Latest / Podcast on the Brink / POTB 555: Breaking down IU football's national championship win with Josh Pos

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POTB 555: Breaking down IU football's national championship win with Josh Pos · Podcast on the Brink

0:18
Speaker 1: Welcome back to a new episode of Podcast on the Brink.
0:23
Speaker 1: It's Friday, January twenty third. We are here to talk
0:27
Speaker 1: I use football's national championship win against Miami and probably
0:33
Speaker 1: some other football topics. Wanted to give today's guest, Josh
0:37
Speaker 1: Pose of Inside the Hall a little time to recuperate.
0:41
Speaker 1: He got back into Bloomington or it, flew back to Cincinnati,
0:46
Speaker 1: got back into town late Wednesday night. Gave him yesterday
0:48
Speaker 1: to recover a little bit process his thoughts. But he's
0:52
Speaker 1: back with us on Podcast on the Brink. If you
0:56
Speaker 1: enjoy the show, please leave us a rating in review
0:58
Speaker 1: over on Apple Podcasts Spotify. Good news to report we
1:01
Speaker 1: are over ten thousand subscribers over on the YouTube channel,
1:05
Speaker 1: so thank you for the support there. Like the video,
1:07
Speaker 1: subscribe to the channel. We appreciate the support. Josh, you've
1:12
Speaker 1: been a traveling man for several weeks now. You went
1:16
Speaker 1: to Pasadena, you went to Atlanta, you went to Miami,
1:21
Speaker 1: and Indiana football sixteen to zero national champions what's this
1:27
Speaker 1: been like for you to follow? And can you believe
1:32
Speaker 1: we're talking about a national championship football team in Bloomington.
1:36
Speaker 2: I really cannot believe that we're talking any national championship.
1:41
Speaker 2: I mean, if you go to my first my freshman year,
1:44
Speaker 2: you don't think anybody's primed. Maybe the basketball team's prime
1:48
Speaker 2: for the second weekend of the NCAA tournament, but a
1:51
Speaker 2: football championship. I mean, we go downstairs and I can play,
1:54
Speaker 2: I can fire up the video games the college football
1:57
Speaker 2: and create a dynasty, and I still wouldn't be able
1:59
Speaker 2: to do it two years. So going from a coast
2:03
Speaker 2: to coast, up and down, it was just an incredible
2:08
Speaker 2: experience watching Indiana football take over some of college football's
2:14
Speaker 2: biggest stages.
2:16
Speaker 1: The game on Monday night, I thought was just an
2:20
Speaker 1: instant classic as I watched it from here.
2:22
Speaker 3: You were there in the press box.
2:23
Speaker 1: What was just set us up for that day in
2:27
Speaker 1: terms of what it was like getting to the stadium,
2:30
Speaker 1: the atmosphere, the amount of AU fans that showed up
2:35
Speaker 1: down there, and just kind of going into the game,
2:37
Speaker 1: what your feelings were just about the day and everything
2:41
Speaker 1: that was about to take place.
2:43
Speaker 2: We didn't get much of an atmosphere check because we
2:46
Speaker 2: got for some reason, they gave the media police escort,
2:49
Speaker 2: which it's really funny driving by and seeing them stop
2:53
Speaker 2: traffic on the interstate for a bunch of people who
2:56
Speaker 2: just are going to be using their computers all night.
3:00
Speaker 2: But we got into the stadium, I think I got
3:04
Speaker 2: in around two forty five ish, and you could just
3:07
Speaker 2: feel the anticipation already. But the thing is with Indiana,
3:12
Speaker 2: they were really loose, like Kurt Signetti. The body language,
3:16
Speaker 2: he was loose, like he was against it would say
3:20
Speaker 2: Illinois or Maryland. And it was one of those things where, Okay,
3:24
Speaker 2: they're probably gonna they're probably gonna win by a lot.
3:27
Speaker 2: So by the second quarter when it got ten to nothing,
3:30
Speaker 2: it was like, all right, maybe they will blow him up.
3:33
Speaker 2: But those final two quarters were just incredible football of
3:36
Speaker 2: heart stopping plays in it. Words can't describe what happened
3:44
Speaker 2: in that fourth quarter, just.
3:48
Speaker 3: In terms of Signetti.
3:49
Speaker 1: You know, I've asked, we've texted throughout the season, and
3:53
Speaker 1: you've kind of always You've said to me at multiple occasions,
3:57
Speaker 1: like I'd ask you, like what you thought of a game,
4:00
Speaker 1: and you would always kind of give me an answer
4:01
Speaker 1: judged about like how you thought Signetty was talking about
4:05
Speaker 1: the opponent going into the game.
4:07
Speaker 3: What were you.
4:08
Speaker 1: Picking up on, Like when you told me that like
4:10
Speaker 1: throughout the season. That gave you like a feel on
4:14
Speaker 1: how he would talk about an opponent. And were there
4:16
Speaker 1: certain games where you felt like he was more confident
4:18
Speaker 1: than others or was it just a confidence the whole season.
