November 30, 2025 • 34 mins
In this repost from an episode a few weeks back, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr recap what they learned about the Hoosiers from watching Indiana's 27-24 win over Penn State.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, Tony Gerdaman here. I am reposting our ten
things we learned rewatching Indiana beat Penn State from a
few weeks back because it seems to be a little
bit more pertinent now, and so go ahead and give
this a listen. We will have some more rewatch reactions
from a few more Hoosier games this year this week
(00:24):
to get you prepared as prepared as we can for
the Big Ten championship game between Ohio State and Indiana.
And of course we're gonna have a lot more for
you as well as you would expect. So go ahead
and give us a listen if you want. If you don't, still, hey.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Thanks for downloading.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Hello everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here, as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
How's it going, Tony? The calendar says November, which means
we are deep in the heart of rewatch season. It
is not just buckuys. Michigan has the week off this week,
so we are doing what every college football coach says
you should not do, Tony. We are looking ahead dangerous.
Will that hurt our performance on podcasts against Rutgers and UCLA?
(01:13):
It's impossible to say, but you can't say it's not
going to.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, I know I haven't watched UCLA, so it has
already probably hurt mine. I will go ahead and admit it.
But no, we are here to discuss our rewatch or
initial watch, mainly of Indiana's twenty seven to twenty four
win over Penn State. Are we looking ahead or are
we just you know, looking around, I say, looking around
(01:38):
at the state of college football. And you know, we've
seen a lot of people talking about how Indiana should
be number one based on the entire season of work.
All of the times they're blowing everybody out. They're just
blowing everybody out, except for of course, Iowa, Oregon in
Penn State, which is you know, of their big ten
games at this point. But whatever, whatever. So yeah, let's
(02:00):
just go ahead and and share our thoughts on what
we see. Time. I'll let you go first. I know
you've got some thoughts. You've been itch and you've been
wanting to do this. What's your big problem?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, I guess let's start with I mean, it's so
lazy and trite to start with the quarterback, but Tony,
let's start with the quarterback. Because you know, Fernando Mendoza
has obviously been a big topic of conversation in college
football this year. He I just saw an article from
ESPN about how, oh boy, Julian Sarah saying really needs
to craft a narrative in the Michigan game. And you know,
(02:30):
so you even have a chance to beat Juliet, to
beat Fernando Mendoza for the Heisman, It's like, does it hear?
Does he just need to win the rest of his
games before the Heisman, because it feels like that would
probably handle it. But either way, Fernando Mendoza had a
storybook finish in this game against Penn State. Was that
directly caused by the fact that they had three empty
possessions right before that storybook finish in click crunch time
(02:52):
on the road? Yes, it sure was. But that's not
We're not here to talk about that. We're here to
talk about the storybook finish. And you know, I think
one thing that I was interested in, you know, Mendoza.
You've seen him enough in the highlights, and I watched
that Indiana Illinois game, which, boy, oh boy, was that
a different game than this one. But you know, you
watch him and it's like, oh boy, he can sling
(03:13):
it around, and he's got some good wide receivers and
all that kind of stuff. And he was without Elijah
Surat in this game, which I think is one thing
we need to sort of stipulate upfront that they were
without probably their best wide receiver in this game. So
that impacted this a little bit. But I was impressed
with how well Fernando Mendoza ran the ball. There were
a bunch of times when there's you know, third and five,
they line up five wide and they just run a
(03:34):
quarterback draw Boom picks it up. Then he had an
eighteen yard touchdown just on a scramble. He had a
scramble that turned a second and eleven where it's like,
oh boy, he's gonna have to throw it away. It's
third and eleven, and he just turned it into a
third and four and it's like it's seven yards. Didn't
pick up a first down, but it's a really important
play where it really changes the likelihood of converting that
(03:55):
series of downs. There were a third and ten where
there were rushers coming off the edge. He rolled left,
bought time and made a nice throw for a first down.
You know, he just does a lot of stuff with
his legs that you hear all about his throwing, and
you hear all about the offense on the hole when
old boy are the great, and they are. But I
think that his running ability he's not, you know, he's
(04:16):
not Michael Vick, but he can make stuff happen with
his legs that really will extend drives and sometimes cap
drives for them. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
He was sacked three times for US for twenty yards
with those sacks in there, and had the eighteen yard touchdown.
Did a great job of scrambling to either pick up
yards or the other thing. When he scrambles, he keeps
his eyes up and he keeps him downfield, and he's
a danger until the whistle is blown. And he has
the confidence to make any throw or to or to
(04:47):
attempt any throw, and is also tough enough to know
that I need this last yard and I'm gonna get
hit for it, but it's okay because we need it.
So he got everything that you want. But yeah, he
did throw it in her late and that led to
Penn State taking the twenty four to twenty lead. And
when I say late, it was like in the last
three or four or five minutes of the game, when
(05:10):
Indiana is basically like, you just don't screw this up,
and we're gonna be okay. And then he throws an
interception and allows Penn State to convert to with a
quick change a touchdown drive. And then then you're like, well, okay,
well let's see what he does now. And then they
you know, they ended up punting again. But then that
final drive, Like one of my pet peeves is when
(05:34):
teams try to just they feel like they have to
run the ball at least once in the two minute drill.
And Indiana never ran the ball. So it's like, good
job on you guys for just letting your quarterback rip it.
And he was ripping it downfield against whatever Penn State
was doing. And I think in my notes I have
here like they they would show six, seven, eight guys,
(05:56):
but never really brought anybody, never sent more than four
on that final drive, even though it looked like a
lot more so they were trying to confuse him. But
and and the you know, even on the last play
they got to him, but he got the ball up
and and little more Cooper obviously came down with it.
And the history was made, and the Heisman moment was
(06:19):
had and all of those good things. But when I
watched this, one of the things that just keeps going
over my mind is Penn State was getting to him
and they were getting after him, and the offensive line,
the Indiana offensive line was allowing him to be gotten to.
He's great at escaping, but it's just it's something to
keep in mind at how much Penn State was affecting him.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, for sure that the offensive line, and they were
they were banged up. They had Drew Evans who was
the starting left guard. He was out to at the
start of the game. So Zen Mahoalse wh It's a
name that will be familiar to Ohio State fans. He
started at left guard. Then they've rotated someone else in
left guard, and then Khalil Benson, who is the starting
right tackle. He kind of got rolled up on uh
(07:05):
and then some Mahaulkey then went in it right tackle
for him. So they are banged up, and the offensive
line is full of names that you might know. Carter Smith,
who was a Central Ohio native, he's their starting left tackles,
and Maholski, as I said, former Ohio State offensive lineman
who transferred to Indiana before this season. He's in the
mix there. Pat Coogan, who was on that Notre Dame
team that Ohio State faced the National Championship last year.
(07:27):
He's their starting center, so a lot of familiar names.
But the offensive line was it was just it was
inconsistent and it was it was absolutely not an offensive
line where you went, boy, this is going to be
a real strength of the team. It's not necessarily the
thing that's going to get them beat. At some point
it was okay, but it wasn't. It's definitely not a
(07:51):
strength of the team. So that's certainly and again they
had a couple of guys banged up, so that's gonna
if you're shuffling guys around your line, Yeah, you're gonna
have some inconsistency and some issues probably, But I think
that that is definitely something that would be, you know,
sort of one of these watch this spaces kind of
thing where they that might be something where they end
(08:13):
up having issues against you know, pensate has not been
great in pass rushing and in getting to the quarterback,
and they were pretty good in terms of getting the quarterback,
not always getting him down, but getting to the quarterback.
