**Buzz Buzz Buzz** - Nappier's (ahem) Golden Ticket

We have more experience with sharks than with whales.

 

This "they're Indiana" notion is lazy analysis. Five years ago they went 8-5 and beat all the same scrubs Cignetti has beaten. He'll need to beat some of the stronger competition if we're going to claim he's "exceptional" let alone "historically" so.

 

Hilarious. Utah finished #7 in cfb playoff poll. They crushed #4 USC in the PAC championship, then lost to PS in the Rose.

 

Multidisciplinary, AKA general engineering. Back in the day I uh, "lacked focus" you could say. Didn't even go there for engineering started in computer science, lasted a month with that.

 

Late summer was so much worse, dorm didn't have AC.

 

The buzz kinda reminds me a of kiffen a few weeks ago till kiffy lost games that weren’t exactly against powerhouses. Cig gets osu soon. I font think he should be expected to win but how the game goes will say a bit .

 

I went for engineering and decided I didn’t want a real job.

 

If the talent level was even close, that would hold water. If he beats those teams, he is a magician.

 

If he goes undefeated he'll go from "reach" to "sexy reach" but not "sexy whale".

 

I would favor IU in every game left except @OSU. 11-1 at that school would indeed be historical. The big 10 has grown so big its hardly even fair to compare records. SEC not far behind on that.

 

I have a theory - just like I did on Cormani - about Mullen's 3rd year that the more I hear about it, the more it seems to be correct. I think there was some kind of discussion. How formal it was IDK, but between him and Sticklin after the Oklahoma Cotton Bowl game. Basically I think he got admonished for what Stricklin and probably most of gator nation felt was letting the team quit. And one of the the things Mullen inherited from Meyer was his sense of loyalty. Its the reason Meyer left OSU - he felt they were disloyal to him by suspending him even for one meaningless game. Its also the roundabout reason he left UF. He promoted Addazio who had never coached a skill position in his career to OC, and wouldn't remove him for a better option outside the program but couldn't handle what the program was becoming in losing so bailed from the whole deal - I also think he already had backroom overtures from OSU boosters and felt it would be good to start again. I think Mullen felt betrayed by Stricklin and felt he had earned a cushion or some trust with back-to-back NY6 bowls and a SEC title game.

And baked into my post was kind of this theory - we as fans werent ready to accept where CFB was headed. If the Cotton Bowl happened today and 10-15 players opted out, it would be considered more or less normal. But because this was right on the cutting edge of this new reality - that many of us hate still but have accepted - there was a ton of misplaced anger directed at him for making the best of a sh*t situation. It just is what it is now - college players are gonna care about money from day 1 and playing in a bowl game that ultimately doesnt matter to their bottom line can be a negative decision against that bottom line. But he ate a lot of crap from the press venting fan questions/frustration to get stories alone, I can only imagine what happened behind the scenes with people with power who also didn't like/didn't want to accept the new reality. And I think at some point during the offseason, he just said "you know a buyout and a TV gig doesnt sound so bad compared to this" and decided meh.

Honestly, the fact we interviewed a bunch of candidates makes it worse. Because if you fire Mullen, IMO you need to have a clear cut high profile target. Im okay with using Mullen as a springboard to someone better. Its part of the business. (Kind of like what OSU did to Trussel. He didn't REALLY get fired for 2-3 year old violations. Meyer was available and was willing to come, and had proven he was better on the field. So they canned a national title game level coach to hire a proven national title winner and their former nemesis. Simple as) But the fact that we didn't have a clear cut A tier "this is the guy we go after" like a Dabo, Gundy, (NOT saying any of those guys are coming here - but if you're gonna fire proven NY6 coach you need to have somebody on this level as THE target) etc as the play after firing Mullen means we should have never fired him THAT YEAR, maybe some big fish comes open the next year. But Im of the opinion that we shouldn't have fired him for roughly the same reason you're against firing Napier now. But ironically, I'd be more okay with firing Napier and going after a "potential" coach like Napier like the USF coach, because after Mullen's 3rd year, we still were coming off 2 NY6 bowls the previous years so a trash year wasn't as impactful to the brand as a 4th potential year of fluddering around in mediocrity. Ironically, to me, "taking a chance" makes more sense now than when we did it with canning Mullen. But I still think we need to go after the home run first because none of the targets down the list are gonna say no because of playing second fiddle to the hottest name in CFB (Kiffin)

 

And I think calling a comment a lazy analysis by simply pointing out the one other winning season in the last 30 for Indiana is rather lazy itself.

I was quite overt that the toughest part of their schedule was still to come and no one knows how it will turn out. But even if they lost the rest of the games from here on out, this season would already qualify as #7 in most wins for them since WWII.

This has been a tremendous first year turnaround for them, not just because of their 3-9 record last year, but because this is Indiana, a school where 7 wins at any point qualify as a triumph, let alone 7 in a row to start the season. You know, that school that has never had a 10 win season in their entire history.

To be dismissive of that, regardless of what happens next week or next year, I think is just be obtuse. And maybe lazy too.

 

Good grief, I need some Advil after trying to read some of this...

 

So I guess we aren't supposed to fawn all over Kiffin anymore? Oh no!!

We have a new savior now!! Yay!

 

They lost their starting QB.. That’s got to sting.

 

no doubt - Indiana Hoosiers College Football History, Stats, Records | College Football at Sports-Reference.com
and proof even if their schedule so far wasn't that difficult, proof you can turn a program around in 1 year, yet we are in year 3, and still not sure if Napier is the guy......

 

He will be moby dick if he goes undefeated

 

I need advil trying to type

 

Or some of us are just impressed with the job he's doing there regardless of who is coaching here next year. Sometimes a good coaching job can be acknowledged as a good coaching job, whether or not he's a candidate for a job here that is, to date, not open.