@kelly_32 if this team comes together like last year’s did our ceiling is higher, which means there isn’t a game we can’t win. Some will say PSU, but Tom Allen won there, so there’s that 🤷♂️
@hoosiers94 Every single time I see CoachCig in an interview, I can’t help but think/believe we could be better this year than last. I know, I know, I’ve died and gone to Hoosier Heaven. The guy just exudes confidence and hasn’t really sold us anything but wins so far.
Obviously its nearly impossible to predict how this team will play in contested games. But if you use last year's performances as a guide, which is really the only thing we have to go on, then I'd say 9-3 is a reasonable expectation.
The Illinois game could be similar to the Michigan game, but I'm thinking its more like Washington. Illinois is going to be solid, but they don't have the talent Michigan had. And they're not great/dominant in the areas that would likely give us the most trouble.
The Iowa game...not sure we played one last year like it. Our road games, outside OSU and ND, were largely against mediocre teams. Iowa and Illinois are probably similar, overall. I think getting a split in those 2 games is a reasonable expectation.
Oregon and PSU... these games are similar to OSU/ND from last year. We weren't overly competitive in either of those games, hopefully the upgrades on the OLine will help us move towards competing in these games and environments. But its hard to predict a win in either of them, right now.
Other potential tough games... UCLA, MSU, Maryland, Wisconsin. Shouldn't lose to any of them, based off last year's team and performances. But they're all solid programs, and they're obviously capable of having similar jumps in play to what we had. You never know.
The 3 OOC games, and then Bucket game, should be wins.
I feel like this is a 10+ win team. Coach raised the standards in 10 months but I also won't forget where we came from. Annual bowl games will be night and day above where we have been for a very, very long time. If coach setting the bar incredibly high allows us to establish annual bowl games as a low bar, I will be happy as a clam. That means we will likely beat Purdue 4 out of 5 times too.
IU has had two of its top five seasons in the history of the program just since 2020. Five bowl games in the last ten seasons. The program isn’t a joke anymore.