Peegs Postgame LIVE: Oregon -- Oct. 13, 2025

The Hoosiers traveled to Oregon and made believers out of the the college football world with a 30-20 win, and we took your calls and questions Monday night. We also hear from head coach Curt Cignetti during his weekly press conference.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
How are you doing everybody on ken Bakoff and welcome
to the Peaks postgame live postgame meeting about forty eight
hours later. Then I really would have liked So the
reason this is happening so far in the future or
in the future after the game, when you know this

(00:30):
is normally live right after the game a postgame call
in show should be back in the spring. We have
two things happen. We have a schedule for a family
of a family friend getting married. We have my mother
in law's seventieth birthday. I know Indiana is going to
be on the road at Oregon, so I decide, okay,

(00:51):
we'll go ahead. We'll do the show on Sunday morning instead,
because family is really important, and so we went. I
went ahead and scheduled that up. It's in Northwest Indiana
where I grew up. Hence you know Bears are playing tonight,
so I got the Bears jersey on. So we end
up going up there. Sunday morning comes and I have

(01:12):
awful connection issues at multiple spots and my starlink that
I bring for to work in the parking lot of games.
I didn't bring that with me because I didn't think
I would need it, so it led to us already
having to to postpone this until today. For the people

(01:32):
that are here, thank you for joining me here on Monday,
and please eight one, two, three, nine three, twenty six
hundred is the number I want to hear from you
about your thoughts on this win, about the fact that
Indiana is now the number three team in the country,
which is pretty jaw dropping considering where this program was
a couple of years ago. We're supposed to be hearing

(01:52):
from from Matt Weaver in just a little bit, so
really looking forward to talking to you guys and hearing
from you guys. But first off, you know, I did
the podcast last you know, I guess it went up
on Thursday, and on the podcast, I said that, you know, look,
I'm an EU alum. I've never been quiet about that,

(02:15):
and you know, as an alum, I'm still having a
tough time wrapping my head around the fact that this
is where we are. And so while all the facts
said Indiana was absolutely going to be able to compete
and have an opportunity to win, wrapping my head around
that was really difficult, really difficult, especially because there's been

(02:38):
a lot of times that Indiana has let let you down.
Those days are over, absolutely over. Jared Kelly on peaks
dot Com had a fantastic, I mean a fantastic article
about the multiple times that Indiana could have fallen apart
in this game, whether it be the false starts, which

(03:01):
Oregon should have been flagged at some point for the move,
And it isn't just the shift. It was the waving
of the arms that bothered me about it, And it's
something that Seg talked to him about and the officials
didn't do anything about, and to me, that is appalling.
But it is also a situation where Indiana in the

(03:22):
past could have cratered from that, but they didn't. They
kept battling, they kept coming along. After the Mendoza picked
six to tie the game, when Indiana seemed to have
the ball, seemed to have the game in control, going
the right direction throws a pick six, did Indiana fall apart?
Hell no, they didn't. They just marched right back down

(03:45):
the field Indiana's defensive line that earlier in the season
people were a little bit concerned. Think back to the
old Dominion game and the fact that Indiana didn't generate
much of a pass rush in that game. In this one,
they were a problem head coach Oregon head coach Dan Landing.
Landing said that they changed everything in their game plan

(04:08):
because of the fact that that happened. Indiana with six
sacks on the day and all of it led to
a game that at the end of it, Oregon was
absolutely on their heels, absolutely on their heels, shocked, an
eighteen game home winning streak gone. The college football world meanwhile,

(04:31):
can't question Indiana anymore. They're trying to and they're gonna
try to and moving the goalpost is something that people
love to do. Oh you know what, Oregon, they were,
You know, they beat Penn State. But look, Penn State's
lost three games in a row. They're in a free fall.
So if Indiana beat them, how good could they possibly be?

(04:54):
And you know what, keep it up, keep questioning it,
keep questioning it, because again, emotionally, I understand the fact
that Indiana maybe was just as as a longtime watcher
of the program to see it develop. We've seen them

(05:14):
have those opportunities and drop the ball, and at some
point we have what in my house what we call
the Scully rule. The Scully rule comes from the X
files for years. On that show, Fox Molder would say
the craziest things as his theory, and then the theory
would come true while his partner Dana Scully was there

(05:35):
talking about how it's not possible. It's not possible. After
a while, when Fox Molder would go ahead and say
something crazy, Scully probably should just listen to him. At
that point. That's the Scully rule. And at this point
we're hard in the Scully rule right now, and the
college football world better get on board with it. Eight one, two, three,

(05:59):
nine three, twenty six hundred is the number. Please give
me a call. We got so much to talk about,
whether it's the Oregon game, the upcoming Michigan State game.
Drop a question in the chat. I'm really looking forward
to hearing from you there and just talking about where
this team could go, because you know, I keep getting
I keep getting call, and I hope that he does

(06:20):
it after for this one. He calls after the games
and says, I'm gonna keep asking you what is this
team ceiling? What is this team ceiling? And I really
don't look at things like that because what is their ceiling? Well,
their ceiling is to be able to win the next game,

(06:41):
because that's what you have. However, at this point, there
is a pretty clear path and not a if everything
goes exactly right situation, a very clear path to Indiana
going undefeated on the season in the regular season twelve
and all, they're already getting votes to be the number

(07:04):
one team in the country. And damn it, you could
absolutely make that argument. You could absolutely make that argument.
You know, they go into Oregon, they put up a
ten point win. They didn't squeak this thing off on
a walk off field goal because a bunch of stuff happened. Now,
I was talking before the game about the last time

(07:26):
Indiana had played at Oregon, and I remember watching that game,
and it was raining in that game, and I believe
there was something like a combined seven fumbles between the
two teams, and it was a situation where Indiana would
fumble and then they would come back and Oregon would
fumble the ball right back and Indiana ended up winning
the ball game. That was in two thousand and four.

(07:47):
That was Jerry Denardo's last year, and I remember that
and it was a game that they won, but it
was a sloppy, sloppy game. It was a dog eating
a played a spaghetti game. This one wasn't that. It
wasn't the cleanest thing in the world. Maybe Indiana's offense
wasn't explosive, but damn it, they put up thirty points.

(08:08):
Put up thirty points. Fernando Mendoza twenty of thirty one
for two hundred and fifteen yards and a touchdown. Threw
a pick six that was a bad look, certainly on
his part, bad choice, but he bounced right back. So
you have a guy who's uh facing a tough environment,
a ton of pressure, throws a pick six, bounces right back,

(08:31):
leads his team down the field, completing two out of
every three passes. He throws two hundred and fifteen yards.
Dante Moore meanwhile for Oregon twenty one to thirty four,
one hundred and eighty six tuddy and two picks. Isaiah
Jones was awfully good, say the least. So you had

(08:52):
the running game that was solid as a team thirty
seven carries one hundred and eleven yards, not fantastic, but
kept the sticks moving. And then you have Elijah Surratt
eight catches, one hundred and twenty yards and a touchdown.
He was a man among boys, showed why he's going
to be playing on Sundays. He steps up in big moments,

(09:15):
but so does Omark Cooper. Seven catches for fifty eight yards.
He didn't get a lot of that, a lot of
the yardage after the catch, but boy, he made things happen.
He made things happen and kept the sticks moving along.
Of eleven had seven catches. It was a fantastic performance
by this Indiana offense, save of course, again for the penalties,

(09:37):
which as the game was going on, I was just
getting really really frustrated with the kind of things that
the officiating was not doing a good job. You know,
when you have a black sleeve and a black glove
over a white jersey, you should be able to see
that he has his arm wrapped around him. He should
officials can't see that. We have the false starts that

(10:01):
they call over and over and over again, that we're
clearly a situation where Indiana was drawing was drawn off.
Joel on the chat says, the missfield goal. That eye
goes down and kicks the fifty eight yarder, which silenced
the crowd and change the momentum. And we need to
talk when it comes to officials. Let's talk about that,
right before that happened. Right before that happened, you had

(10:25):
a timeout by Oregon and the official comes running in
to stop the play and damn near got kicked in
the face. Now blow the whistle. But what are you
doing jumping in front of the kicker like that. Let's
say the kicker kicks and hits the official and gets hurt.
What do you do it? There's a lot of weirdness

(10:46):
going on right there's seven ten. We got a call.
I'm assuming it's I believe it's probably Matt Weaver from
peaks dot com joining us. Call her if I could
have your name, where you're from, and what you got
and explain to me why Matt Weaver.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yes, it's it's Matt. How's it going, Ken?

