December 8, 2025 • 50 mins
Segment 1: The Fan Morning Show
Segment 2: Voice of the Hoosiers, Don Fischer
Segment 3: Colts beat writer for ESPN, Stephen Holder
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
We know you're busy, bills to pay, mouths to feed,
and the man needs another favor.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
So justin Kese, you missed what happened. I'm a fan today,
we got you back.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
And even if you did hear it live, you.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Probably need to hear it again.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
Hugh.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You go all in one place and a just one
hour the best of the best from today on ninety
three to five and one oh seven five the Fan.
This is instant replay.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
This morning I'm a Fan morning show.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
So much going on for the Indianapolis Colts. They've now
lost what four of their last five after starting the
season seven and one. They were setting record well, they
were on pace to set a lot of offensive records.
They were just tearing things up. We knew that the
schedule wasn't the toughest, but still in the NFL, Kevin,
you start putting stats down. That's that's no joke right there.
(00:49):
So they go all in and they trade two first
round draft picks and a wide receiver to the Jets
for Sauce Gardner. He comes in within a game and
a half, he has an injury that's going to keep
him out for a while. And then, of course yesterday
Daniel Jones goes down with what we fear and what
seems to be and will be confirmed later on today,
probably as a torn achilles, which we know is minimum
(01:11):
a year before you get back. And where does this
leave the cults?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Now?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
That's really what people are asking. It doesn't even feel
like a lot of Colts fans are worried about playoffs
this year right here right now. That is a concern,
to be sure, But people are like, okay, but what now, Like,
what do Colts do now?
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Yeah, it's it's easily the question that I've gotten the
most the last twenty four hours of Okay, what are
you with, Anthony Richardson? What do you do with Daniel Jones' contract?
What does this mean for the futures of Shane Steike
and Chris Ballard?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
All of it?
Speaker 5 (01:40):
I mean all of those topics. Now, Jeff become front
burner like no other. You know, Richardson, you have a
fifth year team option that you have to make a
decision on this offseason. By no means would his play
or health indicate you would ever pick pick that up
all of a sudden does it make you want to
pick that up? I mean, all of these questions now
(02:02):
get asked. You know, as far as the final four
weeks are concerned, I have not gotten the vibe that
Anthony Richardson is close to returning at all. That has
just been my general vibe throughout this. I think I've
shared that, I think James has shared that that's a
pretty serious injury on air. Yeah, I mean, you're talking
about a guy that I think it's fair to say
nearly lost his eye frankly, and so you know, an
(02:24):
orbital fracture, you know, is what occurred in the locker room.
We're going we're now going two months without him practicing.
He is doing some weight room work, but again I
have not gotten the vibe that he is going to
be back anytime soon. So I would assume for the
final four weeks that it is Riley Leonard and then
Brett Rippen is on the practice squad. He hasn't thrown
a pass in an NFL game since twenty twenty three.
(02:46):
So that's your little short term kind of reality, and
that obviously doesn't get into anything from a twenty twenty
six quarterback point of view. My like very like early
gut reaction to all is okay, does Anthony Richardson just
become your quarterback for twenty twenty six. You know, Daniel
Jones is likely out with the twenty Keelees for next season,
(03:10):
so Richardson is under contract for next year, the fifth
year options for twenty seven, So would you just roll
with Richardson for twenty six? But then again, once that
question is asked, you very quickly would say to the
person asking that question, well, who's calling those shots? Is
it Chris Baward, is it Shane Staking? And then you
(03:30):
just throw up your hands and say, hope that you're
an AU football fan.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Real cook before we get to our first phone call,
don in a second, here, it's night and day between
having middle of the season in rhythm. Defenses have an
entire week or two to prepare for you as a quarterback.
Based on what you saw from from Riley Leonard in
that Cincinnati preseason game, what you saw a little bit yesterday.
(03:58):
Do you roll with him right now and say, let's
see what the kid can do. Roll with Riley Leonard
as opposed to register for the rest of the year. Yeah, yeah,
I mean that's probably I don't think ripping all of
a sudden is going to you know, be vastly different
than Leonard. I did think, and I want to make
sure we hit on this because you know, I thought
there's a sequence there late in the first half yesterday
(04:19):
where I thought you were still in it. You know,
when you get into the rain game, weird bleep can happen.
I mean, you saw some ball security issues on both teams,
and so I thought there for a second, I'm like, Okay,
if you can get this to one score half, you
get the ball to start the third. You know, just
can you put any game pressure and at the very
least you make Trevor Lawrence hand off the ball in
(04:39):
a safe manner for the final you know, a couple
of quarters and after that go over Stuart Fumble when
they had third and one and fourth and one back
it up and they did not use Leonard's a his
legs or just hand it off both times. I that
to me was just I thought it was idiotic. You know,
Riley Leonard is not a pocket passer. That is not
(05:00):
his game. His game is if there is a strength
to it, it is running. And so I thought we
would see and again, Shane's got a plan for this.
You have to have a backup play Okay, if all
of a sudden, my quarterback gets hurt, here are the
whatever two dozen package plays right, And I would assume
with Leonard a lot of it should be leg based.
I mean, look at his touchdown, it's what it's him
(05:22):
making a play with his legs. Look at the first
third down he converts to Alec Pierce. It's him making
a play with his legs. That is his game.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
I mean, Notre Dame fans saw it all last year.
College football fan saw it in the run of the
national title game. So the fact that they threw it
on third and one I thought was greedy as hell
in the rain. And then fourth and one, you're back
in the shotgun and Taylor gets blown up, And at
that point Jacksonville knows full well if you just threw
it on third and one, you are definitely going to
be running it here on fourth and one and they
(05:48):
sell out on Taylor and boom. You know, if Leonard
keeps it there, I think there's an opportunity for him
to pick it up. So I thought that sequence Jacksonville
then takes it down twenty eight ten, that to me
was just agree just from Shane, and I thought your
defense was awful yesterday. I mean Jacksonville. I get that
there's no Buckner, there's no Gardener. Jacksonville's missing their left
(06:08):
tackle and their top pass catcher, and they, you know,
season high in points Trevor Lawrence doesn't look like that
all year long.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
Just awful.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
No sacks, no hits on Lawrence, zero thirty one pass attempts,
not a single hit. The only time is Jersey got
dirty was because of the rain.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Does Quick pay still play for the Colts? Just awful?
There's a guy that lines up with his number, but
does he do anything awful? Honestly?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
And I will say one thing before I move on
to down too. You go back to that fourth and one.
There is very little in all of the NFL that
makes me cringe and that I hate more than going
for short yardage out of the shotgun. It just drives
me nuts. I know these coaches well that if I
put this guy in motion, now we can move this
guy around and maybe we'll try to get some misdirection
(06:54):
going on.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You know how, I feel like it's football.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
At some point you just got to make a yard
and your guys can you do it or they can't.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Sometimes it just drives me nuts.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Your favorite moment from Saturday night inside of Luca.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Soil probably just watching the elation of everybody when that
field goal went left and it's obvious you are now
going to beat As crazy as it sounds, you knew
they were going to be one of the top two
seeds going into the playoffs. That wasn't in question to
be able to finish off the conference schedule on top
(07:27):
of your regular season schedule though, and beat Ohio State.
I just I think the elation that I felt from
people in their living rooms when I saw when I
was out the next day going over even to my mo. Look,
it was the talk of the town at the retirement home, Kevin.
It's all people wanted to talk about that moment. It's
(07:51):
almost hard to describe collectively what the Indiana fan base
felt in that moment where that realization is, oh, no,
not only are we undefeated, but we.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Just beat Ohio State.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Yeah, we're going to the College Football playff and we're
gonna win the thing too. As opposed to man just
happy we're got there. Can you believe we're in the
College Football Playoff? It was we just beat Ohio State,
and now we're gonna go win this thing too.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah, it was one of those nights where like, are
we allowed to sleep inside of Lugosolo Stadium? I thought,
you know, there's so many cool scenes. I thought when
Aiden Fisher kind of took the mic there and led
the entire place in the IU fight song, you know,
like for IU fans. You know, again, in three weeks,
you might have a very similar scene in Pasadena, and
maybe after that it's Atlanta. Maybe after that it's in Miami.
(08:36):
But no matter what happens, even if they are to
lose in the quarterfinal round, like that post game moment,
obviously Banana Mendoza when he takes the mic, I feel
like he's half like one of those Preacher guys on
Sunday that you see in the No No, But but
he's meeting Mark Dyiton's WWE personality.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
But burstool Sports actually tweeted out, did we just watch
a guy lose the Heisman trophy in a post game?
Speaker 5 (09:01):
It's it's quite the scene anytime he's taking the mic
and I feel like he's you'll speaking through my soul.
But when Ayden Fisher, you know, one of the JMU
guys all of a sudden breaks out into that. You know,
it just kind of shows you a little bit more
of what Kurtzignetti has created here in two years. So yeah,
obviously the Mendoza de Becker throw and sure the missed kick,
(09:22):
and you know, I want to make sure every time
we talk about EU today we mentioned what Brian Haynes
has done with that. With that defense, I mean to
stifle Ohio State life sat and just whip them up front,
timely plays when they needed to. In the secondary. The
Lewis Moore pick I thought was a huge tone setter
early in that game. I think about Ohio State's only
(09:42):
touchdown came off of the reception off that off that
little screen, So just incredible, incredible job from then he
had a defense, and I think if we've watched you know,
we have watched IU all year long, so I think
we know it, but still for the whole you know,
maybe national scene to see their defense play up. Unbelievable effort.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
All right, he is gone, but certainly not forgotten. Today.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
The third member of our team here on the Fan
Morning show, James Boyd getting ready to travel back from Jacksonville,
where he was in attendance for that Colts game. In
the rain yesterday, joins us now in the Payless Liquers hotline.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Good morning, James.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
You know, we had talked about the fact that you
truly believed in a curse for the Colts in Jacksonville,
But I don't think you had that much of a
curse going on when you said that, did you.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
No, they're in trouble.
Speaker 8 (10:28):
Their season probably ended yesterday because of the achilites in
dy of Daniel Jones. So I know I'm here for
all the jokes in the dw Wall County Curves, but
they might actually not made the post season.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
James, how would you describe the locker room scene yesterday?
Speaker 8 (10:43):
Very dejected, Probably one of the more depressing locker rooms
I've been in in quite some time, and not that
I've been around that long, but sit around for four
years now and it hasn't felt like that. I think
they all kind of knew and the moment that Daniel
Jones went down, there goes our chance now, they did say,
and John Taylor thought he gave the best quart of
locker room like, hey, you know, I asked him, do
(11:05):
you have to hold on to the rope? We need
to not just hold on. We got a scratch claw
and yanked the rope back to make sure our season
can stay on the rails. But you're asking a fifth
round rookie to save your campaign. And I congested this
too much to ask Roddy Leonard. He played better than
I thought he would honestly yesterday, but better defenses are
coming and I feel like these last four games there
(11:27):
are no lightweights, no gimmes, and they're going to be
in serious trouble.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
James, I gave some thoughts on Anthony Richardson in twenty
twenty five here a few minutes ago. What has been
your view was Richardson there yesterday? I don't think they
showed him on TV, Like what's been your view of
Anthony Ridgerson possibly putting on a Colts uniform again this season?
