#1 INDIANA FOOTBALL 2025 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

[Pagoda]

1 hour ago, southsidehoosier said:

 

4th down, scramble, get hit, stay on feet and spin away, then dive for the endzone and get hit again for the TD... it's like a movie ending.

15 hours ago, Brass Cannon said:

This is so good.  I'd move that south of Memorial statue of non-descript athletes high-fiving (that feels Old Indiana to me) somewhere else and put something that looks like @Brass Cannon's AI render in it's place.

[Pagoda]

One other point on this game.  Some people are saying Miami almost had it or whatever.  That's not right.

- First off, we never trailed

- While Miami got some things working in the second half, it's a 60 min game, and we owned the first half

- Sure UM made some mistakes, but so did we

- Credit UM for some counterpunches, but our win probability never dipped below 70%, and at the end it was 90%+

 

[Brass Cannon]

6 minutes ago, Pagoda said:

One other point on this game.  Some people are saying Miami almost had it or whatever.  That's not right.

- First off, we never trailed

- While Miami got some things working in the second half, it's a 60 min game, and we owned the first half

- Sure UM made some mistakes, but so did we

- Credit UM for some counterpunches, but our win probability never dipped below 70%, and at the end it was 90%+

 

I get what they are saying. If the game was a bit longer they probably win. But that’s only because the dirty play wasn’t getting called.  
 

I think that’s why Cig Kicked the FG.  He didn’t want OT. But wanted to force them to drive the field quickly. Something Beck couldn’t do 

[Pagoda]

9 minutes ago, Brass Cannon said:

I get what they are saying. If the game was a bit longer they probably win. But that’s only because the dirty play wasn’t getting called.  

I think that’s why Cig Kicked the FG.  He didn’t want OT. But wanted to force them to drive the field quickly. Something Beck couldn’t do 

If the game was longer UM doesn't probably win.  UM never led and they were down by two scores in several instances.  We can't just extrapolate UM's best moments and our worst.  Look at the win probability chart (more or less the live odds) -- it was a tough game, but the trendline was in our favor the whole time.  Nothing like say the Iowa or PSU games.

 

[Brass Cannon]

5 minutes ago, Pagoda said:

If the game was longer UM doesn't probably win.  UM never led and they were down by two scores in several instances.  We can't just extrapolate UM's best moments and our worst.  Look at the win probability chart (more or less the live odds) -- it was a tough game, but the trendline was in our favor the whole time.  Nothing like say the Iowa or PSU games.

 

The win probability was going down because time was running out. Our defense was gassed from the physical play(holding) that wasn’t getting called.  
 

OT would have been terrifying the way the second half was going. Take away the time pressure from Beck as well b

[Pagoda]

Just now, Brass Cannon said:

The win probability was going down because time was running out. Our defense was gassed from the physical play(holding) that wasn’t getting called.  
 

OT would have been terrifying the way the second half was going. Take away the time pressure from Beck as well b

UM win probability was low because IU was constantly leading.

[MartintheMopMan]

13 minutes ago, Brass Cannon said:

The win probability was going down because time was running out. Our defense was gassed from the physical play(holding) that wasn’t getting called.  
 

OT would have been terrifying the way the second half was going. Take away the time pressure from Beck as well b

 

10 minutes ago, Pagoda said:

UM win probability was low because IU was constantly leading.

Good news; you're both right! The win probability was going down because IU was constantly leading and the amount of time available to Miami to change that fact was dwindling.

I don't know how OT would have turned out (and am glad I never had to learn), but it was plain that Beck was trending toward making a serious mistake either way.

While we're playing "what if," I think if Franke was 100% then CCC would have let him try for a 60-yard FG to end the half (in that improbable situation that I predicted perfectly) and we could have been up two scores by the end. But then does CCC go for it on 4th down twice in Fernando's hero drive? Who knows? That's why what if games are silly.

[CSP]

I wasn't happy with our 3rd and 5 play call on our last offensive possession. I thought we need to put the ball in the Heisman trophy winners hands and end it. 

[CSP]

3 minutes ago, MartintheMopMan said:

 

Good news; you're both right! The win probability was going down because IU was constantly leading and the amount of time available to Miami to change that fact was dwindling.

I don't know how OT would have turned out (and am glad I never had to learn), but it was plain that Beck was trending toward making a serious mistake either way.

While we're playing "what if," I think if Franke was 100% then CCC would have let him try for a 60-yard FG to end the half (in that improbable situation that I predicted perfectly) and we could have been up two scores by the end. But then does CCC go for it on 4th down twice in Fernando's hero drive? Who knows? That's why what if games are silly.

Cignetti should have called a TO when we got the 3rd down stop and we'd had like 1min 15 secs left and 2 TOs after the missed FG. 

[TrueHoosier62]

2 hours ago, southsidehoosier said:

 

This will never, ever, ever, get old.

[go iu bb]

1 hour ago, Pagoda said:

4th down, scramble, get hit, stay on feet and spin away, then dive for the endzone and get hit again for the TD... it's like a movie ending.

This is so good.  I'd move that south of Memorial statue of non-descript athletes high-fiving (that feels Old Indiana to me) somewhere else and put something that looks like @Brass Cannon's AI render in it's place.

