IU Football Schedule Breakdown [160]

and welcome hoosier nation to our 160th episode of the hoosier sound where we are we are the official podcast of indiana hq our mission and goal is simple we want to bring in depth schedule analysis and coverage for indiana university sports to as many fans as possible across a multitude of modern platforms we are recording this edition of the hoosier sound on september 22nd 2020 where i am your host nathan christian and here with me tonight is miami heat and maybe not philadelphia eagles fan matt lukens matt there how's life what's going on down in florida anything interesting take place uh during your weekend the last few days what's up i've been starting teaching online i've been teaching some uh kids over in china english it's been a lot of fun they're adorable and also they know a lot more english than i thought they would they're actually pretty pretty great they're asking questions about basketballs yeah they saw the iu banner behind me and for some reason one of them knew what iu was so there you go i used this global group we're coming back how about that five national championships next 10 years oh but no it's great i don't know who the eagles are i've i've adopted the tampa bay buccaneers for the season oh my routine i'm just kidding i'm not adopted i will however root for the arizona cardinals because tyler murray is my starting qb in fantasy yeah so if he if the cardinals win every game 70 to nothing with him rushing for 10 touchdowns that'd be great kyler kyler is having a great start to his season the cardinals are two and oh mitch trubisky's bears are doing oh we're going to the super bowl um i wasn't i'm not so sure about that to be perfectly honest with you um daniel jones look daniel jones looked like peyton manning there at the end of the game on sunday but uh but the bears the bears got it done so so i guess it's all good but uh i know those of you listening are here for an iu football schedule breakdown met we have a schedule we finally got one it came on saturday there's still a whole month ago but we've got games to talk about the conference said we're playing on wednesday the schedule was released saturday i know we were hoping for a breaking news announcement during our recording last tuesday night after the old nebraska hot mic incident but that didn't come to fruition we heard it the following day schedule release matt how excited are you to take a look at iu schedule as we break it down it's an eight gamer uh we're gonna give you some predictions what to watch for how excited are you to take a look at the schedule and what are your initial thoughts i'm excited but i have a conspiracy theory i think nebraska leaked the information on purpose so they can get their fans excited so that they weren't immediately disappointed when they found out football was coming back because of their schedule and them whining about it so they gave them a couple days for them to sell tickets first before they tell them what the games were so good job good job good on you good marketing uh nebraska i see through that anyways uh i'm very excited for the season to start i'm very excited for football to be back now of course if it does happen it's going to be great you go and look at what's happening in notre dame with seven players testing positive it's not a great sign but you know i believe in the big ten i believe in them actually having a plan uh just because the big ten does everything well look the big ten is class personified um i'm sure they're going to get whatever they need to be done done and it's going to go off without a hitch so knock on wood anyways um no but i i'm super excited again i you did get a little bit harder of a schedule than i would have hoped for however that being said bring on the challenge this is the best iu football team we've had let's go out there and beat these teams let's go out there and beat a top four top five big ten team this year let's show people that we're for real tom allen is for real this program is for real there are going to be three opportunities on this schedule to knock off a top 10 team out of eight games and none of those three are michigan if you look at the s p ratings and we're going to dive into those as we go on a little bit later man i loved your your nebraska conspiracy theory um when when fans in lincoln woke up saturday morning or maybe took a look saturday afternoon at the schedule how about this week one at ohio state week two host nebraska uh host wisconsin no big deal yeah that's a good start to the schedule i mean i knew it was gonna have to start at wisconsin this year in the orleans so yeah like you know they have to play for them they have to play two good teams from the east and then they have to play wisconsin and iowa i'm like shedding tears like one tier and the world's smallest violin they have to play four good big ten teams in the season oh how are they going the same time wow bringing the fire i like it i think um i think nebraska might be like the least popular football program right now across the country as far as just general approval rating of the corn huskers which is kind of surprising because they're usually easy to like and scott frost was normally likable when he was at ucf but now i think oklahoma state's giving them a run for their money recently with what mike gundy has done so but yes you're correct i think nationally nebraska is in the running also i think nebraska fans would have you believe that they did not wake up on saturday morning they were awake since tuesday they were just staying up all night just waiting for for the schedule to come out because they bleed corn yeah and the breasts are red bleeding corn that sounds cool it sounds like something you should get checked black and red is nebraska black and red yeah anyway all right anyway so uh as a high level look we're gonna break down each of these games for you predict win loss talk about what to watch for um interestingly enough when you look at the draftkings sports book odds for big ten uh purposes they're ranking iu's opponents like this they're saying ohio state's the toughest which isn't a surprise penn state is next and then wisconsin and then michigan then there's a big gap after that purdue and then michigan state and then maryland and then coming in at the very very bottom of the pack is