BobSaccamanno

That will teach you to stay put!

Yeah, Burris had him dead to rights.

Yeah it’s not a coincidence at some point.

He has complete control of the entire program like a Nick Saban or Jimmy Johnson. The great ones have the ability to be a CEO that can manage the full operation. He learned under Saban and you see the hallmarks.

That’s the second insane catch by Cross. I think he had that one strong one hand grab that he plucked earlier in the year. Sarratt, Price, Cross, Cooper. McCulley will catch on too but he’s got to learn these same intricacies and not just be a big body. Very TOUGH group.

I think that F bomb will be on a meme soon. Lol

Rourke on third down, especially in long yardage, has been ridiculous. That’s a veteran QB for you.

So far Cignetti is delivering the exact type of players and football that he said he would. He said what we can expect and is doing exactly that.

Second half. Second unit.

Walker was as impressive as anybody. Love how he plays. There’s an urgency there to go along with his athleticism. He’s not huge but with the way the game today is trending I could see him playing on Sundays.

I’d be ecstatic with that.

Interesting. I’ve read he’s got a good motor and is a top notch rebounder and physically. I can’t say much beyond what I’ve read so we will have to see.

Modern big. Can step out. Would complement Tiller whose motor I like on the boards. Show them both the money!

Kansas, Duke, UCLA and especially Kentucky have paid recruits since the advent of modern basketball to get players to play there. Ohio State has an estimated $100 M bigger budget than we do for athletics. Hardly a level playing field. I am all for a George Steinbrenner-like attitude for IU basketball. If you’ve got it, take advantage of your built in advantages. It’s the marketplace. We’d be beyond moronic not to exploit it to the max. One of our big plans at the strategic admin level is not taking advantage of a blue chip asset for the university. Basketball is not a sports thing. It’s a much larger asset for the university. Investing in NIL pays off in many ways for the school that goes way beyond basketball W’s and L’s.

Good point. I hope we give the second unit some run. Can’t substitute for game experience. One young guy I’d like to see is Austin Barrett at OT. Wedig played both guard and tackle at Wisconsin with eight starts in four years. Barrett has always made a good impression in practice. I’m curious to see how he moves in pass pro.

I thought the offense lacked some precision and that will help it be more dynamic. The defense was very sound. They knew their responsibilities and played with toughness. Lack of breakdowns for the most part. I think there’s almost no chance that Coach Haines doesn’t end up a high level head coach someday.

Tyler Stephens with the bad snap and promptly made up for it on the next play with the kick out block that freed Green to go the distance.

“Relentlessly guarding against complacency.” I think he’s going to illustrate that all week.

That seemed awfully close up the LOS

Competent, sound football. Well organized. Total reflection of the new staff.

We’ve got to see it on the field but what we did since spring to turn around the D-line addressed exactly what I was worried about and I don’t think it could have gone better. It looked kind of bleak at one point. The two deep on the D-line looks much better than anything we’ve seen in I don’t know how long.

Looks good. The only two that surprised me (based on camp reports) were Warnell over Sanguinetti at safety and Sharpe over Jamier Johnson at corner. Drew Evans and Lynch starting at guard didn’t surprise me. Cignetti has signaled that those two and Stephens will rotate at guard. They didn’t play favorites here. Stephens has a lot of starting experience but you can see how much Cignetti respects Bostad. Speaks well of both of them he brought Bostad back despite not having the prior relationship.

I love the emphasis on improving the game day experience over the past 15 years. Fred had some good ideas and executed on the stadium. I’m a big Scott Dolson backer. The guy gets it. He’s not a bureaucrat from an ivory tower with weird logic. He understands things from a sports perspective. I am not in the mood to rehash the dysfunction in athletics but in my estimation he’s not the issue. He’s more of the heroic figure trying to fight the good fight internally.

In football and especially basketball, I'd like to see us dig way deeper on recruiting. I think Cignetti is already doing it. I love when he talks about not caring how many stars. Ponds was a "zero star" and will be a cb1. McFadden was a 2 star. Cignetti gets it. In basketball, we are on high level talents, but there are a ton of guys who play winning basketball, ESPECIALLY FROM THE STATE OF INDIANA. Tom Coverdale, Brian Evans types. Kirk Haston from out of state. Tom Crean dug deep and went and found OG Anunoby. Great find and that's one example. It takes work and evaluation to understand a kid's makeup. For us to get where we truly want, this is imperative IMO.

Would be nice to get a guy starting the class off. Woody has been on him since he was a ninth grader so the relationship and familiarity are strong. The NBA principles at IU should be appealing to him. It’s very close to home. Hopefully it makes perfect sense to him and we land him. Then the situation starts to get clearer for guys like Mullins, Bryson Tiller and Mikel Brown. I see this as an important class for a variety of reasons.