4:22
Speaker 2: It was more confident than others. When he would go
4:26
Speaker 2: and just talk about a team and they say everything about, Oh,
4:32
Speaker 2: their offense was really good, they're quick, they're quick, they
4:34
Speaker 2: have their big plays, their defense really twitchy, they're violent,
4:38
Speaker 2: all that stuff. When he would go in and like
4:40
Speaker 2: in a defense like he did with Maryland to the
4:43
Speaker 2: eighty five Bears. He didn't say the eighty five Bears,
4:45
Speaker 2: but that's what it was. I think Iowa he compared.
4:49
Speaker 2: He basically compared to all those Pittsburgh Steelers teams of
4:53
Speaker 2: all just they're a great team and state he did
4:56
Speaker 2: the same thing. All of those games were really like
5:00
Speaker 2: you could tell the respect though he had great respect
5:03
Speaker 2: for Kirk Farrens at Iowa. In the Illinois game, he
5:06
Speaker 2: did that whole they're really good, all this stuff. He
5:09
Speaker 2: knew that they were going to beat them, not maybe
5:11
Speaker 2: not by seven scores, but he knew that they were
5:15
Speaker 2: going to beat them. So this time around, like you
5:19
Speaker 2: could just sense the way he was talking about them
5:22
Speaker 2: kind of mirrored that Maryland and Illinois and from based
5:26
Speaker 2: on his postgame comments, I would say that they were
5:29
Speaker 2: surprised by how Miami played. I think they thought it
5:33
Speaker 2: was going to be a walk walk in the park maybe,
5:35
Speaker 2: but as much of a walk in the parks as
5:37
Speaker 2: kurse Signette's going to allow his team to think. But
5:41
Speaker 2: he's someone that was very confident just in the words
5:45
Speaker 2: that he was saying, even though it wasn't expressing confidence outwardly.
5:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you kind of felt that same way though
5:51
Speaker 1: going into Alabama and Oregon, right, and that he was
5:54
Speaker 1: that he was confident about those games. What do you
5:56
Speaker 1: think do you think having that validation is beating Ohio
6:00
Speaker 1: State and kind of completing the perfect regular season kind
6:05
Speaker 1: of gave him man also the team confidence like to
6:09
Speaker 1: propel them into this playoff.
6:11
Speaker 2: I think that they just had soaring confidence from that
6:14
Speaker 2: Penn State game on. Obviously the Ohio State game was
6:18
Speaker 2: awesome and the way they came back or the way
6:22
Speaker 2: they won, but Penn State, it was the way they
6:25
Speaker 2: came back and Signetty finally released some emotions after that game.
6:29
Speaker 2: Because he's a guy from Western Pennsylvania, and he never
6:32
Speaker 2: thought he'd be coaching there. So it was really after
6:34
Speaker 2: that that the trajectory went up and up, and there
6:39
Speaker 2: wasn't a swagger like you see with some teams. How
6:42
Speaker 2: they just think that they're just gonna walk you like
6:45
Speaker 2: they're gonna walk a team down and beat them by
6:48
Speaker 2: the end of the first quarter, which Indiana did against
6:50
Speaker 2: Alabama and Oregon. But they kind of just handled it
6:53
Speaker 2: like business. You could sense that it was more business like,
6:56
Speaker 2: but the moment wasn't going to be too big. Now
6:59
Speaker 2: that they've they've passed those tests at Iowa, at Oregon,
7:03
Speaker 2: at Penn State, in the Big Ten championship game against
7:06
Speaker 2: Ohio State, they knew that their resume spoke for itself
7:10
Speaker 2: and that they could do whatever they wanted on a
7:13
Speaker 2: football field because they were better than every team that
7:16
Speaker 2: they took the field against at that point.
7:18
Speaker 1: Obviously, Mondays win much closer than the first two playoff games.
7:22
Speaker 1: It was, as I mentioned earlier, kind of instant classic.
7:24
Speaker 1: I just want to go through that game a little
7:26
Speaker 1: bit and get some of your thoughts on different things
7:28
Speaker 1: that happened. Obviously, it was the first half that was
7:31
Speaker 1: dominated by Indiana, particularly defensively. What stood out most to
7:37
Speaker 1: you just kind of about the early part of that game,
7:39
Speaker 1: how Indiana kind of took control and they obviously get
7:43
Speaker 1: the touchdown from Nowakowski. I think they also had a
7:45
Speaker 1: field goal in the first half. But it felt like
7:48
Speaker 1: it was all Indiana in that first half, but also
7:50
Speaker 1: kind of felt like they could have been up by
7:52
Speaker 1: more based on how they dominated the game.
7:55
Speaker 2: They dominated defensively, but that Miami defensive front, with Mezzador
8:01
Speaker 2: and Baine on the opposite sides of one another, that
8:04
Speaker 2: was one of the best pass rushes I have ever seen,
8:07
Speaker 2: and Indiana couldn't handle it, and that's why they weren't
8:10
Speaker 2: up seventeen twenty four against with the way the defense
8:14
Speaker 2: was playing, Indiana is usually up twenty four nothing at halftime.
8:17
Speaker 2: But it was one of those things where Miami kept
8:20
Speaker 2: the offense in check while Indiana just dominated Carson Beck
8:25
Speaker 2: and that Miami offense. It wasn't what I was expecting.