So I think that's something that's interesting. One other thing
tony on offense, But actually there's several more things on offense.
But the next thing I wanted to touch on on
offense was we give Chrit Signetti all of this credit
(08:37):
for talent evaluation and really finding these guys and boys
turned all these guys who were James Madison into these
national championship calendar with teams and man, oh man, what
a talent evaluator. This moron had Charlie Becker on the
bench most of the season. What an idiot? What do
you knew? Dummy? Charlie Becker had seven catches coming into
this game. He says, six foot four, red shirt freshman
(08:57):
wide receiver, just like some three star guy Outville, and
he comes in holy pants. He looked like like white
Jeremiah Smith, like, I don't it was the That is
one of the biggest like where have you been hiding
this guy games I've ever seen six foot four. He
had a fifty three yard reception right down the scene
(09:18):
to start the third quarter. Then that pass earlier when
I talked about Mendoza getting flushed out and having to
kind of like make a weird angle throw, made this
like catch behind him for a first down, had a
really nice catch on the sideline right near the goal
line right before halftime that set up a score. He
went way up to make a catch on third down
late in the third quarter, and then had a first
(09:40):
down catch after you know, to a huge hit with
like six minutes left in the game, and then on
that last drive had a I mean it's it's legitimately,
it's one of those catches that you see Jeremiah Smith making.
No one else can make this catch, and it was like, well,
there's this guy that Indiana's not playing. He can also
make this catch where he goes up like good coverage,
goes up, makes the catch, brings his foot you know,
comes brings us foot down and bounds. If Omar Cooper
(10:02):
didn't make that twenty twenty Nebraska game, Jackson Smith and
Jigmac catch to win the you know, win the game.
At the end, everyone's talking about the Charlie Becker catch
that set that up because it was he is unbelievable
and it feels like, man, they may have accidentally found
something that they just weren't using for some reason. I
(10:23):
suspect this will not be the last we hear from
Charlie Becker.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
It was interesting that he was just throw it up,
He'll grab it. Charlie Becker down there somewhere, and he was.
And maybe this is part of the like the the
elite programs trying to hoard players, Like when Jim Tressel
didn't want to play Santonio Holmes in two thousand and two.
It's like, no, we're gonna redshirt him, and then you
(10:48):
know the offense is struggling and it's like, well maybe
we should. No, no, no, we can't. If there's four games
that they could have played him, they would have found
those four games. And you know, Becker looks like he belongs.
And we talked about this with Ohio State, the competitive
excellence to be able to step up when your your
number is called, and his number has not been called much.
You mentioned his seven receptions coming into this this game
(11:10):
and then having seven in this and stepping up when
they desperately need him. Elijah Surroud is one of the
best receivers in the Big Ten. I think he may
still lead the Big Ten with ten ten touchdown catches
he makes. He makes catches like Charlie Becker, and we
saw Becker doing that this week doubled all of his
numbers and now gives him maybe a fourth receiver that
(11:32):
they can rely on with. You know, Omar Cooper, J. Williams,
we saw a little bit in this one. I was
a little surprised Omar Cooper we made makes an incredible
catch and a great catch, and then to see how
close it is to being incomplete based on his feet
and his left foot just hovering over the ground and
(11:57):
his right choes coming down, very very similar to the
Jackson Smith Didjigba. You can put that in the top
three with with those two and like Michael Thomas's catch
from Evan Spencer against Alabama, where you've got eyeballs on
your feet, don't you This is the only way you
could have made this play. But it's still Omar Cooper
six catches for thirty two yards in this game, so
(12:21):
essentially held in check except for that one play. And
sure it's a big one play, but you see like
there's a path towards containing Omar Cooper, but again, probably
more attention on him without Elijah Sura.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, for sure. And I do think Indiana's offense has
some scaling issues, and that's a term you'll hear people
use sometimes where it's just basically, if you're playing a
terrible team, man o, man, can you light it up?
And every offense has this to a certain degree where
if you're playing a mid level or worse defense, you know,
Ohio State could score sixty points on anyone they want
(12:59):
to if they if that was their primary goal was
just to score as many points as they can. Indiana
is kind of the same way, where in Kurtzignetti will
keep that gas pedal down a little more than other
folks will, just because he has a little bit more
of a point to prove, to sort of get everyone's attention.
So they will put up a ton of points. And
they put up sixty three points against Illinois, and that
was a game where Illinois had a bunch of injuries
(13:21):
of their secondary so you know that that had an
impact on that as well. But you're seeing Indiana against
some of the better competition, against Iowa, against Oregon, now
against Penn State, all of a sudden, they're scoring in
the twenties. They I don't think they've gotten to thirty
against any of those teams, and they barely got out
of you know, got above twenty against a couple of them.
So I think this is an Indiana team that is talented.
(13:44):
It's an Indiana team that can play with the best
teams in the country. But this is you know, you
look at all the stats that Indiana has and they
are right at the top, include and a bunch of stuff.
First quarter scoring. They were plus one hundred and sixty
three in the second half entering this game, which is
the best in college football. They have all these real
shiny offensive stats. But I think that there's bits and
(14:06):
pieces of that where you know, Indiana can score whatever,
you know, whatever, they're at forty points a game or
whatever it is. They're not scoring forty points a game
in the college football playoff. And they have their talented
and they can put up points. And we should probably
talk about the running game too, but they can put
up points, but it's not quite you know, Indiana I
(14:26):
don't think is gonna win a forty two to forty
one college football playoff game. They're going to probably have
to win games more in the twenties.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Well, in that running game, bromenham Be comes over from
Maryland and maybe Toledo, I think twelve for fifty five
with a long of eleven. Kaylon Black, who came over
from James Madison twelve for thirty two with the long
of ten. Black does lead to big ten in number
of rushes of at least twenty yards this season that
(14:56):
did not happen this week. Those two guys run hard,
they always have, but I think Penn State held them
pretty well in check overall thirty one for one oh eight,
two touchdowns, three and a half yard per carry average,
which is the same that Penn State managed on their
side of the ball three and a half yards per carry.
So I wasn't wasn't blown away by the running game,
(15:17):
And sure, go ahead and continue to mention the fact
that Elijah Surratt was not there, but Charlie Becker stepped
up when he needed and so there's you know, they
filled that void pretty well. So I look at that
running game and I can credit Penn State for doing
a very good job there. And we already mentioned him
getting after Mendoza. So I see what Penn State was
(15:40):
able to do, and I see a way that Ohio
State could do something similar. And Penn State had eight
tackles for loss, three sacks, an interception, six quarterback curries,
which is a stat that sometimes people list and some
times people don't. There was a forced fumble on a
blitz of Ferno Mendoza. The court und blitzers were effective,
(16:01):
and so you're just watching this and all of it.
It's like you're not being blown away by anything that
Indiana does offensively. But you know they have the talent
and the the wherewithal and the confidence to do whatever whenever.