Speaker 1 (11:07):
You do it all right tonight?

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (11:09):
How you doing?

Speaker 1 (11:10):
I'm doing really great. Now let's start to start with you.
First off, the win. How surprised were you? Not that
they won, maybe, but just the way that they were
able to absolutely compete on both sides of the ball
without having to resort to any kind of you know, tricks,

(11:32):
any kind of gadget place. They just basically took it
to a team that is considered one of the best
in the country. How much were you mentally prepared for that.
I mean, I was talking earlier about I've seen it,
I've been watching it, but wrapping my head around this
week to week is is is difficult, and I have
to just start believing at this point.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, I mean, me and Jared talked about this last
week on our podcast. We might We thought this kind
of might be you know what you might call a
kid st game where maybe you kind of throw, you know,
some stuff at him, things you haven't done, some trick plays,
whatever it may be. You know, you fake, maybe you
fake a punt or something like that. And they didn't.
They didn't have to do any of that. They just
played their game. They played them straight up and and

(12:14):
and obviously played really well. And you know, you know,
I think coaching, he said after the game, or maybe
it was on the broadcast when he got interviewed, kind
of broke their will, which which you know, they had
what sixty five yards I think a total offense in
the second half, and you know some of that came uh,
you know, maybe like a fourth of that game. On

(12:35):
that last drive when the nea I was dropping guys
like forty yards down the field, right, you know, they
get they get up some garbage yards. So yeah, you know,
I said it. You know, today after the press conference,
we did a little thing on the field, me and
Rabbi and Jared, and you know, maybe it's getting talked
about more than I realized. But you know, Indiana's defense
is just fantastic. I mean, they're really this is a

(12:56):
really really good unit. And I mean obviously you got
some guys that are back, but there's some new guys
that are really you know, to me, Idiah Jones has
been phenomenal. I mean just just you know, he played
last year, but it was more kind of a role,
complimentary player, and now he's one of the top guys
and he's been awesome. The d line was fit. I mean,
six sacks against the guy who'd been sacked one time
all year. Right, he was fewous in the country or something.

(13:18):
So credit to Brian Haynes, the whole staff, and then offensively,
you know, actually it's on it's actually on CBS Sports
Network right now, they're replaying the game. I'm kind of
watching it, and right I picked up right when the
right before the pick the pick six for Oregon and
Indiana bounces back and goes right down the field, and
it just you know, like me, and you've been doing

(13:39):
this for a long time, came India. Teams don't do that, right,
they don't bounce back from those things, you know, I
mean the Sinnetti calls it a rubber ball there he
instead of being a chandelier. Well, in the past, Indiana
was a chandelier, yes, uh, and it would break as
soon as something happened. But that's not the case anymore.
And it's just like you said, it's it's kind of
hard to comprey. It's just hard to take in. I

(14:02):
mean in a good way, but it's just it's so
surreal because we've seen, you know, you know, like what
we'd always joke in the press box and something bad.
What happened? Hello, Darkness, my old friend. Right, it's nice
to see you again, you know what I mean, because
that's what we saw. It's almost like we were expecting
bad things to happen, and it's kind of weird expecting
good things to happen even when things aren't going as

(14:22):
well as they could be.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
So you mentioned that defense, and one thing that has
really really impressed me With the defense, you can talk
about the defensive line and the kind of penetration they've
been getting, but also receivers who make catches. Oregon ended
up completing passes to nine different receivers. You didn't have
a ton of yards after catches. Guys are making catches,

(14:44):
but they're getting brought to the ground, and the fact
that they're not able to go ahead and pick up
those extra yards I think really has kind of changed
the way teams can attack this team because they are
going to have to work hard. Indiana doesn't have a
ton of busts.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, and you know it's I mean, people can take
I do the PFF story every week after games, and
people could take those for what they were, for what
they whatever it's worth. I think some some grow those
grades are you know, more applicable than others, like a
tackling grade. You know, I think some of the grades
on offense may be tough just because or even on
defense because you don't know what was called and if
you're grading that. But I think tackling grades and this

(15:21):
is one of them. This was one of Indiana's better
tackling games so far the season. And I think three
or four three in the top four or four of
the top five tacklers were dvs. It was like Lewis
Moore and Pond. So it proves your point. You know,
even when they were completely passes, they weren't going anywhere.
They were going to the ground. And again that's something
that you know, we we have not seen in Indiana

(15:41):
a defense that's you know, the ability to kind of
play you know, the rush and do some of those
things like fine, but then to be physical and it's
you know, and and it's at all positions, and you know,
let's be honest, a lot of times dvs aren't and
corners aren't aren't always looked at as physical type players.
But these guys, I mean, the little Pond is not
a real big dude. I mean five to ten, probably

(16:02):
one hundred and seventy hundred and tenty five pounds, soak
and wet, but he'll come up and lay a lick.
We've seen it for the last year and a half
of him in Indiana. So and these other guys, you know,
Lewis Moore had a big pick, had some big plays,
so yeah, they it's just you know, I told somebody
this is what this is what high level, big time
football looks like. We've never seen it, but we always

(16:24):
you know, I think it's one of those things you
just know it when you see it. These these coaches
are outstanding. Their scheme is outstanding. You know, the way
these guys buy in. I mean they talked about a
lot today. You know, just how these guys they stay focused.
They're good players, and you know they don't they don't
get rattled by He always says that every play has
a play or as a life of its own six

(16:45):
or seven seconds and you go on to the next one.
And that's what they do. If it's a good play,
bad play, and they play hard, and you know, the
physicality of the defense is just for me, is really
enjoyable to watch. I mean, they come up and they
punch people in the mouth. They did that to Oregon
and they did it to and you obviously there are
two biggest wins this year and they're going to keep
doing it the rest of the year.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
There have been multiple times over the years that you know,
we've looked at each other and said, who is the
star of this team, who is the star of the defense,
Who is the guy that you could count on? And
there wasn't really anybody there. Now on both sides of
the ball. You you want to talk about D'Angelo Ponds,
you want to talk about Aidan Fisher, Isaiah Jones, Lewis

(17:26):
and Lou Moore on the offensive side, Fernando Mendoza or
is it Elijah Surat? You know, there are a lot
of different options that you have there, and to me,
that really is the testament to where this team has
come is you have multiple guys that can make things happen,
and they do it week over week with some kind
of consistency.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Oh yeah, And I mean you know that's why D'Angelo
Ponds and mcaul kamara and Aidan Fish are all Americans
and why you know Sarat right now. I mean, this
guy is just absolutely destroying offenses. I mean, everybody knows
where the ball is going and they can't stop him.
And we said that last week, me and Jared in
the podcast. This was this is one of those your
stud games or star games. The stud players have to

