lively atmosphere. This will be the first more intense AH home crowd for all our news guys, and hopefully it's rocket fuel for them and not nerves. I'll also be Captain Obvious and note this is an important game. Key for our resume, but also it takes time to win back the our more casual fans who are wondering if the CDD era is different. Playing well and putting on a show here would be another key step in the right direction...

Decommitted. Just happened so no word yet on why. Update: Sounds like both sides saw this as the best course of action. Not sure what changed since he committed. Maybe position (he’s an ATH) or projected PT… tbd.

Literally the first time in my life I was cheering for Duke in something.

For sure. Betting markets have shifted pretty hard to LSU since yesterday afternoon, but it’s still not a lock. Quite the saga! This makes me continue to really appreciate IU and Cig resolving our coach speculation situation in a matter of days with a revised contract and clear video message to the fans and broader CFB world (recruits). A chef’s kiss of institutional alignment here at IU!

Ha, this is so amateur from LSU. I’m no fan of Brian Kelly, but I’m not seeing how LSU has much of a case here.

You might say he’s Tuckered Out? /rimshot

He decommitted. Just happened, so no word yet on why. https://x.com/Rivals/status/1991631624174272650?s=20

This was funny.

This Fernando kid… https://x.com/notdauntedblake/status/1991233926141030630?s=46

Hehe.

The line opened up at IU -26.5 o/u 51.5. I'm glad the betting markets are pretty optimistic about the difficulty of this game!

Bostad loves Wisconsin. Here is a lovely quote: “At Indiana, everything seemed very professional which was one of the first things my parents and I noticed and appreciated,” Novak said in an interview with 247Sports Allen Trieu. “With the path college football is taking, it should be as professional as possible, which we saw at Indiana. I also loved the strength and conditioning coach and his manner.”

They’re gonna get a cease & desist letter from Tom!

Haha. I’ll never get tired of this. https://x.com/adam_kessel1/status/1990958164343206389?s=46

I don’t think it passes a sanity check. Just how I see it is as follows: Last season reports were they were in the $5M NIL range with us. Then when the rev share started this season there were rumors UK put $9M of their $21M towards MBB. The Lexington Herald found out it was actually more like $6M per athletic dept sources. Makes more sense. So $6M rev share, that means $16M of NIL to get to $22M. $16M NIL for bball I just don’t believe. 3x last year’s NIL? Where did that money come from? $16M is the sort of NIL number major football programs layer on top of their rev share. That much for bball seams very unlikely. My guess: they’re actually $13-15M paid to players for THIS season and the $22M figure probably erroneously includes total contact value over multiple years. If it is actually $22M that is wild. Eyeballing their roster I can’t see how they add up to that much. And if it is true, those donors probably aren’t thrilled with the ROI right now. Though I’m sure they’re not thrilled regardless now that I think about it.

One more tidbit here that is more definitive than "trending" -- D'Montae told Steve that we lead after his visit last weekend.

I obviously trust the staff, but I’d think we take advantage of this Fernando momentum (wins, Heisman chance, draft pick) and try and get another big time QB in the portal. Obviously a guy like Fernando makes a big difference! But, I’ll just watch a learn with this staff. If they like Alberto that’s cool. He shorter with less arm strength that Fernando, but he’s more athletic and has been in the system a long time. The staff really like him.

I think Stu makes several good points, but Coach tells me to be hungry and humble so I won't pile on... ;-) Honestly I do think this game could be closer than expected due to the rivalry and the old IU has stuff to play for and PU has nothing to lose...

I'm not saying Ole Miss are being jerks or not, but they do face a complicated situation here: 1) Ole Miss has had a new contract in front of Lane for about a month now. He hasn't signed and what that implies is pretty obvious. I can see why Ole Miss wants an answer at this point. 2) If Lane is leaving, they need to know ASAP so they can start the process to hire a replacement. Especially with the hyper-competitive coach market this year. 3) If Lane is going, should they let him coach in the playoff? I don't know. On one hand he's a very good coach. On the other hand his departure creates an enormous distraction for the team. Imagine playing for a head coach who has bailed on your program. Is it better to have him gone and let the assistants handle it? Again, I don't know. 4) From Ole Miss' perspective -- they gave him a P4 shot again when they hired him in 2020 and have since given him everything he has asked for in terms of compensation and NIL/resources. And while Lane has earned it, I can see why Ole Miss may feel slighted by what's happened. Especially when he danced around with Auburn a few years ago. This is a really complicated situation if he doesn't sign this week and/or leaves. I don't really care what happens and it's extremely entertaining!

Haha. I love CFB drama. Especially when it doesn't really affect me and I can just enjoy the chaos. This is a sharp contrast to our program -- Scott got a new deal done in 48 hours. Not to brag...

Agree. I think you posted that some of our IUBB players go the women's games too. And of course everyone goes to football games now. On this note, I saw Bryant Haines had these posts over the weekend. It seems to me Scott has assembled head coaches (and the staffs they hire) with a similar mindset that has led to some mutual support and admiration. Exactly how beneficial this is I don't know, but it feels like a healthy organization in the athletic dept., and that's definitely good.