But sometimes it's just not that way. And you mentioned
(16:22):
the Iowa game, this game, the Oregon game. That's I
think that and those games are they're averaging about, you know,
maybe twenty seven points per game, twenty six twenty seven
points per game, with a point differential of about I
don't know, eight or ten, ten points from the organ themselves,
but you know it's it's one score basically over those three,
(16:44):
which would be their three toughest games. And so you
look at that and you're like, well, I feel like
there's nothing here that should be able to that is
more than Ohio State can handle. And right now, some
of the online the early advanced lines of Ohio State
like minus five and a half over Indiana.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, that sounds probably about right. I think that some
of the like sp Plus I think had Ohio State
by four ish something like that. And on a neutral
site in Indiana, you're gonna have pretty fifty to fifty crowds,
so something in that range Indiana. You know, I think
we have to have two separate conversations about Indiana. One
is I don't think they're good enough to run any
(17:25):
of these teams off the field. They're not certainly not
running Ohio State off the field. They're not running even
Penn State off the field. They are also one thing
that they have in common in addition to those low
scoring games, in their close games. They sure did win
all three of them, didn't they. And that's something that
for Indiana going into that game. If you want to
build the case for Indiana beats Ohio State on the
(17:46):
neutral field, I think that case starts with Indiana as
battle test and has had really had to, you know,
go through this, and Julian Saane hasn't really had, you know,
Ryan Day is like trying to artificially create these situations
where it's like, all right, Julian pressure situation, no timeout,
it's fifty seven seconds left, You're on the road at Purdue.
You gotta get down there and kick a field goal.
All right, all right, Jim, go get them. And Indiana
(18:10):
has not had to have you know, the Indiana has
had to go win on the road, and Indiana has
had a couple Now where against Oregon, Oregon had a
turnover was it a pick six? I think late in
that game in the fourth quarter where Oregon took the
lead New York Well, you know there you go the
storybooks season, Well they had it was a good run,
and then they come back and win the game. And
(18:31):
this game was much the same where Indiana was up
but early in the second half with twenty to seven
something like that, seventeen seven something like that, and you know,
Penn State had turned the ball over a couple times
and it was like, boy, you could really see this
spiraling for Penn State, and Indiana is about to win
this game thirty four to ten. And then Penn State
comes back and they get the turnover, but they also
(18:54):
force a couple stops, they score, they take the lead.
The place is rocking. It's like, look, this this is
the you know, in the equivalent of the twenty eleven
Ohio State Wisconsin game where it's like this dead season,
but look at this incredible inspiring win. They've really pulled together,
and Indiana kind of goes yeah and then went down
the field and made these incredible plays to win the game. So,
(19:15):
you know, I do think while we're having the Indiana
is not good enough to blow these teams off the
field conversation, I think we need to really be clear
on this. Indiana is also good enough to come back
and not get rattled in these close, close and late
situations in ways that Ohio State hasn't been tested yet.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Now completely agree, there's so much value in that. And
even in this game, it's like, well, we already did
it before, we know we can do it. We did it,
we did it against Oregon. And after that pack picks
Picks six against Oregon, Chris Signetti turned to Fernanda Mendoza
and basically said, you having fun and then it's like, hey,
let's let's go.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
And that's a very specific kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah. And so like they they've got this confidence in
this attitude where it may have started off as false
bravado last year, it is bravado now like there's you know,
you take it to a lie detector and there's gonna
be like it's you know, it's not necessarily a straight line,
but you know, no lies detected here, and you plaud
(20:20):
them all for that because not only you know they're confident,
they play confidently. They they believe that, you know, they
they believe in themselves and that they're going to get
it done, and so far they have. And you know,
if they do play, if iiO State in Indiana do play,
and you know it's it's game day or big noon
kickoff whatever, as they do their they're pick'em's, and you
(20:42):
see the two logos all along, and it's like, I see,
I don't see everybody picking Ohio State in this one.
So let's be clear that there's there's gonna be some
people that think that Indiana has a legitimate shot here
and they do, and that it's because they do, and
and they they will just swing. You know, when Ryan
Day's playing in these the some of these, like the
(21:04):
Georgia game, where he's just like, we got to swing away.
We just got to keep swinging. We've got to keep swinging.
That's Indiana against everybody. It's like Indiana against Western Kentucky.
We just got to keep swinging. It's like, well, I don't.
I don't know if you need to keep swinging against
you know, the Citadel or Indiana State and no, no, no, no,
we're gonna keep swinging. And so they'll they'll do that
against whoever they run up against. Tom Can we talk
(21:27):
about the defense of the Indiana defense. Defensive end, Stephen
Daily had a handful of tackles, like two and a
half tackles for loss, just flashing in and not He's
listed at six one, two seventy three. To give you
an idea of you know, like he's the kind of
guy that excels in college at a place like Indiana.
It's like, well, he doesn't have the NFL measurables. It's like, well,
(21:48):
tell that to the left tackle and the right tackle
and the left guard who can't handle him because he
just flew by them. And he's in the backfield. He's
you know, backside tackle for loss. And he was one
of the guys that as we do these you're like
waiting for numbers to step out stand out. And he
was one of the number eight on the defensive line
for the Indiana Hoosiers.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, he transferred from Kent State, which boy, you want
to talk about having two very different football seasons in
the last two years. Kent State last year, which did
not win a game, in Indiana this year, which is
not yet lost a game. My favorite Stephen Daily play
was there was one where it was like a toss
play to Nick Singleton just off the left side, and
Daily beat the left Tackleton got upfield so fast that
(22:31):
I thought, is he going to intercept this toss? It
was just a regular like toss from Ethan Brunkenmayer to
Nick Singleton, and he got up field so fast that
I thought for a second he was going to intercept
the pitch. He did not, but then he met Nick
Singleton about an eighth of a second later and drove
him directly away, directly backwards from the line of scrimmage.
So yeah, he's definitely someone to know, you know. I
(22:53):
think another name to know is Aiden Fisher, the linebacker
number four. I don't know if the Marti Award I
didn't see anywhere where. The Lombardi Awards swore me to secrecy,
so I will tell you I had a Lombardi Award
vote this year and he was one of my fine
the people that I get to vote for four finalists
and he was one of the four names that I
put in there because very very impressive player and you know,
(23:14):
very smart player. He's you know, I compared you know,
I compared Becker to Jeremiah Smith earlier, and you know
it's not exactly a cop, but it's also you know,
he's kind of the you know, the Caleb Downs or
the Sunny Styles type for Indiana, where yeah, he's not
going in the top ten of the NFL draft, but
(23:36):
he's also man, oh man, he is smart player in
the right place all the time, very quick at reactions,
just around the ball, sure tackle or just he's number four.
He's another one to know in terms of that that
front seven, Tony, did you come away with some questions
about the back seven? Because I feel like the two
(23:56):
corner positions, I looked at the two corners and thought, well,
they've got one.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, D'Angelo Ponds is the one, and really nobody else
stood out and looking through my notes and as you
mentioned that, I'm like, I don't know if I wrote
down anybody in the secondary other than Ponds, and he
was the name that we already know he played well
last year, But like, I don't have any other names here.
(24:23):
In terms of defensive backs that you just write guys
that show up and you look and Ethan Grunkbyer, who
Ohio State saw the week prior this game. He was
twenty two of thirty one, two hundred nineteen yards, one touchdown,
one interception, better rating than Fernando Mendoza. The outcome did
(24:44):
not go his way. And yeah, I'm with you, like
I don't I think it's as long as you are
protecting Julian saying I don't see a lot here. I
don't see enough here defensively for in And yeah, like secondarily,
(25:05):
nobody really jumped out at me and was making plays.
And maybe that's because Grunkmeyer wasn't close enough at times.
But we saw a guy that hasn't done much of
anything all season long. And Travor Pennett Pina go for
six for ninety nine with a long forty three and
forty one yards run after the catch as well, and
(25:26):
probably would have been even worse overall if Penn State's
receivers would have caught more passes than they did because
they had some drops in there as well.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, and DeAngelo Pond's definitely number five on your scorecard.