8:30
Speaker 2: I thought that there's gonna be more scoring in the
8:32
Speaker 2: first half. I thought both teams were gonna be pretty loose.
8:35
Speaker 2: Indiana wasn't tight per se offensively, I mean defensively, they
8:40
Speaker 2: were as loose as you can be the way they played,
8:42
Speaker 2: but they just weren't executed. The offensive line wasn't There
8:48
Speaker 2: wasn't something right, but it was because of the physicality
8:51
Speaker 2: that Miami was bringing. Obviously you had that you can
8:55
Speaker 2: call it what it is. It was a targeting that
8:56
Speaker 2: wasn't called in that first quarter that it lives in
9:00
Speaker 2: your mind as a quarterback. So for Nando Mendoza, he
9:02
Speaker 2: still stepped up in the second half, but the first
9:04
Speaker 2: hat his lip was bleeding. He was getting rocked down
9:07
Speaker 2: almost every other play. So that's where I think Indiana
9:10
Speaker 2: struggled and it could have been twenty four nothing, but
9:13
Speaker 2: they they were happy with where they were at ten nothing.
9:17
Speaker 1: So on those type of types of plays, when you're
9:19
Speaker 1: up in the press box, what kind of vantage point
9:21
Speaker 1: do you have on that, Are you like watching the
9:23
Speaker 1: replay on like a computer or are they showing that
9:25
Speaker 1: in the stadium, Like what's the reaction up there from?
9:29
Speaker 1: Because obviously at home we can see that. And I
9:31
Speaker 1: think it actually took him a little bit to kind
9:34
Speaker 1: of go back and show that play on TV a
9:36
Speaker 1: couple of times and kind of realized it was, you know,
9:38
Speaker 1: definitely should have been a targeting.
9:40
Speaker 3: Call.
9:40
Speaker 1: But I'm just curious, like from a media standpoint, like
9:42
Speaker 1: when you're watching that in the stadium, like, what's your
9:44
Speaker 1: vantage point on something like that.
9:46
Speaker 2: We saw him on the ground, we saw it. We
9:47
Speaker 2: didn't really none of us really saw the hit. But
9:49
Speaker 2: then we saw we were far he was on the
9:52
Speaker 2: far side of the field because we were in the
9:55
Speaker 2: This is a weird East West team. I think we're
9:57
Speaker 2: on the west end zone, so they were out down
9:59
Speaker 2: in the east ends as we saw him kind of
10:01
Speaker 2: reaching into his face mask. And then there's two TVs
10:04
Speaker 2: about overhead that had really just like the live feed,
10:10
Speaker 2: and then it has what the broadcast is like the
10:14
Speaker 2: same broadcast, but one's much much more delayed than the other.
10:17
Speaker 2: So we went and watch the delayed one, and we
10:19
Speaker 2: saw it, and we're thinking, all right, at some point
10:22
Speaker 2: the replay booth is going to have to to stop
10:26
Speaker 2: this game and review that. I mean, a llah Michael
10:30
Speaker 2: McFadden twenty twenty one against Cincinnati all those years ago,
10:34
Speaker 2: that really lost them the game. That's a big moment
10:37
Speaker 2: and that had to have been called targeting. I don't
10:40
Speaker 2: care what game it is, if it's the first, the third,
10:43
Speaker 2: the last, whatever, it is you got to protect a
10:46
Speaker 2: Heisman quarterback. You got to protect a quarterback, period, So
10:49
Speaker 2: we were confused as to why nothing was happening with
10:54
Speaker 2: that play.
10:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really felt like too of that first half
10:58
Speaker 1: that Indiana was going to be in for a long
11:01
Speaker 1: night in the second half if they didn't start cleaning
11:03
Speaker 1: up some of those things. Because now it wasn't just
11:05
Speaker 1: that play. There was a couple other occasions where I
11:08
Speaker 1: felt like there should have been something called on hits
11:11
Speaker 1: on Mendoza. You know, Kurt Signette even I think, came
11:13
Speaker 1: off of the field in the first half in his
11:15
Speaker 1: interview with ESPN and mentioned it. He's not a guy
11:19
Speaker 1: to shy away from his words, and he obviously was
11:22
Speaker 1: working the officials. So I think as the game went on,
11:25
Speaker 1: things became maybe a little bit more buttoned up in
11:29
Speaker 1: that regard. But yeah, I thought in the first half
11:31
Speaker 1: was kind of a no holds barred type of situation.
11:34
Speaker 1: It wasn't necessarily conducive for Indiana to surviving against as
11:37
Speaker 1: you mentioned, a great pass rush, a team that brings
11:40
Speaker 1: a ton of physicality. I think that really stood out
11:42
Speaker 1: to me about Miami more than anything else, was they
11:46
Speaker 1: were more they were more physical, I think than a
11:48
Speaker 1: team that Indian had played to the season, and that
11:51
Speaker 1: over the course of a sixty minute game really wears
11:53
Speaker 1: you down. And Indiana it became clear once Miami got
11:56
Speaker 1: some momentum in the second half that Indiana I was
11:58
Speaker 1: going to have to step up and just make just
12:01
Speaker 1: enough plays to prevail, and that's exactly what they did.