(18:08):
be studs. The star players have to show up in
these kind of games when you go on the road
and you're playing a team that hasn't hasn't lost in
a row with like eighteen I think eighteen games in
a row winning short the longest in the country, and
they're this, this is outstanding the Oregon team. They're really
really good. Your your star players have to show up
and they did. Were they perfect? Now, Mendoza, you know
they'll pick. Although you know there could have been you

(18:28):
know something they talked about it what e j Wells
could have maybe run a little bit better route. But
you know, still they weren't perfect. There was there was
I'm sure there's plays that they missed or whatever. But
when they needed them to make plays third whatever it
be third down or down by the goal line or
whatever it was, these guys came through and they made play.
Lewis Moore had that big pick right after Indiana took

(18:49):
the lead. That was a huge play because Indiana could
run clock and and really I remember sitting I was
watching and I was just thinking, you know all you need,
I mean you a touchdown would be great, obviously, but
just get points, just hit points. They're making a two
possession game because the time and obviously you didn't know
that Isaiah Jones are gonna turn around and get a
pick on the next possession and basically, you know, seal it.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
But that's a perfect example in the past. All right,
they go ahead and they get it, and then all
of a sudden, Oregon comes down and scores on like
it like a quick screen or something, a quick shot.
And then they got an on side kick and they
got the opportunity and instead it had to close the
door on this thing.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, and and and and it wasn't you know that
Lewis Moore was a good one as.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
A tip ball.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
I mean Isaiah Jones read it, jumped the route and
made the pick. Yeah, just a great play. I mean,
that's that right there. That's that's coaching. That's guys knowing
their role, knowing what what play could be coming. I'm
sure they've seen stuff like this on film and and
and doing. You know, it's it's you know, everybody does
one eleven. You know you want one one one out
of every guys do their job. If all eleven do

(19:49):
their job, you've got a chance. It doesn't mean you're
going to be successful every time. But this team is
just it's just incredible. If you've ever seen a practice,
they're so efficient, you see why it carries over the field.
It's tension to detail, incredibly efficient practices, no wasted time.
They get stuff done and they get off the field
and it's it's just been it's been refreshing for me

(20:11):
and you. I think it's been incredibly refreshing to see
a program run this way.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
I wanted to ask you about Fernando Mendoza. Yeah, he
put up the solid passing numbers, but the runs that
he had, the plays that he made with his legs
really changed this game as well. Just your thoughts on
just the way that that part of his game exists,
even if it's not the main part of his game.

(20:37):
How important is that to this offense?

Speaker 2 (20:40):
It's huge. And again, like I said, I was watching
this and on the drive where they went down and
got the touchdown, there was a you know, Indiana had
some pre snap issues on the off li line of
those guys, and I think there may have been some
nefarious things from Oregon with their hands or something. But
Indiana jumped quite a few times. Yeah, and they had
a person fifteen and he kept the ball got I

(21:00):
want to see he got about like eight or nine yards.
It was a good run. I mean it was a
quality run and you didn't You and Curtis work was
fantastic last year, but that that element was not there.
You did not have that and it's just and that's
the kind of time. These are the these are the
moments when it's so important. You know, you got a
third and three and you could keep the ball and
and you know, obviously they have some problems. You can

(21:20):
file one those kinds of situations, but it just makes
it so difficult to defend, for for for a defensive coordinator,
because it's you know, if your d N crashes, if
he keeps that ball, it's gonna be an easy first down.
And right, yeah, he's not Lamar Jackson. He's not you know,
Jalen hurts, but he has definitely got more than enough
athleticism to hurt you if you if you know, if

(21:41):
he if they run that play and he keeps it
and you make a mistake defending it. And he had
some big, big runs in this game for sure. That definitely, Uh,
you know, we're we're huge in the outcome.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
So now you have a homecoming game this weekend against
Michigan State Indiana back at Memorial Stadium for the first
time in three weeks. What are you expecting from this
team and are you concerned at all about a hangover
from this game.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah, you know, not really in Michigan, State's a wounded
animal right now. They're not playing well. They just got
blown out at home. I think they had a couple
of close losses on the road, you know, one of
them I take at a pretty solid Nebraska team. But
they're not playing good. There's already some you know, it's
this is the stuff that happens now. There's already some
chatter about Jonathan with Jonathan Smith's the coach up there,

(22:31):
his future, you know, because they're not they're not doing well.
So this is a game. This is definitely a game.
They've got enough talent to go out there and give
Indiana problems. I mean, you know, I think a child's
has some injury issues. A quarterback, I'm not sure if
he's playing, but they've got some guys who can make plays.
But this team is just so business like. They they

(22:54):
they take on the personality of their coach and their
coaching staff. I will I would be shocked if this
is than anything less than a convincing win. I really would.
I get it, But I just don't think these older guys,
guys like Pat Coogan, Aiden Fisher Kamara, you can go
down on down the list. I don't think these guys
are going to allow that to happen. I really don't.
I think they're going to come out and I think

(23:16):
this is going to be this is going to be
a pretty big blowout.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yeah, it'll be exciting to see. To say the least.
We have a question in the chat. He says, I
know Coach Sig isn't going anywhere, but I would like
some reassurance. And I know my opinion on this versus
that he has this thing going, Why would he want
to go somewhere else if he's getting the resources and
all that. But your thoughts on the chatter that's never

(23:39):
from the programmer or from Indiana, but more outsiders just thinking, well,
obviously he'll want he'll want to leave, just you know,
your thoughts on him and that whole idea.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, I mean, I guess my first first thought is
is and I get it, Indiana fans have been beaten down.
There's paranoia. But what do I say now? You fans's
man like they there's something good going on here, and
you know I'm with you. Why would you look Here's
the other thing I keep I see people say, well,
it's easier to win a national title. Penn State. Well,

(24:13):
if it's so much so easy to win a national
title Penn State, now come they're firing their coach because
he couldn't do it right, Like Indiana right now is
closer to a national title than Penn State is now.
At the beginning of the year, people you know that
you wouldn't have said that, but they're closer. They're a
much better team. And as the season went on, you
saw that they're they're a better team. He the portal
has completely changed things in college athletics. It used to

(24:35):
be you had to get loaded up on four and
five star guys out of high school to be not
Back then it was, you know, just a four team playoff.
But even you know, as they expanded, you had to
have all these guys out of high school. Well, Indiana's
got five star players. They think that about of high school.
Elijah threw out with a five star recruit. Mccaulcamara was
a five star recruit, eight and fisher of the fire Start.
I've been going on D'Angelo Ponds. You can go on

(24:57):
and on, Roman Handy, Fernando, you can just you can
keep going on and on and on, and then some
of the guys that we're already here, they've developed them
into four or five star type recruits. So I don't
I don't think you need to go to one of
these other places. Rev Share has changed things now, obviously,
and I is still gonna be in the picture, and
you've got to be you got to be competitive there.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
But I don't.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
I don't know that.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Penn State is all that much closer to getting you
to a national title than in Indiana. Is as long
as as long as in the administration has shown that
they will give him the resources. So I'm not I
don't think he's going anywhere. I think Skirtstone's gonna coach
Hover long he coaches. Uh, it's gonna he's gonna fish
in Indiana. And I think there's gonna be a statue
outside the stadium because he's gonna do things that obviously,

(25:38):
well he's already done it, but he's gonna do more
of the things he's already done that have never been
done in this the history of this program.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah, his age is a factor too, because of the
fact that he's sixty four years old. Does he want
to move his family again? Does he want to go ahead?
And U and start over when he's showing that he
could already do it in a major conference and give
his team an opportunity in a program and opportunity UH
to be an elite team in the country. That's what
we are right now. Real quick, before I let you go,
I wanted to ask you one more question about James Franklin.

