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Coaching decisons poll

Which decision was worse?

  • Fake punt against PSU

    Votes: 21 27.3%
  • Onside kick against Tennessee

    Votes: 58 75.3%

  • Total voters
    77
Penn State fake punt is the answer. I've talked to several people on the phone today who were surprised by Prewitt's decision. Of course it paid off because Indiana thought he would kick deep and play it traditional.

Since Allen is paid millions of dollars, he certainly should've had a better grasp of that situation. I still don't think it was a cut and dried call at that point with 5 or more minutes left. Many, many coaches would NOT onside kick there...
 
Penn State fake punt is the answer. I've talked to several people on the phone today who were surprised by Prewitt's decision. Of course it paid off because Indiana thought he would kick deep and play it traditional.

Since Allen is paid millions of dollars, he certainly should've had a better grasp of that situation. I still don't think it was a cut and dried call at that point with 5 or more minutes left. Many, many coaches would NOT onside kick there...

If the insides kick had failed, people would be saying Pruitt was an idiot for doing it with that much time left.

It’s risky.
Defense never should have gone prevent regardless. The shit never works at any level. It has to be one of the dumbest strategies in football.

Fire Inge and Womack.

They get paid to help.
 
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Penn State fake punt is the answer. I've talked to several people on the phone today who were surprised by Prewitt's decision. Of course it paid off because Indiana thought he would kick deep and play it traditional.

Since Allen is paid millions of dollars, he certainly should've had a better grasp of that situation. I still don't think it was a cut and dried call at that point with 5 or more minutes left. Many, many coaches would NOT onside kick there...

You've got to have extra hands guys on the line in case they do the onside kick because the risk is so high if they get it. It's not an either or proposition, if they kick it deep, all you've sacrificed is some blockers if there's a return, but you're still getting the ball, and most likely in the same spot at the 25.

This may be my first time posting on the FB board. Kudos to the diehard IU football fans; I honestly don't know how you guys and gals do it. I try and support IU, and watch and have been to many soccer and basketball games, but it seems like whenever I watch our football games, we find ways to lose games that rip your heart out. I don't think I've ever felt worse for an athlete than for Ramsey. What a game that kid played. He deserved the chance to at least try for a TD at the end of the first half.
 
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Penn State fake punt is the answer. I've talked to several people on the phone today who were surprised by Prewitt's decision. Of course it paid off because Indiana thought he would kick deep and play it traditional.

Since Allen is paid millions of dollars, he certainly should've had a better grasp of that situation. I still don't think it was a cut and dried call at that point with 5 or more minutes left. Many, many coaches would NOT onside kick there...


On-side kick situation is the answer, because there was reason to risk being unprepared.

Guard against the onside kick, and the pooch kick, and tell Ellis to FC it if it goes deep.

The only reason they tried it was because it was there.
 
On-side kick situation is the answer, because there was reason to risk being unprepared.

Guard against the onside kick, and the pooch kick, and tell Ellis to FC it if it goes deep.

The only reason they tried it was because it was there.
Regarding what you said about the on side kick is almost exactly what I posted on another thread yesterday.

That said, there is a difference between the two plays. You control the play call and the ball on the fake punt. With the Onside Kick, you are setting up and trying to defend what somebody else will or might do. Tennesse had the choice of how they would kick the ball and execute the initiation of the play.

To me, the fake punt is worse, because we had control of the ball and play choice, and it failed due to poor communication on the Punt Team.
 
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This is the correct answer.

It's inexplicable. Only thing I can figure out is Allen thought we were out of TOs.
Ball should have been spiked. Leaving us to run play w/timeout in hand
 
Penn State fake punt is the answer. I've talked to several people on the phone today who were surprised by Prewitt's decision. Of course it paid off because Indiana thought he would kick deep and play it traditional.

Since Allen is paid millions of dollars, he certainly should've had a better grasp of that situation. I still don't think it was a cut and dried call at that point with 5 or more minutes left. Many, many coaches would NOT onside kick there...
EXACTLY!!! I do not understand why CTA is getting so much flack for that play--with that much time left on the clock & as well as Tennessee's D had played--that was downright DUMB on Pruitt's part--even though it was a favorable look--that was still an unwise risk to take, & he got lucky. I wish, I HOPE more teams attempt the same thing in similar situations in the future. That is NOT going to work most of the time, no matter what KR alignment we display. & I wish CTA had said as much after the game & defended himself a little bit.
 
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Here's an idea for another poll:

Which of the thousand correct decisions that got us to 8-4 was the best one?

It's amazing how much goes into winning but it's the couple mistakes that people hyperventilate over. Every coach and player make mistakes. Ours are no different.
 
Here's an idea for another poll:

Which of the thousand correct decisions that got us to 8-4 was the best one?

It's amazing how much goes into winning but it's the couple mistakes that people hyperventilate over. Every coach and player make mistakes. Ours are no different.
Mistakes are magnified when they happen on a big stage. IU blew a 13 point fourth quarter lead in a prime time bowl game against an SEC opponent in a nationally televised game, and a compelling argument can be made that coaching was a factor. Of course people are going to obsess about it.
 