12:04
Speaker 1: I want to talk about some of those plays. Obviously,
12:06
Speaker 1: the punt block. You know, we were texting a little
12:09
Speaker 1: bit during the game and I kept kind of saying,
12:11
Speaker 1: you know, we need to need to turn they need
12:12
Speaker 1: to turnover, or they need a moment of changing play.
12:15
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, they're not even in a
12:16
Speaker 1: pump block formation and Mikhail Kamara comes around and just
12:21
Speaker 1: seemingly out of nowhere. It was like Miami uh wasn't
12:26
Speaker 1: expecting it, had no idea that he was coming, but
12:29
Speaker 1: blocks that punt. Isaiah Jones returns or recovers the ball
12:33
Speaker 1: in the end zone, and to me, I mean as
12:35
Speaker 1: big as the other player that we're going to talk about.
12:37
Speaker 1: Obviously there's some Charlie Becker catches and the Mendoza run
12:40
Speaker 1: which I want to get into also, but that play
12:42
Speaker 1: was also just a pivotal moment and what was again
12:46
Speaker 1: a great game in the second half.
12:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was crazy because that one was
12:51
Speaker 2: in our in our field division, if you will. It
12:54
Speaker 2: was much closer and you could see it kind of develop.
12:58
Speaker 2: All you could think of is it's fourth and one.
13:01
Speaker 2: Indiana's gonna play safe. You got guys going like this,
13:04
Speaker 2: like play it safe, don't don't bail until this. This
13:07
Speaker 2: punter punts the ball, and that's not rush the punter,
13:11
Speaker 2: it's just make sure that he's not gonna throw or
13:14
Speaker 2: run the ball. And Mikau Kamara just comes in and
13:18
Speaker 2: I think it was eighty seven and White eighty seven
13:21
Speaker 2: on Miami, who is on the blocking team. He just left.
13:25
Speaker 3: He just go ahead.
13:26
Speaker 2: It was kind of like a bowl. He he just
13:30
Speaker 2: let him go and he just put his hand up
13:32
Speaker 2: and he didn't put two hands up. It's just one
13:34
Speaker 2: hand right down. And we couldn't hear it, obviously. It's
13:39
Speaker 2: almost like you could hear just the the double thud,
13:42
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden you just hear it and
13:44
Speaker 2: we were we were enclosed a roar like you've never
13:48
Speaker 2: heard before through through the windows. And that's when you
13:53
Speaker 2: think Okay, that that that's the game right there, right,
13:57
Speaker 2: but Miami kept punching back and and but that that
14:01
Speaker 2: that felt like one of the final straws in Miami's
14:05
Speaker 2: chances to win that game.
14:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, And Charlie Becker obviously mentioned him earlier. He's been
14:10
Speaker 1: a guy that as the season has gone along, and
14:12
Speaker 1: he had some injuries obviously to surat for a couple
14:15
Speaker 1: of games, and Cooper was injured, so Becker got a
14:19
Speaker 1: chance to take on a bigger role, and it was
14:22
Speaker 1: this game after game he continued to make big catches.
14:25
Speaker 1: This game he makes two pretty important catches. What was
14:30
Speaker 1: he just kind of hiding and playing sight in the
14:32
Speaker 1: rotation like waiting for his turn?
14:34
Speaker 3: Has he always been this good?
14:35
Speaker 1: Has it been a thing where he's gotten just kind
14:38
Speaker 1: of better over the course of the year and earned
14:39
Speaker 1: this opportunity. You know, he wasn't a guy at the
14:41
Speaker 1: beginning of the season that I don't think when you're
14:44
Speaker 1: looking at the depth chart that would have stood out.
14:46
Speaker 1: And then by the end of the season's he's, you know,
14:49
Speaker 1: right up there on the offense is one of the
14:50
Speaker 1: most indispensable guys.
14:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's one of those guys that was on special
14:55
Speaker 2: teams and he was buying his time. But think about
14:57
Speaker 2: the four guys ahead of him. You had Sarat, you
15:01
Speaker 2: had Cooper, you had uh oh geez e J Williams.
15:06
Speaker 2: The three guys ahead of him, right, Charlie Becker wasn't
15:10
Speaker 2: a thought about. We were actually watching the full season
15:12
Speaker 2: highlights yesterday. Uh, there's on It's on YouTube and I'm
15:17
Speaker 2: assuming everywhere that you can even search. But he was on.
15:21
Speaker 2: He was, he was. He was a gunner on punts.
15:25
Speaker 2: He was running after putt returners for the first five
15:28
Speaker 2: six games of the year. And it's probably because he
15:33
Speaker 2: worked with Elijah Surratt. To be honest with you, how
15:36
Speaker 2: he got so good at those back shoulder fades because
15:38
Speaker 2: that that that Surat's bread and butter. So he worked,
15:41
Speaker 2: he got better. And it's funny because that was a
15:45
Speaker 2: Tom Allen recruit. This wasn't a this isn't a Kurtzignetty recruit.