(26:05):
You mentioned Penn State. Three weeks ago, he was coaching
the number two team in the country. Today he's unemployed.
How quickly that turns? Were you surprised at all that
Penn State decided to go ahead and pull the trigger
that fast?

Speaker 2 (26:20):
I mean, I thought he was probably gonna be done.
I thought they'd probably wait till the end of the year.
But then again, when you think about it, and I
said this the last couple of years, schools are not
going to wait until the end of the year because
you can't now the portal the port They changed the
portal date. Remember it was right after the end of
the season, and now they've moved it. Moved it till
like January second to like January I think seventeenth or whatever.
It is, like the first two weeks of the of

(26:41):
the new year. But still you can't wait because you
got you you got to get on the ground and
get going, like you got to start recruiting. And I
just don't think you get it's not as not as
big as it was the last couple of years with
the portal date right after Thanksgiving or right December first,
whenever it started. But I just don't think schools are
gonna wait anymore. I mean, and if you know it's
gonna go back, if you already know what your decision is,

(27:03):
I kind of see it and listen. I mean, everything
that they were that they were trying to play for
is over. I mean now they're looking at basically maybe
going hopefully going six and six and going to Detroit. Uh,
if that's what they want to do. I don't even
know if they if they want to do it, But yeah,
I'm not surprised that that it happened. I mean the
timing a little bit, But like I said, the wait
college athletics is now, I don't I don't think athleticers

(27:25):
a gonna wait anymore. I don't think you're gonna see
people wait out and go to do it at the
end of the season. I think they're gonna do it
when they when they want to do it, and they're
gonna and they're gonna get the process started. I mean,
Pat Kraft now has what six or seven weeks to
start contacting agents and getting a feel for you know
who who he who. And listen, if you make a
decision like this and you're gonna drop fifty million dollars
to get rid of a guy or whatever it is,

(27:46):
I think it's forty nine or fifty million, you've already
got some You've already got an idea where you're going
for sure, Okay, you and obviously all the connections to
that rule at Nebraska people are talking about with them
working together at Temple, they're really good buddies. I could
see that. I mean, there's some other guys out there.
Manny die as the guy he's got a relationship with
and people speak highly of him, and he's been at

(28:07):
Penn States of DC, so I don't be interesting to
see where they go. It's obviously a great job. It's
a great job, but I don't think it's the gap
between that kind of job and the Indiana job or
even other jobs like that, you know. I mean there's
other schools in Indiana's peer thing. Illinois there's a place
if you get the right guy and you have the
right structure, you can you can do big things. I
think the gap has shrunk considerably because of how college

(28:30):
athletics is now with the portal and with being able
to the REV share and pay players.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Well, Matt Weaver Peaks dot com. There is literally nobody
on the planet better to talk to than you. And
you know that I've known you for a long time
and I say that with absolute sincerity. Thank you so
much for joining us, and thank you so much for
your insights. And I'll see you Saturday.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
Okay, Thanks, budd, take care.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Really appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (28:55):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Eight one, two, three, nine three, twenty six hundred is
the number. Uh, we have another caller. UH bring that up, caller,
if I could have your name, where you're from, and
what you got.

Speaker 5 (29:10):
Hi, I'm Charlie, Charlie the Intern. I'm from Elksville, Indiana,
and I wanted to ask you Ken, Uh, how do
you think the receivers were breaking from the Oregon defense
on the offensive side of the ball?

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Well, I thought that they did a great job of
creating separation coming out of their their routes. They did
a good job of that crisp break and in getting separation.
Now they didn't get a ton of of separation, but
they did make the the catch and uh, you know
made a you know, a real impact in making things happen. Plus,

(29:46):
you know, when you have a guy like Omar Cooper
that can make some one hand catches, that makes it
a lot easier. It gives you some opportunities to to
just widen that that catch radius and makes a big difference.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (29:58):
And also, how do you think Fernando Mendoza did outside
of the pocket? I know he got on the ground
a lot of times and he went and ran and
got some good yards, But how do you think he
did outside of the pocket?

Speaker 1 (30:10):
I thought he did really really well, and he used
his legs well in the run game. And I'm very
pleased that he was able to get up. Every time.
I hold my breath a little bit every time he
gets out of the pocket. But the fact that that's
part of the game, is his game, is important. And
the fact, you know, look, last year, Curtis Rourke played
a whole bunch of the season with the torn acl

(30:30):
Just keeping Mendoza healthy is really really important.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (30:35):
And one more thing, Okay before I bear down.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yes, sir, so all right, I appreciate the call.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
Charlie, thank you, You're welcome.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Eight one, two, three, nine three, twenty six hundred is
the number there in the chat hoping Charlie isn't a
Bears fan. You're damn right he is. I'm raising him right,
That's how that workshir Rich for Life eighteen forty two
says this game was the best singular game of my
life as an Indiana fan and as an Indiana alumni.
Trust me, it has been a long time. I have

(31:07):
said before that I am mostly dead inside when it
comes to these games that I've been watching for a
long time, and I don't get too high, I don't
get too low. But this game, you know, as as
a you know, even somebody who covers the program, to

(31:29):
see them go ahead, turn in the defense and walk
away with a win, I was My heartbreak got up,
my heart rate got up because it was really good
to see the fans, especially get rewarded for their patients
and for their willingness to stick with this program through
some pretty rough years. Now, the past ten years have

(31:51):
been a hell of a lot better than they have
been at at some times, the past two years have
been fantastic. But twenty nineteen was great. Twenty twenty was great.
You had Bowl uh Bowl uh you know, trips that
under Tom Allen, you had one under Kevin Wilson. So
it's been a successful decade to buy you football. But

(32:12):
this right now and think about this, folks, Indiana's the
number three team in the country, has a great path
to continue this success and just roll into December into
the college football playoffs. And now they have experience in
that kind of atmosphere which was missing last year. This
is all for real and it's it's uh uh, it's
it's pretty impressive. Eight one, two, three, nine three, twenty

(32:35):
six hundred is the number.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
Uh uh.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Irish for Life also says I was worried when Signetty
was livid correctly over that interference call. Can they throw
out a coach? And I know Whoperazi answered, uh that
uh that uh yeah, he can be. But he also
wasn't given a penalty that was a bench warning.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
He was livid, and the reason they didn't uh give
him that penalty is because they knew they were wrong,
and I'm absolutely convinced of that. They he was freaking
out and they're like, yep, we should have called that.
So you're gonna give him a little bit more leeway
maybe than you otherwise would and rightfully, so you know

(33:19):
that one is a couple of just egregious no calls,
and that's one way you could let a coach know
yet we miss that, we kicked that call. You're right,
You're right, you're right, and and just try to make
sure that he uh, he doesn't you know, go too far.
There's a limit, but that is something that that goes
along with it. A one, two, three, nine, three, twenty

(33:40):
six hundred is the number we will be hearing from
Kurt Signetti in just a few minutes. And before we
do that, I did want to mention for those that
are watching here on Monday night, Uh, there is a
sale right now going on at peaks dot com sixty
percent off an annual subscription at peags. Do it right now,

(34:03):
it ends at midnight Eastern time. All the exclusive game
coverage and preview content that we have. It's a VIP
membership and it's on sale right now. You got Darren
DeVries in its first basketball season coming up, so be
sure to hit that deal while you can. While it's
going on. Now, I'm gonna do something a little bit different.