He is definitely the guy who is the corner who
is going to be on whoever you're the opposing team's
best receiver is, He's going to be on them about
as often as he can be. He's one of those
guys who followed signetti from James Madison. He's been there
for a couple of years. There was a deep shot
on the first play right after halftime, like right down
(25:59):
the scene, and he had great coverage on that throw.
But he's five foot nine, so yeah, well he's easy
great cornerback. We have seen five foot nine cornerbacks. Like
the first time Ohio State played Oregon last year, we
looked at at I think it was Jabar Mohammad I
think was the cornerback for Oregon who we were talking
about being I was listed as five foot nine or
(26:21):
five foot ten, and you know what that means. And
they didn't get after him the first time they played him.
They didn't have success against him that much. The second
time they had a lot of success against him. So,
you know, a five foot nine corner against o High
State's wide receivers is just kind of a you know,
I don't know that that's a win. That might maybe
that's a neutral for Indiana. I don't think it's a win.
The other guy, Ja Jamari Sharp number twenty two, he's
(26:43):
the corner. Richard Junior on the other side, he was
the one who was like, boy, you see number twenty
two around a lot of these long passes and you
know he's not in man covera gen all of them.
But it did feel like Penn State kind of knew
where he was and was able to find stuff. They
one of the forty yarder to pay was against him.
There are a couple more downfield shots guys. He was
kind of on around on the second scoring drive for
(27:06):
Penn State. It was just it was one of those
things where it was like they might have one guy
who you can kind of put one on one and
not have to have safety help over the top maybe
and you know, you can maybe play whoever it is
to sort of a stalemate. I don't think they've got
two of those guys, And you know, as you said,
I look at their secondary play and I think they're
(27:26):
going to have to really get a little zesty with
the pass rush because I don't think they're gonna hold
up entirely. You know, I'm not saying Ohio State is
gonna put up sixty points or anything like that. But
he just feels like Ohio State is probably gonna have
some opportunities in the passing game if they can give
Julian say in time.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Well, I would agree with that. And even that Indiana
offense or the Indiana defensive line was getting pushed around
at times by Penn State. I thought at the end
they were Pennce State was gonna be able to run
the clock out, because that's the way thing things are going.
And then Indiana, as they have done season, bowed up
and and shut things down, but overall defensively gave up
(28:07):
fourteen points in the fourth quarter and got out gained
both in rushing and passing in this game by by
Penn State, who has struggled to do those things at
times this year. I walk away from this being very
impressed by the grit and even dare say against Penn State,
(28:29):
the moxie of Indiana to come through with this. And
you can also see the individual talents that they have
interspersed throughout the team defensively here and there inan Fisher,
I thought they asked him to do so much, and
you know he's he's running all over the place and
play action, and so there's there's a way to manipulate
him and as well, but you better get the ball
(28:50):
over top of him or he's gonna make some plays
there as he's running back on these play actions. But
there's just not these the the scope of the talent,
I think. But it all comes together very very well,
and they've been able to win games that that are
(29:11):
maybe a little bit more matchup games. So that's impressive.
Defensively overall, I think Ohio State can score on them.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah. I came away from this and you know this
is probably in terms of just the opposing team's record
and the score, this is the worst performance they've had
this year. Now, Penn State's record does not really reflect
the level of talent, which is all conversation. We had
a bunch the week leading up to the Ohio State
Penn State game. I think you can very easily look
at these teams and say Ohio State has more talent
(29:46):
and Indiana has a better resume right now where Indiana
has beaten three teams that you know, how would Ohio
State have done against Oregon and Iowa, especially on the
road at Iowa and on the road at Org We
don't know because they haven't had to play that caliber
of team on the road yet this season. So yeah, yeah,
(30:06):
they beat Washington, which is not as good as Oregon.
Yeah they beat Illinois, which is not as good as Iowa.
So it's I think you can look at these teams
and say, if you want to make the case that
in Indiana is going to hang in there and maybe
win the Big Ten championship game if it is these
two teams, I think the case is battle tested, talented,
not as talented, but talented enough to keep it close
(30:28):
and then have the experience and the yes there, I say, Moxie,
do come back and you know, pull out a game
in the end because they've been tested in a way
that Ohio State and hasn't necessarily. But also you could
look at these teams and say, yeah, but Ohio State's
probably underperforming its metrics to a certain degree because they're
just they're just kind of working on stuff sometimes and
(30:51):
the computers don't necessarily know that. So you could tell
me Ohio State wins by fourteen points and I'd kind
of go, yeah, okay, I could see that, and you
could tell me this is a close game, and Indiana's
driving in the final minutes and and this is anyone's game,
and I'd kind of go, yeah, I could see that
for sure, So I I think, you know, this is
(31:11):
last year's Indiana was kind of the isn't that cute?
Look at them? They're they're just like a big boy
football team, and you kind of tousle the hair and go,
look at them. This is uh, you know, they haven't
they haven't played anyone, but boy, they sure have won
all the games they haven't played. And oh boy, look
at them this year. This is an Indiana team that
is a night leaps and bounds better than last year's
(31:34):
Indiana team, I think. And in a lot of areas
they're not perfect. They certainly have areas that opposing teams
can probably exploit. But also, you don't hear any of
the SEC folks talking about, oh boy, oh boy, you know,
the seventh best team in the SEC would absolutely beat
Indiana this year. You're not hearing that, and that I
think tells you a lot. Well.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
I think last year's Indiana team had a cap on it,
and the cap was Curtis work. Basically, he was only
gonna be able to do so much. I think with
Steven Mendoza. That cap, the quarterback cap has gone. Now
it becomes everything else. It's you know, the overall scouts,
the offensive line, it's the secondary where those become the
bigger questions. And when those when those are your bigger questions,
(32:18):
you know, I think I think that's almost a good
thing because you know that Steven Mendoza is going to
do whatever it takes and can do whatever it takes.
Curtis work, you need things to go your way, and
you know, very good quarterback, but very good Mendoza. We're
talking about the possible. You know, number top ten NFL
draft pick, so and a guy that can pick up
(32:41):
a third down with his feet or with his arm
or with the you know, the power of his mind.
So there's there's a lot too like about Indiana, not
the least of which is they have yet to fold.
And in fact, when it looks like they're folding, they
just double down and get even stronger. And there's something
certainly to be said for that. So toime anything else
before we.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Go, you said Steven Mendoza twice, so I'm just gonna
correct you and say, Fernando Mendos, I'm sure you were
thinking of the Colombian football player soccer player. I was,
I'm like, Steven, no, that's not it. That's uh yeah,
there's the is all all you have in your head
right now is Gus Johnson just screaming Mendoza and having
his voice crack like even worse than Sean McDonough is
(33:24):
back in the trouble with the snap game. So yeah,
it's it's understandable. I am looking forward to just if
Ohio State and Indiana do play. I am really looking
forward to just sending back and forth McBain ma memes
all week long. Mendos Ah, it's gonna be finally something
to look forward to.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Thank you for correcting me on that, because now just
the Indiana fans in the in the comments of this,
I look, I know it's Fernando. Okay, I apologize, this
is this is this is a name I've battled for
a long time.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
And Indiana quarterbacks Fernando Vellenzuela.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
So there you go. Thank you all for tuning in,
and we appreciate that if you could hit the thumbs
up if you're watching it on YouTube, if you're listening,
a five star writing interview as always welcome, and of
course you can continue to find us at bucke huddle
dot com talking about this game, this potential game, but
the actual games this week as well. So thank you
all for tuning in and we will talk to you
(34:22):
all later
Hey, everybody, Tony Gerdaman here. I am reposting our ten
things we learned rewatching Indiana beat Penn State from a
few weeks back because it seems to be a little
bit more pertinent now, and so go ahead and give
this a listen. We will have some more rewatch reactions
from a few more Hoosier games this year this week
(00:24):
to get you prepared as prepared as we can for
the Big Ten championship game between Ohio State and Indiana.