15:51
Speaker 2: Charlie b from Nashville, Tennessee was someone that Tom Allen got.
15:54
Speaker 2: And it's hilarious to think that the development over the
15:58
Speaker 2: course of the last two years has been so crazy
16:01
Speaker 2: that he was entrusted for not one, but two nineteen
16:04
Speaker 2: yard games on third and fourth down in the National
16:06
Speaker 2: Championship game.
16:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that kind of like throws out all
16:10
Speaker 1: these theories of you know, Indiana bought its roster, Indiana's
16:13
Speaker 1: has all these old guys, and I mean the same
16:16
Speaker 1: thing with as you as the season moved along, there
16:19
Speaker 1: was young players who stepped up. Daniel and Duke Way
16:22
Speaker 1: was another one who kind of stepped up late in
16:23
Speaker 1: the season and made plays.
16:25
Speaker 3: The list goes on. You just look at the roster.
16:27
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, one of the things in
16:31
Speaker 1: the aftermath of all this that's been the most annoying
16:34
Speaker 1: at least is from some of the other fan bases
16:36
Speaker 1: is just talking about the age of Indiana's players and
16:38
Speaker 1: the nil put portion. I got some satisfaction of Kurt
16:43
Speaker 1: Signetti's comment. It was either after the game or the
16:46
Speaker 1: morning after where he talked where he said, you know,
16:48
Speaker 1: Rnio isn't as much as people think. This is clearly
16:51
Speaker 1: was a team that was more about the some of
16:55
Speaker 1: its parts and being together and playing as a unit
16:57
Speaker 1: and playing you know, fundamental football then just going out
17:04
Speaker 1: and buying a bunch of players and buying talent. To me,
17:06
Speaker 1: that was just a laughable, uh storyline that kind of
17:09
Speaker 1: as people tried to explain this, I think that they
17:12
Speaker 1: wanted to reach for reasons. It was it was almost
17:15
Speaker 1: like they couldn't believe that Indiana had crashed the party
17:17
Speaker 1: to join the college football is elite, and they wanted
17:21
Speaker 1: some reason to to be able to account for it,
17:25
Speaker 1: and they came up with these wild theories. But you know,
17:27
Speaker 1: things like you know, Becker and and Duke Way kind
17:30
Speaker 1: of throwed that out because they were guys that came
17:32
Speaker 1: out of nowhere that weren't really playing a role. And
17:33
Speaker 1: as the season moved along and Indiana had injuries which
17:37
Speaker 1: are inevitably going to have in any football season, they
17:40
Speaker 1: stepped up and made plays. So a couple of other
17:43
Speaker 1: things that, you know, I just wanted to talk about
17:44
Speaker 1: the Mendoza run. Obviously, that's the one that people are
17:47
Speaker 1: going to remember. He's described it as you know in
17:50
Speaker 1: some of the interviews he's talked about he kind of
17:52
Speaker 1: felt like a pinball going through there. You know, he
17:55
Speaker 1: was split, he was he got he caught the the
17:58
Speaker 1: the the snap and he was it was designed for
18:00
Speaker 1: him to go left, but he kind of saw an
18:02
Speaker 1: opportunity for himself to go right and just bouncing off guys,
18:05
Speaker 1: and you know you talk about somebody putting their body
18:08
Speaker 1: on the line. Uh, that was Miami's chance to get
18:13
Speaker 1: a solid hit on him and right and take him
18:14
Speaker 1: out for good. And and he he was not going
18:17
Speaker 1: to be denied, you know. He That's a play, as
18:19
Speaker 1: you wrote about, that will live in Indiana sports, not
18:23
Speaker 1: just Indiana football, Indiana sports history up there with Keith
18:26
Speaker 1: Smart shot, up there with you know, all of the
18:30
Speaker 1: great plays in Indiana sports history. If got at the top.
18:34
Speaker 1: What just your reaction to that play and kind of
18:38
Speaker 1: you wrote a great story about it, so I'm sure
18:40
Speaker 1: you have some thoughts on it.
18:42
Speaker 2: So we were in the press box, and the way
18:44
Speaker 2: they had it was the Indiana contingent was mostly together.
18:49
Speaker 2: It was there wasn't really any Miami sitting with Indiana.
18:52
Speaker 2: The national was where they where they were, So that
18:57
Speaker 2: was the point where it happened. We kind of oh
19:00
Speaker 2: an odd all collectively to the point where we thought,
19:04
Speaker 2: that's game. I mean, he just he just won them
19:07
Speaker 2: the national championship with that play. It's one of those
19:12
Speaker 2: things where you'll never forget what you were thinking, what
19:16
Speaker 2: you were doing, where you were and obviously I'm younger
19:23
Speaker 2: than the most of the people who watched have watched
19:26
Speaker 2: Indiana basketball in Indiana sports. But that's where I was
19:30
Speaker 2: for Michael Pennock's reach and where I was for Christian
19:32
Speaker 2: Watford's watch shot. That's one of those plays that probably
19:38
Speaker 2: will just be there and will be replayed on every
19:41
Speaker 2: single Indiana football pregame mix before they take the field
19:46
Speaker 2: for the next I don't know how many years the
19:48
Speaker 2: way they do for Keith Smart and Christian Watford, because
19:53
Speaker 2: just watching him pinball around and taking that hit not
19:58
Speaker 2: only at the four yard line that he did, and
20:02
Speaker 2: then the goal line where he gets a shot to
20:03
Speaker 2: the kidney, I mean, that is that's unbelievable. That's a
20:09
Speaker 2: guy who will die out on the field for his team.