(34:26):
Normally I will bring postgame press conference from the game
that we just sad about. Obviously, we're a couple of
days later and we've had the opportunity to here from
Kurt Signetti on the Monday press conference. So I'm gonna
go ahead at this point and bring you comments from
head coach Kurt Signetti earlier today from the team room

(34:48):
as the Hoosiers prepared to take on Michigan State.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
All right, good win Saturday. It was a hard fought,
physical game. Rip off the review mirror, so to speak.
Total focus on Michigan State. I think the key now
is our response coming off of this game. But that's
always the key, right And this team has met every

(35:16):
challenge up to this point because they've been humbered, hungry
and humble, prepared properly and put it on the field,
which requires commitment, discipline, sacrifice, you know, eliminating the noise
and clutter, controlling the controllables, and putting themselves in the

(35:39):
best position for success. Because when you prepare properly, it
breeds confidence, it brings out your best. Playing a good
football team this week in Michigan State. They had two
hard fought losses on the road against USC and Nebraska.
They played really hard and had a chance to win
both games and then return. And I'm sure they're not

(36:01):
real pleased with their performance, but they got a lot
of good players. Great coaches really respect. Coach Smith did
a great job at Oregon State. They got good design
in all three phases of the game. They got guys
that stand out, and I'm expecting their best shot. So

(36:23):
this game gives you nothing. You got to earn everything,
and it's all about our mindset and our preparation.

Speaker 6 (36:31):
Questions, Kurt, I, guess from a coach's perspective, what does
a quarterback learn about himself? And what does the team
learn about its quarterback when it sees Fernando respond the
way he did he throws the pick six. Obviously, the
environment changes, the momentum changes, And to answer with his
performance on that drive, what does he learn about himself
in a moment like that in your experience, and what

(36:52):
does his team learn about him?

Speaker 4 (36:54):
Well, you know, the quarterback's the key figure. He gets
too much credit and too much blame. You know, he
overcame adversity that play wasn't all on him, but at
the end of the day, the ball came off his hand.
You know, we had pressure in the pocket, he wasn't
able to set his feet. The receiver could have flattened
the route, and it happened. And we talked about it

(37:21):
a lot going into the game. You don't go on
the road and win a game like this without being
able to overcome adversity and never let doubt or frustration
creep in. And that was a prime example of that.
And his teammates rallied around him and supported him, and

(37:43):
we came back with a nine play seventy five yard drive.
And I think offensively, the best things we did was
we responded to their scores with two nine plays seventy
five yard drives and then had a two minutes before
the half, again like we did against Iowa. We're in

(38:04):
twenty four seconds. We were able to take the ball downfield,
kick fifty eight yard field goal and give us momentum
going in to the locker room. Defensively, we were tremendous
most of the time, you know, TFLs sacks second half,
gave up three points, had two interceptions, gave up forty

(38:26):
one total yards, not counting the last drive. You know,
we were in a prevent defense and special teams. You
know the fifty eight yard field goal which he made twice,
and then Radichek's two field goals, but the other the
other teams were good, so it was great team win.
It was a physical, physical, hard fought game, and you know,

(38:51):
Fernando was under duress at times, made some sensational where
he got the ball out of his hand and he
ran for yards. So but you know it was gonna
be hard and we found a way to overcome it.

(39:14):
So now it's really important that we understand who we
really are and what's got us to this point always
last year to year, this year, all the years in
the past. What you know in this game? What does
it take to be successful. You gotta have commitment, You

(39:36):
gotta make sacrifices. You get out what you put in.
You gotta have discipline to do what you have to
do when you have to do it, and do it right.
You gotta have a work ethic, attention to detail. You
got to control the controllables, eliminate the noise and clutter,
which you guys do a great job of providing a

(39:57):
lot of that, and stay humble and hungry. This is
a big time opponent coming in here. Every team you
face in the Big ten, the margin freyr is very slim,
and we have to have a great day to day,

(40:19):
great meeting, great practice and stacked days and then put
it on the field.

Speaker 7 (40:27):
You mentioned the tackles for losses and sacks, and Dan
Landing after the game said, you know, your pressure in
front seven kind of disrupted whatever game plan they had.
You know, you've talked a lot about Brian Haynes, the
scheme and how it's designed to do that. Is there
anything unique about this talent group, this this front seven
that sort of powered your success? A lot of new
faces this year. I don't know anything unique you've seen
from this group that's kind of powered the success they've had.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Well, you know, I think it's all about people and
the plan and then the things I just talked about
putting the work in. And we got good players up front,
really good coaches at coaching, Pat Koons and Buddha Williams.
Of course, Brian oversees the defense does tremendous job, and

(41:11):
you know, we've definitely made progress up front, there's no
doubt about it. But we also understand we're in a
production oriented business and what we did yesterday doesn't mean
squat because next week's news will be largely determined by
what we do today, Tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then

(41:33):
obviously Saturday from three thirty to six o'clock from play
one to one fifty.

Speaker 8 (41:41):
Yeah, coach, I wanted to ask about Isaiah Jones. Why
is he playing so well and his development? Is that
an example of the kind of development that you want
in your program and are scene in your program?

Speaker 3 (41:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (41:52):
I think everyone is just so proud of Isaiah Jones.
He's a great teammates, great leader. He represents everything that
we talk about what it takes to be the best
you can be. He was on the team the year
before I was hired, but when he showed up, I
guess he had a back injury required surgery, wasn't able
to do very much. So he got out there in

(42:14):
my first spring and then fall played quite a bit
the first half of the season in our joker package,
and then Hardy started to play a little bit more.
And I think it's just a case of a guy
staying healthy. And you know, these are young guys, you
know their bodies change. You know, their work with Derek,

(42:35):
you know, the winner, and then the summer builds on
the winner. And then you put two years together, two
years in the same scheme. You know, now you can
play fast react because you recognize and he is really
playing well. I am so happy for him and he
has been a huge playmaker for us.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
A little bit about the production you're getting from Wyatt
and Landino. They've among the defensive linemen who were playing
really well.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
Yeah, well, you know Tucker and Landino. Really I've seen
those guys really come on the last three weeks. You know,
Wheeler has been very steady, reckless in that mix outside.
You know, Wyatt since the day he got here, really
has been impressive. He got great work ethic, he's really smart,
he's very versatile. He's a good football player. And that

(43:31):
was a key acquisition.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
You know.

Speaker 4 (43:33):
The other guy that we had in the spring after
spring was Daily Now. He came from a program that
wasn't as good as Wyatts, and when he came in
the summer, you know, he wasn't in a like quite
as good as shape physical condition as the other guys.

(43:55):
But he's a freak athlete. Remember him from when I
was a JMU. He came to our high school camp.
Guy ran sub ten eight hundred meter senior in high
schol two hundred thirty pounds and he is really like
you know about the middle camp on and then of
course you got Kamara out there. So but Landino and

(44:18):
what Landino?

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (44:21):
You know, we've always been very high on him. He's
had some uh nagging injuries that that have kept him
off the field in his early days. Missed his first
spring last spring, my first spring here. Uh, and I
see him developing into the player we knew he could be.

(44:45):
And uh, you know he's got an unlimited ceiling h moving.

Speaker 9 (44:50):
Forward, Daniel coach, I'm gonna ask you about Roman hemby
Se Guy always said Marylyn always doing as a speed
guy could run. It seems like, I mean he does
that here. But also it looks like he's not only
he's willing to run in between the tackles, run with power,
but he looks like he enjoys it and you know,

(45:10):
takes some satisfaction. What have you seen from him?

Speaker 2 (45:12):
And how big is his audition been for the run?

Speaker 4 (45:15):
You know, when you take anyone out of the portal
that you don't have a history with You can research
the production, you can watch the tape, you can talk
to people, but you really don't know him right until
they're here a while and see how they respond to

(45:36):
different situations and how consistent they are day and day out.
Roman Hemby's a warrior. That guy gives one hundred percent
every day every play. Physical runner, fast, smart, great hands,
great out of backfield. And you know he's a guy

(45:56):
that wants the ball that you can give the ball to.
And he's been durable.