Speaker 8 (11:48):
I'm honestly not sure he traveled yesterday. I did look
for him down there on the sideline mcgrant, and I
was also looking a lot for Daniel Jones through the
vernoculars fields going on with him and as I tweeted
out last week and I we talked about on the
show previously, I've seen and the Interison's face was in
the last three weeks and I was like a faith
they could play football anytime soon. In my opinion, so
(12:11):
those who keep intrustingly asking about him, I think it's
just kind of naive to kind of go down that route.
And keep in mind, usually even when you have guys
to come off ir they have a practice window they
have to open. They haven't even done that, let alone
clear in the play. So I think they're moving forward
with the idea of Roddy Leonard leading them down the
last month of this season.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
James Boy joining us on the Paylot Lickers hotline right
now from Jacksonville. We know what it was like around
here in Indianapolis yesterday. What was the locker room feel
like after the game last night?
Speaker 8 (12:42):
Yes, Kevin just asked me, Yea, it was definitely depressed, depressing,
and I felt like a lot of the guys were
dejected in there, but at the same time sending their
condolences in a way. I'm not asking like, you know,
Dale Jones is bet or anything, but definitely saying their
prayers and you know, thoughts to a guy who has
given everything to the team, and you know the guy's
already playing through a fraction of fibula. Probably would have
played through another one on the other leg had it
(13:04):
been possible. Is he just the fact that at the
Achilles injury is not going to obviously help you in
the immediate future. And now you have questions about Davey Jones,
Chris Ballard chained Psychen. It makes the evaluation for Carlier,
say Gordon the coach Princeville owner, that much tougher, because
how do you evaluate the quarterback positions if he's gone
to miss the rest of this season most likely and
(13:24):
part of next season. How do you evaluate Chris Ballard
if he finally went all in unlike in a year's
past and in backfires in this magnatine, how do you
valet Shange pykean who's going into year three and might
not make the playoffs. Most those who don't make pweff
the first two years don't keep their jobs. So Gladad's
sake here.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
James Boyd from the athletical course, so he is traveling
back to Indy. He'll be back in studio with us
coming up tomorrow from Afar. James, what was viewing Saturday
nights Indiana and Ohio State?
Speaker 9 (13:52):
Like?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
For you?
Speaker 8 (13:54):
Al was great? Me and Nathan Brown actually sat to
Nathan Brown and Andy Starr who went out to watch
some bar in Jacksonville and Peckjaw guys. I found the
coldest place in Jacksulle to Washington game.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
They had a bar.
Speaker 8 (14:07):
Inside of an ice skating rink, which was so freaking weird,
but great set up, great train. There were some Ohio
State fans next to us, and they were actually pretty
respectful and they had a lot of credits to Indiana.
And it was quite a night and offic Ohio State
to win, but oh I probably enough against you again, Trenches.
What surprised me The Moticoul just turnaround. They do not
(14:28):
get bullied anymore down low and they have the big
dudes to compete and you know, the nity and gritty.
So a great win, great thort, Anda Mendoza and company.
So excited to see what Jack form.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Yeah, certainly a crazy weekend of sports. I don't know
if you were traveling or had a chance to watch
any of the college basketball during the day, but that
Purdue game was quite the letdown at Mackie. And I
know you watched a lot of college basketball. Did you
see that coming at Mackie?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
No, not at all.
Speaker 7 (14:55):
One of the worst losses.
Speaker 8 (14:56):
I would they probably ever right for a number one
team in the night, and so I have to think
about was I went to the heel ty Caliburton is
and I much trash You wants to talk to those
fans because you know he likes to rattle a few
people and renown and if he can.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Thanks Seame. I always good to talk to your travel
safe buddy.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
We'll see it right here in the studio tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Thanks James, Thanks very much.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Interesting because you know, we were both talking about after
the game, and I wanted to drill down on that
because you you know, you don't have been in many
many post games. A lot of times it's what is
not said, and it's just the general body language and
face of guys at their locker where you really get
a sense of what's really going on.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
Kevin Well and you know, obviously when Jones goes down,
I think the immediate comp for a lot of our
audience's Halliburton's injury in Game seven. It's similar in a way,
but not really like nothing was going to happen to
Rick Carlisle and Kevin Pritchard, of course, and sure it
sucks the life so much of the life out of
(15:56):
this pace per season as we've seen it play out.
First off, it's ludacris to compare Tyres Haliburn as a
player to Daniel Jones the player. I think you start there.
And also it would be ludicrous to compare the resumes
of Carlile and Pritchard to Ballard and Stichen. So I
would argue it almost adds more to it in what
probably James and those witness down there in Jacksonville. And yeah,
(16:20):
all those questions, I mean, James just alluded to it,
all of these questions, and I think they are difficult.
Like I you know, I didn't think Bower should have
been back for a ninth year. But I also sit
here and say, is it the best thing in the
world to go out and get a new GM and say, hey,
here you go. Oh, by the way, you don't have
your two first round picks reach to the next two years.
That person's starting off way behind. That's quite the way
(16:42):
to start a rebuild. Yeah, But then again, Barnaby is like, wait,
you're going to run this back and Boward's going to
get a tenth year, you know. I mean it's just
and all of the domino effects off of it so,
and you know, I know hindsight could be super twenty
twenty with the Sauce Gardner trade, and I think it's
unfair to all of a sudden go back to that
(17:02):
trade and be like that trade should have never happened.
I think the one element to the trade where you
could probably be a little bit of like, man, there
should have been more pause there. And I get there
are time constraints in the trade. Literally there's a trade deadline.
You had to execute it by whatever it was November fourth,
But Daniel Jones has never proven himself over a full
(17:25):
NFL season.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
To be a franchise quarterback. Right.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
You know, there's either poor play or there's a lot
I mean, it's a long list of injuries now for
Daniel Jones in his career. So if you want to
play the hindsight twenty twenty card, I think that's the
one element to Jones because by trading for Gardner, you
are saying, unquestionably we have the franchise quarterback. He is
not only a great quarterback, but he is durable and
(17:53):
he has proven himself and he is our guy. That's
the one element to looking back on that trade that
you say, boy, Daniel Jones by Halloween deserve that. Yeah,
I don't think that adds up.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah, and then even the secondary that they do have
right now where you're talking about Mooney Ward and his
struggles right now. But I also thought it was interesting
there were a couple of plays, not all of them,
but there were a couple of plays where it looked
like Jacksonville was targeting Kennymore the second yesterday too.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Yeah, I thought the defense was just awful. I mean,
zero sacks and zero quarterback hits on Trevor Lawrence and
they're down there starting left tackle. I mean J. J.
Watt talked about how many moving parts they've had on
their offensive line all year long. No, Parker Washington, that
was their leading pass catcher this season coming into the game.
I mean, Jacoby Myers has been there what three weeks
and looked like he was right on the same page,
(18:45):
no questions asked. So that defensive effort was just because
it was already trending in an ugly direct. I mean,
you give what twenty eight points in the first half
to Jacksonville. I mean, even in Jacksonville starting eight and four,
they're not starting eight and four because of this offense.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And that wasn't the Daniel Jones injury. That's all right
out there.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
I mean, you know obviously had the early pick that
set up the first core. But so there's twenty one
other points in that opening in that opening half there
they average like seven yards per play in the first half.
That is just an awful, awful number there. So again
helping Riley Leonard terrible from the Colts yesterday.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
All right, coming up in a moment, we will take
more of your phone calls. We'll get to the text
line in depth of the first time today. Got a
lot to talk about. What do you do next? If
you're the Indianapolis Cults.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Where do you go?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
How do you how do you move on now without
some five year plan in the back of your mind,
because there's a things have changed a lot in the
last seventy two hours, forty eight hours.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's the best of the best for today's broadcast lineup.
Instant replay continues in a moment on ninety three five
and one oh seven five the Fan.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
This is instant replay today.
Speaker 9 (19:58):
Bonquerian Company, the Indiana Hoosiers are the undisputed, unblemish Big
Ten Football champions and the number one team in the
land and the guy.
Speaker 10 (20:14):
That has been there for every step of the way
throughout this journey from the depths as I talked about
with the Tale of Two Cities, right the depths of
Darkness to the Season of Light. Don Fisher, the voice
of the Indiana Hoosiers, joining us now on the Java
House Peel and poor guest line and Don, I'm going
to begin with this, I know and I'll give you
(20:36):
all the credit in the world because you are the
one guy from the get go when it comes to
Kurt Signetti, there was never really a doubt in your
mind as to what the ceiling was going to be
for this team and how impressed you were.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
But if you could for me, Don.
Speaker 10 (20:52):
Just summarize I guess the emotion or not just for you,
but just for that building and for that fan base
of seeing it all collectively come together on what was
literally an unbelievably special night at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Speaker 11 (21:09):
Well, the culmination, of course, was the third down pass
that Fernando Mendoza through to Charlie Becker who made a
terrific catch and the throw was perfect. At that point,
you knew this game was going to belong to Indiana,
and I have My twin brother in Salt Lake City
(21:30):
calls me up the next day and says, you guys
are a little bit too giddy there at the last
minute and a half, something could have happened. I said, no,
it can't, because Signetti is our coach, and at any rate,
I can just tell you from my perspective, of course,
hugely emotional ballgame, great win for Indiana Athletics, but more importantly,
(21:53):
a tremendous win for the Hoosier Nation.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
A group of people, and.
Speaker 11 (21:57):
I'm not talking about everybody that's on board here in
the last you know, a couple of years now. I'm
talking about the people who bought season tickets for year
after year after year back in the sixties and the
seventies and the eighties and nineties, the two thousands people
who have been coming to Indiana football games forever, and
for me, those are the people that and I'm not
(22:21):
saying that the people who have jumped on board shouldn't
be there.
Speaker 6 (22:25):
They should be there.
Speaker 11 (22:26):
But my point is the people that have gone through
this for all these years and the struggles that Indiana
football has had, that to me is the most important
faction of folks that I want to thank and stay
of hanging in there and staying with us and going
through all of what we've gone through and still continue
(22:47):
to buy tickets and spend the money that it took
to watch football at Indiana and to support football at Indiana.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
And those are the people that I feel the best for.
Speaker 10 (22:57):
Don you know, Bill Binner is going to join me
coming up in about an hour. I mean, he's a
guy that sat through countless numbers of sleet storms watching
Lorenzo White run for two hundred and sixty yards, and
you know, I mean on and on right, I mean,
and it's those folks, right, And I think also about
and I've mentioned this on Friday, and you and I've
(23:17):
talked about this. You know, Terry Hepner was a guy
that took that Indiana job and had this belief of
kind of what Kurt Signetti has delivered. And I don't
mean that to say one is that, you know, I mean,
they're two separate men. I understand that. But Hepner had
this belief of, like, no, this is where this program
could go. And I think most of us probably thought
he was a little bit crazy back then. And then
(23:38):
Unfortunately he got sick and he never got a chance
to see it to fruition and I'm watching that on
Saturday night, And that's what made me so happy for
Kurt Signetti was the fact that here's a guy that
came in with his own also his own vision and
his delivery of his own vision. But it was parallel
with that vision and belief that we had seen preview
of before and I never thought I'd see it, Don,
(24:01):
But that, to me is what made it so special
was the number of people there and there were those
people that believed that was possible. And even still, I'm
not gonna lie to you, Don, when you said unbelievable,
I thought to myself, no, I still don't believe it, right,
I mean, it was that incredible.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
It was there's no question about it.
Speaker 11 (24:19):
And look all I can tell you, and you're right
about Terry Hepner. He knew he could get this program
turned around, and he never got that opportunity because of
the glioblostoma cancer that he suffered brain tumor and died
in June after his second season. And to me that's
(24:39):
heartbreaking because and I know his son Drew was at
the ballgame on Saturday, and my wife told me about
it yesterday and I started blubbering because I when I
think of Terry Hepner, all I can do is get emotional.