20:13
Speaker 2: And a lot of people can say that he showed
20:18
Speaker 2: it right there and that's why he won the Heisman,
20:20
Speaker 2: that's why his team won the national championship.
20:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you come out of that game, you look
20:25
Speaker 1: at Mendoza's stats and you see the passing yards, you
20:28
Speaker 1: see he didn't throw for a touchdown, and you say,
20:30
Speaker 1: what's all the hype about if you just looked at
20:32
Speaker 1: the box, right, and so you didn't watch the game.
20:35
Speaker 1: But if you watch that game closely, and I know
20:38
Speaker 1: that the Raiders folks were on the sideline, I think
20:40
Speaker 1: you have to come out of that more impressed than
20:42
Speaker 1: any other game that he's played, because he's on the
20:44
Speaker 1: biggest stage. He's out there literally taking hits that are illegal.
20:50
Speaker 1: In the first half, he's not he's not batting an
20:53
Speaker 1: eye at that, he's getting back up, he's wiping the
20:56
Speaker 1: blood off his lip, he's still continuing to lead his team.
20:59
Speaker 1: And then the second half, when he has to step
21:01
Speaker 1: up and make a play, he didn't do it with
21:03
Speaker 1: his arm. Running is not the strength of his game.
21:06
Speaker 1: He can do it, but it's not what you know
21:07
Speaker 1: he's going to be the number one pick for. But
21:10
Speaker 1: he puts his body on the line, makes a play
21:12
Speaker 1: for his team, and as you said, I mean taking
21:15
Speaker 1: shots the whole way down there to the end zone
21:18
Speaker 1: and he gets right back up. I mean, how could
21:19
Speaker 1: you ever dispute this guy as one of the toughest competitors.
21:23
Speaker 1: He said the words, you know, I'd die out there
21:25
Speaker 1: in the field for my teammates and people. You know,
21:27
Speaker 1: you think of it as a figure speech. He's actually
21:29
Speaker 1: out there walking the walk and making the play. So
21:33
Speaker 1: I think if you're going to put up a statue
21:34
Speaker 1: of Fernanda Mendoza, I mean, doesn't it have to be
21:37
Speaker 1: him outstretched reaching for the end zone.
21:40
Speaker 2: It has to be and it has to say either
21:42
Speaker 2: the run, the leap, the reach whatever that that's the one.
21:46
Speaker 2: I don't I don't know where they're putting it, but
21:49
Speaker 2: there's there's a space. There's got to be a space
21:51
Speaker 2: for it.
21:52
Speaker 1: So it turns out that didn't that play did not
21:55
Speaker 1: in the game for Indiana, right, I mean, we had
21:58
Speaker 1: to continue on with the drug and that's what made
22:00
Speaker 1: it such a great game. I think the second most
22:03
Speaker 1: watched National Championship game of the CFP era. I think
22:07
Speaker 1: the most watched. It's going back to like twenty fifteen.
22:11
Speaker 1: The drama down the stretch. It was a tough game
22:14
Speaker 1: both sides. Miami had a chance, right, they get the
22:16
Speaker 1: ball back, they got to go the link to the
22:18
Speaker 1: field and they've got a shot, and again Indiana's defense
22:24
Speaker 1: makes a play sharp with the interception at that point.
22:30
Speaker 1: The just the watching the camera shots around the stadium
22:35
Speaker 1: and the pure elation from Indiana fans. You know, I
22:39
Speaker 1: wasn't there obviously you were in the Can you just
22:41
Speaker 1: describe for me of what the feeling in the stadium
22:44
Speaker 1: was after he makes that interception and then the aftermath
22:48
Speaker 1: on the field, the celebration.
22:49
Speaker 3: What was that like?
22:50
Speaker 2: It was euphoria. I mean you could just feel it
22:55
Speaker 2: as talking to someone who was actually on the field.
22:57
Speaker 2: They said, if you thought the D'Angelo Ponds picked six
22:59
Speaker 2: was the biggest crowd pop you've ever heard, this one was.
23:03
Speaker 2: I mean Indiana fans had sixty maybe sixty five percent
23:07
Speaker 2: of the stadium. You could tell after Miami fans left
23:10
Speaker 2: and the noise. It's really funny that he went to
23:15
Speaker 2: the Miami band student section area. Jamari Sharp went like
23:19
Speaker 2: this and broke the U and that was Indiana's first
23:22
Speaker 2: accepted on sports and like penalty of the season and
23:27
Speaker 2: you would have it's the time to do it, but
23:30
Speaker 2: not in Kurtzignetti's eyes. He was ripping Sharp a new one.