Speaker 10 (46:04):
Daniel, I want to say, you said this team is
humble and it's hungry. Where does that hunger and humility
come from on this on y'all's team.

Speaker 4 (46:15):
Well, I mean, you know, you got a certain blueprint
and a plan. Things you preached, things that you feel
are important. It's my job to communicate those and the
assistance right also, and to like kind of live that
and walk that and then you know the team, right,

(46:36):
they need to get the message. But they aren't words,
they are actions. And you know, we've got enough older
guys here and I think having all those jam you
guys last year certainly helped with the process. They understood
the program, knew what to expect. But this year, we
added quite a few new guys, veterans, great character, good players,

(46:59):
good leaders. You know who they are. I don't need
to mention names, but you know, we got a lot
of strong character on this football team. And they're a
team and you know, the team goals supersede the individual goals.
And let's face it, when you enter a season, especially nowadays,

(47:26):
because you got a lot of new faces, there's really
a lot you still don't know about your team, how
they're going to respond. And you learn about your team
every week, you really do. And we're going to learn
a lot more about our team this week, right So
I'm proud of the way that they went out the

(47:47):
Oregon you know, got the message. A couple of the
coaches said you could hear them on the field through
their chatter some of the stuff. They you know, want
to play the time, play the next play, you know, whatever.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Whatever it is.

Speaker 4 (48:01):
But we got good players that prepare and like to
play football, and they're smart and they make good choices
and decisions on the field.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Well that's Kurt Signetti. He's got a couple more minutes,
but we'll cut it off there. Eight one, two, three,
nine three, twenty six hundred is the number the lines
are open wanted to you know, just mentioned just right
there at the end though he was talking about how
the coaches could hear the players talking about, you know,
next play, you know all that kind of stuff. I

(48:31):
gotta tell you that that kind of thing is really
really important because that's just buy in. It's just buy
in from the guys that that show exactly you know,
where they are in terms of how they're approaching everything.
They're hearing what the coaches have to say, and they
are you know, bringing into life, and that is is

(48:53):
all that is.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Is really.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
Important that that's why this kind of thing, it's a
culture change that we've seen under Kurt Signetti. One of
the things that by the way, in the game, I'm
trying to I'm drawing a blank now on who laid
on the field and he had to come off and
miss a play. And I know as a defensive player

(49:20):
it might have been Elijah Hardy, but he was he
was on the fielder. No no, no, no, no no.
That was Jamari Sharp was the one. And you could
hear him on the microphone over the field yelling at
him about laying on the field. And he's able to
come off those little moments. I loved that. By the way,
I thought that that was a fantastic It wasn't that

(49:42):
he was trying to denigrate the kid for being banged up,
but he was just trying to preach toughness that you
don't have to lay on the field unless you have
to lay on the field. And Lord knows that that's
something that I fully believe that is really really important
to take care of. I I like that toughness. I

(50:02):
like to see, uh. I see that kind of thing.
And you know, Sig expects a very high level from
his players, and if they are as a team performing
like that, you have to be real happy with uh,
with what you know we've seen from him. I also

(50:23):
have been impressed with some of the sacrifice that has
been made, not you know, Aiden Fisher, Lewis Moore, Elijah
Jones and rather Isaiah Jones.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
They are guys that are the leading tacklers for this team.
You know, when it comes for tackles for loss, Jones
leads the team with ten of them. Kellan Wyatt has eight,
Aidan Fisher has uh that uh uh. Todd Lemon on
the chat says, I think he was dinged up on
that play. He looked a little looked a little wobbly
when he got up. Yeah, I I I understand what

(50:52):
you're saying there. But if you are a little bit
wobbly and then you're able to jog over to the side,
I could see why a coach would would, uh would
would talk to him about that and it happened. I mean,
I'm sure you hear that plenty. We just happen to
hear him on on microphone. But back to just you
look at a guy like Mikhael Kamara who has not

(51:13):
maybe I don't want to say made the impact, because
he has made an impact. That's kind of the point here.
He has ten tackles on the year, one sack, he
has three Quarterback Hurries hasn't been a guy that has
been dominant, at least through the first half of the season,
but he's also drawing a ton of attention from other people,
which is opening things up for his teammates. And you

(51:36):
have to be happy, you know, for your teammates. When
they're doing that and you're continuing to win. It's easy
to it's easier to swallow that you're not getting the
same thing you're getting more attention. But it's opening up
things for your teammates. And when that happens and you
have guys that are playing for each other, it makes
a huge difference. Huge eight one, two, three, nine, three,

(51:58):
twenty six hundred is the number. Please give us a call.
Lines are open. We're gonna stay on for just a
little bit longer. You had a question about let's talk
about Oregon and Michigan State, not Penn State's job opening.
What has MSU shown that is a concern, and you
know with that one you do start a quarterback Aidan
Chiles ideas I punch a microphone. Aiden Chiles completing sixty

(52:20):
percent of his passes, nine touchdowns, three interceptions. He does
sometimes make some less than good decisions with the ball.
He runs into some problems with that. Michigan State's run
game has been inconsistent, and like I said, like Matt
Weavers said, he's been banged up a little bit, so

(52:41):
being able to to make an impact overall, it starts
with him for them, That's basically what it comes down to.
Starts with them. They're averaging this season twenty nine and
a half points a game overall, twenty three points in
conference now by that, by that comparison, what is Indiana

(53:04):
doing well forty four point eighty three points a game
and in conference thirty seven point six while opponents are
scoring an average of fifteen points in conference in Big
Ten play. This is one of those games where again
that mindset has to change.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
For me, first and foremost that this is a game
that Indiana by all rights should hammer Michigan State. They're
gonna to play their game, They're gona have to do
what they've been doing. But the talent is there and
you do have, you know, stars all over the field
at multiple different positions. We got another caller, caller, if

(53:48):
I could have your name, where you're from and what
you got.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Here?

Speaker 3 (53:53):
You Ken Dan here from Alexville. Hey Dan, talking with you.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
How you doing.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
I'm good, I'm good. A great win Saturday. I will
say this is not and this is not a criticism
of you, because you have your own life to live.
But I feel like you're getting a lot less costs
because people aren't as lubricated, so to speak, at a
long day of watching football. But thanks for doing the show.

(54:21):
You're doing a great job. I did want to say,
you know, it was this is one of the first
times I've ever watched an IU game, especially in away game,
like not being in the stadium where you know, there
wasn't that natural trepidation nervousness that most IU fans have

(54:42):
grown accustomed to seeing, you know, like basically the oh God,
how are we going to screw this up? Now? Like
Sunday's game was the first time I've ever watched a
game like start to finish, and it was like, you know,
the guys, you know, they got they got the guys
can do this. They've got it. They have the skill,
you know, they've got the coaching. They just have to

(55:03):
have the will to go out there and be Oregon.
And they did so. I was extremely impressed by that.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
And they had a multiple opportunities to fall apart in
ways that we've seen before, you know, especially that pick six.
You're like, oh, but nobody hung their head. And even
the defense you have. You know, we've seen how many
times over the years where something will happen. Indiana will
give up a big play and then they will kind
of stack on each other. That isn't happening. And the

(55:33):
one bus that they had, the one long touchdown pass
was some miscommunication and Mario Ferrell was not didn't have
his eyes where they were supposed to be and let
a guy get behind him. But then that didn't snowball.
They went back out there, the offense went ahead and
and got it together, and when the defense came back in,
they were locked in. And to me, that is a