rutgers which doesn't surprise anyone and they're going to be a little bit better this year but they're still going to be a big underdog to iu at home and we're going to get into those games in a moment just fyi for those of you listening tom allen gave a press conference last thursday after the big ten released uh their their their state after the big ten released their statements saying that college football will be back in the big ten and allen didn't really say anything that stood out too much i did i did like to hear him confirm that there were no opt-outs for iu this season which is always a good sign and uh in general allen was just very excited about about keeping this team together they showed a lot of intensity and togetherness throughout the pandemic and uh and basically they're ready to give this a shot assuming everything goes well in the next month so let's dive into the schedule matt here we go opening night week one well night not confirmed week one first game of the season against penn state and bloomington not in madison anymore penn state is rated sixth in the country for the s p ratings on espn.com six best offense in the country 14th best defense sean clifford still their quarterback winner loss here matt or is there anything else you want to throw out about penn state i think penn state's a little overrated i just slight bit um that being said um i think clifford's their qb right i like him a lot i think their offense they always get penn state for some reason always has a running neck i don't know how it's possible but they always have just a really really good running back trust me i know i'm an eagles fan um but look i i think this is a very winnable game i think this is a lot more winnable than s p plus would have you believe again first night in bloomington you know home cooked meals stay out by the lake as a team and then drive back and get ready for game day i i think this is a very winnable game at home all things considered however are you going there are you going there are you starting the season i want to know i think they lose this game because i think penn state just has a little bit too much quality it's a little bit too early in the season for iu to put together a performance that is up and at on par with the top four in the big ten you know what i'm excited about with this game i'm excited that michael panicks is going to play it you know last year indiana lost by seven in happy valley and peyton ramsey put up a really really good performance winnable it is winnable here's the thing week one michael penick's can't get hurt i mean i hope he doesn't get hurt in any game but he can't get hurt in a game before this one it's not possible well keep him in it hurt and practice so let's get let's say he can't get hurt in game action is what i'm trying to say i mean put you know yeah give him special security or whatever you need uh to make sure he doesn't uh step on a pebble or whatever between now and this guy oh i like that it's a little coven joke um look i think um i think at the end of the day as great as penn state is and you talked about their backfield you're absolutely right noah kane journey brown they're back pat fryermuth declared for the nfl the tight end who's probably going to be the first titan taking off the board of the 21 nfl draft he came back after opting out penn state's gonna be really good but i've got the hoosiers man i'm drinking the kool-aid right away week one bloomington i know there's gonna be no one in the crowd except maybe family members and even then i'm not sure i think indiana is going to defend home field and beat penn state for the second time ever i've got the hoosiers want to know any issues i'm not i don't have an issue with it i just don't think this is going to happen don't get your hopes up folks and this is selling you up selling you on bad time no way are you kidding i mean we don't have uh weekly uh favorite underdog point spreads uh yet i would take the under on the spread i think it's gonna be a close game i just i think in natural iu fashion they lose the game by one or three points oh boo anyway all right so that's week one uh let's jump into this week two matchup indiana on halloween october 31st heads to rutgers uh rutgers is a 78th rated team for s p plus 85th offense in the country 57th defense i you shut them out oh real quick just as a as a side note these s p numbers are out of 91. i know there are 120 some odd fbs teams but uh because of because of uh conferences canceling their schedules like the pac-12 for example who are still out of order mac um the mac uh those teams have been taken out of the s p ratings so when you hear these numbers don't think of them out of 120 that's common sense these are out of 91 so rutgers is a 78th out of the 91 eligible uh fbs teams that have declared to play uh once again uh 85th offense 57 defense i you shut them out last year matt no surprises here right right yeah nightmare and piscat away for them they don't want to see us we'll be mad after losing a close game to penn state at home and i wouldn't be surprised his game is like 50 to nothing 45 nothing iu honestly ah wow i mean that's that they're just bad i like shiano i think rutgers is the perfect place for him to coach oceana's defense when he's at ohio state gave us fits literally like i think our worst offensive performance last year was against ohio state if i remember correctly um look and that i don't think any of that matters because the town he had at his disposal you know in columbus compared to what he has a piscataway is night and day so yeah i agree i think iu's gonna win this game um after after knocking off the nittany lions uh it's important that i would be doing that that would be funny i know i like that right i think um i think this this rutgers team you know what's interesting is they go to michigan state week one and i think that's a matchup of a couple teams that are expecting to have rough seasons if rutgers can somehow go into east lansing and win all of a sudden they come home to face indiana feeling really good about themselves i don't expect them to win that first game i don't expect them to beat indiana a couple names to note on this rutgers roster isaiah pacheco is a solid running back he's a junior bo melton's a good receiver he can cause the iu secondary some problems but then again