23:35
Speaker 2: You got us a bleep in penalty. What he's saying
23:38
Speaker 2: to it, he's ticked and that's just who what this
23:42
Speaker 2: program is. But after the game, I there's like a
23:46
Speaker 2: rotunda that you had to go down and you're just
23:48
Speaker 2: sprinting down there because you don't want to miss anything.
23:52
Speaker 2: And I get on the field and Fernando by ABBA's
23:55
Speaker 2: playing and Indiana fans know the song, but they don't
23:58
Speaker 2: know the lyrics. So every time Fernando would show up
24:01
Speaker 2: in the song, that's when you hear the screams of Fernando.
24:05
Speaker 2: And then Hal told I you the Alma Mater plays
24:11
Speaker 2: the fight song plays with probably the loudest rendition of
24:15
Speaker 2: the fight song I've ever heard, and it was just
24:20
Speaker 2: the IU reverberated for seemingly forever afterwards, and then we
24:26
Speaker 2: are the champions players and you see people crying in
24:30
Speaker 2: the stands. They're swaying back and forth, they're crying. It's
24:34
Speaker 2: emotional moment. And then this is Indiana plays and all
24:38
Speaker 2: of a sudden it turned into a party again. It
24:42
Speaker 2: was all a party. John Mellencamp played that they had
24:45
Speaker 2: it ready for Indiana and it was more of a
24:47
Speaker 2: coronation at that point of this is new college football
24:53
Speaker 2: and Indiana fans are going to bask in this sunlight
24:57
Speaker 2: for as long as they want to. With this. It
25:01
Speaker 2: was just an incredible moment that people did not want
25:03
Speaker 2: to leave. I mean, we were thirty forty five minutes
25:06
Speaker 2: after the game, and the stands were pretty packed with
25:09
Speaker 2: Indiana fans. Still they weren't leaving. There's people up in
25:15
Speaker 2: the in the three hundred level, all the way up
25:17
Speaker 2: at the top that were just standing or sitting in
25:19
Speaker 2: their seats. You could just see them with their hands
25:21
Speaker 2: on their head, like, what did we just witness? I
25:24
Speaker 2: think they they there's their gesture was for everyone not
25:29
Speaker 2: only at the game, but in the state, in the country,
25:31
Speaker 2: in the world. That was Indiana fans nationwide.
25:36
Speaker 1: So obviously don't want to look too far ahead, but
25:41
Speaker 1: you know, Kurtz Signetti's not a guy that's gonna dwell
25:44
Speaker 1: too much on this. He's gonna enjoy it for the
25:47
Speaker 1: I think, you know, the foreseeable future. But the work,
25:50
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, you know, it's going to be a
25:51
Speaker 1: busy couple of weeks. He's got things to do. There's
25:54
Speaker 1: roster decisions, there's there's different things.
25:57
Speaker 3: That have to happen.
25:57
Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be some more transfer portal activity
26:01
Speaker 1: before you know what, springball will be here. But you know,
26:04
Speaker 1: I was looking at some of these preseason rankings for
26:07
Speaker 1: next season. The respect that any has been given now
26:11
Speaker 1: based on this run after last season, right, they were
26:13
Speaker 1: just kind of the one hit wonder they couldn't compete
26:16
Speaker 1: with with Ohio, Stateton Notre Dame. Colin Cowherd says they
26:21
Speaker 1: can't ever come back to the playoff in a in
26:23
Speaker 1: a tweet now that we'll live in uh for forever
26:27
Speaker 1: in the in the mind of Indiana fans just kind
26:29
Speaker 1: of looking back on how ridiculous that statement was. But
26:33
Speaker 1: the Hoosiers now you look at you know, I think
26:35
Speaker 1: the lowest I've seen him as like seventh or eighth
26:37
Speaker 1: in the country.
26:39
Speaker 3: What is it? I mean, it's it's unbelievable.
26:45
Speaker 1: That one coach, and obviously he's got a great staff
26:49
Speaker 1: and a lot of people, has been able to flip
26:51
Speaker 1: this thing this quickly. But what do you feel like
26:54
Speaker 1: the staying power of this is in Bloomington? Is this
26:58
Speaker 1: as long as Signetic in Bloomington, Indiana's gonna be a
27:01
Speaker 1: perennial contender.
27:02
Speaker 3: Is that a fair statement?
27:04
Speaker 2: I think it stretches beyond like, especially if someone like
27:08
Speaker 2: Brian Hayes takes over when Signetti eventually retires, If there's
27:11
Speaker 2: a Signetti disciple, which I'm assuming Scott Dolson would do
27:16
Speaker 2: in eight to ten, years. Whatever it is. When Kurt
27:18
Speaker 2: Signetti retires, it's gonna last think of Florida State with
27:23
Speaker 2: Bobby Bowden. That's what happened. I mean, it took him
27:27
Speaker 2: seven eight years to get to the mountaintop, but up
27:31
Speaker 2: until a couple of years ago, Florida State was at
27:34
Speaker 2: the pinnacle of college football. And I think that's where
27:37
Speaker 2: Indiana stands because of people want to play for Kurt Signetti.