#8 and #31 of Miami should've tackled Mendoza. Instead of wrapping him up, they decided they wanted to have a big hit. Backfired big time.

[Brass Cannon]

12 minutes ago, CSP said:

Cignetti should have called a TO when we got the 3rd down stop and we'd had like 1min 15 secs left and 2 TOs after the missed FG. 

Didnt we only have 1 timeout after the missed FG?

[CSP]

1 minute ago, Brass Cannon said:

Didnt we only have 1 timeout after the missed FG?

Meet ya in the middle.. Just checked, we had 2. 

[Hovadipo]

14 minutes ago, CSP said:

Cignetti should have called a TO when we got the 3rd down stop and we'd had like 1min 15 secs left and 2 TOs after the missed FG. 

During commercial, he was absolutely losing his mind on Shanahan via Whitmer. Someone screwed something up in his mind and I wonder if it was the clock management piece.

[CSP]

2 minutes ago, Hovadipo said:

During commercial, he was absolutely losing his mind on Shanahan via Whitmer. Someone screwed something up in his mind and I wonder if it was the clock management piece.

I saw that and thought it was interesting. Now.. at the same time, as a coach, I totally respect his stance on.. "I play the end of the half one way, and will never risk giving the other team momentum".. the man sticks to his guns. 

[Brass Cannon]

I feel like the idea was to run up the middle and if it went well we try to get the FG. 
 

And then maybe lines were crossed on whether the run was successful enough 

[Artie86]

19 minutes ago, go iu bb said:

#8 and #31 of Miami should've tackled Mendoza. Instead of wrapping him up, they decided they wanted to have a big hit. Backfired big time.

....also should have been a late hit on Miami after Cooper's sideline catch.

[Brass Cannon]

Don’t think Cig would call a timeout there in case Miami went for it.  That’s what burned them against ole Miss. 

That said the 38 seconds we had were not well ran.  Definite miscommunication somewhere. 

[MartintheMopMan]

44 minutes ago, Brass Cannon said:

Don’t think Cig would call a timeout there in case Miami went for it.  That’s what burned them against ole Miss. 

That said the 38 seconds we had were not well ran.  Definite miscommunication somewhere. 

Miami's series at the end of the half was weird in general. Maybe showing a lack of confidence setting in already. Or supreme confidence, I guess. To not take a TO before the 2-minute warning says they are either already worried about leaving Indiana any time on the clock (on 2nd and 8) or don't think they need the whole 2 minutes to go the last 38 yards. Then they had seemingly already decided not to go for it on 4th when they ran a pass play on 3rd. We had stuffed Fletcher his last 3 tries, but even so, they had only had 1 successful pass over 8 yards the whole half and it was the previous play so we weren't going to immediately get burned again. They set up that pass by using Fletcher 4 times in a row to move 10 yards, so no reason to think he couldn't do it regardless. But even after getting it to 4th and Fletcherable, they had already decided to run the clock down and kick it.

I wonder if they make a different choice if Indiana stops the clock with 1:15 left. Now Miami has 2 TOs to complete the drive (if they get 2 yards) and it all starts to seem a lot more plausible. And Indiana would only have 1 TO for any response drive, worst case. It's certainly what I would have done if Indiana gifted me the opportunity. I mean, your kicker's last attempt was also a missed 51-yarder. He hit a 49-yarder against OSU but only 50+ once all season. (Edit: He is a 71% kicker with 6 misses on the season all but 1 coming in the playoffs). You're going to trust him to get you 3 points before trusting Fletcher to get you 2 yards? No way.

Overall, I think CCCC not calling the TO then was the smart move. It only becomes boneheaded with the mismanagement of our 33 seconds. Run for 6 yards, 27 seconds left, then no time out? Trying to beat ourselves on that one. We could have then squeezed an extra 2 or 3 plays out, at least.  

At the time, I was too excited I had predicted the last play of the half was going to be from the 50-yard-line to notice how bad it was, but then we didn't have Franke anyway so even that ended up being a waste.

[HinnyHoosier]

2 hours ago, Pagoda said:

One other point on this game.  Some people are saying Miami almost had it or whatever.  That's not right.

- First off, we never trailed

- While Miami got some things working in the second half, it's a 60 min game, and we owned the first half

- Sure UM made some mistakes, but so did we

- Credit UM for some counterpunches, but our win probability never dipped below 70%, and at the end it was 90%+

 

And we did not wilt in the face of pressure. Just like Iowa. And Penn State. And Oregon. And Ohio State. And then Miami. We absolutely stepped up to the challenge when it came calling, and we overcame every. single. time. A champion takes everyone's best shot, gets back up, and punches back until they're the last one standing.

Miami: backed up to punt deep in their own territory - missed a block horribly and we took 6 from it. 

Miami: With Indiana gambling on 4th and 5 from the Miami 12, they have a chance to get the ball back and keep the deficit at 3. Multiple guys cannot bring down the Heisman winner and he not only converts, but puts 6 on the board by pure determination.

Miami: Down 2 scores but still with time to make a miracle comeback and moving the ball well. Misread coverage and under throw on a routine ball that ends with Indiana taking what belongs to them: the ball, and the National Title. 

Yes, Miami put up a good fight. But we never trailed (a single second of the entire CFP, for that matter) and we rightfully took what was ours.