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

[KingPG21]

I love all the usual posters posting the same negative drivel about how we didn't beat any team we weren't suppose to, and only won games we were suppose to. These are the same dudes who talk about how low the ceiling is, then when we exceed their low expectations its because we did what was expected of us. It must suck being negative 24/7

[RaceToTheTop]

BTW....if we just 'beat the teams we were supposed to', that means we were an upper half team in the Big Ten since we had a winning record in conference.  Hasn't it been 26 years since we did that?

[Josh]

1 hour ago, IUc2016 said:

People are allowed to be irrational after a loss. We are fans. This is a message board.

BUT those people are gonna have to deal with the rational fans calling them out. Kinda a two way street.


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Which ones are the rational fans?

[IUc2016]

Which ones are the rational fans?

You and only you josh.


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[Hoosierfan2017]

41 minutes ago, Josh said:

Which ones are the rational fans?

The ones who want the coach fired after a loss like that, I imagine. I was one of them who wanted to fire him after the MSU loss. It was an irrational stance, but my complaints about Coach Allen were valid. They were on full display last night and they cost us the game. The "irrational" fans often may be unreasonable in what they want, but they seem to often be correct in their complaints. I see little difference between sunshine pumpers and those who are constantly pessimistic. 

[Aeggie]

None of the people saying we only won the games we were supposed to picked us to win 8 games this year. The over/under according to Vegas was 6.5 iirc and people thought it was way too high. We exceeded any reasonable expectations. Period. That simple. Anyone complaining about how we played this year must be a new fan because winning 8 games is not the norm at Indiana to put it very lightly.

There were mistakes made by players and coaches that hurt for sure, but I feel good about letting Coach Allen grow into the best coach he can be on the job here. We return every single player that rushed or caught a pass in the bowl game outside of Nick Westbrook. Most of our team, and the bulk of our talent, are freshmen and sophomores. This team is going to get better as it gets older and that's still happening.

Looking at the schedule next year there's a chance we could reach 9 wins in the regular season. It'd take more than a little luck but this team has a real chance to have an even bigger breakthrough very soon and I'm excited about that. Allen is still building the roster to a place where more freshmen can redshirt. We're not rolling quite yet and I think we're ahead of schedule so I don't get the doom and gloom.

[jk34]

Sure TA has a lot to learn as a head coach,  but he is a great leader! He loves IU football,  and the kids he's recruiting loves IU football. I completely understand fans being critical (armchair coaches), but to dissect and criticize everything. I feel Tom Allen is the right man for this job , it's IU football! I would much rather let a coach learn and improve,  than try make him a leader. If it heads back to 4-6 win seasons,  then find someone else. 

[CSP]

40 minutes ago, coachv jr said:

allen said the coaching staff discussed the possibility of an onsides kick and decided to "risk" it. yet afterward he still referred to it as a "surprise" onsides kick and even blamed the players for their lack of execution on the play. mind numbing stupidity. don't forget earlier this season he eschewed a short field goal on 4th and very long mid way through the fourth quarter of a game. afterward he claimed his analytics show there is no difference between a 10 point lead and a 13 point lead that late in a game. for all the good he has done for the program, allen is not a very bright man

Not a very bright man. Smh. You'd have to talk to him for about 2 seconds in person to understand how intelligent he is. You can't even capitalize words and were already banned on another site. 

[NashvilleHoosier]

What an incredible day. Damn this one stings. And it will sting for a while. I haven’t read through the thread but I’m sure all the times we shot ourselves in the foot have been covered many times over. I’ll just say that I truly believe someday we’ll be having celebratory drinks after a win in a bowl even more important than the gator bowl, reminiscing about how we managed to find a way to blow this game but it all being the start of something special. Book it. 

[southsidehoosier]

Not a very bright man. Smh. You'd have to talk to him for about 2 seconds in person to understand how intelligent he is. You can't even capitalize words and were already banned on another site. 

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[mamasa]

Not a very bright man. Smh. You'd have to talk to him for about 2 seconds in person to understand how intelligent he is. You can't even capitalize words and were already banned on another site. 

I wondered if he was the same “beloved” coach v from HSN! Lol, he’s something else- don’t think he find his schtick will be tolerated here either.


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[Alford Bailey]

3 hours ago, NashvilleHoosier said:

What an incredible day. Damn this one stings. And it will sting for a while. I haven’t read through the thread but I’m sure all the times we shot ourselves in the foot have been covered many times over. I’ll just say that I truly believe someday we’ll be having celebratory drinks after a win in a bowl even more important than the gator bowl, reminiscing about how we managed to find a way to blow this game but it all being the start of something special. Book it. 

Did IU have decent fan turnout?

[CSP]

41 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

Did IU have decent fan turnout?

Yes. It was 60-40 UT. We had a lot of people there. 

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich]

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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Positive is that we have 3 starting offensive lineman to return. The problem is they still aren’t good. Weak and undisciplined.


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[Naturalhoosier]

10 hours ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

Positive is that we have 3 starting offensive lineman to return. The problem is they still aren’t good. Weak and undisciplined.


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Jones and Bedford are pretty damn good. Did you see the stunts/blitz packages UT put together?  Their DC did a really good job of mixing it up.  

[TXHoosierDaddy]

1 minute ago, Naturalhoosier said:

Jones and Bedford are pretty damn good. Did you see the stunts/blitz packages UT put together?  Their DC did a really good job of mixing it up.  

They also just had bigger stronger players and that comes from recruiting 4* and 5* athletes. Tenn has plenty of those. It's always going to be a disadvantage on the lines  until the recruiting continues to improve. CTA has done a good job of recruting so far so no complaints on that end but Tenn just seemed to have really good athletes. Credit to their coaches as well.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

They also just had bigger stronger players and that comes from recruiting 4* and 5* athletes. Tenn has plenty of those. It's always going to be a disadvantage on the lines  until the recruiting continues to improve. CTA has done a good job of recruting so far so no complaints on that end but Tenn just seemed to have really good athletes. Credit to their coaches as well.

All true but we had that game in the bag despite lesser talent, and size. That was effort, grit, and hustle.

I’m all aboard the Allen train. He’ll improve but momentum is strong. Hope to keep it. OC is big. Get back to winning in state recruiting and keep the Florida pipeline alive.

At least we aren’t an embarrassment, and that’s progress.

PS-this isn’t directed at you. Just the better athlete thing created this thought.


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[CSP]

We also had 40% of our OL out. 

[NashvilleHoosier]

17 hours ago, btownqb said:

Yes. It was 60-40 UT. We had a lot of people there. 

Agreed. My estimation was slightly over 60% orange. I also could not see the upper deck on our side. If it was mostly orange up there I’d say it was probably 65/35 orange. If it was primarily IU fans up there then 60/40 is safe.  But we showed very well in my opinion. I was worried about that and the impression a poor showing would give future bowls we are in the running for. My opinion is we helped ourselves very much with this showing.

[LIHoosier]

8 minutes ago, NashvilleHoosier said:

Agreed. My estimation was slightly over 60% orange. I also could not see the upper deck on our side. If it was mostly orange up there I’d say it was probably 65/35 orange. If it was primarily IU fans up there then 60/40 is safe.  But we showed very well in my opinion. I was worried about that and the impression a poor showing would give future bowls we are in the running for. My opinion is we helped ourselves very much with this showing.

Watching the game the upper deck on the IU side was 2/3 empty, then 1/3 mixed. How that mixes into your percentages I don't know. I would say for a team that 3/4 fills a 50,000 seat stadium vs one that almost sells out a 100,000 stadium, we did exceed expectations.