you're probably putting taiwan mullin on him and erasing that completely defensively taishan fog is a really good linebacker somebody whose name you should know and uh and avery young he's a solid corner out there for for rutgers probably going to guard the likes of wap or or ty fry fogle but end of the day indiana moves on to 2-0 in my world evens things up at one on one in mats let's move on to week three again heavy hitting matchups right we're not talking about cupcakes we're not talking about bottom of the barrel d1 fbs teams michigan comes to town the wolverines come back to memorial stadium after last year where michigan won 39-14 at iu michigan's the 18th rated team for snp plus going into the season 18th out of 91 they've got the 32nd ranked offense in the country the 18th ranked defense for comparison purposes indiana's got the 25th ranked offense the 29th ranked defense so very close a better offense than michigan a worse defense than the wolverines take it away matt what's gonna happen here week three against michigan i like iu in this matchup a lot i think i say this every year when we play michigan and we play them close and then they have they break my heart but i actually think this is the year i i like i use match-ups on offense against the michigan defense i think we'll spread them out we'll make them have to put extra numbers to blitz panics and panics is pretty good under pressure and is able to get to those checkdowns that he needs to get to um quickly and quickly get through his progression i like panics against this defense i also like our defense against michigan's offense i think the middle of the defense struggled a little bit last year we lost tom allen's son and i think with getting him back our run defense is going to be a little bit more stout than it was last year and we're gonna be looking at our corners even taking up a notch what they were last year i like this defense against michigan's offense also i couldn't really tell you michigan's qb i thought it was gonna be mccaffrey and it's not i know nathan told me his name before we went on the podcast and i still don't remember his name that's how forgettable it is so and honestly all michigan qbs since harbaugh has gotten there have been forgettable in a large part and all you have to do for michigan all you have to do is stop the run if you sell and stop the run you force them to throw on our corners and into our secondary we win this game i think tom allen is smart enough as a defensive head coach to do that and this is a convincing win against wow oh man okay so you're you're going with uh you're going with the win over michigan even though uh even though the hoosiers dropped one to penn state to start the year i said penn state was a little bit too early in this year i think they needed a win before they got you know got going a bit needed that rutgers confidence boost and boom next year i'm gonna i'm gonna build this one up a little bit okay i'm gonna build this one up all right here's michigan's first four weeks all right at minnesota and indiana doesn't play minnesota but the gophers are supposed to be something like a top 15 or 20 team this year dark horse big ten title pick michigan then comes home to play michigan state in week two the wolverines are gonna win that one but it's a rivalry game things can always get a little bit weird especially with the new head coach at michigan state and mel tucker right week three michigan comes to bloomington and then week four michigan hosts wisconsin or trap game okay you can call it a trap game i think michigan is gonna come into bloomington focused and prepared and locked in and they're going to have a couple games under their under their belt where new qb joe milton from orlando is uh is going to have his his guys his offense a little bit more confident and comfortable than they would have if this was a week one match up if you flip michigan penn state i would have said indiana beats michigan week one and loses to penn state week three so i kind of think of it the opposite as you i'm not sure if michael penick's or wob filiar are going to make it i don't know if they're going to be available for this game because because last year those two guys were out and it was really good prediction positive prediction is this where you're expecting our two best players to be out weeks all i'm saying is you know football's a physical game this type of stuff happens i think michigan just has a little bit more depth than indiana i'm gonna take the wolverines to win this week three match up and give indiana its first loss of the season all right so so uh indiana heads up up next indiana heads to michigan state and this is a game where you know normally we would say oh gosh you know this is a problem michigan state with marc d'antonio and they've had brian lewerky there for 18 years uh you know michigan state's always been a problem in the big ten i mean heck they made the college football playoff a few years ago it is a complete rebuild right now at msu mel tucker is the new head coach he comes over from the nfl the quarterback situation's up in the air right now it's going to be either peyton thorne a redshirt freshman or rocky lombardi a junior who got some playing time last year lj scott the running back he's moved on it's either going to be elijah collins or anthony williams in the backfield matt i think indiana is going to be favorite in this game and i think indiana is going to win this game what do you think yeah i think michigan state has taken i has been pushed down a peg since they lost antoni his new coach new quarterback like he said i it's going to be hard for them and iu played has always played michigan state the last couple years super close i like this matchup for hoosiers unless it's like a freak weather day in east lansing uh but like you can't add that into your prediction it's like you can't add losing the two best players sure you can no you cannot this is like everybody's healthy and or the majority of the squad is healthy you can't just like oh you know what i think we're going to lose our entire offensive line and are both our wide receivers and it's going to be michael penick's against the world no it doesn't it doesn't have to be those two guys it could be it could be any two players right what are the odds that everyone makes it healthy through two