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MD @ IU pregame thread


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I absolutely love our depth on offense. The fact that Donaven McCulley has been our, what?, 8th-most productive receiver (or maybe even 11th-best if we include TEs), shows that we have a lot of options and ways to beat teams. I was at the UCLA game and I believe he was only in two plays, both at the goal line. He was an intended target on a fade to the left (incomplete) and ran the same route again later as a decoy, for a Ke'Shawn Williams TD. What I'm saying is, even our "unproductive" players are still quite productive.

And then we have our RBs! We haven't really needed to rely on any one person yet. They all seem to get a nice balance of touches that seemingly compliment their strengths given the situation. (Walt Bell, you could never!)

Solid, not spectacular D. Fisher and Kamara are obvious highlights. Would like to see tighter rush defense. And maybe Ferrell and Ponds get sent on some havok blitz packages for that element of disruption.

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IU opens as a touchdown favorite against the Box Turtles. In the modern era of football, these teams have split 10 games evenly with Maryland winning the last 3 games and most of those games have been rather high-scoring affairs.

We are certainly due to pay them back and get back on the winning side of the ledger. Big Ten home opener, keep the ball rolling. Go Hoosiers!

Box Turtles1.PNG

Box Turtles2.PNG

Edited by bronkonagurski
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Maryland lost at home to Michigan State.  Throw every other game result for either team out the window.  That tells us everything we need to know.  If IU wants to be taken seriously in the Big Ten, they have to win, and look good doing it, against the Terps.  

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30 minutes ago, 5fouls said:

Maryland lost at home to Michigan State.  Throw every other game result for either team out the window.  That tells us everything we need to know.  If IU wants to be taken seriously in the Big Ten, they have to win, and look good doing it, against the Terps.  

Why would we only look at one game either team played? Maryland also won at Virginia by 2 touchdowns. SP+ has them ranked 35th and FPI has them ranked 28th. If we’re a top 25 team, we should win, but I wouldn’t expect this to look like the UCLA game.

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49 minutes ago, 5fouls said:

Maryland lost at home to Michigan State.  Throw every other game result for either team out the window.  That tells us everything we need to know.  If IU wants to be taken seriously in the Big Ten, they have to win, and look good doing it, against the Terps.  

 

14 minutes ago, Kdug said:

Why would we only look at one game either team played? Maryland also won at Virginia by 2 touchdowns. SP+ has them ranked 35th and FPI has them ranked 28th. If we’re a top 25 team, we should win, but I wouldn’t expect this to look like the UCLA game.

VIA ESPN--- Maryland is better than Washington, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Purdue..... 

equal to MSU

A little worse than Michigan

 

 

I'll take a W in any way. 

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53 minutes ago, 5 championships said:

Should be a tough game Maryland has real talent. Hope the crowd shows up and gives us an advantage.

I'm really hopeful that Hurricane Helene's path takes a turn. Seems Louisville and Southern Indiana are targets for Saturday morning. 

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42 minutes ago, Seeking6 said:

I'm really hopeful that Hurricane Helene's path takes a turn. Seems Louisville and Southern Indiana are targets for Saturday morning. 

We are going to this game and I'm very excited to see this team in person!  Just got a 5 pack of ponchos for the fam just in case  :) Thanks for the weather report... hopefully it misses Bloomington.

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1 hour ago, Kdug said:

Why would we only look at one game either team played? Maryland also won at Virginia by 2 touchdowns. SP+ has them ranked 35th and FPI has them ranked 28th. If we’re a top 25 team, we should win, but I wouldn’t expect this to look like the UCLA game.

I stand by the statement that if we want to be taken seriously in the Big Ten, we need to win this game and look good doing it.  If Maryland is truly a goo team, then to win, we will have to play well 

My MSU comparison was used to illustrate that, if we can't beat Maryland at home, then that brings into question whether we can beat MSU.  Assuming beating Ohio State is a tall task, and Michigan will be a challenge, you have to beat the Marylands Wahingtons, Nebraskas and Michigan States of the world to climb the ladder.  