Speaker 10 (24:57):
Well, I know what he meant to you, Don, I
mean I don't I was their firsthand, but you can
hear it. And I think that for those that don't know,
anybody that was around him would understand why you feel
that way?
Speaker 6 (25:08):
Right?
Speaker 10 (25:08):
And I feel like yeah, And it's like Kurt Signetti
walks and exudes the energy and the confidence that Terry
Hepner tried to introduce to people.
Speaker 12 (25:20):
That's the best way I can say it. If that
makes sense, No, it makes sense. It's made perfect sense.
And that's the way to put it because hep was
a guy that believed in Indiana football, and I know
he knows he could have turned it around, and he
would have done it had he lived, but he did not.
Speaker 11 (25:37):
And Kurt Signetti has followed whatever his vision was, whatever
vision that Terry had, He's fottled that up. And you
put it perfectly. That's exactly the way I feel about.
Speaker 10 (25:47):
It, Don, When you look at you know, I thought
it was interesting after the game. Don Fisher, the voice
of the Hoosiers is our guest Joba house peeling poor
guest line when Kurt Signetti said, and he kind of
flippantly said it, which I enjoyed, but he said, you know,
now I got two to get these guys to turn
around and refocus. And yeah, I had to laugh because
I thought to myself, I don't know that I have
(26:08):
seen a football team that has more in step bought
into everything his coach said to the point where, yeah,
I mean, are they going to go in and win
the Rose Bowl?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I don't know that.
Speaker 10 (26:19):
But what I do know is this, I don't think
they're going to go in and shoot themselves in the
foot and not show up, because that's just been I mean,
you'd be an idiot at this point to think anything
other than Indiana is going to go put their best
foot forward, right And you know, were you able to
see anything after the game and the celebration, et cetera
that was any different in terms of their standard operating
(26:42):
procedure from the way he's always done things.
Speaker 11 (26:45):
No, I mean, here's the thing. He did allow his
team to stay out there in the field and celebrate it,
which you would expect that any coach would do that,
and so everything that I saw from Kurt Signetti postgame,
he had all kinds of responsibilities with the media. Fox
interviewed him, of course, and of course the Big ten
(27:05):
network interviewed him, and he had to do all these
other things involved in that. But the other thing about
that is he took time at the very I mean,
we were on the air for about forty five minutes
after the game. We're usually about twenty minutes after a
ballgame in normal circumstances. It was at least forty five,
maybe fifty minutes that we were still on the air
after the ballgame was over with. And he finally got
(27:28):
to us, and I knew he would if he had
the time, if he had the opportunity, And he finally
got to us and got to talk to our people
on the air, and who's your nation, so to speak,
that listens on the radio. So I just think the
guy is first class in every way. He's the greatest
coach I've ever been around in a sense of what
he's accomplished. And without doubt, I think this is a
(27:50):
phenomenal run for Indiana football that we've never seen before.
It's historic in every way, and it's a renaissance for
the program, and without question, I can't wait for the
rest of this season to fill itself out because I
think I think fans are going to be just as
excited about what we're about to see in the college
football playoff as they were through this twelve win season.
Speaker 10 (28:10):
You know, it's funny, Don, when people say, you know,
is so and so the best player of the century,
and you think, oh, gosh, I forget, we're only a
quarter the way through this century.
Speaker 6 (28:18):
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I mean when I think century, I still think the
nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Right.
Speaker 10 (28:22):
What he's done is I don't care whether you're talking
nineteen hundred or two thousands. It's the greatest foot college
football coaching job I've ever I think anybody walking the
planet right now has ever seen We've never seen anything
like this. Now, having said all of that, do you
feel Don that there is still that there are still
wrinkles to this football team that can be presented or
(28:45):
new looks that they can come up with for the playoffs?
Or are they at the point now of this is
who we are, this is what we do, and we're
confident in the way we do it, and we don't
need to readjust game plans, well.
Speaker 11 (29:00):
Every game plan needs to be adjusted, there's no doubt
about that because of who you're playing, so that factors
into it. But here's the thing. It's not going to
change philosophically and it's not going to change process wise
for this Indiana football team.
Speaker 6 (29:14):
That's just a fact. He's been like this since he's.
Speaker 11 (29:17):
Gotten here, and I trust everything that he does in
that sense. His game plans are ridiculously good. And I
say that because I'll tell you who I thought was
the best offensive coordinator Indiana's ever had, and that was
Kaylin de Boer.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
Now how long ago was that? Not that long ago?
Speaker 11 (29:39):
Right, But here's the thing about Kaylen de Boor. He
did a tremendous job here at Indiana in one season,
the COVID season with Michael Pennix, and what he produced
in that year was astonishing to me because I thought,
this guy really knows what he's doing. And I still
think that Kaylen de Boor is a great football coach.
(30:00):
And he's getting all kinds of guff at Alabama from
the fan base because they've lost three times that kind
of thing, and the fact that they made the College
Football Playoff is in a lot of people's minds is
very very I don't know what the right word would be,
but a lot of people would say they don't deserve
to be there. I don't know if they should or not,
(30:22):
but I will say this that Indiana is capable of
beating anybody they play in this college football playoff because
Kurt Signetti's that good. And if we played Kalen de
boor or if we play Kirby Smart or whoever the
coach is, I will not take anything away from Kurt
Signetti's ability to dominate that football game with his thinking
(30:44):
process and how he goes about things. The only way
Indiana is going to get beat in this college football playoff,
in my mind, is because the other team has more talent,
because Indiana's talent is not what it is to some
of these programs, but the coaching is.
Speaker 10 (30:59):
Beyond don I got a kick out of it. I
got a good buddy of mine went to James Madison,
and you know, James Madison obviously got into college football
playoff as well, and he sent me a text that said,
it's great to be a JAMU fan because we have
two teams in the big in the college football Playoff.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
You know after the Big Ten title game.
Speaker 10 (31:17):
Because you know, obviously some of the great players that
say and that's to me, that's such a tribute to
Kurt Signetty because when you look at players that started
at James Madison and now they're beating all you know,
their key players in beating Ohio State for crying out
loud in the Big Ten title game, and so much
of that just comes down to coaching belief, all the
things we've talked about. I wanted to ask you this.
You had the ability and you did both games, which
(31:39):
was I mean, you are the You're the lou garig right,
You're the iron horse of broadcasting. Because you did both
games on Saturday, you you should probably have some sort
of a throat laws and endorsement. But but I will
for those that don't know, don and I got to
give you that the ultimate tip of the cap because
people will say, well did his voice hold out? That
(32:00):
is mentally exhausting. I mean, honestly, doing broadcasting for that
long and having to move that quickly for those for
games back to back is unbelievable. Having said that, in
doing basketball and football, you have seen two legendary coaches
India A lot of coaches, but two legendary ones and
Bob Knight and kurtz Signetti. The reason I bring it up,
(32:20):
Bob Knight was a coach that when you went into
a game, you thought to yourself, the other team might
have players, but they're not going to be more prepared
than Indiana. From an ex's and O's standpoint, the personalities aside,
do you ever see or feel similarity in terms of
listening to the coaches in terms of their preparation talk
between those two guys that you've had to do so
(32:40):
many pregame shows.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
With, Well, no, I don't see a difference.
Speaker 11 (32:45):
Coach Knight was demanding on players of basically anybody in
his program. Wasn't amitting on those people to be what
they should be and what they can be.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
That kind of thing.
Speaker 11 (32:57):
You get the same thing from Kurt signettiires the right people,
number one, because he vets them all. He knows who
they are before they get there, and he knows what
he's going to get from those people, and they produce
for him. And that's the trust he has of the
people that he gets because he, like I said, he
vets everybody that's in the program. So and Bob Knight
(33:18):
did exactly the same thing. He wanted guys that were
going to buy into his philosophy, his thoughts, how to
play the game, those kinds of things. He did it
with players, he did it with coaches, He did it
with the people that he surrounded himself with. So, yeah,
they're so much alike in that vein. They are totally
different personalities. And I say totally different only from the
(33:39):
standpoint that coach Knight, as everybody knows, was so controversial
in so many different ways. And Churtz Signetty, I don't
think he is in that context. His personality is different
in that way, and then how he handles players is
different than what Bob did. That's not a negative on
either guy. It's just the way it was at the
time that they were coaching and has been. So those
(34:01):
kinds of things change over the years, too, but they
never I don't think they ever changed with coach Knight
and with coach Signetti after his twenty six I think
it was twenty six years he was an assistant and
learned a lot of things from a lot of different
coaches and then got his own programs at Indiana. Veris
to Pennsylvania, and then Elon and that of course James
Madison and now Indiana. He doesn't vary from it, and
(34:25):
in his philosophy and his thinking process and how he
goes about running the program is as good as I've
ever seen. And it's simply so, very again, very simply
like a lot of what Bob Knight did, because he
ran the program the way he thought it should be
run and it was hugely successful.
Speaker 6 (34:43):
And vice versa with Kurt Signetti.
Speaker 10 (34:45):
Okay, lastly, Don, I wanted to ask you this. There
were a lot of people, understandably and rightly so, per
Signetti being one of them, it talked about how happy
they were for Don Fisher to see that moment on
Saturday Night. So I'd like Don Fisher to say, what
individual or individuals. I realize the fan base in general
is all encompassing, but was there anybody specifically that you
(35:08):
thought of as that game was ending that you thought
to yourself, that's who I'm happy for.
Speaker 11 (35:14):
Well again, and there's no individual that I thought about
that for I thought about that for the Who's Your Nation?
Speaker 6 (35:21):
I really did.
Speaker 11 (35:23):
I wanted this program to take off at some point
football wise, and even when it got started early and
looked like it might change. It has not in all
those years, and that there have been a humongous number
of people coaches that I've enjoyed immensely at Indiana, Guys
that I had the greatest amount of respect for, Obviously
(35:45):
Bill Mallory and Bill Lynch and Terry Hepner and those
type of people. I loved all those people. They were
just great folks and they were really good coaches. They
just didn't hit it at the right time, and unfortunately
for all of us, Who's your nameation suffered because of that,
and now it's changed completely. And that's why I'm really
(36:05):
happy for the entire Hoosier Nation because these people have
gone through a lot over the years.
Speaker 10 (36:10):
Well, Don, for the Who's Your Nation, You've been the
town crier for many years and that was more crying
probably than actual town bugle blowing. But so the time
is now and celebrate it and enjoy it. In January first,
at four o'clock, you will be calling a college football
playoff game in the Rose Bowl for the Indiana Hoosiers
and we certainly look forward to it. Always appreciate the time, Don,
(36:31):
and I certainly hope you were able to continue to
enjoy what took place on Saturday.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
Absolutely appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Thanks Ja Don Fisher joining us the voice of the
w HOO'SI it's the.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Best of the best for today's broadcast lineup. Instant replay
continues in a moment on ninety three five and one
oh seven five the Fan.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
This is instant replay. Earlier this afternoon on.
Speaker 6 (36:59):
The Ride with.
Speaker 13 (37:01):
Stephen Holder of ESPN on ESPN dot com. He joins us,
right now, I love Stephen, how are you.
Speaker 7 (37:07):
I'm doing great, just thinking about the good old days
when the Colts were seven and one or even eight
and two, and Jonathan Taylor was setting records on the
same ground as just Yewens, the good old days, like
a month ago.