weeks there's zero percent so that's what it's football and it's iu it happens but then we i i don't care next man up come on give it to me let's go indiana indiana does have a pretty deep roster i mean michigan states michigan state's going to really struggle this year um you know we talked about uh we talked about the rebuild but to give you some s p data for them the spartans are ranked 40th in the country again out of 91 but they're offensive 74th and so you know with indiana's defense hopefully taking a step forward this year a step or two uh forward they really should uh you know keep michigan's offense uh michigan state's offense quiet uh msc's got a 20th rated defense so that's really where four though yeah it's it's really rough uh as far as as far as they're they're going offensively and again they've got a 20th rated defense right now per the s p plus ratings but last year for comparison um they were roughly in the top 10 like all season defensively out of 120. so they're going even even with this 20th rating msu is going to take a step back on defense they don't have kenny willockis anymore in the defensive line they don't have joe bashi in the linebacking core i like how we both have indiana three and one matt um but then things get tough things get real tough the following week the hoosiers on november 21st the weekend before thanksgiving play a second consecutive road game and head to the horseshoe in columbus it's not happening right matt come on it's it's not what okay like in a normal year i'd be like you know what there could be a chance but i i honestly think and this is my pre-season ohio state is the national champion i i think they are i think they're the best team in the country across the board and you can make the argument for clemson you can make the art even for alabama you make the argument for oklahoma if you wanted to which would be a terrible argument but you could but between clemson ohio state i think ohio state's the much better team you're going to be playing the best team in the country away from home when they've already have four games under their belt not a not not a just no it won't be a fun time it's not going to be a fun watch for the hoosier faithful i hope it's a close game but like a close game is a win in my book for iu to keep it close this is the best team in the country and we're playing them on the road in a weird year so yes yeah i think that's fair i mean the schedule makers did ohio state quite quite well uh i don't know if there was a little uh there was a little boosting going on to try to help ohio state's national title shot because the big ten has struggled to win the national championship for quite some time but their two crossover games for example are home nebraska and at illinois illinois is better but but they're not they're not wisconsin those teams aren't cupcakes but both those teams aren't yeah it's not wisconsin yeah they're they're playing the middle of the pack in the west instead of playing the upper echelon of the west like we are nebraska's a cupcake man let's let's be real i i think nebraska's going to be a lot better than they were last year um by the way folks uh you know when matt says ohio state could win the national title you know that's that's not a wild uh opinion at all they're co-favorites with clemson right now to win it all and real quick note there um we don't have any idea what bowl season is going to look like this um there is there is nothing that the ncaa has really said definitively the big 10's going to have a bonus ninth game called champions week at the end of its eighth game regular season schedule uh that week will take place on december 19th but you know it's going to be kind of kind of interesting to see how the ncaa as a governing body overall decides what to do with bowl season whether it's your your your college football playoff all the way down to the whatever uh the pizza x bowl i don't know if that's a thing but give me an instagram tournament for for football give me 64 teams let's go real quick though ohio state's ohio state's roster i mean i don't know where yeah i mean i'm just going to rattle off some names that you guys should know these guys are all probably going to end up big 10 first team garrett yeah and in the nfl garrett wilson and crystal laviate wide receiver uh thayer munford and wyatt davis on the o-line justin fields the quarterbacks of beast trey sermon comes over from oklahoma uh the transfer there he's uh he was a starter at oklahoma a couple years ago he and master t are going to share carries and that's going to be a pain in the rear end uh for opposing defenses um ohio state's defense lost a lot especially in the secondary but you know how how uh how ryan day recruits there it's gonna be just lock and load every year with four and five-star athletes so their defense is going to be incredible uh let's dive into week five uh excuse me that was the ohio state game um and and here's the thing five five games in let's take a little breather let's take a little breather um you know right now we both have the hoosiers of three and two uh michael panic is still the starting quarterback at this point right i mean you killed you kill him he's done with the the survival scene wow how many uh how many how many pics does taiwan mullen have through five games two two oh i like that okay all right i like i like how that sounds i'm gonna say three i think he's got even more and i think uh i think rayshawn williams to this point the freshman wide receiver i think he has four touchdowns well i was i was just gonna say i think he's gonna um pop off the screen a couple times but four touchdowns would be i think he has four touchdowns i think he gets two in the red creek well he's uh he's from the detroit area michigan michigan state the first half of the season he's gonna have a little something something to play for that'll be fun for him yeah before uh before thanksgiving hits so uh real quick it's time for who won the week in iu sports and once again we're gonna hit the pros and there was a lot going on i think our winner this week is alex dickerson who we've talked about on this podcast before outfielder for the san francisco giant um uh you know more you know he gets uh d h at bats with with the nl moving to the dh this year but he had a baby on sunday and then he homered on monday