Maryland beating UCONN means nothing to me any more than us beating Charlotte should to them.

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11 minutes ago, 5fouls said:

I stand by the statement that if we want to be taken seriously in the Big Ten, we need to win this game and look good doing it.  If Maryland is truly a goo team, then to win, we will have to play well 

My MSU comparison was used to illustrate that, if we can't beat Maryland at home, then that brings into question whether we can beat MSU.  Assuming beating Ohio State is a tall task, and Michigan will be a challenge, you have to beat the Marylands Wahingtons, Nebraskas and Michigan States of the world to climb the ladder.  

Maryland beating UCONN means nothing to me any more than us beating Charlotte should to them.

ESPN says we have a 72% to beat MSU on the road. 

Comparing scores really isn't a thing, IMO. 

I mean, yeah, gotta beat teams to climb the ladder... idc whether it's convincing or not. Be 1-0 this week. 

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1 hour ago, 5fouls said:

I stand by the statement that if we want to be taken seriously in the Big Ten, we need to win this game and look good doing it.  If Maryland is truly a goo team, then to win, we will have to play well 

My MSU comparison was used to illustrate that, if we can't beat Maryland at home, then that brings into question whether we can beat MSU.  Assuming beating Ohio State is a tall task, and Michigan will be a challenge, you have to beat the Marylands Wahingtons, Nebraskas and Michigan States of the world to climb the ladder.  

Maryland beating UCONN means nothing to me any more than us beating Charlotte should to them.

Not worried about how we look at right now. Get a win, be 2-0 in conference and crack the top 25.

I see your point, relating to public perception and recognition. 

But I think that will come with consistency.

I hope we win 50-0. But I will be absolutely thrilled with a 7-3 win at this point.  

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1 hour ago, 5fouls said:

I stand by the statement that if we want to be taken seriously in the Big Ten, we need to win this game and look good doing it.  If Maryland is truly a goo team, then to win, we will have to play well 

My MSU comparison was used to illustrate that, if we can't beat Maryland at home, then that brings into question whether we can beat MSU.  Assuming beating Ohio State is a tall task, and Michigan will be a challenge, you have to beat the Marylands Wahingtons, Nebraskas and Michigan States of the world to climb the ladder.  

Maryland beating UCONN means nothing to me any more than us beating Charlotte should to them.

Using individual games against common opponents can be misleading. We beat UCLA by 29 on the road, LSU only beat them by 17 at home. That doesn’t mean we’re 2 touchdowns better than LSU.

Maryland looks to be a solid team. It’d be nice to beat them by 20, but I’ll take any win we can get.

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There are still a ton of unknowns.  Of particular interest to me is how will this team respond if they get behind?  They haven't really faced any adversity yet, so how will they react to it?  My gut says that they will react fine but you just never know.......as Mike Tyson said, "everyone has a plan until they get punched in. the face".

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2 hours ago, HoosierMama said:

We are going to this game and I'm very excited to see this team in person!  Just got a 5 pack of ponchos for the fam just in case  :) Thanks for the weather report... hopefully it misses Bloomington.

Enjoy! Headed down myself. Group of 12. Rain or shine we'll be there to do our part.

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3 hours ago, Kdug said:

Using individual games against common opponents can be misleading. We beat UCLA by 29 on the road, LSU only beat them by 17 at home. That doesn’t mean we’re 2 touchdowns better than LSU.

Maryland looks to be a solid team. It’d be nice to beat them by 20, but I’ll take any win we can get.

I think some are misinterpreting my point to mean we need to blow them out.  Not what I'm saying.  If we look good in a 20-17 win, it's a victory over a solid team.  

But, if we lose at home to a team that list to MSU at home, it's hard to put lipstick on that pig.  That's more of an indictment against who I perceive MSU to be than what I think about Maryland.

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