(55:54):
huge difference from what we've seen from past teams.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
I agreed, completely agree. And you know, there's definitely I
hate to use the word swagger because everyone uses that
kind of word. Actually, it's probably fallen out of use
with the younger crowd, so I don't even know. I
don't know what the hells for Aleivant these days, but
this team definitely has a sense of confidence that I've
never seen in an IU team before, you know, and

(56:20):
it's great, it's great to see. Like I don't know
about you, but I've always been one of those fans
where like you, who always just ask themselves like, well,
why not us? Like why the hell can't we win
these close games? Like why are we the ones to
be you know, snake bitten and you know, just count
constantly can't turn that corner. I mean, at the time,
my working theory was that memorial stadium was built on

(56:42):
an in like a Native American burial ground, and so
we were cursed.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
Well, somebody was there in nineteen sixty.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
So no kidding, We've got time.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
It's it's a whole thing. I'm planning on putting down
the podcast about Michael Plume in Valentine's Day of nineteen sixty.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
Oh, I can't, I'll but anyway, I guess. I guess
I'll leave you with the question.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Well, give me before you give me the question, I
had just answered to what you were just talking about.
I kind of track it back to last year's Michigan
State game. If you remember, Indiana fell behind on the
road ten nothing and Seg went to his players and
was like, it's okay, it's okay, we'll get him. And
then they ran off something like forty two or forty

(57:28):
seven straight points and Indiana won big. At that point,
you can't question the coach. Now he's got you. Everything
he's sold you has been absolutely has absolutely come true.
So you gotta believe him. And that to me, that
has just built along the way.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
Yeah, I agreed. I was actually at that Michigan State
game last year and that was a that was quite
the environment to be in. Yeah, but but back to
my so my question and I'll hang up after this.
So thanks for all your time. So, what's coming up
with the Michigan State? Like I know they're big playmakers,
generally are considered childs, but I know he's been kind

(58:05):
of hurt or or doing some injuries. The other one
I've heard about, or at least he was big in
last year's game, was that last name was Marsh. I
believe Nick Marsh. I think do we have a good
feeling about lining? I guess you know how we're gonna
line up with him because I know he was the
one that was probably dashing us the worst for that

(58:26):
first quarter until I obviously the team rattled off forty
seven unanswered. Like you said, right, I don't think any
if if I was any other, if it was any
other coach in charge of this team, instead of cursing that,
I would be worried about the you know, rat poison narrative.
But as of right now, like I just got the

(58:46):
destiny in their hands. So you gotta win every day,
you know, every Saturday, if you want to really fulfill
that destiny. So thanks Kim for your time. I'm gonna
hang up, go loos yours and keep up with the
great work man.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
I appreciate that so much. Thank you so much. Dan
Nick Marsh is who he's talking about. He is the
second leading receiver in terms of yards for Michigan State
this year. He is three hundred and forty yards receiving
Amari Kelly with three forty seven, although Marsh has five
more catches and has four touchdown catches on the year

(59:19):
against the one for Kelly. To me, Indiana's going to
play their defense. Maybe you throw Ponds on him because
he is the fantastic, you know, cover guy. But to me,
Ponds is somebody that is going to to lock guys down.
That's who you're gonna put on him. So to me,

(59:40):
this is a team that is more locked in focused
defensively this year than last year. And so you know
when Ponds was out against Iowa, you saw a little
bit softer zone to keep things in front of him.
With Ponds back, Indiana could be more aggressive and I'm
expecting them to be real aggressive in coverage along the
way two with three nine three twenty six hundred is

(01:00:02):
the number. I really appreciate everybody joining us today. You know,
Russell Baxter on the chat says Marcus Freeman should be
the next coach for Penn State if they're smart people.
I don't know if they're smart people. Freeman's buyout around
four million dollars, I got it. You know, that's certainly
fun to talk about.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
But the point that Matt Weaver was making earlier, I
think is really important too that Penn State is not
Indiana right now. Not only do they not have a coach,
they have a huge fans, a huge fan support, you know,

(01:00:45):
plenty of resources, they got the tradition, all of that
kind of stuff. But Indiana's rolling kids, absolutely rolling. Was
it twelve and two last year? Six and zero this year?
Kurtzignetti's seventeen and two in the regular season for IU.
He has not lost a home game. And for Brad

(01:01:09):
Nicks asking on the chat, no injuries that we know
of after Oregon, not that not that have been mentioned. No,
not nothing, nothing new that that I've seen. But you know,
hopefully that was you know, that is the case. You know,
Indiana hasn't been super forthcoming with injuries when guys are

(01:01:30):
banged up, but nothing. I didn't see anything the other
day that really was seemed to be too much. That
would be lingering too much. I wanted to talk a
little bit about Indiana's run game as the season has continued. Now,
Kobe Martin didn't get any carries against Oregon. It was

(01:01:52):
everything was Roman hemby Kaylon Black, Fernando Mendoza and then
they had a real bad jet sweep that everybody saw coming.
But Hembia has impressed me with his ability to finish runs.
He was known as kind of a speed guy's finish runs.
Black is a guy that could hammer the ball in.
Kobe Martin obviously has the four rushing touchdowns, but the

(01:02:12):
fact that you do have three guys there, I think
we'll probably see Martin here at home a little bit
and get some carries along the way. I think that
that is, you know, likely going to be the case.
The you know, Hooperazi says, but Ken the MSU offensive
line block well block Indiana is what he's getting at.

(01:02:39):
And boy, I use d line has been very, very
disruptive game over game over game. Oregon was supposed to
have the edge on the offensive line. Indiana got six sacks.
Iowa was supposed to handle Indiana's offensive line. They didn't.
Rather defensive line, they didn't. This is a team that

(01:03:01):
is really firing on all cylinders. And then you look
at this schedule. You have your homecoming game against Michigan
State this week. You have a suddenly resurgent UCLA team,
but that still is how much of that is UCLA
and how much of that has been the team that
they played. You have the trip to Maryland coming up,

(01:03:24):
the Penn State, who knows where they'll be. You have
Wisconsin at home, and then you got the Bucket game
in West Lafayette. All of those games, we ain't circling six. Hell,
we are an hour and three minutes into this thing
and we're talking about them getting first team, first team

(01:03:45):
I'm sorry, first place votes in the national rankings, ranking
number three in the country. We used to just hope
they'd get Bowl eligible by the Bucket game, and now
for the second states straight season, they've run off six
straight and are the talk of the college football world.

(01:04:06):
That's the job Kurt Signetti has done. I saw in
the chat earlier somebody talking about losing coordinators. Hooperazzi said,
we'll lose coordinators Irish for license. I'd be more concerned
about our defensive coordinator than Sig. At some point. You know,
guys are going to branch out at some point, but

(01:04:27):
you can't worry about that right now with the coordinators,
you know, especially you know, SIG's had those guys with
him for a long time, and I'm not saying that
they're just going to be loyal to him until the
day they you know, they they that he quits because
you've got to build your resume. But for right now,

(01:04:47):
they're doing a one hell of a job with this
ball club, and I'm just you couldn't be more pleased
with the job that they have done. Indiana has everything
lined up on its scale Joel to win to the
point that we are now at the point that if

(01:05:09):
Indiana loses the Michigan State on Saturday, I'll be shocked.
I'll be shocked. Who ber Ronzi says. I love the
fact IU doesn't blitz much. They just disguise who is coming.
That's no small thing, and that's all coaching. Disguising it
disguising because you have to teach it. But then you
have to have the players that are disciplined enough not
to make the move and not tip off what they're

(01:05:32):
going to do. And that makes a huge difference. Also,
our last caller was talking about the confidence of the team. Uh,
there is a difference. And I've said this before, there's
a difference of hoping to win on Saturday and expecting
to win on Saturday. Indiana for a long time had