not too shabby i'd say alex dickerson i'd say alex dickerson won the week um otherwise in the nfl jordan howard scored a touchdown nick westbrook equine was active for tennessee um he was on the 46th 46-man roster he made the 53-man team and he wasn't even ruled out inactive on sunday morning he actually got onto the field for the titans which is and uh and that's something really really impressive for someone who's an undrafted free agent so uh so yeah i think alex dickerson without question won the week this past week so five games in the hoosiers are three and two in both of our worlds just in case uh both uh all of you listening need a little clarification matt had the hoosiers fall to penn state and then beat michigan i had it the other way around with the hoosiers beating penn state losing to michigan otherwise we have iu beating rutgers beating michigan state losing to ohio state week six maryland comes knocking and uh this is a game where the terps uh you know it's always an interesting matchup when indiana and maryland face off in football i feel like every year it's a close game maryland this year 58th per snp so snp plus so worst in michigan state maryland is also rated 64th offensively so i think a little bit lower than people might expect there also 52nd defensively this is the game after thanksgiving matt indiana wins this right this is at maryland no it's in bloomington yes iu wins this i think it was at maryland i think it's beautiful a bit of a toss i for whatever reason maryland always plays this close i i think it's just the style of play that they have and i don't know traveling to maryland is boring um but give me give me the hoosiers in this matchup they're home they're gonna be comfortable they're gonna kick some butt we'll move on next week oops yeah i i completely agree with that i think maryland um maryland is is somehow you know every year is weird for the terps because no one really knows no one really knows who they are it seems every season like last year they beat a top 25 syracuse team and then lost to penn state 59 nothing something like that um they're all over the board um it's interesting to me that maryland has maryland has an easy matchup before playing the hoosiers they do host michigan state and i think that's a game maryland should win but overall the terps are just all over the place they're going to have a strange qb situation they may start taulia tagovailoa to his younger brother who i believe was deemed eligible by the ncaa for the fall um you know that could be interesting taeyeon fleet davis is a lot of hype as they're running back i you know i don't know they're they're they're you're kind of grasping at straws with maryland it's gonna be fun it's gonna be competitive i think indiana is going to win it though and move on to four and two the over under in vegas uh in some offshore sites it's four and a half for iu this year after the big ten released their schedule so uh and by the way that over understand the eighth game schedule excluding that ninth end of season game so at this point the hoosiers are four and two week seven is the road game at wiscons and that we all dreaded indiana heads to madison on december 5th that's right a december road game in madison wisconsin that should be fun the badgers are really uh you know they're they're they're recognized in the s p plus the badgers are seventh in the nation fifteenth best offense fifth rated defense matt what's gonna happen in this one it's gonna be like a five five frozen field lambo in the playoffs game like this is not gonna be fun to play in it's not gonna be fun to be in the stands to watch it's not gonna be fun to be on the sidelines to coach and as a fan it's not gonna be fun to watch because it's just going to be flat out ugly um however that being said i like the hoosiers to give them a scare but they lose because in madison to wisconsin i think if they had played this game at the start of the season i liked the hoosiers in the matchup i actually did i think they would have taken it to wisconsin's defense defense wisconsin defense again is built to stop the run and disrupt the offense i use the offenses built to spread out the ball and speed up the defense i i like i use uh match up against this defense however that being said in the conditions that they're going to be in which is either super cold or with snow or both um i think wisconsin's going to be in good shape in this game so under under normal circumstances i would agree with you that the snow would be a problem for the hoosiers but here's the other thing indiana has never had a quarterback with the arm strength and the accuracy combo like michael penick's and i know nate sun felt really good and i know nate solidfield make the made the nfl but uh but when you watch michael panics make those throws in person or on tv it doesn't matter what the weather is with him he can cut it through a 20 mile an hour when there was a game a couple years ago against penn state when the nittany lions came to bloomington the wind was howling trash was flying all over the field and panics was still able to rip the ball through the through through the breeze um wisconsin i think they're overrated they're losing jonathan taylor and you know their defenses lost some pieces as well uh i've got the hoosiers pulling off the upset here matt i'm i'm feeling good about this game madison uh you know jack cohen is a guy who doesn't have the strongest arm at wisconsin the quarterback there um you know they're going to run the ball sure but you know gary grosheck he's a guy that was mostly a fullback uh you know while jonathan taylor was carrying the ball for a zillion zillion yards wisconsin's going to be really good this year i don't think they're a top 10 team and this is sandwiched in between games against minnesota and iowa i think there's a little trap game feel to this there's going to be no one in the bleachers at camp randall give me the upset matt i know i'm crazy but i'm feeling it so all of a sudden your paws mr positive over here and now i look like mr realistic all right all right do your worst next game i mean all i'm saying is the hoosiers are kind of due for a win over wisconsin also uh they're kind of due for a win over a lot of teams and it has yet to happen i mean look at ohio state yeah no i mean it's fair it's funny when you mention it