And of course we're gonna have a lot more for
you as well as you would expect. So go ahead
and give us a listen if you want. If you don't, still, hey.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Thanks for downloading.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Hello everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here, as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
How's it going, Tony? The calendar says November, which means
we are deep in the heart of rewatch season. It
is not just buckuys. Michigan has the week off this week,
so we are doing what every college football coach says
you should not do, Tony. We are looking ahead dangerous.
Will that hurt our performance on podcasts against Rutgers and UCLA?
(01:13):
It's impossible to say, but you can't say it's not
going to.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, I know I haven't watched UCLA, so it has
already probably hurt mine. I will go ahead and admit it.
But no, we are here to discuss our rewatch or
initial watch, mainly of Indiana's twenty seven to twenty four
win over Penn State. Are we looking ahead or are
we just you know, looking around, I say, looking around
(01:38):
at the state of college football. And you know, we've
seen a lot of people talking about how Indiana should
be number one based on the entire season of work.
All of the times they're blowing everybody out. They're just
blowing everybody out, except for of course, Iowa, Oregon in
Penn State, which is you know, of their big ten
games at this point. But whatever, whatever. So yeah, let's
(02:00):
just go ahead and and share our thoughts on what
we see. Time. I'll let you go first. I know
you've got some thoughts. You've been itch and you've been
wanting to do this. What's your big problem?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, I guess let's start with I mean, it's so
lazy and trite to start with the quarterback, but Tony,
let's start with the quarterback. Because you know, Fernando Mendoza
has obviously been a big topic of conversation in college
football this year. He I just saw an article from
ESPN about how, oh boy, Julian Sarah saying really needs
to craft a narrative in the Michigan game. And you know,
(02:30):
so you even have a chance to beat Juliet, to
beat Fernando Mendoza for the Heisman, It's like, does it hear?
Does he just need to win the rest of his
games before the Heisman, because it feels like that would
probably handle it. But either way, Fernando Mendoza had a
storybook finish in this game against Penn State. Was that
directly caused by the fact that they had three empty
possessions right before that storybook finish in click crunch time
(02:52):
on the road? Yes, it sure was. But that's not
We're not here to talk about that. We're here to
talk about the storybook finish. And you know, I think
one thing that I was interested in, you know, Mendoza.
You've seen him enough in the highlights, and I watched
that Indiana Illinois game, which, boy, oh boy, was that
a different game than this one. But you know, you
watch him and it's like, oh boy, he can sling
(03:13):
it around, and he's got some good wide receivers and
all that kind of stuff. And he was without Elijah
Surat in this game, which I think is one thing
we need to sort of stipulate upfront that they were
without probably their best wide receiver in this game. So
that impacted this a little bit. But I was impressed
with how well Fernando Mendoza ran the ball. There were
a bunch of times when there's you know, third and five,
they line up five wide and they just run a
(03:34):
quarterback draw Boom picks it up. Then he had an
eighteen yard touchdown just on a scramble. He had a
scramble that turned a second and eleven where it's like,
oh boy, he's gonna have to throw it away. It's
third and eleven, and he just turned it into a
third and four and it's like it's seven yards. Didn't
pick up a first down, but it's a really important
play where it really changes the likelihood of converting that
(03:55):
series of downs. There were a third and ten where
there were rushers coming off the edge. He rolled left,
bought time and made a nice throw for a first down.
You know, he just does a lot of stuff with
his legs that you hear all about his throwing, and
you hear all about the offense on the hole when
old boy are the great, and they are. But I
think that his running ability he's not, you know, he's
(04:16):
not Michael Vick, but he can make stuff happen with
his legs that really will extend drives and sometimes cap
drives for them. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
He was sacked three times for US for twenty yards
with those sacks in there, and had the eighteen yard touchdown.
Did a great job of scrambling to either pick up
yards or the other thing. When he scrambles, he keeps
his eyes up and he keeps him downfield, and he's
a danger until the whistle is blown. And he has
the confidence to make any throw or to or to
(04:47):
attempt any throw, and is also tough enough to know
that I need this last yard and I'm gonna get
hit for it, but it's okay because we need it.
So he got everything that you want. But yeah, he
did throw it in her late and that led to
Penn State taking the twenty four to twenty lead. And
when I say late, it was like in the last
three or four or five minutes of the game, when
(05:10):
Indiana is basically like, you just don't screw this up,
and we're gonna be okay. And then he throws an
interception and allows Penn State to convert to with a
quick change a touchdown drive. And then then you're like, well, okay,
well let's see what he does now. And then they
you know, they ended up punting again. But then that
final drive, Like one of my pet peeves is when
(05:34):
teams try to just they feel like they have to
run the ball at least once in the two minute drill.
And Indiana never ran the ball. So it's like, good
job on you guys for just letting your quarterback rip it.
And he was ripping it downfield against whatever Penn State
was doing. And I think in my notes I have
here like they they would show six, seven, eight guys,
(05:56):
but never really brought anybody, never sent more than four
on that final drive, even though it looked like a
lot more so they were trying to confuse him. But
and and the you know, even on the last play
they got to him, but he got the ball up
and and little more Cooper obviously came down with it.
And the history was made, and the Heisman moment was
(06:19):
had and all of those good things. But when I
watched this, one of the things that just keeps going
over my mind is Penn State was getting to him
and they were getting after him, and the offensive line,
the Indiana offensive line was allowing him to be gotten to.
He's great at escaping, but it's just it's something to
keep in mind at how much Penn State was affecting him.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, for sure that the offensive line, and they were
they were banged up. They had Drew Evans who was
the starting left guard. He was out to at the
start of the game. So Zen Mahoalse wh It's a
name that will be familiar to Ohio State fans. He
started at left guard. Then they've rotated someone else in
left guard, and then Khalil Benson, who is the starting
right tackle. He kind of got rolled up on uh
(07:05):
and then some Mahaulkey then went in it right tackle
for him. So they are banged up, and the offensive
line is full of names that you might know. Carter Smith,
who was a Central Ohio native, he's their starting left tackles,
and Maholski, as I said, former Ohio State offensive lineman
who transferred to Indiana before this season. He's in the
mix there. Pat Coogan, who was on that Notre Dame
team that Ohio State faced the National Championship last year.
(07:27):
He's their starting center, so a lot of familiar names.
But the offensive line was it was just it was
inconsistent and it was it was absolutely not an offensive
line where you went, boy, this is going to be
a real strength of the team. It's not necessarily the
thing that's going to get them beat. At some point
it was okay, but it wasn't. It's definitely not a
(07:51):
strength of the team. So that's certainly and again they
had a couple of guys banged up, so that's gonna
if you're shuffling guys around your line, Yeah, you're gonna
have some inconsistency and some issues probably, But I think
that that is definitely something that would be, you know,
sort of one of these watch this spaces kind of
thing where they that might be something where they end
(08:13):
up having issues against you know, pensate has not been
great in pass rushing and in getting to the quarterback,
and they were pretty good in terms of getting the quarterback,
not always getting him down, but getting to the quarterback.
