if you look at standard of living and other factors generally countries like Norway ,Switzerland etc rank highest, whereas African nations , hatti etc rate the worst despite having many more natural resources.

The consensus is that defense should be the strength of this Indiana team in 2022. There is good reason to believe that the Hoosier Defensive Coaching Staff led by Tom Allen can have good success this season. As most will know CTA (the 2020 AFCA National Coach of the Year) is a defensive guy and had a good track record for solid / disruptive defenses prior to arriving at Indiana in 2016. The Hoosiers fielded one of the nation's most improved defenses that 2016 season. In fact, from the beginning of 2016 to the end of 2017 Indiana was the most improved team nationally in terms of total defense and pass defense. Before last season's rather unexpected 2-10 result Indiana was 24-21 overall in CTA's first three full seasons (excluding the Foster Farm's Bowl in 2016), including the 14-7 stretch from 2019 to 2020. Indiana was nationally ranked during both of those seasons and as high as 7th in 2020. The Hoosiers appeared in the Gator and Outback Bowls respectively during that period.

The lazy take is to say that 2021 marked a 'return to normal' for this Indiana program but the truth is that going all the way back to arguably 2013 IU had been performing at a consistently higher level. It is not being a homer to say that until proven otherwise the aberration was 2021, not the longer period of increased success. Keep in mind that in both 2017 and 2018 Indiana went into the Bucket Game a win away from Bowl Eligibility before ultimately ending up 5-7. (Zach Osterman did a good job of expanding on this on Crimson Cast last week.)

Allen gave up calling defensive plays in 2019 so that he could devote more time to overseeing the entire football operation but will return to calling the shots this season. Allen's defensive scheme is solid. I am somewhat flexible on scheme as long as it is coached well and players buy into it. That said I do believe Allen's scheme to be an exceedingly good one. The hybrid Bull and Husky positions are a needed response to modern offenses and allow gifted players to serve multiple purposes as needed without having to change personnel packages.

Hoosier Huddle reported in a recent podcasts that Indiana is returning to the vision zone concept on defense. (I'm fairly certain he was referring to vision match.) I first heard about this concept while watching a 2019 Ohio State game called by Kirk Herbstreit.

The popular approach to zone coverage in football has long been zone match, which merges zone principles and man to man techniques. In zone match players are taught to 'break on the ball' and defenders' backs are often turned away from the quarterback / ball. The problem with this is that quarterbacks have gotten so polished and routes so precisely timed that a potent offense will pick these conventional zones apart and beat them more often than not. (Good offense beats good defense.)

The idea behind vision-match is to keep everything in front of you, have your eyes on the quarterback at all times and react according to the QB's eyes. (This actually ties into the don't think just react concept I saw a couple people discussing elsewhere on this forum.) The strength of this system is that it limits explosive plays when executed properly. As far as offenses are concerned explosive plays are the name of the game right now.

I actually brought this specific concept up with Kane Wommack on Twitter in the Summer of 2020, though at the time I didn't know the proper terminology. To my surprise Wommack not only responded but seemed excited to talk about it. I remember he also mentioned not covering the route tree alone but being more efficient by covering where the ball was most likely to go. The point to all of this is that Herbstreit (rightly) predicted that this vision match concept would be the direction a lot of defenses would be going. Evidently Allen and Wommack were on top of it.

This is a long-winded way of demonstrating that the IU defense is ahead of the curve and in good hands. I did some digging this afternoon and by my count Indiana's Defensive Staff have coached in a combined 58 Bowl Games.

Out
Defensive Coordinator / LB - Charlton Warren (Co-Defensive Coordinator / DB, North Carolina)
Defensive Line - Kevin Peoples (DL, Missouri)

In
Defensive Coordinator / LB - Chad Wilt
Defensive Line - Paul Randolph

Returning
CTA - Head Coach, Defensive Play-calling
Brandon Shelby - Assistant Head Coach / Cornerbacks
Jason Jones - Safeties

Chad Wilt is a coaches kid who considers himself to be a teacher. Wilt's previous three stops before Indiana were Minnesota (20-21), Cincinnati (19) and Army (16-18). During these three stints Wilt's teams went a combined 52-21. The 2019 Cincinnati Bearcats finished the season ranked 21st in the AP Poll.

Paul Randolph comes to Bloomington by way of Texas Tech. Randolph has coached in 17 career Bowl Games and has previously coached at Memphis, Arizona State, Pittsburgh, Rice, Alabama, and West Virginia.

Brandon Shelby enters his 12th season with Indiana and has coached the likes of All-American Tiawan Mullen and two-time All-Conference Rashard Fant. Shelby also played at Oklahoma.

Jason Jones begins his 3rd season at IU. His recent pupil Jamar Johnson was First Team All-Big Ten in 2020 and was drafted by the Denver Broncos (5th Round) in the 2021 NFL Draft. Jones has coached on 5 conference championship teams and in 14 Bowl Games, including 2 New Year's Six games and a Fiesta Bowl championship.

A man is out shopping and discovers a new brand of Olympic condoms. Clearly impressed, he buys a pack.

Upon getting home he announces to his wife the purchase he just made.

“Olympic condoms?”, she blurts, “What makes them so special?”

“There are three colors”, he replies, “Gold, Silver and Bronze.”

“What color are you going to wear tonight?”, she asks cheekily.

“Gold of course”, says the man proudly.

The wife responds wryly, “Why don’t you wear Silver? It would be nice if you came second for a change.”





and a chick..