ohio state michigan penn state and wisconsin indiana has like one win over those teams in the last uh you know 10 or 15 years combined so uh i have them i have been winning two of those games no big deal so so i've got two ships five and two matt's got him four and three last game of the regular season purdue comes to town december 12th indiana's gonna win right yeah and i think this game is going to be closer than people will actually think of it when they look at the schedule bruce got a pretty decent team sorry but they do david bell's good they'll figure it out on at the quarterback position i i like purdue as a football team if i'm looking at it objectively now if i'm looking at it through my hoosier crimson goggles produce sucks and we're gonna win so it's fine and it's in bloomington but none of that really matters at all um and the weather is i mean we talk about the weather but the weather gonna suck anyways it's dead of winter in in indiana yeah so give me give me iu yeah i think ali is going to win this one too purdue is going to have a better qb situation this year than they did last year he's probably going to be jack plummer aidan o'connell is going to have another year um you know so if he does need to be called on he'll be ready to go uh compared to last year was a baptism by fire for him austin burton is an interesting grad transfer there quarterback for them um their backfield solid with horvath and king deru horovath gave value a lot of problems last year and david bell's the star of this offense um they've got a lot of death across the board especially on offense but at the end of the day purdue's defense is still a bit lacking if you look at the s p plus numbers purdue oops uh yeah sorry purdue's uh the 41st rated team in the country 23rd offense 55th defense again you see that number on the defensive side of it 55 out of 91. they're pretty vulnerable especially in the back seven uh so much like peyton ramsey accumulated 400 yards against them last year i think panics will do the same offense would be a lot of fun to watch pretty often if they had rondale more because rondale opted out of the season yeah i think this game becomes a lot more winnable for it was already winnable for iu but it becomes almost a lock for iu i think at this point just looking on matchups now again like nifton said panics could go down week one and a half and all of a sudden we're looking at it and maybe this is a lot tougher of a game but i like the hoosiers and there's all things considered yeah and this is a yeah and just to be clear like i'm not sitting here predicting that michael pennings is going to get hurt what it comes down to somebody who i was just giving a couple of examples what it comes down to is um you know depend you know like like you told like you mentioned you know guys are gonna get hurt as the season goes on and i think it's to put iu at a big disadvantage against michigan um but if you play purdue at the end of the year i think if indiana throws all their second string guys out there they're still going to beat the boilermakers as crazy as that sounds um purdue is a good team they're going to be fun to watch but i think iu gets it done winning game number six so under normal circumstances indiana has a tough time getting to six wins and i'm sitting here telling all of you that indiana's gonna get the six on this eight game schedule matt has had five we told you to take the over take the over in four and a half i have it at five nipping has it at six yeah always take the over but take the over especially in this case um indiana hq and the hoosier sound uh are not liable for any vetting losses that occur based on opinions communicated during podcast episodes um so so uh yeah matt has him at five and three that's probably more realistic but you know i'm confident in the talent on this indiana team and what we saw last year is that the intangible x factor that tom allen's program brings to each and every saturday just with the with the team chemistry you can call it morale you can call it toughness whatever you want um it makes a difference and and indiana just seems to be a little bit more tougher a little bit more into the game a little bit a little bit stronger but backbone so that if they do go down 14 to wisconsin on the road or if they do go down for uh you know 14 to penn state at home i just have a little more confidence that indiana fights back does that make sense matt yeah i don't i don't think you're wrong about the team morale thing but i i think you're missing the whole point of why we were able to come back against wisconsin in the first place and as this is the most talented iu team that you may have ever watched legitimately from top to bottom there's there's a high level nfl talent on this team in multiple positions and you whether it's taiwan mullin whether it's you know look at pennix it might even be what failure getting drafted the nfl you look at rashaan ev uh williams uh the wide receiver that we just pulled in that's a four star recruit i mean you look up and down this roster there's four star recruits on our defensive line that didn't even play many downs last year is gonna be getting uh snaps this year like this is the most talented and deep iu team you may have ever witnessed in your lifetime i know it is for me i know it is for nif and it might be for a lot of you fans out there as well and that is why they're going to be able to come back in these games and actually play against teams tom allen has built something special in bloomington now it's all about execution right we saw a lack of execution against tennessee in the bowl game that was it we lost we lost that game we did not they did not get beat we lost that game we had that game not in the back we had we were in the driver's seat of that game and there was some poor coaching decisions that led to our demise now i think this year they're going to learn from that mistake and they're going to get their heads together and glue it together the synapses of each other's brains attached and yeah they're going to do some weird biochemistry stuff they're going to get a chemistry building on campus cool yeah stay tuned but no i i like this team i like the way it's built i like the team chemistry i think they're more talented they're tougher they're bigger they haven't had an extra off season of indiana