CrimsonCrusade

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Sorry to tell you but personnel is exactly the issue. Have you listened to any of the interviews with Indiana players? They all seem to have higher than average football IQs and, more importantly, want to be part of what Cignetti is building. They play as a "TEAM". We have a bunch of 4 and 5 starts simply wearing the same uniforms. Big difference and it showed. Team beats individual ability most times.

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You're proving my point. Indiana has less individual ability but better coaching. Everything you're attributing to their personnel is a byproduct of coaching.

Lol I knew this was inevitable when Mack hit that one nice pass to Williams down the sidelines. He then followed it up with a missile that was so off target that Hill had to go to the ground to get it five yards behind the line of scrimmage. This is what Mack has shown all season, stretching back to A-Day: impressive arm talent and shaky accuracy. There's potential there but nothing we saw yesterday was new for him.

I am hoping at this point that Simpson moves on for his own sake. In late September and October he showed his potential, but then defenses realized they could completely stop the run with just their down linemen and have two safeties high the entire game. I'd be interested to see what Simpson can do with an even moderately competent running game.

Not sure what makes you include Lanning as "great." The Ohio State win last year was impressive, but Sherrone Moore also beat that team. And of course then they got crushed in the rematch. Oregon's playoff run to this point means nothing - they've beaten a Sun Belt team and Texas Tech turning it over 4 times. I'll give him credit if they can beat Indiana. Lanning is still 0-3 against DeBoer, which is pretty pathetic.

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Ty should have taken himself out if the coaches wouldn't do it

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That's reportedly what he did.

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Like it or not, we are stuck with DeBoer and it will get a lot worse if he doesn’t have talent

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On paper, he had more talent at literally every position than Indiana. Our lineman were all a head taller than their counterparts. Likely all of our receivers and defensive backs would comfortably beat theirs in the 40 yard dash. Personnel isn't the issue.

It's not so much about the record. On paper, going 11-4 with a playoff win is a good season. Many are giving credit for reaching the SECCG, but that was determined by somewhat arbitrary tiebreakers - either Texas A&M or Ole Miss would have had a good chance at beating Bama and obviously Ole Miss was a better match for Georgia by season's end.

It's about the way the team plays. Even in wins, they never looked like a really good team this season. Often, they were physically dominated in games they won, but they managed to get by with opportunistic defense and some clutch moments in the passing game.

You're talking about DeBoer growing as a coach and hopefully making major coaching shakeups. The latter would be great, but I have my doubts with his personality. In terms of growth, what concerns me is that we're seeing problems that he had at Washington recur here. In 2022, his Huskies went 11-2, but both losses were to unranked teams. In 2023, they made a run to the championship game on the back of 9 wins decided by single digits. You can see stats from those 2023 games that should look very familiar - 13 rushing yards on 13 attempts against Arizona State, for instance. So I'm not seeing much growth at all when I look at DeBoer's past.

Given the development track record under Ballou, what gives you confidence about Russell?

Effort wasn't there against FSU to start the season. Telling that when the staff had the longest periods
to get the team focused and motivated, they came out completely listless.

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This is eerily similar to watching Shula's bad teams.

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The effort was never an issue with Shula's teams. Even in 2003 they were taking top ten teams to multiple overtimes and only losing by 7 to #1 Oklahoma. The only team to truly blow out Shula at Bama was 2003 LSU, and that wasn't as bad as this, especially when you consider that Bama on paper has a major talent advantage in this game.

Michigan is likely going to finish unranked because they were #23 entering yesterday and lost by multiple scores. That means Ohio State played three teams that finished ranked.

vs Texas - W 14-7
vs Indiana - L 10-13
vs Miami - L 14-24

Hailed by some of the media as the greatest team ever, by the way.