Yea, because their schedule was awful last year. A home game against last year's Illinois team would have been far-and-away their 2nd toughest game of last year - this year it's like maybe their ~4th toughest game and that's with Illinois being a lot better.
They have a very good edge player (Kamara; 10 sacks and 15 TFL last season), and very good CB (Ponds).
Taking a trip down memory lane, with losses in red and wins in green ... here are our road games under Bret:
Again, ND had a 99 yard TD run on the their first run of the game when IU's safety fell down taking a bad angle. After that they were held to 94 yards on their remaining 34 carriers for <3 ypc. ND had one of, if not the best rushing attack in the country last year. Nobody has been able to methodically control the ball and clock under DC Bryant Haines. ND won that game because they had the secondary personnel to cover one on one while they consistently brought 7-8 guys and got home on an immobile QB. OSU was successful in doing this as well and won despite having one of their worst offensive outputs of the entire season.
2023 Iowa had an egregious call where a clear-as-can-be first down was ruled back in the 4th QTR. Could've easily been a TD and cost us 4 points (in what ended up a 2 point finish).
And they pd $500k to get out of a home and home with VA and replaced it with Ind. St. Why pay that and run from a reasonable challenge that was on the schedule if the Coach and AD are confident?
Ok if we just randomly take out 100 yards of offense from one of only 2 good teams Indiana played last year, then I'm pretty sure I could find 100 yards of offense to take away from Penn State that makes Illinois win that game, which likely results in them getting Indiana's playoff spot even as a 2 loss team, so that negates the entire "Indiana vs. ND" game in the first place.
I'm not talking about total yardage, I'm talking about a teams ability to methodically control and pound the ball against IU's defense as the poster I responded too suggested. It hasn't happened under Cignetti's watch. When a team has more than half of their total rushing yards on a single carry, it further reinforces that. IU is susceptible to giving up an explosion play or two, that's football, but I've yet to see a team play ball control and dominate IU up front.
It's all good. Fun to discuss these points of view. I have zero doubt IU s defense will improve as the season goes on. They both should barring injuries. That said to me it's a big deal that the majority of Indianas starting units have only started 3 games together on both sides of the ball and its the 4th game for a good qb in a new system vs a very good cosching staff and experinced team. That is not the case on for our offense, defense or our QB who has gotten much better each season. I imagine all things will be true for your team and qb too the more they get more experience playing together. I'm glad we play them early this B10 season because I feel the will get better every game vs better opponents. Maybe that's one reason they didn't play Va because they can overcome blown assignments and win while the gel to start the year. ILL...
The Virginia series was scheduled for 2027 and 2028 so had no bearing on this years team. Understand your point on familiarity and cohesiveness early in the season, I just don't believe it's as big of an emphasis as some make it out to be. There are still plenty of players who saw heavy rotation snaps last year on this years team not too mention several starters.
Coach Saban does and has mentioned basically exactly what I'm saying when he discusses Illinois towards the end of last season and thus season. He also talks about all the same staff too. I feel it's a huge reason we were ranked so high to start 2025 it's easier to predict our performance with 75% of the starters, 3rd year starting qb. more depth and the same staff.
All about the $$$ . . . an extra home game with what is now a sold out (or nearly) Memorial Stadium = 50,000 x ticket price.
Nah, it’s about the cupcakes.
lol. We'd chosen that one and bought tickets long before Kansas and Penn State schooled us in September.Your last sentence does not jibe with your posts about the Purdue road trip. But different teams, as you say. I-L-L
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Nebraska last year is the only team that Indiana blew out which finished the season above .500. I don’t think it is particularly relevant how Indiana performed against the Murderers Row of Purdue, FIU, Western Ill, Northwestern, Maryland, Kennesaw St. and Indiana St.
But an unusual number of their fans have registered on Loyalty and assured us they're unstoppable.