So I think that's something that's interesting. One other thing
tony on offense, But actually there's several more things on offense.
But the next thing I wanted to touch on on
offense was we give Chrit Signetti all of this credit
(08:37):
for talent evaluation and really finding these guys and boys
turned all these guys who were James Madison into these
national championship calendar with teams and man, oh man, what
a talent evaluator. This moron had Charlie Becker on the
bench most of the season. What an idiot? What do
you knew? Dummy? Charlie Becker had seven catches coming into
this game. He says, six foot four, red shirt freshman
(08:57):
wide receiver, just like some three star guy Outville, and
he comes in holy pants. He looked like like white
Jeremiah Smith, like, I don't it was the That is
one of the biggest like where have you been hiding
this guy games I've ever seen six foot four. He
had a fifty three yard reception right down the scene
(09:18):
to start the third quarter. Then that pass earlier when
I talked about Mendoza getting flushed out and having to
kind of like make a weird angle throw, made this
like catch behind him for a first down, had a
really nice catch on the sideline right near the goal
line right before halftime that set up a score. He
went way up to make a catch on third down
late in the third quarter, and then had a first
(09:40):
down catch after you know, to a huge hit with
like six minutes left in the game, and then on
that last drive had a I mean it's it's legitimately,
it's one of those catches that you see Jeremiah Smith making.
No one else can make this catch, and it was like, well,
there's this guy that Indiana's not playing. He can also
make this catch where he goes up like good coverage,
goes up, makes the catch, brings his foot you know,
comes brings us foot down and bounds. If Omar Cooper
(10:02):
didn't make that twenty twenty Nebraska game, Jackson Smith and
Jigmac catch to win the you know, win the game.
At the end, everyone's talking about the Charlie Becker catch
that set that up because it was he is unbelievable
and it feels like, man, they may have accidentally found
something that they just weren't using for some reason. I
(10:23):
suspect this will not be the last we hear from
Charlie Becker.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
It was interesting that he was just throw it up,
He'll grab it. Charlie Becker down there somewhere, and he was.
And maybe this is part of the like the the
elite programs trying to hoard players, Like when Jim Tressel
didn't want to play Santonio Holmes in two thousand and two.
It's like, no, we're gonna redshirt him, and then you
(10:48):
know the offense is struggling and it's like, well maybe
we should. No, no, no, we can't. If there's four games
that they could have played him, they would have found
those four games. And you know, Becker looks like he belongs.
And we talked about this with Ohio State, the competitive
excellence to be able to step up when your your
number is called, and his number has not been called much.
You mentioned his seven receptions coming into this this game
(11:10):
and then having seven in this and stepping up when
they desperately need him. Elijah Surroud is one of the
best receivers in the Big Ten. I think he may
still lead the Big Ten with ten ten touchdown catches
he makes. He makes catches like Charlie Becker, and we
saw Becker doing that this week doubled all of his
numbers and now gives him maybe a fourth receiver that
(11:32):
they can rely on with. You know, Omar Cooper, J. Williams,
we saw a little bit in this one. I was
a little surprised Omar Cooper we made makes an incredible
catch and a great catch, and then to see how
close it is to being incomplete based on his feet
and his left foot just hovering over the ground and
(11:57):
his right choes coming down, very very similar to the
Jackson Smith Didjigba. You can put that in the top
three with with those two and like Michael Thomas's catch
from Evan Spencer against Alabama, where you've got eyeballs on
your feet, don't you This is the only way you
could have made this play. But it's still Omar Cooper
six catches for thirty two yards in this game, so
(12:21):
essentially held in check except for that one play. And
sure it's a big one play, but you see like
there's a path towards containing Omar Cooper, but again, probably
more attention on him without Elijah Sura.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, for sure. And I do think Indiana's offense has
some scaling issues, and that's a term you'll hear people
use sometimes where it's just basically, if you're playing a
terrible team, man o, man, can you light it up?
And every offense has this to a certain degree where
if you're playing a mid level or worse defense, you know,
Ohio State could score sixty points on anyone they want
(12:59):
to if they if that was their primary goal was
just to score as many points as they can. Indiana
is kind of the same way, where in Kurtzignetti will
keep that gas pedal down a little more than other
folks will, just because he has a little bit more
of a point to prove, to sort of get everyone's attention.
So they will put up a ton of points. And
they put up sixty three points against Illinois, and that
was a game where Illinois had a bunch of injuries
(13:21):
of their secondary so you know that that had an
impact on that as well. But you're seeing Indiana against
some of the better competition, against Iowa, against Oregon, now
against Penn State, all of a sudden, they're scoring in
the twenties. They I don't think they've gotten to thirty
against any of those teams, and they barely got out
of you know, got above twenty against a couple of them.
So I think this is an Indiana team that is talented.
(13:44):
It's an Indiana team that can play with the best
teams in the country. But this is you know, you
look at all the stats that Indiana has and they
are right at the top, include and a bunch of stuff.
First quarter scoring. They were plus one hundred and sixty
three in the second half entering this game, which is
the best in college football. They have all these real
shiny offensive stats. But I think that there's bits and
(14:06):
pieces of that where you know, Indiana can score whatever,
you know, whatever, they're at forty points a game or
whatever it is. They're not scoring forty points a game
in the college football playoff. And they have their talented
and they can put up points. And we should probably
talk about the running game too, but they can put
up points, but it's not quite you know, Indiana I
(14:26):
don't think is gonna win a forty two to forty
one college football playoff game. They're going to probably have
to win games more in the twenties.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Well, in that running game, bromenham Be comes over from
Maryland and maybe Toledo, I think twelve for fifty five
with a long of eleven. Kaylon Black, who came over
from James Madison twelve for thirty two with the long
of ten. Black does lead to big ten in number
of rushes of at least twenty yards this season that
(14:56):
did not happen this week. Those two guys run hard,
they always have, but I think Penn State held them
pretty well in check overall thirty one for one oh eight,
two touchdowns, three and a half yard per carry average,
which is the same that Penn State managed on their
side of the ball three and a half yards per carry.
So I wasn't wasn't blown away by the running game,
(15:17):
And sure, go ahead and continue to mention the fact
that Elijah Surratt was not there, but Charlie Becker stepped
up when he needed and so there's you know, they
filled that void pretty well. So I look at that
running game and I can credit Penn State for doing
a very good job there. And we already mentioned him
getting after Mendoza. So I see what Penn State was
(15:40):
able to do, and I see a way that Ohio
State could do something similar. And Penn State had eight
tackles for loss, three sacks, an interception, six quarterback curries,
which is a stat that sometimes people list and some
times people don't. There was a forced fumble on a
blitz of Ferno Mendoza. The court und blitzers were effective,
(16:01):
and so you're just watching this and all of it.
It's like you're not being blown away by anything that
Indiana does offensively. But you know they have the talent
and the the wherewithal and the confidence to do whatever whenever.