Speaker 13 (37:24):
Yes, what's funny about that is you go back to January.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Do you remember this?
Speaker 11 (37:29):
Right?
Speaker 13 (37:29):
I was shaking my fists saying, get rid of everybody,
start new, and then I kind of looked like a
horse's ass in September and October because they started out
seven and one.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
And now that's how quickly, Thanks Katurn.
Speaker 13 (37:42):
Now that looks like the best option is had they
decided on that back in January?
Speaker 7 (37:49):
Well, but that's the problem is that all that's happened
makes evaluation like almost impossible. That's what's so hard about
all this, right, Like, what it's the right decision about
any of this? You know what I mean about quarterback,
About about keeping or firing, about re signing player X
(38:09):
or z or why? What is the right answer? I
don't know. There's no good answers. There are no good
answers because if the number one position is still in question,
I'm getting too far down the road here, but we
might as well just deal with this, right. If the
number one position is still in question, then I almost
don't care what the other answers are, right, So I
(38:32):
don't know, man, I don't have a lot of good
news for you. If you're a cult saying it's all
bad right now, I'm just telling I'm being honest, man,
I'm not an alarmist. I'm usually pretty level headed. But
I don't have anything for you. I really don't.
Speaker 13 (38:46):
Well, it's not only bad for the present, but it's
bad for the foreseeable future. Riley Leonard, who came in
to spell the injured Daniel Jones, who has done for
the Sea and he's on the inbound for Achille surgery
coming up.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
But Riley Lennard came in, he's got a knee injury.
Speaker 13 (39:06):
So is it more likely that he comes back from
that this week and plays in Seattle? Or Brett Ripperd,
who hasn't thrown it pass Its twenty twenty three?
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Is that who we're going to watch?
Speaker 7 (39:15):
God, Look, all I can tell you is that there
was there was there was a no expectation of this
coming when when Shame Stackin revealed this a little while ago.
And I can I can spin it both ways. I
can spin it in terms of, well, maybe he's telling
us to get ahead of you know, to get ahead
(39:38):
of the news and lessen the blow, or maybe he's
just sort of being transparent and just getting it out there.
But I don't know. I just I don't have anything
to base this on. But I was sneaking suspicion that
this is a real thing and that they may have
to actually deal with this, and yeah, you just said it.
That leaves us with essentially Brett Rippen or whoever else
(40:02):
they can find who's laying around with nothing to do
on December what is it, December eighth, with four weeks
less than the NFL season, So yeah, good luckily.
Speaker 13 (40:12):
For a team for a team that's still in playoff
contention too, which is absolutely I mean, really, only the
Colts could this happened too, Seriously.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
I mean they could.
Speaker 7 (40:21):
There's a scenario where they could win two games and
get in, you know, I mean that's not the most
the most ridiculous prediction in the world, but it starts
to sound ridiculous when you talk about the quarterback situation,
like even if they if Daniel Jones had played poorly
yesterday and they lose the game and then they got
(40:42):
four to go, like, you know, you're not in a
strong position for winning the division, but you can still
get in the playoffs. And in this AFC this year,
all I think you've got to do is get in
and give yourself a chance.
Speaker 6 (40:55):
Right, But.
Speaker 7 (40:57):
It almost doesn't matter now, you know. I remember when
the Dolphin made the playoffs a few years ago, when
I think Toole got hurt and I can't remember who
started that quarterback, but they had like a third string
quarterback go start at Buffalo. You recall that in the
snow and it was as bad as you expected, right, Well,
that's kind of where we're at at this point, you know,
(41:18):
even if they like stumbled into a win or two,
it doesn't matter. It doesn't feel like it matters at least,
you know. So I don't know, it's a hardsh thing
to say, but this is the reality.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Can I ask you this really quick?
Speaker 13 (41:31):
And this is ever changing because that's the way things
go with the Colts, because they can have the best
of circumstances for a moment, but you know what's going
to be followed by the absolute worst of circumstances. But
with this in mind, somebody had asked me today, so
I said, I'm going to go ahead and answer, what
do you think they're going to do a quarterback? And
(41:51):
I said this today, which may change, but I said,
I think we're going to be looking at the same
basically three quarterbacks we looked at with Leonard and Richardson
and Jones, you know, as a resigned, very he low
dollar value free agent next year. I think that's how
that's going to go. Because they have so little options.
(42:12):
You look at free agency options, there are none out there. Really,
they don't have anything to work with try to make deals.
I don't see another avenue other than that one. Even
if they do decide to put a ticket dynamite underneath
this thing and try to blow a lot of it up.
Speaker 7 (42:26):
No, that's listen, we might as well be honest with people, okay,
or let me aphrase that people should be honest with themselves.
And yeah, this is an awful example, but hear me out.
When we were much younger and living a different life,
you know, you might have got you might have gotten
(42:47):
turned down at the bar a few times and it's
getting late, and then you know, the young lady that
maybe you didn't really have that much interest in, she
starts to look a little more the better option, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Are you're giving me the coyote ugly analogy?
Speaker 4 (43:05):
Right?
Speaker 3 (43:05):
Yours off?
Speaker 13 (43:09):
A little bit later, I got you. Yeah, I think
I was. I was like the equivalent of that as
a dude. I think that was me.
Speaker 7 (43:19):
So like, I mean, I'm sure you had options. You know,
you were a good looking guy, you know, so uh yeah,
that's that's kind of where they're at. Man, Like you know, Anthey,
Richardson is under contract next year, so he has that
going for him.
Speaker 6 (43:33):
You know, that's something.
Speaker 7 (43:35):
The other guy's not under contract and has a busted achilles,
So what are you doing with that?
Speaker 6 (43:41):
Right.
Speaker 7 (43:41):
And so the timeline there, the most optimistic timeline, and
I mean ridiculously optimistic, is that he's like a competent
football player. I'm talking about Daniel Jones, a competent football
player in terms of his rehab, you know, a few
weeks into the season. And by by competent, I don't
(44:04):
mean a good football player, I mean like he can
play football. You know what I'm saying. Like, that's the
most optimistic view of this. So you can't hang your
hat on that, you know, I don't I don't know
this is this is it's bad. I don't know what
you do. And and even if you clean house, it's
easy to say that, right, Okay, Well, the next people
(44:24):
who get the job, the next crew, good luck to
them because they ain't gonna have any answers either. So
I don't know, man, this is bad.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
Yeah, I mean that's what I mean. You're dealing with
what you're dealing with right now, and it is.
Speaker 7 (44:39):
I want to real quick, I want to add you
real quick. And we also that none of the none
of the moves they did, none of the moves they
made paid off. And some of this is just bad
luck to some degree, right, but it doesn't matter. Why
this is where we are. None of the moves paid off.
Daniel Jones, it paid off until until he got hurt, right,
(44:59):
So that hasn't paid off in the long term. The
defensive signings, I mean, Shavarius Ward is now in concussion
protocol for the third time this season, a guy who
a few weeks ago told us he was having second
thoughts about playing football after the last concussion. All right, yep,
so he now I think is you know, he's just
(45:21):
coming off a fifty million dollars signing. And then you
have Sauce Gardner who has not played hardly at all.
I love Sauce Gardner. I think he's a good player.
We can talk about the compensation. Certainly that's not paying
off right now. But anyway, my point is that has
gotten none of the leaps that they have taken, or
the big swings they have taken, have paid dividends. And
(45:42):
that's just a really hard thing to sell. When you
get to this point, you just don't have anything to
show for it. Whether it's the football gods or you're doing.
It is what it is, and it's just a really
hard thing to swallow.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
It is.
Speaker 13 (45:55):
Here's what else is Stephen Hilder of ESPN, ESPN dot
Coms and Andy Morrilan a Monigroup Group hotline. Here's the
other thing that's hard for me to swallow is I think,
with or without the injury yesterday at Daniel Jones, I thought,
all the way around, especially defensively, there was a lot
of a clown show going on out there, and that
shouldn't be the way this team I think went into
(46:17):
that game and played throughout that game before or after
Daniel Jones went down. I mean, you got to have
something better than what we witnessed. I thought up front,
especially and especially with that defense and the fact that
they got no hits basically no pressure on Trevor Lawrence
with what they have invested, even without DeForest Buckner upfronts
(46:39):
and absolute joke, Stephen.
Speaker 7 (46:42):
I just I can't explain it, but it is what
it is. They have not had consistent pressure on the
quarterback all year long. And you know what that has
led to is one of the more alarming things about
this defense is that I'll pull up here, do you
know they are twenty eighth in third down stops?
Speaker 6 (47:05):
Twenty eighth?
Speaker 7 (47:07):
Like that's when you put the defense in a microcosm
of the things that matter the most, right, it's pressure
on the quarterback, and it's getting off on third down.
Like though, if you boil it down to like the
most basic basic elements, those are the things that matter
all right, And they haven't done either one very well
twenty eighth in third down stops. And so that's how
(47:30):
you end up with Mahomes going on seemingly ten play
drives four times in a row in that game a
couple of weeks ago. CJ. Stroud to some degree the same.
They didn't score a lot of points either of those
two teams, but they certainly had the ball and were
able to mount very long drives. You know, they're not
(47:51):
getting the turnovers when they need them. All the things
that great defenses have to do. It often times is
at the timing of those things.
Speaker 6 (48:02):
Right.
Speaker 7 (48:02):
The numbers look good, they have a lot of sacs,
they have a decent amount of pressure if you look
at like the numbers, the pure pressures and things like that,
but the timeliness of them completely absent. They haven't gotten
them when they needed them.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Period.
Speaker 13 (48:19):
Hey, Steven, I have to apologize too. I think we
have to bail at five sixteen or so. I know
we have filts round table bottom of the hour and
the Pacers go early, but I have so much more
to talk about. It absolutely sucks that we're going to
have to go here in a second, but I don't
know what I'm going to be able to do about it.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
It's just it.
Speaker 13 (48:37):
It is incredible where this team is right now, give
me a minute and a half of thought.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
I know this is looking along ahead.
Speaker 13 (48:45):
Would this be more apt for Carly Orsa Gordon to
dynamite this thing or to move forward with it? Because,
as you mentioned a little bit earlier, who would want
to try to pick up the pieces on this mess?
Speaker 6 (48:56):
Right?
Speaker 7 (48:57):
I do think that that you you have to you
have to consider your options, and I think that's a
lot of times this is what happens, especially with coaches.
You you see what's out there. And I'm pretty sure
Jim Mersey did this before. You know, for example, with
Sean Payton. We're relatively certain they had some conversations with
(49:20):
Sean Payton, you know the year that they extended Chuck
Pagano for example, which you know many years ago. But
I'm just giving you an example, right, So, so Chuck
Piganne goes into Black Monday. He doesn't know if he
has a job or not. And it's because while they're
on the phone with Sean Payton. Turns out Sean was
leveraging like he always did, and he got his money
from New Orleans and he told them thanks, but no thanks.
(49:41):
So anyway, I bring that up to say you could
have a situation like that. This is totally hypothetical. But
when you ask me what should she do? I think
you I think the answer depends on who and what
you can get. And you're gonna have to make some promises,
you know. If you're talking about going after some big fish,
you know in twenty twenty seven, you're probably gonna have
(50:03):
to make some big promises to them, you know, when
you can maybe get things back on the right track
financially and from a draft pick perspective. So I don't know, man,
the alternative is just let them finish it out and
then go from.
Speaker 6 (50:15):
There a year from now.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
Thanks again for listening to Instant Replay, because second helpings
are always best when the main course is still fresh.