Helped me quickly and effectively, in a time when customer service mostly sux.

First off, I don't think it's really an old man complaint but...

I *hate* the new Simon-Skojdt that's on either side of the floor. HATE it.

I can't believe they have the ego to muddy up the best floor in all of basketball. F--- them.

OK, that's it. Back to our regularly scheduled Saturday.

Do you agree with Sam that the ends justify the means? And what do you see as his means?
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I've seen this firsthand with a non-profit board I served on that deals with mental health:


"We are now told that we must deny our multifaceted nature as individuals and instead embrace the immutable characteristics bestowed upon us by group identity. All differences in any outcome of interest can only be understood through the explanation of racist bias and discrimination. A recent spotlight article on the psychology of American racism goes to extraordinary lengths to redefine the concept of racism as a “system of advantage” that only works in one direction (perpetuated by whites against non-whites). It is not that we all have an innate predisposition to favor members of our own group over others, or that we prefer the familiar to the unfamiliar, but that there is a particular problem with a particular group of people and it is in urgent need of remediation.

The message we are given is that to understand the complexity of the world, we must first put on our ideological goggles and view one another as avatars of our racial groups. Even recent explanations of trends in demographic shifts regarding newcomers to the field, for example, are interpreted through the pre-determined and professionally sanctioned filter of racial oppression. Despite the fact that psychology is becoming more diverse, the field itself, we are told, has a prominent diversity problem. While it is a worthwhile effort to attract and encourage more minorities to pursue careers in psychology, it would require an objective analysis of differences in interest and opportunity across all variables, which may or may not neatly be accounted for by simplistic theories about oppressive groups dominating disenfranchised groups to produce unequal outcomes.

The directive that we must deconstruct white supremacist influences too often ends up deconstructing what was once sacred within the mental health profession: the sanctity of the individual."

Caleb Jones highlights the fact that Allen desperately needs an expert on that side of the football. Ryder Anderson would indicate that Allen can and will develop players on defense.

Is Bell an expert?? At this level of coaching you would naturally assume that ALL of these coaches are experts, but Nick Sheridan's performance as OC blew that out of the water. He is certainly no expert.

Remember how nasty that thing was? Ripped. Dirty. Shit all over it. Looked nothing like it did when it was new. In fact, it's no longer usable - it doesn't have the utility it once had. It doesn't keep them warm. It doesn't provide comfort.

It's an ugly children's blanket carried around by people old enough to know better, and it's high time for a Michael Keaton intervention.

Put away the woobie.

If you're going to believe, believe in something w benevolence to it. Not puerile angry tantrum filled garbage soaked in political rage.

Is it worth it? Does it get old too quick? Or is a whole concert entertaining? They’re coming to here. Might go.

A car crash last night resulted in the deaths of 3 ISU football players.
Two others are hospitalized with serious injuries,names have not been released.
As most of you know Curt Mallory is the ISU head coach.
Sure puts things into perspective,will be some rough days ahead for sure.
Prayers to all involved and affected.

Per Indiana Athletics:

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana University men's basketball forward Trayce Jackson-Davis has been named Preseason All-American by Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. He is the first Hoosier to earn the honor since Thomas Bryant prior to the 2016-17 season.

“Trayce has the opportunity to build quite a legacy for himself and our program,” said IU Coach Mike Woodson. “He’s worked extremely hard this summer and we are counting on him to be a leader by example who sets the tone for everyone else on our team.”

Caleb Williams is a 6’7” W/F out of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC. He’s a very high-feel, high-IQ player with versatility and a silky-smooth jumper. He’s been associated with a lot of winning over the last calendar year: Nike EYBL champion (16U) with Team Takeover, DC State champion and Mid-Atlantic regular season and tournament champion with Sidwell Friends. Indiana offered Williams at the end of July. He’s also been offered by the likes of Michigan, Villanova, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Virginia Tech, and many more, so it will be an uphill battle.

Here's a newly-published complete breakdown of his game, equipped with nearly 70 video clips, detailed statistics, and tons of insight into his game, intangibles, and coachability: Caleb Williams Player Evaluation.

On Indiana, a day after the offer, ZagsBlog quoted him, saying: “I’m familiar with a few guys that have been to Indiana through my AAU program, Team Takeover. That includes guys like (Victor) Oladipo and now, Xavier Johnson. I know what type of program they are, how good they are and I want to learn what more they have in store. I know it’s a big time program. They play basketball at a high level and that’s something that I’m interested in.”

Even if he’s too stoopid to realize it

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The majority of voters want Fauci out

MONDAY'S SHOW:

🚨 Dustin Schutte
🚨 Kyler Staley
🚨 Dustin Dopirak
🚨 Jim Reamer
🔥 The importance of landing Arrinten Page #iubb
🔥 #iufb's advantage over Illinois
🔥 College football Week Zero this Saturday
🔥 MLB Playoff races heating up

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MONDAY'S SHOW:

🚨 Dustin Schutte
🚨 Kyler Staley
🚨 Dustin Dopirak
🚨 Jim Reamer
🔥 The importance of landing Arrinten Page #iubb
🔥 #iufb's advantage over Illinois
🔥 College football Week Zero this Saturday
🔥 MLB Playoff races heating up

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If these numbers are anywhere close to reality, it's going to be a bad November for Democrats. I always thought the Hispanic vote would tighten up between the two parties, but didn't think it would this quickly.