But sometimes it's just not that way. And you mentioned
(16:22):
the Iowa game, this game, the Oregon game. That's I
think that and those games are they're averaging about, you know,
maybe twenty seven points per game, twenty six twenty seven
points per game, with a point differential of about I
don't know, eight or ten, ten points from the organ themselves,
but you know it's it's one score basically over those three,
(16:44):
which would be their three toughest games. And so you
look at that and you're like, well, I feel like
there's nothing here that should be able to that is
more than Ohio State can handle. And right now, some
of the online the early advanced lines of Ohio State
like minus five and a half over Indiana.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, that sounds probably about right. I think that some
of the like sp Plus I think had Ohio State
by four ish something like that. And on a neutral
site in Indiana, you're gonna have pretty fifty to fifty crowds,
so something in that range Indiana. You know, I think
we have to have two separate conversations about Indiana. One
is I don't think they're good enough to run any
(17:25):
of these teams off the field. They're not certainly not
running Ohio State off the field. They're not running even
Penn State off the field. They are also one thing
that they have in common in addition to those low
scoring games, in their close games. They sure did win
all three of them, didn't they. And that's something that
for Indiana going into that game. If you want to
build the case for Indiana beats Ohio State on the
(17:46):
neutral field, I think that case starts with Indiana as
battle test and has had really had to, you know,
go through this, and Julian Saane hasn't really had, you know,
Ryan Day is like trying to artificially create these situations
where it's like, all right, Julian pressure situation, no timeout,
it's fifty seven seconds left, You're on the road at Purdue.
You gotta get down there and kick a field goal.
All right, all right, Jim, go get them. And Indiana
(18:10):
has not had to have you know, the Indiana has
had to go win on the road, and Indiana has
had a couple Now where against Oregon, Oregon had a
turnover was it a pick six? I think late in
that game in the fourth quarter where Oregon took the
lead New York Well, you know there you go the
storybooks season, Well they had it was a good run,
and then they come back and win the game. And
(18:31):
this game was much the same where Indiana was up
but early in the second half with twenty to seven
something like that, seventeen seven something like that, and you know,
Penn State had turned the ball over a couple times
and it was like, boy, you could really see this
spiraling for Penn State, and Indiana is about to win
this game thirty four to ten. And then Penn State
comes back and they get the turnover, but they also
(18:54):
force a couple stops, they score, they take the lead.
The place is rocking. It's like, look, this this is
the you know, in the equivalent of the twenty eleven
Ohio State Wisconsin game where it's like this dead season,
but look at this incredible inspiring win. They've really pulled together,
and Indiana kind of goes yeah and then went down
the field and made these incredible plays to win the game. So,
(19:15):
you know, I do think while we're having the Indiana
is not good enough to blow these teams off the
field conversation, I think we need to really be clear
on this. Indiana is also good enough to come back
and not get rattled in these close, close and late
situations in ways that Ohio State hasn't been tested yet.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Now completely agree, there's so much value in that. And
even in this game, it's like, well, we already did
it before, we know we can do it. We did it,
we did it against Oregon. And after that pack picks
Picks six against Oregon, Chris Signetti turned to Fernanda Mendoza
and basically said, you having fun and then it's like, hey,
let's let's go.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
And that's a very specific kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah. And so like they they've got this confidence in
this attitude where it may have started off as false
bravado last year, it is bravado now like there's you know,
you take it to a lie detector and there's gonna
be like it's you know, it's not necessarily a straight line,
but you know, no lies detected here, and you plaud
(20:20):
them all for that because not only you know they're confident,
they play confidently. They they believe that, you know, they
they believe in themselves and that they're going to get
it done, and so far they have. And you know,
if they do play, if iiO State in Indiana do play,
and you know it's it's game day or big noon
kickoff whatever, as they do their they're pick'em's, and you
(20:42):
see the two logos all along, and it's like, I see,
I don't see everybody picking Ohio State in this one.
So let's be clear that there's there's gonna be some
people that think that Indiana has a legitimate shot here
and they do, and that it's because they do, and
and they they will just swing. You know, when Ryan
Day's playing in these the some of these, like the
(21:04):
Georgia game, where he's just like, we got to swing away.
We just got to keep swinging. We've got to keep swinging.
That's Indiana against everybody. It's like Indiana against Western Kentucky.
We just got to keep swinging. It's like, well, I don't.
I don't know if you need to keep swinging against
you know, the Citadel or Indiana State and no, no, no, no,
we're gonna keep swinging. And so they'll they'll do that
against whoever they run up against. Tom Can we talk
(21:27):
about the defense of the Indiana defense. Defensive end, Stephen
Daily had a handful of tackles, like two and a
half tackles for loss, just flashing in and not He's
listed at six one, two seventy three. To give you
an idea of you know, like he's the kind of
guy that excels in college at a place like Indiana.
It's like, well, he doesn't have the NFL measurables. It's like, well,
(21:48):
tell that to the left tackle and the right tackle
and the left guard who can't handle him because he
just flew by them. And he's in the backfield. He's
you know, backside tackle for loss. And he was one
of the guys that as we do these you're like
waiting for numbers to step out stand out. And he
was one of the number eight on the defensive line
for the Indiana Hoosiers.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, he transferred from Kent State, which boy, you want
to talk about having two very different football seasons in
the last two years. Kent State last year, which did
not win a game, in Indiana this year, which is
not yet lost a game. My favorite Stephen Daily play
was there was one where it was like a toss
play to Nick Singleton just off the left side, and
Daily beat the left Tackleton got upfield so fast that
(22:31):
I thought, is he going to intercept this toss? It
was just a regular like toss from Ethan Brunkenmayer to
Nick Singleton, and he got up field so fast that
I thought for a second he was going to intercept
the pitch. He did not, but then he met Nick
Singleton about an eighth of a second later and drove
him directly away, directly backwards from the line of scrimmage.
So yeah, he's definitely someone to know, you know. I
(22:53):
think another name to know is Aiden Fisher, the linebacker
number four. I don't know if the Marti Award I
didn't see anywhere where. The Lombardi Awards swore me to secrecy,
so I will tell you I had a Lombardi Award
vote this year and he was one of my fine
the people that I get to vote for four finalists
and he was one of the four names that I
put in there because very very impressive player and you know,
(23:14):
very smart player. He's you know, I compared you know,
I compared Becker to Jeremiah Smith earlier, and you know
it's not exactly a cop, but it's also you know,
he's kind of the you know, the Caleb Downs or
the Sunny Styles type for Indiana, where yeah, he's not
going in the top ten of the NFL draft, but
(23:36):
he's also man, oh man, he is smart player in
the right place all the time, very quick at reactions,
just around the ball, sure tackle or just he's number four.
He's another one to know in terms of that that
front seven, Tony, did you come away with some questions
about the back seven? Because I feel like the two
(23:56):
corner positions, I looked at the two corners and thought, well,
they've got one.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, D'Angelo Ponds is the one, and really nobody else
stood out and looking through my notes and as you
mentioned that, I'm like, I don't know if I wrote
down anybody in the secondary other than Ponds, and he
was the name that we already know he played well
last year, But like, I don't have any other names here.
(24:23):
In terms of defensive backs that you just write guys
that show up and you look and Ethan Grunkbyer, who
Ohio State saw the week prior this game. He was
twenty two of thirty one, two hundred nineteen yards, one touchdown,
one interception, better rating than Fernando Mendoza. The outcome did
(24:44):
not go his way. And yeah, I'm with you, like
I don't I think it's as long as you are
protecting Julian saying I don't see a lot here. I
don't see enough here defensively for in And yeah, like secondarily,
(25:05):
nobody really jumped out at me and was making plays.
And maybe that's because Grunkmeyer wasn't close enough at times.
But we saw a guy that hasn't done much of
anything all season long. And Travor Pennett Pina go for
six for ninety nine with a long forty three and
forty one yards run after the catch as well, and
(25:26):
probably would have been even worse overall if Penn State's
receivers would have caught more passes than they did because
they had some drops in there as well.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, and DeAngelo Pond's definitely number five on your scorecard.
