I wasn't hating on it. I just think he underestimated it. He said we should be content with a 9 win season in any 3-4 year stretch. We would be downright ecstatic over that.
I wan't referring to you specifically, but some on this thread apparently took some umbrage.
You are correct. With that said if there ever was a commitment that begins with the school president and the BOT to dedicate all available resources to elevate the sports program, then a change could happen.
Interested to hear the logic behind the belief that efforts at that ‘commitment and dedication’ have not already occurred. It’s comfortable to sit back and say this was stupid and that was stupid and if we just did ‘this’ or ‘that’, the success we believe that we’re entitled to would embrace us, and yet over all the eras our program(s) have existed, it has not. Certainly Indiana will be used as an argument, one that’s obviously hard to dispute in the short term; we’ll see on that one soon enough. But even so, they are one; the South Carolinas are many.
I think all of the mediocre to bottom dwelling programs will point to Indiana and say "if they can do it, so can we". Unfortunately, not every program that wants to be top tier has a Mark Cuban who is willing to open the checkbook and make it happen.
Interesting that you see it that way. However, you did not defend your assertion in the post I quoted; that was my question.
More to do with coaching than talent. So many other programs had more talent but Indiana coaching staff was elite last season. Ohio State had a lot more talent than them and it didn’t look like it
We'll see how Indiana looks this season without Mendoza and with only 10 starters returning. A Heisman trophy QB and some good receivers carry a lot of weight. If Cignetti simply reloads, which is possible with Cuban's money and the portal, things may have really changed at IU.
He kinda reloaded last season. He got the right pieces in the portal. I don’t think he spent like the Texas schools. If Dlo was the play caller instead of Shula, I think we win close to 10 games.
They are definitely a team built on transfers. It will be interesting to see how they do.
I think you are putting too much blame on Shula. Sellers isn't close to Mendoza and IU talent is light years ahead of SC at most positions.
Nah, I dont think so. You can't simply 'coach' players to go out and out-execute the opponent.
You can’t? I’m not saying their roster was bad but they didn’t have a top 10 roster from top to bottom.
I have to put a lot of blame on the OC. It started in the bowl game against Illinois. He didn’t stop subbing to avoid them from slowing subbing, which was a big part of not winning. We ran 3 straight dives with 2 min left to possibly beat Bama, he watched our RB run a 75 yard TD in the first half and he got 1 touch after, he barley ran slants, he ran a play action on the 1 yard line on first and goal and that play ultimately lost us the game against Mizz, he made our Dual Threat QB handicap by not letting him use his legs unless he was about to get his head knocked off in the backfield. No QB is having success with an idiot calling plays with a bad OL.
IU's roster was made up of a lot of experienced players from the portal. I think the average age of their team was like 22.5 years old. That experience and physical and mental maturity are valuable and don't show up in talent/recruiting rankings. All starting P4 football players are very good athletes, the difference in top 10 and top 25 is razor thin when it comes to physical talent. The mental aspect of the game is a huge part of winning and IU had the maturity and experience to play at a level above what recruiting rankings would suggest.
I agree with you, I was just speaking on talent. I wouldn’t say they had the talent to match their play on the field. I believe the coaches did the best job I’ve seen in college. I think our team this year set up to have the talent and age to be good. I believe we have an OC with a working brain as well.