weight training to even get bigger bigger so i like them a lot yeah it's it's you know it's the similar song we've sung uh every year it's too bad that they're in the big ten east uh you know i'd love to see this team get thrust into some uh unique competition move us to the acc do it make 10 western for basketball and for football just just for a year just for a year i love the big ten network and i love the the tradition and the culture of the big ten but just for a year i just love this iu team miami schedule i like watching who they're playing and i just laugh i laugh they play louisville not great wake forest meh you look at duke okay well every year for them clemson's the big game and they lose by 60. i mean we with every year we have ohio state but then it's a little closer what's the yeah the higher state and clemson are like here but then the next one for for miami is like who yeah yeah it's probably something like duke louisville florida state and i'm not sure it's florida state so yeah whoo it's like of course it's bad you look at iu schedule when it's like ohio it's like okay that's a lot oh wisconsin oh my god oh oh what what michigan okay penn state like come on now yeah i mean right now three of indiana's eight scheduled opponents are projected to be top 10 per sp plus and that doesn't include michigan or uh michigan state who's historically good maryland who's historically fun and purdue who's your rival so uh you know that's uh that's definitely you know i just or or if there wasn't a big ten west i mean bloomington's not not that much east or west um as far as the overall conference is concerned so so maybe you can uh maybe you can flip uh one of one of the teams in the west for indiana just just to have some fun but matt uh take us into your social media shout out this week i know you wanted to talk just a little i know you wanted to talk just a little college basketball because something came through twitter earlier today yeah i mean i always want to talk about college basketball so we're iu fans we might as well do what iu fans do and that is andy katz i think he works with the ncaa now as a journalist he he works um with all the networks now but uh he did his top 36 teams which is like it's almost as ridiculous as as the top seven top 55 teams that i've cut cut down my list to it's like these journals like i used to be the top 25 now it's the top 36 top 18 top 14 like they're just like whatever list they come up with whatever anyways iu was 18th on his list which is a pretty solid number middle of the pack of the 36 but you know 18 we'll take a pre-season ranking we'll take a ranking at all honestly it's been a while since iu has been ranked um i thought they might have been ranked last year and some things didn't follow their way never got ranked would have made the tournament but would have been ranked we'll be ranked maybe in pre-season this season and it'll be interesting how to see how long we stay in it i hope we stay in it all year but the big ten is loaded i know the best big ten team in it handicaps rating was number four iowa now uh basketball purists and a lot of iu media would scoff at that because they would be like defense but i i do like iowa's offense a lot i think they're a great team you look at michigan state look at illinois you look at wisconsin i even mentioned the team that's returning their starting five and won the big ten title last year in wisconsin like the big ten is absolutely loaded this year um so it should be great opportunities it should be filled with great opportunities for you to to boost their tournament resume come march i mean we just heard last week that the nc double is shooting for november 25th uh for opening night and it's gonna be it's gonna be fire wagon basketball right off the start you're not gonna get cupcakes in your schedule this year folks um maybe you squeeze in one i doubt it um it seems like i use non-conference schedule for the most part it's going to be your three maui games your gavit game against the big east your big 10 acc challenge and then your match up against butler and indianapolis um mayu fans used to complain about playing chicago state now they're going to be on their knees begging for us to play to get to chicago states be careful what you wish for uh to say the least there um i think this indiana team's ready for it though and all i do i'm not saying they're gonna win a lot but or you know win all the games but i think they're they're ready to go i think chase jackson davis and all them yeah i and i i think like selling it to recruits as well i i think you're gonna watch this team come out with fire just because i this team is going to embody what what archie's like and we all know archie is a fiery young head coach that he is and they're going to come out ready to take it to any team that they play and it's going to be good for recruits to watch it's going to be fun for us to root for it's going to be fun for for the players to play for i think good vibes only about design for basketball team goodbyes and by the way just scrolling through uh some of the other teams in that top 36 for mandy cats how about this michigan state remember them uh they're number 12. as if as if there's some sort of afterthought this year which you know they're not going to be uh rutgers is 13 not too shabby um michigan is number 17 so i believe that makes ali the eighth ranked big ten team even though they're 18th in the nation um by the way think about big time basketball my i you can sorry i interrupted that but go ahead no you're fine i don't get the rutgers hype i just i i don't understand it like i get that they're returning a lot of people and they had a decent year last year but like i you had a decent year last year returning a lot of people and are we getting 13th no and we have a lot more high level talent than rutgers does so i i just i don't understand it but yeah you know that's why they get paid big dollars when i sit here and they who's your sound i'm talking yeah cliff cliff omarouji uh get to know his name he's a incoming freshman at rutgers get to know his name you could be right though i mean there's always going to be one a team a team that's like not raided that jumps up into the into the upper echelon and then and then someone who's supposed to do really well that that falls off so so uh you never