Instant Replay on ninety three five and one oh seven
five The Fan
We know you're busy, bills to pay, mouths to feed,
and the man needs another favor.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
So justin Kese, you missed what happened. I'm a fan today,
we got you back.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
And even if you did hear it live, you.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Probably need to hear it again.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
Hugh.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You go all in one place and a just one
hour the best of the best from today on ninety
three to five and one oh seven five the Fan.
This is instant replay.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
This morning I'm a Fan morning show.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
So much going on for the Indianapolis Colts. They've now
lost what four of their last five after starting the
season seven and one. They were setting record well, they
were on pace to set a lot of offensive records.
They were just tearing things up. We knew that the
schedule wasn't the toughest, but still in the NFL, Kevin,
you start putting stats down. That's that's no joke right there.
(00:49):
So they go all in and they trade two first
round draft picks and a wide receiver to the Jets
for Sauce Gardner. He comes in within a game and
a half, he has an injury that's going to keep
him out for a while. And then, of course yesterday
Daniel Jones goes down with what we fear and what
seems to be and will be confirmed later on today,
probably as a torn achilles, which we know is minimum
(01:11):
a year before you get back. And where does this
leave the cults?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Now?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
That's really what people are asking. It doesn't even feel
like a lot of Colts fans are worried about playoffs
this year right here right now. That is a concern,
to be sure, But people are like, okay, but what now, Like,
what do Colts do now?
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Yeah, it's it's easily the question that I've gotten the
most the last twenty four hours of Okay, what are
you with, Anthony Richardson? What do you do with Daniel Jones' contract?
What does this mean for the futures of Shane Steike
and Chris Ballard?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
All of it?
Speaker 5 (01:40):
I mean all of those topics. Now, Jeff become front
burner like no other. You know, Richardson, you have a
fifth year team option that you have to make a
decision on this offseason. By no means would his play
or health indicate you would ever pick pick that up
all of a sudden does it make you want to
pick that up? I mean, all of these questions now
(02:02):
get asked. You know, as far as the final four
weeks are concerned, I have not gotten the vibe that
Anthony Richardson is close to returning at all. That has
just been my general vibe throughout this. I think I've
shared that, I think James has shared that that's a
pretty serious injury on air. Yeah, I mean, you're talking
about a guy that I think it's fair to say
nearly lost his eye frankly, and so you know, an
(02:24):
orbital fracture, you know, is what occurred in the locker room.
We're going we're now going two months without him practicing.
He is doing some weight room work, but again I
have not gotten the vibe that he is going to
be back anytime soon. So I would assume for the
final four weeks that it is Riley Leonard and then
Brett Rippen is on the practice squad. He hasn't thrown
a pass in an NFL game since twenty twenty three.
(02:46):
So that's your little short term kind of reality, and
that obviously doesn't get into anything from a twenty twenty
six quarterback point of view. My like very like early
gut reaction to all is okay, does Anthony Richardson just
become your quarterback for twenty twenty six. You know, Daniel
Jones is likely out with the twenty Keelees for next season,
(03:10):
so Richardson is under contract for next year, the fifth
year options for twenty seven, So would you just roll
with Richardson for twenty six? But then again, once that
question is asked, you very quickly would say to the
person asking that question, well, who's calling those shots? Is
it Chris Baward, is it Shane Staking? And then you
(03:30):
just throw up your hands and say, hope that you're
an AU football fan.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Real cook before we get to our first phone call,
don in a second, here, it's night and day between
having middle of the season in rhythm. Defenses have an
entire week or two to prepare for you as a quarterback.
Based on what you saw from from Riley Leonard in
that Cincinnati preseason game, what you saw a little bit yesterday.
(03:58):
Do you roll with him right now and say, let's
see what the kid can do. Roll with Riley Leonard
as opposed to register for the rest of the year. Yeah, yeah,
I mean that's probably I don't think ripping all of
a sudden is going to you know, be vastly different
than Leonard. I did think, and I want to make
sure we hit on this because you know, I thought
there's a sequence there late in the first half yesterday
(04:19):
where I thought you were still in it. You know,
when you get into the rain game, weird bleep can happen.
I mean, you saw some ball security issues on both teams,
and so I thought there for a second, I'm like, Okay,
if you can get this to one score half, you
get the ball to start the third. You know, just
can you put any game pressure and at the very
least you make Trevor Lawrence hand off the ball in
(04:39):
a safe manner for the final you know, a couple
of quarters and after that go over Stuart Fumble when
they had third and one and fourth and one back
it up and they did not use Leonard's a his
legs or just hand it off both times. I that
to me was just I thought it was idiotic. You know,
Riley Leonard is not a pocket passer. That is not
(05:00):
his game. His game is if there is a strength
to it, it is running. And so I thought we
would see and again, Shane's got a plan for this.
You have to have a backup play Okay, if all
of a sudden, my quarterback gets hurt, here are the
whatever two dozen package plays right, And I would assume
with Leonard a lot of it should be leg based.
I mean, look at his touchdown, it's what it's him
(05:22):
making a play with his legs. Look at the first
third down he converts to Alec Pierce. It's him making
a play with his legs. That is his game.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
I mean, Notre Dame fans saw it all last year.
College football fan saw it in the run of the
national title game. So the fact that they threw it
on third and one I thought was greedy as hell
in the rain. And then fourth and one, you're back
in the shotgun and Taylor gets blown up, And at
that point Jacksonville knows full well if you just threw
it on third and one, you are definitely going to
be running it here on fourth and one and they
(05:48):
sell out on Taylor and boom. You know, if Leonard
keeps it there, I think there's an opportunity for him
to pick it up. So I thought that sequence Jacksonville
then takes it down twenty eight ten, that to me
was just agree just from Shane, and I thought your
defense was awful yesterday. I mean Jacksonville. I get that
there's no Buckner, there's no Gardener. Jacksonville's missing their left
(06:08):
tackle and their top pass catcher, and they, you know,
season high in points Trevor Lawrence doesn't look like that
all year long.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
Just awful.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
No sacks, no hits on Lawrence, zero thirty one pass attempts,
not a single hit. The only time is Jersey got
dirty was because of the rain.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Does Quick pay still play for the Colts? Just awful?
There's a guy that lines up with his number, but
does he do anything awful? Honestly?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
And I will say one thing before I move on
to down too. You go back to that fourth and one.
There is very little in all of the NFL that
makes me cringe and that I hate more than going
for short yardage out of the shotgun. It just drives
me nuts. I know these coaches well that if I
put this guy in motion, now we can move this
guy around and maybe we'll try to get some misdirection
(06:54):
going on.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You know how, I feel like it's football.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
At some point you just got to make a yard
and your guys can you do it or they can't.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Sometimes it just drives me nuts.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Your favorite moment from Saturday night inside of Luca.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Soil probably just watching the elation of everybody when that
field goal went left and it's obvious you are now
going to beat As crazy as it sounds, you knew
they were going to be one of the top two
seeds going into the playoffs. That wasn't in question to
be able to finish off the conference schedule on top
(07:27):
of your regular season schedule though, and beat Ohio State.
I just I think the elation that I felt from
people in their living rooms when I saw when I
was out the next day going over even to my mo. Look,
it was the talk of the town at the retirement home, Kevin.
It's all people wanted to talk about that moment. It's
(07:51):
almost hard to describe collectively what the Indiana fan base
felt in that moment where that realization is, oh, no,
not only are we undefeated, but we.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Just beat Ohio State.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Yeah, we're going to the College Football playff and we're
gonna win the thing too. As opposed to man just
happy we're got there. Can you believe we're in the
College Football Playoff? It was we just beat Ohio State,
and now we're gonna go win this thing too.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah, it was one of those nights where like, are
we allowed to sleep inside of Lugosolo Stadium? I thought,
you know, there's so many cool scenes. I thought when
Aiden Fisher kind of took the mic there and led
the entire place in the IU fight song, you know,
like for IU fans. You know, again, in three weeks,
you might have a very similar scene in Pasadena, and
maybe after that it's Atlanta. Maybe after that it's in Miami.
(08:36):
But no matter what happens, even if they are to
lose in the quarterfinal round, like that post game moment,
obviously Banana Mendoza when he takes the mic, I feel
like he's half like one of those Preacher guys on
Sunday that you see in the No No, But but
he's meeting Mark Dyiton's WWE personality.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
But burstool Sports actually tweeted out, did we just watch
a guy lose the Heisman trophy in a post game?
Speaker 5 (09:01):
It's it's quite the scene anytime he's taking the mic
and I feel like he's you'll speaking through my soul.
But when Ayden Fisher, you know, one of the JMU
guys all of a sudden breaks out into that. You know,
it just kind of shows you a little bit more
of what Kurtzignetti has created here in two years. So yeah,
obviously the Mendoza de Becker throw and sure the missed kick,
(09:22):
and you know, I want to make sure every time
we talk about EU today we mentioned what Brian Haynes
has done with that. With that defense, I mean to
stifle Ohio State life sat and just whip them up front,
timely plays when they needed to. In the secondary. The
Lewis Moore pick I thought was a huge tone setter
early in that game. I think about Ohio State's only
(09:42):
touchdown came off of the reception off that off that
little screen, So just incredible, incredible job from then he
had a defense, and I think if we've watched you know,
we have watched IU all year long, so I think
we know it, but still for the whole you know,
maybe national scene to see their defense play up. Unbelievable effort.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
All right, he is gone, but certainly not forgotten. Today.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
The third member of our team here on the Fan
Morning show, James Boyd getting ready to travel back from Jacksonville,
where he was in attendance for that Colts game. In
the rain yesterday, joins us now in the Payless Liquers hotline.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Good morning, James.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
You know, we had talked about the fact that you
truly believed in a curse for the Colts in Jacksonville,
But I don't think you had that much of a
curse going on when you said that, did you.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
No, they're in trouble.
Speaker 8 (10:28):
Their season probably ended yesterday because of the achilites in
dy of Daniel Jones. So I know I'm here for
all the jokes in the dw Wall County Curves, but
they might actually not made the post season.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
James, how would you describe the locker room scene yesterday?
Speaker 8 (10:43):
Very dejected, Probably one of the more depressing locker rooms
I've been in in quite some time, and not that
I've been around that long, but sit around for four
years now and it hasn't felt like that. I think
they all kind of knew and the moment that Daniel
Jones went down, there goes our chance now, they did say,
and John Taylor thought he gave the best quart of
locker room like, hey, you know, I asked him, do
(11:05):
you have to hold on to the rope? We need
to not just hold on. We got a scratch claw
and yanked the rope back to make sure our season
can stay on the rails. But you're asking a fifth
round rookie to save your campaign. And I congested this
too much to ask Roddy Leonard. He played better than
I thought he would honestly yesterday, but better defenses are
coming and I feel like these last four games there
(11:27):
are no lightweights, no gimmes, and they're going to be
in serious trouble.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
James, I gave some thoughts on Anthony Richardson in twenty
twenty five here a few minutes ago. What has been
your view was Richardson there yesterday? I don't think they
showed him on TV, Like what's been your view of
Anthony Ridgerson possibly putting on a Colts uniform again this season?
Speaker 8 (11:48):
I'm honestly not sure he traveled yesterday. I did look
for him down there on the sideline mcgrant, and I
was also looking a lot for Daniel Jones through the
vernoculars fields going on with him and as I tweeted
out last week and I we talked about on the
show previously, I've seen and the Interison's face was in
the last three weeks and I was like a faith
they could play football anytime soon. In my opinion, so
(12:11):
those who keep intrustingly asking about him, I think it's
just kind of naive to kind of go down that route.
