2025 IUFB Season

[Pagoda]

This has to be one of the greatest destroy your haters seasons ever.  Going into this year, we had to deal with the nonsense of being targeted by a lot of the media as a team that benefitted from a soft schedule and had no top-25 wins.  It was such a lazy narrative.

We ended up with five top-10 wins (Oregon 2x, Bama, Miami, OSU).  We played basically all the best teams in CFB this year.

When the final poll comes out, we'll have two more top-25 wins (Iowa and Illinois), for a total of seven top-25 wins.

Our total margin of victory over 16 games was +479.

It's so satisfying.

[iubb]

1 hour ago, Pagoda said:

I get it.  He wants to play.

Best of luck to him, I hope he is very successful wherever he goes.  He’s been great for us by helping bring in Fernando and being an excellent backup this year.

Yah. Exactly this.  Lets him forge his own path. trying to follow what his brother just did will not end well for anyone. 

[Stuhoo]

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

A tapestry of beauty.

[CSP]

Ohio State not being #3 across the board is wild

[Demo]

Hardest I’ve laughed in a minute. 

[hoopsta007]

Random question for the board that I guess could fit here.  Did we ever actually run the play Cig coined “Wizard” in a pregame interview?  if so do we know what the play actually was?

[Hoosierfan1901]

26 minutes ago, hoopsta007 said:

Random question for the board that I guess could fit here.  Did we ever actually run the okay Cig coined “Wizard” in a pregame interview?  if so do we know what the play actually was?

All the plays looked similar to what we have seen over the season. The only surprise was Nowakowski’s rushing TD.

[TheWatShot]

We won 16 games in one season. Will Barry Odom win 16 games before Purdue fires him? 

[Brass Cannon]

7 hours ago, TheWatShot said:

We won 16 games in one season. Will Barry Odom win 16 games before Purdue fires him? 

Nope 

[CSP]

7 hours ago, TheWatShot said:

We won 16 games in one season. Will Barry Odom win 16 games before Purdue fires him? 

They've won 3 games in 2 years... IN ST, ILL St, and Ball St... 

Geographically sandwiched between 4 elite programs and right next to a really good one (ILL).. where do they find players? 

[Stuhoo]

7 hours ago, TheWatShot said:

We won 16 games in one season. Will Barry Odom win 16 games before Purdue fires him? 

 

33 minutes ago, Brass Cannon said:

Nope 

+1 -- Nope.

[Pagoda]

41 minutes ago, CSP said:

They've won 3 games in 2 years... IN ST, ILL St, and Ball St... 

Geographically sandwiched between 4 elite programs and right next to a really good one (ILL).. where do they find players? 

Another problem is they don’t have much money for them — their NIL is not good and the prospects of that improving are slim.

I think with the next B1G media deal and Grant of Rights, the conference is going to look at PU and see (i) a school not moving the needle on ratings and therefore media deal value, and (ii) spending tens of millions less on football per year than the needle movers.  Then the conference is going to ask: Why should you get an equal share of the media deal?  And they may ask: Why are you here?  Any shift to a FB-focused super league won’t have them either.

We’ll see if they can figure something out, but it’s not looking great in this new college sports world.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

9 hours ago, hoopsta007 said:

Random question for the board that I guess could fit here.  Did we ever actually run the okay Cig coined “Wizard” in a pregame interview?  if so do we know what the play actually was?

Cig's "Wizard" may have just been gamesmanship on his part but I did read that Fernando's diving TD was on a play they just installed the week before the game.  They tweaked an existing play with some different blocking assignments.

[Hovadipo]

54 minutes ago, Pagoda said:

Another problem is they don’t have much money for them — their NIL is not good and the prospects of that improving are slim.

I think with the next B1G media deal and Grant of Rights, the conference is going to look at PU and see (i) a school not moving the needle on ratings and therefore media deal value, and (ii) spending tens of millions less on football per year than the needle movers.  Then the conference is going to ask: Why should you get an equal share of the media deal?  And they may ask: Why are you here?  Any shift to a FB-focused super league won’t have them either.

We’ll see if they can figure something out, but it’s not looking great in this new college sports world.

Big East Boilers. Natural geo rivalry with Butler, no football program, solid academics. 

Wow it’s a match made in heaven. 

[hoosierdogg]

1 hour ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Cig's "Wizard" may have just been gamesmanship on his part but I did read that Fernando's diving TD was on a play they just installed the week before the game.  They tweaked an existing play with some different blocking assignments.

Perhaps the Wizard was the Nowakowski 1 yard rushing TD.  Using the tight end as a fullback is not a play I recall seeing throughout the season. 

[hoosiersoxfan]

1 hour ago, hoosierdogg said:

Perhaps the Wizard was the Nowakowski 1 yard rushing TD.  Using the tight end as a fullback is not a play I recall seeing throughout the season. 

I saw a clip of Mike Katic in the crowd while that play was being run.  He saw the formation and knew the handoff was about to go to Nowakowski.  Must have been a play they ran last season at some point.

[Brass Cannon]

I saw something claiming the Mendoza run was a different wrinkle on things they had. So maybe that was it. 

[CSP]

3 hours ago, Hovadipo said:

Big East Boilers. Natural geo rivalry with Butler, no football program, solid academics. 

Wow it’s a match made in heaven. 

s***hole campus/town to be in/location.. very Big East. Agree

[rayl456]

2 hours ago, hoosierdogg said:

Perhaps the Wizard was the Nowakowski 1 yard rushing TD.  Using the tight end as a fullback is not a play I recall seeing throughout the season. 

1st quarter of Kennesaw State game.  Nowakowski one yard run for touchdown as fullback.