know what's gonna happen there by the way andy katz does work for the ncaa big ten network and fox sports one so that's where he is right now which works for basically everybody he works for everybody um so yeah for those of you listening i mean we're not really going to dive into this game number nine on the iu football schedule it's champions week that's what the the big 10's running with calling it the uh the odds makers i believe have indiana projecting to face nebraska or purdue uh they have they have and of course if indiana plays purdue that would be back-to-back games facing the boilermakers twice in seven days um that would be really strange without a doubt i don't even that kind of made me feel weird just saying it playing back-to-back games on your college football schedule against the team um that sounds gross i mean if you have any any thoughts or comments as far as the ninth game goes it's going to be against a big ten west opponent who's rated the same out of seven as iu is in the big ten east i'm gonna be bold and say that the team that we play based off of our records that we we came up with is going to be iowa or minnesota because you look at the west you have i think iowa will get third i think iu will end up fourth in the east so you're looking at who gets fourth and it's between either minnesota's gonna have a great season or i think they're going to have a little bit of a step back i think uh iowa who did i say we were going to play minnesota you said minnesota and iowa yeah either minnesota iowa i think wisconsin and um oh my god the entire west is breaking my brain all right i got i got your back here we go so so according to draftking sportsbook uh they're projecting the big ten west to go like this wisconsin to win it that's what they're predicting um which means we're probably going to get a wisconsin ohio state big ten title rematch which i'm already already excited about um of course that is assuming that wisconsin's loss to indiana doesn't take them out of the running for the big 10 west title just throwing that out there um after wisconsin though they're saying minnesota is going to finish second in that division iowa third and then nebraska purdue northwestern i don't know nebraska i'm in nebraska i i said iowa originally but i meant nebraska i think iowa will get second or third yeah i think is gonna be fourth so there's gonna be a fight between nebraska and yeah one of the teams yeah and and so if the indiana finishes if indiana finishes five and three iowa does seem like a very realistic opponent um minnesota's got the backing of a lot of people right now uh to have a great season tanner morgan's kind of a heisman dark horse rashad bateman is too the wide receiver there he came back after opting out oh good oh so good um yeah he he he tore up opposing defenses last year i think indiana is going to play minnesota because a six and two finish probably means iu got third you know third in the big ten after losing to michigan and ohio state so um you know for me at least the way i see it iu finishes third in the conference and takes on minnesota iowa very much in play there i don't think wisconsin falls to third um that's where that's where i see things and then of course like we said earlier nothing clear as far as the bowl picture is concerned so matt overall final thoughts about this iu football schedule indiana basketball if you want to go back to that it's all yours i mean i'm excited for football season to have a actual start date something we can talk about i know nathan and i have been dying i mean literally like gasping for topics it's just like being choked down by the offseason like it's already bad enough that we have an off season because you know there's not a lot of talk about the offseason you guys know that you listen to our stuff we're trying to grasp straws here but then march madness ends early so that takes away four shows and then the seas football season starts two months late so that's another two months worth of shows so we're sitting here with 12 extra shows that we should not normally be doing but now we're really excited to finally be able to bring you guys some great content weekly that you know we don't know about until sunday morning what we're going to even talk about so i'm super excited to sit down and be able to watch college football again on my tv now i wish i was there in person of course but we'll take what we can get right now in 2020. yeah and just to be clear on that the big ten has instituted a no fans policy uh for all stadiums in the big ten footprint uh this upcoming football season so yeah i mean that's where it is and here's the deal folks i know the schedule releases people excited but there's still over a month to go and i know i mean it's basically national news it's not even sports news uh when you heard earlier today that notre dame notre dame had to cancel their earliest maybe they said postponed their upcoming game on saturday against wake forest because multiple players tested positive so this thing is still a very fluid situation kudos to everyone the big ten did a great job commissioner kevin warren and the coaches and the presidents as far as getting their hands on tests that that give you a quick turnaround it's it's one of those things where there's no precedent for how to deal with this so heck you know we we projected eight games indiana might play four for all we know or uh or in a couple weeks we might get a completely different schedule uh which would not surprise me i'm half joking but half serious like like that is not something that that that would shock me nothing would shock me at this point and so uh that's in general where where i see all of this this heading folks that about wraps it up for our 160th show of the hoosier sound thank you so much for joining us we really appreciate your support to hear more fantastic episodes like this one and i love this one be sure to follow us at indiana hq to make sure you don't miss any in the future you can also go to our website indianahq.com to find everything in one place lastly if you enjoyed our show and this is important leave us a review tell a friend share our links your support really helps us grow this podcast and reach more passionate iu fans such as yourselves but as always thank you for listening hoosier nation and we'll see you next time peace