And keep in mind, usually even when you have guys
to come off ir they have a practice window they
have to open. They haven't even done that, let alone
clear in the play. So I think they're moving forward
with the idea of Roddy Leonard leading them down the
last month of this season.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
James Boy joining us on the Paylot Lickers hotline right
now from Jacksonville. We know what it was like around
here in Indianapolis yesterday. What was the locker room feel
like after the game last night?
Speaker 8 (12:42):
Yes, Kevin just asked me, Yea, it was definitely depressed, depressing,
and I felt like a lot of the guys were
dejected in there, but at the same time sending their
condolences in a way. I'm not asking like, you know,
Dale Jones is bet or anything, but definitely saying their
prayers and you know, thoughts to a guy who has
given everything to the team, and you know the guy's
already playing through a fraction of fibula. Probably would have
played through another one on the other leg had it
(13:04):
been possible. Is he just the fact that at the
Achilles injury is not going to obviously help you in
the immediate future. And now you have questions about Davey Jones,
Chris Ballard chained Psychen. It makes the evaluation for Carlier,
say Gordon the coach Princeville owner, that much tougher, because
how do you evaluate the quarterback positions if he's gone
to miss the rest of this season most likely and
(13:24):
part of next season. How do you evaluate Chris Ballard
if he finally went all in unlike in a year's
past and in backfires in this magnatine, how do you
valet Shange pykean who's going into year three and might
not make the playoffs. Most those who don't make pweff
the first two years don't keep their jobs. So Gladad's
sake here.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
James Boyd from the athletical course, so he is traveling
back to Indy. He'll be back in studio with us
coming up tomorrow from Afar. James, what was viewing Saturday
nights Indiana and Ohio State?
Speaker 9 (13:52):
Like?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
For you?
Speaker 8 (13:54):
Al was great? Me and Nathan Brown actually sat to
Nathan Brown and Andy Starr who went out to watch
some bar in Jacksonville and Peckjaw guys. I found the
coldest place in Jacksulle to Washington game.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
They had a bar.
Speaker 8 (14:07):
Inside of an ice skating rink, which was so freaking weird,
but great set up, great train. There were some Ohio
State fans next to us, and they were actually pretty
respectful and they had a lot of credits to Indiana.
And it was quite a night and offic Ohio State
to win, but oh I probably enough against you again, Trenches.
What surprised me The Moticoul just turnaround. They do not
(14:28):
get bullied anymore down low and they have the big
dudes to compete and you know, the nity and gritty.
So a great win, great thort, Anda Mendoza and company.
So excited to see what Jack form.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Yeah, certainly a crazy weekend of sports. I don't know
if you were traveling or had a chance to watch
any of the college basketball during the day, but that
Purdue game was quite the letdown at Mackie. And I
know you watched a lot of college basketball. Did you
see that coming at Mackie?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
No, not at all.
Speaker 7 (14:55):
One of the worst losses.
Speaker 8 (14:56):
I would they probably ever right for a number one
team in the night, and so I have to think
about was I went to the heel ty Caliburton is
and I much trash You wants to talk to those
fans because you know he likes to rattle a few
people and renown and if he can.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Thanks Seame. I always good to talk to your travel
safe buddy.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
We'll see it right here in the studio tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Thanks James, Thanks very much.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Interesting because you know, we were both talking about after
the game, and I wanted to drill down on that
because you you know, you don't have been in many
many post games. A lot of times it's what is
not said, and it's just the general body language and
face of guys at their locker where you really get
a sense of what's really going on.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
Kevin Well and you know, obviously when Jones goes down,
I think the immediate comp for a lot of our
audience's Halliburton's injury in Game seven. It's similar in a way,
but not really like nothing was going to happen to
Rick Carlisle and Kevin Pritchard, of course, and sure it
sucks the life so much of the life out of
(15:56):
this pace per season as we've seen it play out.
First off, it's ludacris to compare Tyres Haliburn as a
player to Daniel Jones the player. I think you start there.
And also it would be ludicrous to compare the resumes
of Carlile and Pritchard to Ballard and Stichen. So I
would argue it almost adds more to it in what
probably James and those witness down there in Jacksonville. And yeah,
(16:20):
all those questions, I mean, James just alluded to it,
all of these questions, and I think they are difficult.
Like I you know, I didn't think Bower should have
been back for a ninth year. But I also sit
here and say, is it the best thing in the
world to go out and get a new GM and say, hey,
here you go. Oh, by the way, you don't have
your two first round picks reach to the next two years.
That person's starting off way behind. That's quite the way
(16:42):
to start a rebuild. Yeah, But then again, Barnaby is like, wait,
you're going to run this back and Boward's going to
get a tenth year, you know. I mean it's just
and all of the domino effects off of it so,
and you know, I know hindsight could be super twenty
twenty with the Sauce Gardner trade, and I think it's
unfair to all of a sudden go back to that
(17:02):
trade and be like that trade should have never happened.
I think the one element to the trade where you
could probably be a little bit of like, man, there
should have been more pause there. And I get there
are time constraints in the trade. Literally there's a trade deadline.
You had to execute it by whatever it was November fourth,
But Daniel Jones has never proven himself over a full
(17:25):
NFL season.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
To be a franchise quarterback. Right.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
You know, there's either poor play or there's a lot
I mean, it's a long list of injuries now for
Daniel Jones in his career. So if you want to
play the hindsight twenty twenty card, I think that's the
one element to Jones because by trading for Gardner, you
are saying, unquestionably we have the franchise quarterback. He is
not only a great quarterback, but he is durable and
(17:53):
he has proven himself and he is our guy. That's
the one element to looking back on that trade that
you say, boy, Daniel Jones by Halloween deserve that. Yeah,
I don't think that adds up.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah, and then even the secondary that they do have
right now where you're talking about Mooney Ward and his
struggles right now. But I also thought it was interesting
there were a couple of plays, not all of them,
but there were a couple of plays where it looked
like Jacksonville was targeting Kennymore the second yesterday too.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Yeah, I thought the defense was just awful. I mean,
zero sacks and zero quarterback hits on Trevor Lawrence and
they're down there starting left tackle. I mean J. J.
Watt talked about how many moving parts they've had on
their offensive line all year long. No, Parker Washington, that
was their leading pass catcher this season coming into the game.
I mean, Jacoby Myers has been there what three weeks
and looked like he was right on the same page,
(18:45):
no questions asked. So that defensive effort was just because
it was already trending in an ugly direct. I mean,
you give what twenty eight points in the first half
to Jacksonville. I mean, even in Jacksonville starting eight and four,
they're not starting eight and four because of this offense.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And that wasn't the Daniel Jones injury. That's all right
out there.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
I mean, you know obviously had the early pick that
set up the first core. But so there's twenty one
other points in that opening in that opening half there
they average like seven yards per play in the first half.
That is just an awful, awful number there. So again
helping Riley Leonard terrible from the Colts yesterday.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
All right, coming up in a moment, we will take
more of your phone calls. We'll get to the text
line in depth of the first time today. Got a
lot to talk about. What do you do next? If
you're the Indianapolis Cults.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Where do you go?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
How do you how do you move on now without
some five year plan in the back of your mind,
because there's a things have changed a lot in the
last seventy two hours, forty eight hours.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's the best of the best for today's broadcast lineup.
Instant replay continues in a moment on ninety three five
and one oh seven five the Fan.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
This is instant replay today.
Speaker 9 (19:58):
Bonquerian Company, the Indiana Hoosiers are the undisputed, unblemish Big
Ten Football champions and the number one team in the
land and the guy.
Speaker 10 (20:14):
That has been there for every step of the way
throughout this journey from the depths as I talked about
with the Tale of Two Cities, right the depths of
Darkness to the Season of Light. Don Fisher, the voice
of the Indiana Hoosiers, joining us now on the Java
House Peel and poor guest line and Don, I'm going
to begin with this, I know and I'll give you
(20:36):
all the credit in the world because you are the
one guy from the get go when it comes to
Kurt Signetti, there was never really a doubt in your
mind as to what the ceiling was going to be
for this team and how impressed you were.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
But if you could for me, Don.
Speaker 10 (20:52):
Just summarize I guess the emotion or not just for you,
but just for that building and for that fan base
of seeing it all collectively come together on what was
literally an unbelievably special night at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Speaker 11 (21:09):
Well, the culmination, of course, was the third down pass
that Fernando Mendoza through to Charlie Becker who made a
terrific catch and the throw was perfect. At that point,
you knew this game was going to belong to Indiana,
and I have My twin brother in Salt Lake City
(21:30):
calls me up the next day and says, you guys
are a little bit too giddy there at the last
minute and a half, something could have happened. I said, no,
it can't, because Signetti is our coach, and at any rate,
I can just tell you from my perspective, of course,
hugely emotional ballgame, great win for Indiana Athletics, but more importantly,
(21:53):
a tremendous win for the Hoosier Nation.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
A group of people, and.
Speaker 11 (21:57):
I'm not talking about everybody that's on board here in
the last you know, a couple of years now. I'm
talking about the people who bought season tickets for year
after year after year back in the sixties and the
seventies and the eighties and nineties, the two thousands people
who have been coming to Indiana football games forever, and
for me, those are the people that and I'm not
(22:21):
saying that the people who have jumped on board shouldn't
be there.
Speaker 6 (22:25):
They should be there.
Speaker 11 (22:26):
But my point is the people that have gone through
this for all these years and the struggles that Indiana
football has had, that to me is the most important
faction of folks that I want to thank and stay
of hanging in there and staying with us and going
through all of what we've gone through and still continue
(22:47):
to buy tickets and spend the money that it took
to watch football at Indiana and to support football at Indiana.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
And those are the people that I feel the best for.
Speaker 10 (22:57):
Don you know, Bill Binner is going to join me
coming up in about an hour. I mean, he's a
guy that sat through countless numbers of sleet storms watching
Lorenzo White run for two hundred and sixty yards, and
you know, I mean on and on right, I mean,
and it's those folks, right, And I think also about
and I've mentioned this on Friday, and you and I've
(23:17):
talked about this. You know, Terry Hepner was a guy
that took that Indiana job and had this belief of
kind of what Kurt Signetti has delivered. And I don't
mean that to say one is that, you know, I mean,
they're two separate men. I understand that. But Hepner had
this belief of, like, no, this is where this program
could go. And I think most of us probably thought
he was a little bit crazy back then. And then
(23:38):
Unfortunately he got sick and he never got a chance
to see it to fruition and I'm watching that on
Saturday night, And that's what made me so happy for
Kurt Signetti was the fact that here's a guy that
came in with his own also his own vision and
his delivery of his own vision. But it was parallel
with that vision and belief that we had seen preview
of before and I never thought I'd see it, Don,
(24:01):
But that, to me is what made it so special
was the number of people there and there were those
people that believed that was possible. And even still, I'm
not gonna lie to you, Don, when you said unbelievable,
I thought to myself, no, I still don't believe it, right,
I mean, it was that incredible.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
It was there's no question about it.
Speaker 11 (24:19):
And look all I can tell you, and you're right
about Terry Hepner. He knew he could get this program
turned around, and he never got that opportunity because of
the glioblostoma cancer that he suffered brain tumor and died
in June after his second season. And to me that's
(24:39):
heartbreaking because and I know his son Drew was at
the ballgame on Saturday, and my wife told me about
it yesterday and I started blubbering because I when I
think of Terry Hepner, all I can do is get emotional.
