I made this one free as BTN was there and will have their annual camp show tonight at 8pm ET

We need that extra pep in every practice.

@iugradman If it is every practice, is it really extra? It's also the point in camp where things start to drag.

@thehoosierhuddle I would just hope visualizing hoisting that trophy in January would be all the motivation they need to practice at their full potential.

One thing that stood out to me last year was a comment Urban Meyer made before the Ohio State game.  He said he was walking around the sidelines and he made the comment about the size/look difference.  Last night I was watching the Penn State tour and DiNardo made a comment about how Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan players just look different.  

I know we brought in some transfers along the line but I am curious to see if they say IU's closing the gap in that aspect.  I just find it interesting about the coaches comments about the "look" of IU athletes and the other programs like OSU, PSU and Michigan. 

@bbh42 I don't know to what extent we are closing the gap, the HH guys will know best.  I know our recruiting has improved, so we are closing the gap to some extent, but probably not a lot yet.

A reality we face with our roster of mostly 3*'s is we just don't have the size and speed that comes with recruiting top-10 classes full of 4*'s with a few 5*'s.  No school with a roster of less than 50% 4*/5* high school recruits has won a national title.

We're around 10% or less of 4* and up recruits on our roster.  When Cig and staff pick the right 3*'s and develop them we can be an impressive team that makes the CFP, but no team with our sort of roster has won a national title.  At some point over 175 plays, a big size and speed advantage becomes hard to overcome.  It's a kinetic game after all.

This whole concept is Bud Elliot's blue chip ratio.  https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/blue-chip-ratio-2025-these-18-college-football-teams-can-actually-win-the-national-championship/

In my opinion, if we want to level up, we need to keep up the on field results, and also increase our NIL pretty substantially to get more 4* recruits that will allow us to better hang with the big programs.  Our NIL has increased a lot the past two seasons, but we started from a very bad spot 18 months ago, so we have a ways to go.

I think we're on the path to better players, but it takes time and total commitment from the staff, school, mega boosters, and fans.  CFB is so darn competitive.  But again, IUFB is actually going for it!

@tammany You hit the nail on the head. It's all about NIL. IU has an OLine that probably stacks up against the conference's best. I have not seen OSU or those guys this year, but in year's past it was like JV vs. Varsity size wise. I do think IU looks like a Big Ten offensive line this year.

But NIL and other revenue generating upgrades need to continue. Having another really good year is important too.

The 2026 recruiting class has five four star recruits per 247 and is ranked in the top thirty nationally. That is pretty good.

Posted by: @bbh42

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One thing that stood out to me last year was a comment Urban Meyer made before the Ohio State game.  He said he was walking around the sidelines and he made the comment about the size/look difference.  Last night I was watching the Penn State tour and DiNardo made a comment about how Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan players just look different.  

 

I know we brought in some transfers along the line but I am curious to see if they say IU's closing the gap in that aspect.  I just find it interesting about the coaches comments about the "look" of IU athletes and the other programs like OSU, PSU and Michigan. 

We beat Michigan and damn near beat PSU at PSU with a terrible team two years ago. OSU is the one mountain we haven’t been able to climb.

Ryan Day has only lost five Big Ten games and four of those were to Michigan. Oregon beat them by one point at home then got slaughtered in the rematch on a neutral field.

@packtherock Yeah, Dinardo can't bring himself to admit we're really good just yet.  He's stilll bitter and, frankly I don't blame him.  He had very lilttle support from the AD.

However, we have to remember that, when we kept games close in the past, those teams didn't really take us seriously.  We'd sneak up on some every now and then.  Oregon is a prime example.

That's won't be the case this year and it wasn't against O$U or ND last year.  We're going to get those teams' best efforts now.  I think we can still be successful, but I doubt we'll be blowing teams out this year as much as we did last year.

In Cig We Trust!