(01:05:53):
a tough time expecting to win. They haven't got a
tough time now. They expect to win. That's why that
game at Michigan State last year was so incredibly important
and why they've continued to build on that and now
this year. There is a man in that locker room
that thought Indiana was going to lose that game when

(01:06:14):
they started. They played on Saturday. Nobody in that Indiana
locker room and that culture change is absolutely massive. Irish
for life, says my dog. Still a lot of puppy left,
came through, stopped the program, unplugged everything got me off kilter. Well,

(01:06:37):
dogs will do that. I have a chocolate lab named Minnie.
She is a rollicking pain in the ass twenty four
to seven, So I feel your pain on that. Going
to be excited to be back in Memorial Stadium next weekend.
Haven't been there. Indiana hasn't played a home game now
in nearly a month October eighteenth. They last played at

(01:07:02):
home September twentieth, when they just beat the hell out
of Illinois. A lot of football's happened in those in
the time since then, but really excited to be out there.
You got a three thirty kickoff once again. After the game,
I'll be doing the show live from the Memorial Stadium

(01:07:22):
parking lot. Unless it starts raining real heavy, then that's
something different. But hopefully the weather will be what it's,
you know, a decent thing. It's showing that there's some
PM showers, kund of thunderstorms arriving overnight, so we'll see
if I'm able to do it live. I got my
little tent, my table and my electronics, that kind of stuff,

(01:07:46):
got to protect that. But looking forward to doing it
immediately after the game. Are about roughly, you know, twenty
five thirty minutes after the end of the game, and
hopefully we'll be talking about a big Indiana win over
Michigan State. You know, there are a lot of people
that are hoping and waiting for for indianed a falter

(01:08:13):
so they could say, see, we told you so. And
if you don't think Kurt Signette isn't using that as motivation.
You're wrong. He's He's great at pushing muttons and just
being able to do that, I think is a big
strength of his and he's going to do that. Are
all the home games sold out now at Indiana for

(01:08:34):
the rest of the season. Uh, not that I've heard
an announcement about, and usually they they will go ahead
and and throw out an announcement there. So not that
I've heard of. But you know, we will see. Uh,
you got two straight home games Michigan State and u
c l A. U c l A's on my wedding anniversary.

(01:08:56):
I'll be spending that at Memorial Stadium and then no,
remember a first game at Maryland. That one's gonna be
a fun show. I'll tell you right now, there's gonna
be a little surprised with that show on the road.
With the game on the road. I'm also going on
the road. But trust me when I say that we're
not gonna have the problems that we had over this

(01:09:17):
pass over yesterday that pushed this thing to Monday night.
Brad Nick says, I'll be at UCLA game. How about
the Bruins with two straight wins? Yeah, I mean you
could get a little burst after you have a coaching change,
especially so early in the season by that same token,

(01:09:37):
keeping that up is going to be a challenge. And
so you know, they beat Michigan State, held them to
thirteen points, but that's not something that is going to continued.
Todd says, just signed back up to Peeks. Is there

(01:09:58):
an uptick and recruiting that takes a little bit of time,
uh to uh to really see the fruits of. But
at this point, you know, as the second that you
had uh Penn State get rid of their uh, their
head coach, guys de commit and all of a sudden

(01:10:19):
they're attached to Indiana's name. So that's where you're going
to start to see this uptake. Plus, guys want to
come and play for sig when you see the success
that he's having and he's been able to repeat it,
that's really important. I mean, hell, i U is ranked
number one in CBS Sports College Football Power rankings and

(01:10:39):
they're deserving of it. Absolutely. Russell says, if i U
football plays for the Big Ten championship, will be it?
Will it be the same day IU basketball plays Louisville
in Indy. Oh, Hell, I haven't even looked that far ahead.
I haven't looked that far ahead. Let's see, I got
it for you here. Let's say they play Louisville December sixth,

(01:11:04):
my birthdays, and yeah, that would be the same day. Yeah,
sure would be a hell of a day in Indianapolis,
wasn't it. Yeah, same defense that they ran since JMU. Yes,
that is that is absolutely the case, and playing it

(01:11:26):
at a high, high level right now, all right. B
ball sixty twenty three says a ticket office direction to
seat geek online for IU tickets. So there's the answer there.
I haven't heard an announcement if Indiana made it, but
I would not be surprised by that at all, given

(01:11:49):
what Indiana has done this year and the fact that
there are now just I think two home games left,
so I know they had seven. They had seven, So
you got Michigan State, you got UCLA, and you got Wisconsin,
so you got those three. Do people call U c
l A UCLAs anymore? Not something that people used.

Speaker 3 (01:12:12):
To do.

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
Well, last call for phone calls. I'm gonna wrap it up.
You don't get it here in just a couple of minutes.
But I really appreciate everybody joining us on a Monday
night to talk IU football and you know, just such
a big win. I apologize for this running on Monday.
Dan was absolutely right. It would have been more raucous

(01:12:35):
had I done it Saturday. But you make plans in
advance and sometimes priorities are there, and so that's where
we're at. But we'll we'll have a nice big show
after the game on Saturday. Win or losing. Again, it'd
be really shocking if they are doing It's Irish for

(01:12:56):
life again, says they all expect Indiana to fall. The
disrespect button is huge. Trust in sigh, it is. It's
a it's a case, although you do see some people
starting to uh to change their tone a little bit, like,
oh okay, maybe this is for real, because you can
only be wrong for so long and say yeah, but yeah,

(01:13:17):
but yeah. But after a while, much like the Scully
rule I talked about earlier, you have to believe at
some point, and Indiana is making believers out of people
game by game by game. That doesn't mean that those
people aren't going to be They're just dying to jump
on them if they should falter at any point. But

(01:13:39):
Indiana has has you know, just done a fantastic job
of not just beating teams, but beating them convincingly. Even
that Iowa game, Indiana wins. The final score is by five,
but it was a it was a touchdown game. Uh
this one two score game, so you have to keep moving.

(01:14:02):
Russell's exactly right. Most believe Indiana is a legit contender.
And when you beat two top ten teams, what else
can they say? That's exactly it. At some point you
just have to go. You know what they are for real,
and that's where where we are. It's exciting, isn't it. Boy.
It's been a long time coming for this program. And

(01:14:25):
last year I said over and over again we were
playing with house money because nobody ever expected it. This year,
they've continued it. Enjoy the ride while it is going on,
because especially as IU fans, we know nothing has promised
to anybody, and so each passing week has been an

(01:14:45):
absolute joy and love talking to you guys after the game,
is talking about the games and looking forward to Saturday
being outside the Tennis Center at Memorial Stadium after the game.
Hopefully some of you will stop by and join me
live on the mic, because it's been a hell of
a run. So far, and I hope the Hoosiers can

(01:15:08):
keep it going on homecoming. What's all the time we
have on the Peaks post game Live. I want to
thank you for listening, and I want to remind you
of visit peaks dot com for the very best and
I you football and basketball coverage. You're gonna find anywhere
nobody covers who's you're recruiting better than Jeff rab John's,
Matt Weaver, Trevor, Andrewshoch and Jared Kelly. So come be
a part of a thriving and exciting community at peaks
dot com. Folks, you are not going to be disappointed. Also,

(01:15:33):
by midnight, sixty percent off of subscription to Pegs. Get
it because not only do you have the second half
of the football season, you have the basketball season and
coming up and it's gonna it's an exciting time for
Indiana sports. It's all we all the time we have.
Thank you so much, And for Jeff, Matt, Trevor, and Jared,

(01:15:53):
I'm Ken Biakoff saying thanks for listening. Everybody, Go Bears.