Speaker 10 (24:57):
Well, I know what he meant to you, Don, I
mean I don't I was their firsthand, but you can
hear it. And I think that for those that don't know,
anybody that was around him would understand why you feel
that way?
Speaker 6 (25:08):
Right?
Speaker 10 (25:08):
And I feel like yeah, And it's like Kurt Signetti
walks and exudes the energy and the confidence that Terry
Hepner tried to introduce to people.
Speaker 12 (25:20):
That's the best way I can say it. If that
makes sense, No, it makes sense. It's made perfect sense.
And that's the way to put it because hep was
a guy that believed in Indiana football, and I know
he knows he could have turned it around, and he
would have done it had he lived, but he did not.
Speaker 11 (25:37):
And Kurt Signetti has followed whatever his vision was, whatever
vision that Terry had, He's fottled that up. And you
put it perfectly. That's exactly the way I feel about.
Speaker 10 (25:47):
It, Don, When you look at you know, I thought
it was interesting after the game. Don Fisher, the voice
of the Hoosiers is our guest Joba house peeling poor
guest line when Kurt Signetti said, and he kind of
flippantly said it, which I enjoyed, but he said, you know,
now I got two to get these guys to turn
around and refocus. And yeah, I had to laugh because
I thought to myself, I don't know that I have
(26:08):
seen a football team that has more in step bought
into everything his coach said to the point where, yeah,
I mean, are they going to go in and win
the Rose Bowl?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I don't know that.
Speaker 10 (26:19):
But what I do know is this, I don't think
they're going to go in and shoot themselves in the
foot and not show up, because that's just been I mean,
you'd be an idiot at this point to think anything
other than Indiana is going to go put their best
foot forward, right And you know, were you able to
see anything after the game and the celebration, et cetera
that was any different in terms of their standard operating
(26:42):
procedure from the way he's always done things.
Speaker 11 (26:45):
No, I mean, here's the thing. He did allow his
team to stay out there in the field and celebrate it,
which you would expect that any coach would do that,
and so everything that I saw from Kurt Signetti postgame,
he had all kinds of responsibilities with the media. Fox
interviewed him, of course, and of course the Big ten
(27:05):
network interviewed him, and he had to do all these
other things involved in that. But the other thing about
that is he took time at the very I mean,
we were on the air for about forty five minutes
after the game. We're usually about twenty minutes after a
ballgame in normal circumstances. It was at least forty five,
maybe fifty minutes that we were still on the air
after the ballgame was over with. And he finally got
(27:28):
to us, and I knew he would if he had
the time, if he had the opportunity, And he finally
got to us and got to talk to our people
on the air, and who's your nation, so to speak,
that listens on the radio. So I just think the
guy is first class in every way. He's the greatest
coach I've ever been around in a sense of what
he's accomplished. And without doubt, I think this is a
(27:50):
phenomenal run for Indiana football that we've never seen before.
It's historic in every way, and it's a renaissance for
the program, and without question, I can't wait for the
rest of this season to fill itself out because I
think I think fans are going to be just as
excited about what we're about to see in the college
football playoff as they were through this twelve win season.
Speaker 10 (28:10):
You know, it's funny, Don, when people say, you know,
is so and so the best player of the century,
and you think, oh, gosh, I forget, we're only a
quarter the way through this century.
Speaker 6 (28:18):
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I mean when I think century, I still think the
nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Right.
Speaker 10 (28:22):
What he's done is I don't care whether you're talking
nineteen hundred or two thousands. It's the greatest foot college
football coaching job I've ever I think anybody walking the
planet right now has ever seen We've never seen anything
like this. Now, having said all of that, do you
feel Don that there is still that there are still
wrinkles to this football team that can be presented or
(28:45):
new looks that they can come up with for the playoffs?
Or are they at the point now of this is
who we are, this is what we do, and we're
confident in the way we do it, and we don't
need to readjust game plans, well.
Speaker 11 (29:00):
Every game plan needs to be adjusted, there's no doubt
about that because of who you're playing, so that factors
into it. But here's the thing. It's not going to
change philosophically and it's not going to change process wise
for this Indiana football team.
Speaker 6 (29:14):
That's just a fact. He's been like this since he's.
Speaker 11 (29:17):
Gotten here, and I trust everything that he does in
that sense. His game plans are ridiculously good. And I
say that because I'll tell you who I thought was
the best offensive coordinator Indiana's ever had, and that was
Kaylin de Boer.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
Now how long ago was that? Not that long ago?
Speaker 11 (29:39):
Right, But here's the thing about Kaylen de Boor. He
did a tremendous job here at Indiana in one season,
the COVID season with Michael Pennix, and what he produced
in that year was astonishing to me because I thought,
this guy really knows what he's doing. And I still
think that Kaylen de Boor is a great football coach.
(30:00):
And he's getting all kinds of guff at Alabama from
the fan base because they've lost three times that kind
of thing, and the fact that they made the College
Football Playoff is in a lot of people's minds is
very very I don't know what the right word would be,
but a lot of people would say they don't deserve
to be there. I don't know if they should or not,
(30:22):
but I will say this that Indiana is capable of
beating anybody they play in this college football playoff because
Kurt Signetti's that good. And if we played Kalen de
boor or if we play Kirby Smart or whoever the
coach is, I will not take anything away from Kurt
Signetti's ability to dominate that football game with his thinking
(30:44):
process and how he goes about things. The only way
Indiana is going to get beat in this college football playoff,
in my mind, is because the other team has more talent,
because Indiana's talent is not what it is to some
of these programs, but the coaching is.
Speaker 10 (30:59):
Beyond don I got a kick out of it. I
got a good buddy of mine went to James Madison,
and you know, James Madison obviously got into college football
playoff as well, and he sent me a text that said,
it's great to be a JAMU fan because we have
two teams in the big in the college football Playoff.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
You know after the Big Ten title game.
Speaker 10 (31:17):
Because you know, obviously some of the great players that
say and that's to me, that's such a tribute to
Kurt Signetty because when you look at players that started
at James Madison and now they're beating all you know,
their key players in beating Ohio State for crying out
loud in the Big Ten title game, and so much
of that just comes down to coaching belief, all the
things we've talked about. I wanted to ask you this.
You had the ability and you did both games, which
(31:39):
was I mean, you are the You're the lou garig right,
You're the iron horse of broadcasting. Because you did both
games on Saturday, you you should probably have some sort
of a throat laws and endorsement. But but I will
for those that don't know, don and I got to
give you that the ultimate tip of the cap because
people will say, well did his voice hold out? That
(32:00):
is mentally exhausting. I mean, honestly, doing broadcasting for that
long and having to move that quickly for those for
games back to back is unbelievable. Having said that, in
doing basketball and football, you have seen two legendary coaches
India A lot of coaches, but two legendary ones and
Bob Knight and kurtz Signetti. The reason I bring it up,
(32:20):
Bob Knight was a coach that when you went into
a game, you thought to yourself, the other team might
have players, but they're not going to be more prepared
than Indiana. From an ex's and O's standpoint, the personalities aside,
do you ever see or feel similarity in terms of
listening to the coaches in terms of their preparation talk
between those two guys that you've had to do so
(32:40):
many pregame shows.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
With, Well, no, I don't see a difference.
Speaker 11 (32:45):
Coach Knight was demanding on players of basically anybody in
his program. Wasn't amitting on those people to be what
they should be and what they can be.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
That kind of thing.
Speaker 11 (32:57):
You get the same thing from Kurt signettiires the right people,
number one, because he vets them all. He knows who
they are before they get there, and he knows what
he's going to get from those people, and they produce
for him. And that's the trust he has of the
people that he gets because he, like I said, he
vets everybody that's in the program. So and Bob Knight
(33:18):
did exactly the same thing. He wanted guys that were
going to buy into his philosophy, his thoughts, how to
play the game, those kinds of things. He did it
with players, he did it with coaches, He did it
with the people that he surrounded himself with. So, yeah,
they're so much alike in that vein. They are totally
different personalities. And I say totally different only from the
(33:39):
standpoint that coach Knight, as everybody knows, was so controversial
in so many different ways. And Churtz Signetty, I don't
think he is in that context. His personality is different
in that way, and then how he handles players is
different than what Bob did. That's not a negative on
either guy. It's just the way it was at the
time that they were coaching and has been. So those
(34:01):
kinds of things change over the years, too, but they
never I don't think they ever changed with coach Knight
and with coach Signetti after his twenty six I think
it was twenty six years he was an assistant and
learned a lot of things from a lot of different
coaches and then got his own programs at Indiana. Veris
to Pennsylvania, and then Elon and that of course James
Madison and now Indiana. He doesn't vary from it, and
(34:25):
in his philosophy and his thinking process and how he
goes about running the program is as good as I've
ever seen. And it's simply so, very again, very simply
like a lot of what Bob Knight did, because he
ran the program the way he thought it should be
run and it was hugely successful.
Speaker 6 (34:43):
And vice versa with Kurt Signetti.
Speaker 10 (34:45):
Okay, lastly, Don, I wanted to ask you this. There
were a lot of people, understandably and rightly so, per
Signetti being one of them, it talked about how happy
they were for Don Fisher to see that moment on
Saturday Night. So I'd like Don Fisher to say, what
individual or individuals. I realize the fan base in general
is all encompassing, but was there anybody specifically that you
(35:08):
thought of as that game was ending that you thought
to yourself, that's who I'm happy for.
Speaker 11 (35:14):
Well again, and there's no individual that I thought about
that for I thought about that for the Who's Your Nation?
Speaker 6 (35:21):
I really did.
Speaker 11 (35:23):
I wanted this program to take off at some point
football wise, and even when it got started early and
looked like it might change. It has not in all
those years, and that there have been a humongous number
of people coaches that I've enjoyed immensely at Indiana, Guys
that I had the greatest amount of respect for, Obviously
(35:45):
Bill Mallory and Bill Lynch and Terry Hepner and those
type of people. I loved all those people. They were
just great folks and they were really good coaches. They
just didn't hit it at the right time, and unfortunately
for all of us, Who's your nameation suffered because of that,
and now it's changed completely. And that's why I'm really
(36:05):
happy for the entire Hoosier Nation because these people have
gone through a lot over the years.
Speaker 10 (36:10):
Well, Don, for the Who's Your Nation, You've been the
town crier for many years and that was more crying
probably than actual town bugle blowing. But so the time
is now and celebrate it and enjoy it. In January first,
at four o'clock, you will be calling a college football
playoff game in the Rose Bowl for the Indiana Hoosiers
and we certainly look forward to it. Always appreciate the time, Don,
(36:31):
and I certainly hope you were able to continue to
enjoy what took place on Saturday.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
Absolutely appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Thanks Ja Don Fisher joining us the voice of the
w HOO'SI it's the.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Best of the best for today's broadcast lineup. Instant replay
continues in a moment on ninety three five and one
oh seven five the Fan.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
This is instant replay. Earlier this afternoon on.
Speaker 6 (36:59):
The Ride with.
Speaker 13 (37:01):
Stephen Holder of ESPN on ESPN dot com. He joins us,
right now, I love Stephen, how are you.
Speaker 7 (37:07):
I'm doing great, just thinking about the good old days
when the Colts were seven and one or even eight
and two, and Jonathan Taylor was setting records on the
same ground as just Yewens, the good old days, like
a month ago.
Speaker 13 (37:24):
Yes, what's funny about that is you go back to January.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Do you remember this?
