Going into the game, my biggest fear was a combination of layoff sharpness and mental approach. I think the coaches did a good job of maintaining focus on WINNING as opposed to just be happy to be there. I was worried Howard wouldn't play too. IU with and w/o Howard are two different entities.
IU's offense is one where timing is critical. Particularly in the passing game. The running game lacks the "THUMP" w/o Howard in the game.
Since his first day at IU, Coach Wilson has battled a lack of talent, but more importantly, the lack of winning mentality. It manifests itself in the team not being able to make plays when it counts. It manifests itself in the student body and fans. Nobody expects to win. It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. To go with that, IU has been infected "front runnersitis". There are a bunch of front runners at IU. "front running student and fans" stay at the dorm or leave at halftime. Front running players hide at crunch time.
Early in the season, IU scored and the team and some coaches lost their minds. Coach Wilson's first thought wasn't "Weeeeeee we scored". It was: "We gotta keep playing." There was a moment on the sideline with Coach Inge and SOME people on the forum lost their minds. During the Duke game, IU scored late and the camera found the player after and he was mugging for the camera. I'm not blasting the kid. But IU has not shown the ability to win at gut check time.
In basketball, one point is all it takes to get you beat. But how many blackouts or helps do you miss? How many bad shots or bad turnovers do you have that give the other team extra chances do you have?
Games are won or lost at varying parts of the game. Rarely are games won or lost all at once. It's a culmination of mistakes manifesting in lost opportunities and ultimately a lost game. It's the senior who jumps off side on third down and negating a punt on what ends up a TD drive. It's the inopportune holding call. It's dropped passes. Its fumbling the punt. It's the key drop in the end zone that would have made it a two score game. It's the senior who seemingly doesn't even attempt to rotate the laces on a game winning FG try.
How Intentional grounding wasn't called on their last play is a miracle. It probably would have helped on the last FG. Personally I thought it missed, but I don't know if the rule is "over the post is good". If is is, he made it. If it's ONLY inside the post, I think he missed.
I will NOT do a positional critique. IU will do it's own introspection. I hope the coaches can address some of those in recruiting.
I enjoyed this team. I loved watching Nate Sudfeld. It's a honor to have watched him play
IU's offense is one where timing is critical. Particularly in the passing game. The running game lacks the "THUMP" w/o Howard in the game.
Since his first day at IU, Coach Wilson has battled a lack of talent, but more importantly, the lack of winning mentality. It manifests itself in the team not being able to make plays when it counts. It manifests itself in the student body and fans. Nobody expects to win. It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. To go with that, IU has been infected "front runnersitis". There are a bunch of front runners at IU. "front running student and fans" stay at the dorm or leave at halftime. Front running players hide at crunch time.
Early in the season, IU scored and the team and some coaches lost their minds. Coach Wilson's first thought wasn't "Weeeeeee we scored". It was: "We gotta keep playing." There was a moment on the sideline with Coach Inge and SOME people on the forum lost their minds. During the Duke game, IU scored late and the camera found the player after and he was mugging for the camera. I'm not blasting the kid. But IU has not shown the ability to win at gut check time.
In basketball, one point is all it takes to get you beat. But how many blackouts or helps do you miss? How many bad shots or bad turnovers do you have that give the other team extra chances do you have?
Games are won or lost at varying parts of the game. Rarely are games won or lost all at once. It's a culmination of mistakes manifesting in lost opportunities and ultimately a lost game. It's the senior who jumps off side on third down and negating a punt on what ends up a TD drive. It's the inopportune holding call. It's dropped passes. Its fumbling the punt. It's the key drop in the end zone that would have made it a two score game. It's the senior who seemingly doesn't even attempt to rotate the laces on a game winning FG try.
How Intentional grounding wasn't called on their last play is a miracle. It probably would have helped on the last FG. Personally I thought it missed, but I don't know if the rule is "over the post is good". If is is, he made it. If it's ONLY inside the post, I think he missed.
I will NOT do a positional critique. IU will do it's own introspection. I hope the coaches can address some of those in recruiting.
I enjoyed this team. I loved watching Nate Sudfeld. It's a honor to have watched him play
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