27:42
Speaker 2: At this point. They were skeptical about just bringing James
27:46
Speaker 2: Madison guys, but they look at the development of his players.
27:51
Speaker 2: There's no one better. He really might have solidified himself
27:55
Speaker 2: on Monday as the heir to Nick Saban. Kirby smart
27:58
Speaker 2: this Kirby Smart that he's not a Saban disciple. He
28:03
Speaker 2: created his own path. Sure he worked there for two
28:05
Speaker 2: three years, but he forged his own journey in own
28:09
Speaker 2: path to being college football's best coach right now. So
28:12
Speaker 2: I think the staying power to answer your question, it's
28:16
Speaker 2: as long as Pert Signetti and his disciples are at Indiana.
28:22
Speaker 1: Well, Josh, thank you for all of your work this
28:25
Speaker 1: season inside the hall. I know as well. As we
28:29
Speaker 1: started to talk it was probably what last spring we
28:32
Speaker 1: started to talk about potentially adding football covers inside the Hall.
28:38
Speaker 1: You were enthusiastic about it. I was all in favor
28:41
Speaker 1: of it. I wanted to dive into those waters. You know,
28:44
Speaker 1: you've done majority of the work all season. I've supplemented
28:47
Speaker 1: and helped out where I or I could, but terrific
28:50
Speaker 1: job on launching football covers this season on Inside the Hall.
28:55
Speaker 1: You've been a terrific all season. And it's not over
28:58
Speaker 1: yet because I know there's still other story that you're
29:00
Speaker 1: gonna be working on in the coming weeks and spring
29:02
Speaker 1: football won't be too far away. That's obviously going to
29:06
Speaker 1: be a thing that we're going to pay attention to
29:07
Speaker 1: and continue to cover. So thanks for all the hard
29:09
Speaker 1: work this season. Thanks for all the appearances on the
29:13
Speaker 1: show this this season to talk football. It's been just
29:16
Speaker 1: a lot of fun, I think for you know, a
29:19
Speaker 1: school that's been so focused for so long on basketball,
29:22
Speaker 1: and rightfully so. I mean, the the fan base for
29:24
Speaker 1: basketball is terrific the program obviously with the Ridge storyed history,
29:29
Speaker 1: but football has really I think captured the Indiana fan
29:35
Speaker 1: base and people were excited when when a program wins,
29:39
Speaker 1: and they love the story of Kurtsey Dandy There's so
29:42
Speaker 1: many great stories on this team, different players. I feel
29:45
Speaker 1: like people as the season got along, are went along
29:48
Speaker 1: and you and other people on the beat who kind
29:50
Speaker 1: of told these stories of these guys, really felt a
29:52
Speaker 1: connection to a lot of these players. I mean Fernandam
29:54
Speaker 1: and Doez. It wasn't just that he was a great player.
29:56
Speaker 1: People felt connected to him, Aidan Fisher the same thing.
30:00
Speaker 1: Sing so many guys on this team that I think
30:02
Speaker 1: people are gonna love and have in their hearts forever
30:04
Speaker 1: that are going to be sorely missed in a few
30:06
Speaker 1: years to come. But I think when you have a
30:08
Speaker 1: coach like Signetty, you can expect in the years to
30:10
Speaker 1: come that there's gonna be more guys like this that
30:13
Speaker 1: emerge and the players that people love as the years
30:17
Speaker 1: go on. So it was just a fantastic experience getting
30:20
Speaker 1: to read your work all season. Thanks thanks so much
30:22
Speaker 1: for you know, launching the football coverage on Inside the
30:25
Speaker 1: Hall and it's gonna be something that's going to be
30:27
Speaker 1: a staple now for years to come.
30:29
Speaker 2: I'm glad you you said let's do football, because I
30:33
Speaker 2: don't know what it's going to be like, if, if
30:35
Speaker 2: and whenever they lose, but right now, this this website's
30:38
Speaker 2: undefeated on football coverage. So it was a blast in
30:42
Speaker 2: being able to tell the story and on this website
30:45
Speaker 2: it second to none in my four years in college.
30:50
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Josh, Thanks everybody for listening.
30:53
Speaker 1: We'll be back next week with another episode of Probably
30:55
Speaker 1: Talks Some I You Basketball, which is usually a bread
30:58
Speaker 1: and butter on the show, but how can you have
31:00
Speaker 1: a national championship football team and not dedicate a full
31:04
Speaker 1: episode of Podcast on the Brink This week? It's the
31:06
Speaker 1: football team's week. Hecket's the football team's year until somebody
31:10
Speaker 1: else that thrones them as national champions. They are kings
31:13
Speaker 1: of the college football world. Thanks everybody for listening, as
31:16
Speaker 1: always the Podcast on the Brink. If you enjoy the show,
31:18
Speaker 1: as it said at the top, leave us a rating
31:20
Speaker 1: and review over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. For watching
31:23
Speaker 1: on YouTube, like the video, subscribe to the channel as
31:25
Speaker 1: I said, but recently over ten thousand subscribers. Really appreciate
31:28
Speaker 1: the support there, and we'll be back soon with another
31:30
Speaker 1: episode of Podcast on the Brink.