Game Thread- Gator Bowl IU vs Tennessee Jan 2, 7 pm EST ESPN

[Aaron]

Just now, brumdog45 said:

Lose Eastern Illinois from the schedule, add Western Kentucky.  WKU was 9-4 this year, but that's still a game that Sagarin has IU as a two touchdown favorite in.

Exchange Illinois and Wisconsin for Northwestern and Nebraska.  Illinois IMO takes a step back next year....they basically played one good month of football and were horrible before and after....lost to Eastern Michigan and closed their season by getting stomped by Northwestern in Champaign.  Wisky, though, that's another story.

I'd say it's a schedule harder by one full game....that is, if we play like this year, we go 7-5 instead of 8-4.

If everything goes right:

Should win:

1. Uconn

2. WKU

3. Ball St

4. Rutgers

5. Maryland

6. MSU

7. Ill

Should lose:

1. Wiscy

2. OSU

3. Mich

Tossups;

1. PU

2. PSU

Anywhere from 7-5 to 9-3 if everything goes as it should depending on the two tossups. I'd take 7-5 or better gladly as that establishes momentum and keeps train rolling. Anything less is step back.

[DChoosier]

38 minutes ago, Old Friend said:

Hardly.  Not at all true.  How long have you been watching Purdue?  

I agree we are not the only team that loses games like this but....... when you hear that the TN coach was 0-10 in games when behind going into the fourth quarter, and that teams (before tonight) this year were 0-471 when behind by 13 with five minutes to go, it does seems that we are cursed with a certain knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

That aside, great step to win 8 and play in a Florida bowl.

[Old Friend]

31 minutes ago, brumdog45 said:

Really wish we had Stevie Scott for the game.  He's a much better bad line blocking runner than James and Walker.

Yep.  And that's something that's not mentioned very often.  Our line was really bad, so it would have served a huge benefit to have a better blocker there.  

[rcbowla]

At halftime, would you have said we were the better team?  Honestly, even with 7 minutes to go I would have said the two teams were evenly matched despite the fact we were up 22-9.  If we had been able to kick a field goal at the end and won, I wouldn't have said the best team won.  Looked like two pretty even teams to me.......but we had taken advantage of our opportunities for the first three and half quarters of the game.  What stings IMO isn't that we lost a game we deserved to win....it's that we let the breaks we had in up until the end slip away because of a horrible four minutes of game play.

I felt like while they were controlling to TOP in the 1st half the fact that we held them to just 6 was encouraging. I get what you are saying though I guess it was about a 30-30 split in terms of minutes. No question IU was the better team in the 2nd half outside the last 5 minutes or so

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[RaceToTheTop]

44 minutes ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

That team didn’t beat any good teams. This team didn’t beat any good teams. That team had a star at CB who was obviously better than anyone on the current team and you could easily argue the same with Hardy. Both teams were just okay to good. The separation is the playmaking ability of those 4 guys. Mainly Porter, Hardy and Lewis. Had a more clutch kicker too.


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That team had four gimmee games non-conference and finished 3-5 in the Big Ten.  This team had three gimmee non-con and went 5-4 in conference.  

For the record as well, the 2019 team not only held teams to fewer points than the 07 team -- they also outscored the 07 team as well.  Hard to find strength of schedule ratings, but sports-reference.com puts the 07 team's SOS at 72 and this year's SOS at 60.  And this year's team did it all with their starting QB playing about 1/3 of the snaps.

Couple of other stats:

Yards:  07 team averaged 394.0 and gave up 403.4;  also was -3 in turnovers.  The 19 team after tonight's game average 433.2 yards per game and 352.4 yards per game;  turnovers were dead even.

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich]

That team had four gimmee games non-conference and finished 3-5 in the Big Ten.  This team had three gimmee non-con and went 5-4 in conference.  
For the record as well, the 2019 team not only held teams to fewer points than the 07 team -- they also outscored the 07 team as well.  Hard to find strength of schedule ratings, but sports-reference.com puts the 07 team's SOS at 72 and this year's SOS at 60.  And this year's team did it all with their starting QB playing about 1/3 of the snaps.
Couple of other stats:
Yards:  07 team averaged 394.0 and gave up 403.4;  also was -3 in turnovers.  The 19 team after tonight's game average 433.2 yards per game and 352.4 yards per game;  turnovers were dead even.

SOS means nothing if you didn’t beat any good teams.

2019- The 7 FBS teams they beat combined for a record of 24-60. Those 7 wins the teams were 5-7, 2-10, 2-10, 3-9, 5-7, 3-9, 4-8.

2007- The 6 FBS they beat went 31-43. Those teams were 5-7, 4-8, 6-6, 1-11, 7-6, 8-5.

So where we didn’t beat a single bowl team this season, we actually beat 3 teams who were .500 and better and 2 bowl teams in Ball State(7-6) and Purdue(8-5).