Speaker 11 (37:29):
Right?
Speaker 13 (37:29):
I was shaking my fists saying, get rid of everybody,
start new, and then I kind of looked like a
horse's ass in September and October because they started out
seven and one.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
And now that's how quickly, Thanks Katurn.
Speaker 13 (37:42):
Now that looks like the best option is had they
decided on that back in January?
Speaker 7 (37:49):
Well, but that's the problem is that all that's happened
makes evaluation like almost impossible. That's what's so hard about
all this, right, Like, what it's the right decision about
any of this? You know what I mean about quarterback,
About about keeping or firing, about re signing player X
(38:09):
or z or why? What is the right answer? I
don't know. There's no good answers. There are no good
answers because if the number one position is still in question,
I'm getting too far down the road here, but we
might as well just deal with this, right. If the
number one position is still in question, then I almost
don't care what the other answers are, right, So I
(38:32):
don't know, man, I don't have a lot of good
news for you. If you're a cult saying it's all
bad right now, I'm just telling I'm being honest, man,
I'm not an alarmist. I'm usually pretty level headed. But
I don't have anything for you. I really don't.
Speaker 13 (38:46):
Well, it's not only bad for the present, but it's
bad for the foreseeable future. Riley Leonard, who came in
to spell the injured Daniel Jones, who has done for
the Sea and he's on the inbound for Achille surgery
coming up.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
But Riley Lennard came in, he's got a knee injury.
Speaker 13 (39:06):
So is it more likely that he comes back from
that this week and plays in Seattle? Or Brett Ripperd,
who hasn't thrown it pass Its twenty twenty three?
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Is that who we're going to watch?
Speaker 7 (39:15):
God, Look, all I can tell you is that there
was there was there was a no expectation of this
coming when when Shame Stackin revealed this a little while ago.
And I can I can spin it both ways. I
can spin it in terms of, well, maybe he's telling
us to get ahead of you know, to get ahead
(39:38):
of the news and lessen the blow, or maybe he's
just sort of being transparent and just getting it out there.
But I don't know. I just I don't have anything
to base this on. But I was sneaking suspicion that
this is a real thing and that they may have
to actually deal with this, and yeah, you just said it.
That leaves us with essentially Brett Rippen or whoever else
(40:02):
they can find who's laying around with nothing to do
on December what is it, December eighth, with four weeks
less than the NFL season, So yeah, good luckily.
Speaker 13 (40:12):
For a team for a team that's still in playoff
contention too, which is absolutely I mean, really, only the
Colts could this happened too, Seriously.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
I mean they could.
Speaker 7 (40:21):
There's a scenario where they could win two games and
get in, you know, I mean that's not the most
the most ridiculous prediction in the world, but it starts
to sound ridiculous when you talk about the quarterback situation,
like even if they if Daniel Jones had played poorly
yesterday and they lose the game and then they got
(40:42):
four to go, like, you know, you're not in a
strong position for winning the division, but you can still
get in the playoffs. And in this AFC this year,
all I think you've got to do is get in
and give yourself a chance.
Speaker 6 (40:55):
Right, But.
Speaker 7 (40:57):
It almost doesn't matter now, you know. I remember when
the Dolphin made the playoffs a few years ago, when
I think Toole got hurt and I can't remember who
started that quarterback, but they had like a third string
quarterback go start at Buffalo. You recall that in the
snow and it was as bad as you expected, right, Well,
that's kind of where we're at at this point, you know,
(41:18):
even if they like stumbled into a win or two,
it doesn't matter. It doesn't feel like it matters at least,
you know. So I don't know, it's a hardsh thing
to say, but this is the reality.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Can I ask you this really quick?
Speaker 13 (41:31):
And this is ever changing because that's the way things
go with the Colts, because they can have the best
of circumstances for a moment, but you know what's going
to be followed by the absolute worst of circumstances. But
with this in mind, somebody had asked me today, so
I said, I'm going to go ahead and answer, what
do you think they're going to do a quarterback? And
(41:51):
I said this today, which may change, but I said,
I think we're going to be looking at the same
basically three quarterbacks we looked at with Leonard and Richardson
and Jones, you know, as a resigned, very he low
dollar value free agent next year. I think that's how
that's going to go. Because they have so little options.
(42:12):
You look at free agency options, there are none out there. Really,
they don't have anything to work with try to make deals.
I don't see another avenue other than that one. Even
if they do decide to put a ticket dynamite underneath
this thing and try to blow a lot of it up.
Speaker 7 (42:26):
No, that's listen, we might as well be honest with people, okay,
or let me aphrase that people should be honest with themselves.
And yeah, this is an awful example, but hear me out.
When we were much younger and living a different life,
you know, you might have got you might have gotten
(42:47):
turned down at the bar a few times and it's
getting late, and then you know, the young lady that
maybe you didn't really have that much interest in, she
starts to look a little more the better option, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Are you're giving me the coyote ugly analogy?
Speaker 4 (43:05):
Right?
Speaker 3 (43:05):
Yours off?
Speaker 13 (43:09):
A little bit later, I got you. Yeah, I think
I was. I was like the equivalent of that as
a dude. I think that was me.
Speaker 7 (43:19):
So like, I mean, I'm sure you had options. You know,
you were a good looking guy, you know, so uh yeah,
that's that's kind of where they're at. Man, Like you know, Anthey,
Richardson is under contract next year, so he has that
going for him.
Speaker 6 (43:33):
You know, that's something.
Speaker 7 (43:35):
The other guy's not under contract and has a busted achilles,
So what are you doing with that?
Speaker 6 (43:41):
Right.
Speaker 7 (43:41):
And so the timeline there, the most optimistic timeline, and
I mean ridiculously optimistic, is that he's like a competent
football player. I'm talking about Daniel Jones, a competent football
player in terms of his rehab, you know, a few
weeks into the season. And by by competent, I don't
(44:04):
mean a good football player, I mean like he can
play football. You know what I'm saying. Like, that's the
most optimistic view of this. So you can't hang your
hat on that, you know, I don't I don't know
this is this is it's bad. I don't know what
you do. And and even if you clean house, it's
easy to say that, right, Okay, Well, the next people
(44:24):
who get the job, the next crew, good luck to
them because they ain't gonna have any answers either. So
I don't know, man, this is bad.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
Yeah, I mean that's what I mean. You're dealing with
what you're dealing with right now, and it is.
Speaker 7 (44:39):
I want to real quick, I want to add you
real quick. And we also that none of the none
of the moves they did, none of the moves they
made paid off. And some of this is just bad
luck to some degree, right, but it doesn't matter. Why
this is where we are. None of the moves paid off.
Daniel Jones, it paid off until until he got hurt, right,
(44:59):
So that hasn't paid off in the long term. The
defensive signings, I mean, Shavarius Ward is now in concussion
protocol for the third time this season, a guy who
a few weeks ago told us he was having second
thoughts about playing football after the last concussion. All right, yep,
so he now I think is you know, he's just
(45:21):
coming off a fifty million dollars signing. And then you
have Sauce Gardner who has not played hardly at all.
I love Sauce Gardner. I think he's a good player.
We can talk about the compensation. Certainly that's not paying
off right now. But anyway, my point is that has
gotten none of the leaps that they have taken, or
the big swings they have taken, have paid dividends. And
(45:42):
that's just a really hard thing to sell. When you
get to this point, you just don't have anything to
show for it. Whether it's the football gods or you're doing.
It is what it is, and it's just a really
hard thing to swallow.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
It is.
Speaker 13 (45:55):
Here's what else is Stephen Hilder of ESPN, ESPN dot
Coms and Andy Morrilan a Monigroup Group hotline. Here's the
other thing that's hard for me to swallow is I think,
with or without the injury yesterday at Daniel Jones, I thought,
all the way around, especially defensively, there was a lot
of a clown show going on out there, and that
shouldn't be the way this team I think went into
(46:17):
that game and played throughout that game before or after
Daniel Jones went down. I mean, you got to have
something better than what we witnessed. I thought up front,
especially and especially with that defense and the fact that
they got no hits basically no pressure on Trevor Lawrence
with what they have invested, even without DeForest Buckner upfronts
(46:39):
and absolute joke, Stephen.
Speaker 7 (46:42):
I just I can't explain it, but it is what
it is. They have not had consistent pressure on the
quarterback all year long. And you know what that has
led to is one of the more alarming things about
this defense is that I'll pull up here, do you
know they are twenty eighth in third down stops?
Speaker 6 (47:05):
Twenty eighth?
Speaker 7 (47:07):
Like that's when you put the defense in a microcosm
of the things that matter the most, right, it's pressure
on the quarterback, and it's getting off on third down.
Like though, if you boil it down to like the
most basic basic elements, those are the things that matter
all right, And they haven't done either one very well
twenty eighth in third down stops. And so that's how
(47:30):
you end up with Mahomes going on seemingly ten play
drives four times in a row in that game a
couple of weeks ago. CJ. Stroud to some degree the same.
They didn't score a lot of points either of those
two teams, but they certainly had the ball and were
able to mount very long drives. You know, they're not
(47:51):
getting the turnovers when they need them. All the things
that great defenses have to do. It often times is
at the timing of those things.
Speaker 6 (48:02):
Right.
Speaker 7 (48:02):
The numbers look good, they have a lot of sacs,
they have a decent amount of pressure if you look
at like the numbers, the pure pressures and things like that,
but the timeliness of them completely absent. They haven't gotten
them when they needed them.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Period.
Speaker 13 (48:19):
Hey, Steven, I have to apologize too. I think we
have to bail at five sixteen or so. I know
we have filts round table bottom of the hour and
the Pacers go early, but I have so much more
to talk about. It absolutely sucks that we're going to
have to go here in a second, but I don't
know what I'm going to be able to do about it.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
It's just it.
Speaker 13 (48:37):
It is incredible where this team is right now, give
me a minute and a half of thought.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
I know this is looking along ahead.
Speaker 13 (48:45):
Would this be more apt for Carly Orsa Gordon to
dynamite this thing or to move forward with it? Because,
as you mentioned a little bit earlier, who would want
to try to pick up the pieces on this mess?
Speaker 6 (48:56):
Right?
Speaker 7 (48:57):
I do think that that you you have to you
have to consider your options, and I think that's a
lot of times this is what happens, especially with coaches.
You you see what's out there. And I'm pretty sure
Jim Mersey did this before. You know, for example, with
Sean Payton. We're relatively certain they had some conversations with
(49:20):
Sean Payton, you know the year that they extended Chuck
Pagano for example, which you know many years ago. But
I'm just giving you an example, right, So, so Chuck
Piganne goes into Black Monday. He doesn't know if he
has a job or not. And it's because while they're
on the phone with Sean Payton. Turns out Sean was
leveraging like he always did, and he got his money
from New Orleans and he told them thanks, but no thanks.
(49:41):
So anyway, I bring that up to say you could
have a situation like that. This is totally hypothetical. But
when you ask me what should she do? I think
you I think the answer depends on who and what
you can get. And you're gonna have to make some promises,
you know. If you're talking about going after some big fish,
you know in twenty twenty seven, you're probably gonna have
(50:03):
to make some big promises to them, you know, when
you can maybe get things back on the right track
financially and from a draft pick perspective. So I don't know, man,
the alternative is just let them finish it out and
then go from.
Speaker 6 (50:15):
There a year from now.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
Thanks again for listening to Instant Replay, because second helpings
are always best when the main course is still fresh.
Instant Replay on ninety three five and one oh seven
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