Mistakes are magnified when they happen on a big stage. IU blew a 13 point fourth quarter lead in a prime time bowl game against an SEC opponent in a nationally televised game, and a compelling argument can be made that coaching was a factor. Of course people are going to obsess about it.
No doubt. Just pointing out that mistakes are not the only thing worth discussing. We should have been blown out based on our first half play but some pretty sage coaching led to several goal line stands and moving Ramsey out of the pocket to get the offense going.
Also, one of the mistakes in this goofy poll was not a mistake by Allen. It was a mistake by the long snapper. Accuracy in your criticism matters, too.
 
You've got to have extra hands guys on the line in case they do the onside kick because the risk is so high if they get it. It's not an either or proposition, if they kick it deep, all you've sacrificed is some blockers if there's a return, but you're still getting the ball, and most likely in the same spot at the 25.

This may be my first time posting on the FB board. Kudos to the diehard IU football fans; I honestly don't know how you guys and gals do it. I try and support IU, and watch and have been to many soccer and basketball games, but it seems like whenever I watch our football games, we find ways to lose games that rip your heart out. I don't think I've ever felt worse for an athlete than for Ramsey. What a game that kid played. He deserved the chance to at least try for a TD at the end of the first half.


I just think college football is the best game there is. There is so much to it.

If you think that way, it's something of a curse to have been an IU fan. That's why I root for the other Big 10 teams in NC and bowl games. I can understand why other IU fans think differently, but I can't root only for IU, and root against everybody else. If the other Big 10 teams lose I don't care that much, but you have to have more than 1 rooting interest when your team has been as historically bad as IU.
 
Exactly. That's why you dont take a chance and call the time out. The ball was set for play very quickly and they could not get set for whatever reason.


The problem with that is you are then taking a chance of the clock running out if he's sacked or throws short of the EZ.....so you have to decide to risk that or kick it.

I don't blame CTA for that decision.
 
I don't really think this adds any value...it was a good season. Build on it...
 
The problem with that is you are then taking a chance of the clock running out if he's sacked or throws short of the EZ.....so you have to decide to risk that or kick it.

I don't blame CTA for that decision.
That's a good point. Conventional wisdom (including me) says just throw it into or out of the end zone but there were several times when Ramsey was smothered before he could make a decision.
 
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The problem with that is you are then taking a chance of the clock running out if he's sacked or throws short of the EZ.....so you have to decide to risk that or kick it.

I don't blame CTA for that decision.
You don’t throw short of the EZ. You get it out quick so there is minimal chance for a sack. The very worst option is watching 5 seconds run off and doing nothing, giving up any chance for a TD in the process.

What people don’t like is that this is a common situation with an obvious best strategy that is well known. It’s not some obscure situation with a complex decision tree. It would be like if Archie let a player dribble out the last 20 seconds of a game without trying to foul him. Every basketball coach from youth on up knows to do that.

We may not have scored but the fact that it was botched so blatantly is concerning. I suppose Tom just had such extreme confidence in the team to get it spiked that he didn’t even watch the clock. That’s the kindest explanation I can think of.
 
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That's a meme. Nothing more.
I have thought that as well but here it is wrong for CTA to not shoulder the blame for confusing his true frosh LS. It’s the job of the coach to understand what level if complexity his guys can handle.
 
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Here's an idea for another poll:

Which of the thousand correct decisions that got us to 8-4 was the best one?

It's amazing how much goes into winning but it's the couple mistakes that people hyperventilate over. Every coach and player make mistakes. Ours are no different.
Everyone makes mistakes and should learn from them. When your mistakes are partly a result of getting so excited you can't focus then you will continue to make the same mistakes.
 
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I have thought that as well but here it is wrong for CTA to not shoulder the blame for confusing his true frosh LS. It’s the job of the coach to understand what level if complexity his guys can handle.
I haven't seen where he's refused to take blame for anything.
 
The problem with that is you are then taking a chance of the clock running out if he's sacked or throws short of the EZ.....so you have to decide to risk that or kick it.

I don't blame CTA for that decision.
I dont believe that was the decision for one second. If that were the case you would let the clock run and then take the timeout and kick. That is not what happened. There was 8 seconds left when the first down was made and three when they spiked the ball. If it had gone a little bit worse you end up with nothing.
 
I dont believe that was the decision for one second. If that were the case you would let the clock run and then take the timeout and kick. That is not what happened. There was 8 seconds left when the first down was made and three when they spiked the ball. If it had gone a little bit worse you end up with nothing.
You call timeout before we spike the ball.
 
The only decision I really question is if his intention was to kick then don’t risk snap the ball and spike. Just let the clock run down and call last time out. I originally thought call timeout run a play if score kick the PAT and go to halftime. But then if we had a lot of free rushers off the edge, we also had some busts in the A gap. Either could have led to sacks no points and loss of momentum. Also the secondary came into the game with a big reputation again a small mistake leads to possible turnover again no points and a loss of momentum. Getting points was big and then knowing you get the ball to start the second wit Big MO on your side is huge. And we came out the second half and seized control of the game until the final few minutes of the game.
 
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