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[JerryYeagley23]

2 hours ago, Josh said:

That sucks.  IU sports programs ranked:

1. IU soccer
2. IU football
3. IU baseball
4. IU men's cross country
5. IU women's cross country
6. Archie Miller's program

IU Women’s basketball is actually probably number 2 on that list. They’re a top 15 team and honestly I’ve found myself watching them recently as a reprieve from watching the guys lack of fundamentals and offensive sets. 

[jmsgws]

Well after going back to bed and getting another 4 hours of sleep, I woke up, and was hoping the game was a bad dream.  :)  

That was an awful way to finish off a good season. 

[Josh]

4 hours ago, JerryYeagley23 said:

IU Women’s basketball is actually probably number 2 on that list. They’re a top 15 team and honestly I’ve found myself watching them recently as a reprieve from watching the guys lack of fundamentals and offensive sets. 

You're absolutely right.  That bumps Archie Miller's program down to 7th best at IU

[LIHoosier]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

You're absolutely right.  That bumps Archie Miller's program down to 7th best at IU

Men's swimming has finished 3rd in the NCAAs the last 2 years. Another notch down.

[Josh]

9 minutes ago, LIHoosier said:

Men's swimming has finished 3rd in the NCAAs the last 2 years. Another notch down.

Whoops.  And yikes

[Alford Bailey]

Tom Allen was Tom Crean level embarrassing last night for the whole country to see.

[TXHoosierDaddy]

A few thoughts on improving next year 

1) Need to hire another up and coming or established OC. Internal hire would be a disaster but I don't expect this to happen. 

2) CTA needs to work to on his clock management/use of TO's. Wasn't just last night it was a bit of a problem all year. At times, we seems to get so pysched up that he misses key details. Also, we don't need to be icing our kicker ever again. 

3) Have to improve the lines. Tenn controlled both lines and they are a middle of the pack SEC team. They were bigger, stronger, quicker. Against good teams in general this year, we failed to run the ball effectively. If we ever want to take a step forward we have to protect the QB better (yes I know we were missing two OL but that's depth) and be more multi dimensional offensively against good teams. 

4) Can we axe the prevent defense or whatever that was at the end of the Purdue game and this one?  I could have completed those passes over the middle they were wide open for 20+ yards each time. 

With that said, lots to look forward to. We return every playmaker on offense except for Westbrook. Lots coming back on defense as well. Haven't looked at schedule but another 8 win regular season should be well within reach with the potential for more. Cheers!

[Naturalhoosier]

I just don't understand why they didn't have an additional guy or two on the front line of the onside kick. I know UT wasn't lined up for the onside kick. But this  was a bowl game. Expect the unexpected. Terrible special teams play. I was screaming at the TV when I saw them line up. The glaring hole up the middle. Momentum moving in UTs favor. That's when I knew it was over. That is on the coaching staff. 

 

The morning after and it still chaps my @$$. Lol

[Alford Bailey]

If we were prepared for the onside good chance UT doesnt try it at that point

[JaybobHoosier]

I just don't understand why they didn't have an additional guy or two on the front line of the onside kick. I know UT wasn't lined up for the onside kick. But this  was a bowl game. Expect the unexpected. Terrible special teams play. I was screaming at the TV when I saw them line up. The glaring hole up the middle. Momentum moving in UTs favor. That's when I knew it was over. That is on the coaching staff. 
 
The morning after and it still chaps my @$$. Lol

Just don’t wear the chaps, no one wants to see that!


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[Naturalhoosier]

14 minutes ago, JaybobHoosier said:

 

Just don’t wear the chaps, no one wants to see that!


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You just asked for it last week. Minds change quickly...

[Naturalhoosier]

16 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

If we were prepared for the onside good chance UT doesnt try it at that point

Which is exactly what we would want.

[Bobman1]

I think it’s hard to look at the bright side. This loss sucked and was one of the more depressing IU athletics moments in the last decade or so; I even put it right up there with the Sweet 16 loss to Cuse. Just flat out sad the way it turned out. I’ve tried to blame it on the Hoosiers being cursed, perpetually like this so blaming myself for getting my hopes up, and everything else in between but I can’t really settle on anything. Sports are a cruel world and I’ve realized ya just gotta deal with it.

It’s very hard, but also very important, to look at the bright side of all this. The Hoosiers have both Quarterbacks returning, Stevie Scott coming back, Peyton Hendershot back, hopefully Whop back along with Fryfogle, and 3 starting offensive linemen. Add that to the nine defensive starters that should be back and CTA is in a great position to build on this season. All we can do now is look ahead and find excitement that we very well could be 6-1 (but it’s Indiana so it won’t work out well) with Penn State coming to Bloomington.


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[HoosierAloha]

I’m a casual football fan and I had a bad feeling about that. At a minimum, I would have had the hands team in for that onside kick. Two things could have happened from there. They still go got it but we have a much better chance to recover. They kick it deep and we get it at the 25 with 4 something to go. We run clock off and try to keep them out of the end zone.

Hopefully the staff learns and we become better for it.


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