But but but...Covid would have to happen every year to every team but IU for that to happen.I would rather have 2020-like seasons being the norm
McCulloch to Cincy?
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The unique circumstances of 2020 weren’t there in 2021, and we saw the results of a more level playing field. It doesn’t mean we can find our way back to competitiveness, but the lightening in a bottle of 2020 that enabled our special season can’t be counted on to get us there. Will be interesting to see how Coach Allen approaches the season defensively.I would rather have 2020-like seasons being the norm
Go Hoosiers.
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Didn't we have some covid issues? PU was cancelled due to both teams I think.
The football season was a bright spot in an otherwise crappy year.
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We had the same issues as everyone else in 2020 (at least as far as limited practices and other limitations. I think losing our DC (and bad choice in replacement) had as much to do with our fall in 2021 as anything else.
A bit unfair to say that 2020 was the aberration. If we get back to being competitive, then last season is more the aberration.
Most of our Covid issues were in the summer, so we didn’t have some of the challenges other programs did. And yes, both IU and Purdue had Covid issues that required the Bucket game to be cancelled.
Go Hoosiers.
No, our biggest Covid hits were before the season. We were able to practice with solid numbers throughout the season. It was a huge advantage to us and was one aspect of our success.
our defense played lights out in 2020 creating a ton of turnovers. and coach wommack was very instrumental. really hated to lose that guy.
Here's the reasons for '19', '20', DeBoer, Kane, Allen, Penix and for '21' Warren, Sheridan, Allen, Penix.
Our summer of Covid let us get to late September / early October healthy and able to meet, prepare and practice with nearly a full squad throughout the season, something many other programs didn’t get to do and which was a huge advantage that some people don’t understand. There were teams that went for extended periods with double digit Covid absences, yet we were lucky enough to miss that. Combine that with the secret sauce approach that Coaches Allen and Womack cooked up to take advantage of the situations that some of our opponents faced and you had 2020 magic. It was a great move by those guys and it really paid off. It wasn’t a surprise that we came back to the pack in 2021, only that we fell as far as we did. Hopefully we reset in 2022.
Go Hoosiers.
Just making fun of the Boilies who explain away IU's success in 2020 as it being a covid year and everyone was affected with apparently the exception of IU.
Covid did affect us but it happened in the summer when we shut down our workouts. By the season rolled around most of our players had already had the virus
Happened that way with a lot of teams. That said, IU was a damned good team that season. Funny watching some squirm to deflate that.
Yeah, what was initially a summer setback (remember Brady Feeney and how sick he got, and how they had to shut down and clean the facilities?) for us proved to be a huge advantage when we actually got to play games against other Big Ten schools that were dealing with big outbreaks on their teams. And Coach Allen and Coach Wommack knew our advantage and set up the D to max out the fact that so many others couldn’t prepare for everything we threw at them. Great strategy that got us a dream season!
Go Hoosiers.
The day Luke Fickell leaves is the day the shine wears off. They'll be the Butler of college football, a G5 school stuck in big boy land. Cincy doesn't have the facilities, resources, or booster support to survive big boy college football without an elite level head coach. Louisville was the one commuter school who was able to pull it off for awhile, but outing cash cow Papa John is going to be their demise. Their football and basketball programs have fallen off a cliff the last few years.
Does everyone just forget that Brian Kelly had a lot of success there too???
Have you seen the prices they're charging for our game next year? They had a few good years and one great one and suddenly they're charging prices as if they're Ohio State, Notre Dame and Michigan all rolled into one.
Perhaps that's just a ploy to keep IU fans from buying too many tickets, but what IU sent out showed that visiting fans will pay for that game starts at $90 and goes up as high as $175. Meanwhile, Nebraska and Michigan State are charging $65/$70. OSU prices not set yet. What a joke.
I had a friend where I worked until the end of 2011 and he was from Ohio and a fan of the Buckeyes. He told me a couple of years earlier that IU should hire Luke Fickell. I don't know if that was even considered when Wilson was hired.
I missed where Brian Kelly was coaching Cincinnati in a major college football conference.
This is completely inaccurate and I'm someone who cannot stand how much love Cincy gets after sneaking by a 2-10 Indiana but you're slandering them for no reason. They were in the old Big East with Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, WVU, Miami, and BC. If those schools are "P5 level" than Cincy sure AH is. They have stronger fan support and seem far more committed to football financially than schools like IU, RU, NW, IL and that's just in the B1G. They aren't an elite program, and they won't be nearly as successful when Fickell leaves but they'll be fine in their jump to P5, especially considering the Big 12 is losing it's two strongest schools.
Their history of coaches is impressive. Kelly, Dantonio, Butch, Tuberville, Fickell. And Huggie and Mick Cronin in basketball. The AD’s at UCLA and USC came out of the UC athletic department. We had Cam, DiNardo, Hep, Lynch, Wilson, Allen, and Davis, Dakich, Crean, Archie, Woody. As Athletic Directors, Jarmond and Bohn are better than anyone we’ve had since Bill Orwig and Ralph Floyd. They’ve had a laudable group of people who’ve come through there, especially for a non-5 school. We should be so fortunate.