He is definitely the guy who is the corner who
is going to be on whoever you're the opposing team's
best receiver is, He's going to be on them about
as often as he can be. He's one of those
guys who followed signetti from James Madison. He's been there
for a couple of years. There was a deep shot
on the first play right after halftime, like right down
(25:59):
the scene, and he had great coverage on that throw.
But he's five foot nine, so yeah, well he's easy
great cornerback. We have seen five foot nine cornerbacks. Like
the first time Ohio State played Oregon last year, we
looked at at I think it was Jabar Mohammad I
think was the cornerback for Oregon who we were talking
about being I was listed as five foot nine or
(26:21):
five foot ten, and you know what that means. And
they didn't get after him the first time they played him.
They didn't have success against him that much. The second
time they had a lot of success against him. So,
you know, a five foot nine corner against o High
State's wide receivers is just kind of a you know,
I don't know that that's a win. That might maybe
that's a neutral for Indiana. I don't think it's a win.
The other guy, Ja Jamari Sharp number twenty two, he's
(26:43):
the corner. Richard Junior on the other side, he was
the one who was like, boy, you see number twenty
two around a lot of these long passes and you
know he's not in man covera gen all of them.
But it did feel like Penn State kind of knew
where he was and was able to find stuff. They
one of the forty yarder to pay was against him.
There are a couple more downfield shots guys. He was
kind of on around on the second scoring drive for
(27:06):
Penn State. It was just it was one of those
things where it was like they might have one guy
who you can kind of put one on one and
not have to have safety help over the top maybe
and you know, you can maybe play whoever it is
to sort of a stalemate. I don't think they've got
two of those guys, And you know, as you said,
I look at their secondary play and I think they're
(27:26):
going to have to really get a little zesty with
the pass rush because I don't think they're gonna hold
up entirely. You know, I'm not saying Ohio State is
gonna put up sixty points or anything like that. But
he just feels like Ohio State is probably gonna have
some opportunities in the passing game if they can give
Julian say in time.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Well, I would agree with that. And even that Indiana
offense or the Indiana defensive line was getting pushed around
at times by Penn State. I thought at the end
they were Pennce State was gonna be able to run
the clock out, because that's the way thing things are going.
And then Indiana, as they have done season, bowed up
and and shut things down, but overall defensively gave up
(28:07):
fourteen points in the fourth quarter and got out gained
both in rushing and passing in this game by by
Penn State, who has struggled to do those things at
times this year. I walk away from this being very
impressed by the grit and even dare say against Penn State,
(28:29):
the moxie of Indiana to come through with this. And
you can also see the individual talents that they have
interspersed throughout the team defensively here and there inan Fisher,
I thought they asked him to do so much, and
you know he's he's running all over the place and
play action, and so there's there's a way to manipulate
him and as well, but you better get the ball
(28:50):
over top of him or he's gonna make some plays
there as he's running back on these play actions. But
there's just not these the the scope of the talent,
I think. But it all comes together very very well,
and they've been able to win games that that are
(29:11):
maybe a little bit more matchup games. So that's impressive.
Defensively overall, I think Ohio State can score on them.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah. I came away from this and you know this
is probably in terms of just the opposing team's record
and the score, this is the worst performance they've had
this year. Now, Penn State's record does not really reflect
the level of talent, which is all conversation. We had
a bunch the week leading up to the Ohio State
Penn State game. I think you can very easily look
at these teams and say Ohio State has more talent
(29:46):
and Indiana has a better resume right now where Indiana
has beaten three teams that you know, how would Ohio
State have done against Oregon and Iowa, especially on the
road at Iowa and on the road at Org We
don't know because they haven't had to play that caliber
of team on the road yet this season. So yeah, yeah,
(30:06):
they beat Washington, which is not as good as Oregon.
Yeah they beat Illinois, which is not as good as Iowa.
So it's I think you can look at these teams
and say, if you want to make the case that
in Indiana is going to hang in there and maybe
win the Big Ten championship game if it is these
two teams, I think the case is battle tested, talented,
not as talented, but talented enough to keep it close
(30:28):
and then have the experience and the yes there, I say, Moxie,
do come back and you know, pull out a game
in the end because they've been tested in a way
that Ohio State and hasn't necessarily. But also you could
look at these teams and say, yeah, but Ohio State's
probably underperforming its metrics to a certain degree because they're
just they're just kind of working on stuff sometimes and
(30:51):
the computers don't necessarily know that. So you could tell
me Ohio State wins by fourteen points and I'd kind
of go, yeah, okay, I could see that, and you
could tell me this is a close game, and Indiana's
driving in the final minutes and and this is anyone's game,
and I'd kind of go, yeah, I could see that
for sure, So I I think, you know, this is
(31:11):
last year's Indiana was kind of the isn't that cute?
Look at them? They're they're just like a big boy
football team, and you kind of tousle the hair and go,
look at them. This is uh, you know, they haven't
they haven't played anyone, but boy, they sure have won
all the games they haven't played. And oh boy, look
at them this year. This is an Indiana team that
is a night leaps and bounds better than last year's
(31:34):
Indiana team, I think. And in a lot of areas
they're not perfect. They certainly have areas that opposing teams
can probably exploit. But also, you don't hear any of
the SEC folks talking about, oh boy, oh boy, you know,
the seventh best team in the SEC would absolutely beat
Indiana this year. You're not hearing that, and that I
think tells you a lot. Well.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
I think last year's Indiana team had a cap on it,
and the cap was Curtis work. Basically, he was only
gonna be able to do so much. I think with
Steven Mendoza. That cap, the quarterback cap has gone. Now
it becomes everything else. It's you know, the overall scouts,
the offensive line, it's the secondary where those become the
bigger questions. And when those when those are your bigger questions,
(32:18):
you know, I think I think that's almost a good
thing because you know that Steven Mendoza is going to
do whatever it takes and can do whatever it takes.
Curtis work, you need things to go your way, and
you know, very good quarterback, but very good Mendoza. We're
talking about the possible. You know, number top ten NFL
draft pick, so and a guy that can pick up
(32:41):
a third down with his feet or with his arm
or with the you know, the power of his mind.
So there's there's a lot too like about Indiana, not
the least of which is they have yet to fold.
And in fact, when it looks like they're folding, they
just double down and get even stronger. And there's something
certainly to be said for that. So toime anything else
before we.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Go, you said Steven Mendoza twice, so I'm just gonna
correct you and say, Fernando Mendos, I'm sure you were
thinking of the Colombian football player soccer player. I was,
I'm like, Steven, no, that's not it. That's uh yeah,
there's the is all all you have in your head
right now is Gus Johnson just screaming Mendoza and having
his voice crack like even worse than Sean McDonough is
(33:24):
back in the trouble with the snap game. So yeah,
it's it's understandable. I am looking forward to just if
Ohio State and Indiana do play. I am really looking
forward to just sending back and forth McBain ma memes
all week long. Mendos Ah, it's gonna be finally something
to look forward to.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Thank you for correcting me on that, because now just
the Indiana fans in the in the comments of this,
I look, I know it's Fernando. Okay, I apologize, this
is this is this is a name I've battled for
a long time.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
And Indiana quarterbacks Fernando Vellenzuela.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
So there you go. Thank you all for tuning in,
and we appreciate that if you could hit the thumbs
up if you're watching it on YouTube, if you're listening,
a five star writing interview as always welcome, and of
course you can continue to find us at bucke huddle
dot com talking about this game, this potential game, but
the actual games this week as well. So thank you
all for tuning in and we will talk to you
(34:22):
all later
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