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Nippert is a large mid-major stadium that holds about 40K and it is rarely full. IU avg 47K last year and the only large visiting contingent was Ahia at maybe 12K. This doesn't include the 15K in the lots that may come in if they ever get good. I can't speak for RU, NW, PU, and Ill, but they don't outspend IU. This is nonsense.
The reason Cincy is pricing the IU game the way they are is because they know a lot of IU fans will be there.
Completely agree.
Their football support makes IU support look like some USFL game you’d see right now on t.v.
They love football there.
The data doesn't support this. Not even close. See my post for information.
Check your timeline. Miami, BC, as well as VT were gone (which paved the way for Cincy admittance) and what generally became the death of Big East football. West Virginia and Pitt have solid football histories but playing in a conference with the likes of Rutgers, South Florida, UConn, Louisville, Syracuse, etc is akin to to the current AAC alignment which became the de facto Big East.
Coach is probably underselling Cincy to a degree, but I too think they’re going to struggle post-Fickell (in the event it happens) playing in the B12. Not a geographical fit and the just don’t have the resources.
It’s a stepping stone job. Period. That’s why whoever made the Butler reference has some merit to their argument. That might change when they transition to the B12, but Butler’s lost coaches even in the Big East. They’re low on the totem in terms of resources in the B12 regardless of OU and Texas status.
Cincinnati is a basketball school well it’s a football school. 2-3 years doesn’t change that. Memorial Stadium would look like Nippert for a few years if they went on a run like that.
Don't go based on ESPN's attendance numbers. I went to every game last year and I can promise you, there were not more than 30K people in the stands for the Rutgers or Minnesota games. OSU and Cincy fans were the reason those games were sold out. We knew how many OSU fans were at the IU-OSU game because when the game started the stadium was at capacity and was still just under half full 25 minutes into the game but it stayed at just under half full until the game ended, those were all OSU fans. Anyone that went to the Cincy game knows that they had at least 8K fans when they came into town. The only above average crowds that weren't thanks to the opposing fanbase were the MSU and Idaho. Idaho was the first home game in two years, coming off the best season IU has had in two decades, and undefeated top ten MSU in perfect weather.
Who is really the G5 school here?
I recall Cam Cameron beating Cincinnati big early in his career at Memorial Stadium. After that year and the departure of Rick Minter, Cincy has gone on to play in 18 bowl games. Several of these were New Years Day bowls with tradition including the Sugar and Cotton Bowls.
IU’s tradition and behavior toward football has been less than G5. It’s MAC level. Cincy will be just fine after Fickell. It’s IU that’s bungling things repeatedly in its own history.
The “basketball school” or “football school” is such an outdated concept. IU is one of the few remaining schools that cling on desperately to that and it sure as hell hasn’t worked for the school. MSU, Wisconsin, UK, Michigan, OSU, all do both just fine. The Kohl Center has become 10x harder to play at than an Assembly Hall. There are tons of other schools who do both just fine. Most of them have fans who are big supporters of both. IU never grasped the concept.
I attended every game as well. Attendance numbers are tickets sold for both programs FYI.
Cincy had 5-7K and Ahia brought ~12K as I said. There were no Ahia fans sitting near us and our sections were 75% full with 4 min to go, so your analogy doesn't hold water. Bottom line is that Cincy FB is a lesser version of Butler Basketball...a steppingstone for coaches and a flash in the pan mid-major. Will we see you at Nippert?
I’d hate to see the description of IU if Cincy is a “flash in the pan mid major?”
This is not even remotely accurate.
Yes but unlike other schools, the fans go inside to actually watch the games. That’s what I mean by support. Physical bodies. In seats. Not just some method to get basketball tickets to watch a perennial 9th place team who is in the NIT more than the NCAA.
What does that have to do with anything I said? Being a “basketball” or a “football” school isn’t limited to being good at only one. Ohio State is good at both but they’re clearly a “football” school.
I attended every game, as well. Only the UC game approached a full stadium. The others including Ohio State, had loads of empty seats due either to inclement weather, declining performance of the team, or both. The stadium was less than half full for the entire second half against OSU, who brought their typically large crowd, even though some of them left. Real butts in seats last year very likely favored UC over us.
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Being a stepping stone only means they’ve had success under those guys (with the exception of TT). Compared to the coaches and AD’s we’ve had, it’s really no comparison.
Go Hoosiers.
GL, Cincy had far more than 5K fans at the IU game, but since it's hard to distinguish IU fans from Cincy fans you can just look at the game tape of Cincy-ND, the Red stuck out like a sore thumb and it was evident they had at least 10K people at the ND game. For the OSU game I was surrounded by OSU fans and it was quite evident of that by halftime as they were the only ones left. A flash in the pan mid major that has accomplished far more in it's existence as a program than half the programs in the B1G despite being in cash strapped conferences for nearly their entire existence. As a program they would slot in higher than NW, RU, IL, IU, and Maryland in accomplishments if they joined the B1G tomorrow. Name one other mid major that could do that.
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