Midseason update

[Spartanmack]

Not much to say other than the obvious - this team sucks, Jonathan Smith isn't the guy and we're stuck for a bit given his $31mm buyout. One thing that has always kinda bothered me about Smith from the beginning is his demeanor. He lacks "presence" and not only doesn't exude confidence, he seems to lack it altogether. He's like the anti-Dan Campbell. Whenever he's on camera on the sidelines or in practice film, he has an unsure look about himself. The dude looks more like a math teacher than a football coach, even when he's coaching football.

Anyway, I read this article on the 10 worst losses for college football coaches from week 7 and the top 4 were all B1G guys. Strangely, Jonathan Smith getting his ass whipped at home to UCLA came in fourth. The obvious worst was clearly Franklin taking his third straight loss of the year at home against the Mildcats being at the top - how to you go from favorite to win it all in a lot of eyes to losing at home to Northwestern?

Back to the point at hand. It's pretty obvious how we got here (Dantonio acting like he was retired for the last 3+ years of his contract followed by 1 disastrous hire and what looks to be another hasty, poor decision) but why has it taken so long to not only make 0 progress but get actually get worse? How does freakin' Indiana have a top 10 program 2 years in a row and we're a dumpster fire again? IU has a fraction of the revenue, TV, tradition, etc. This new AD really has to turn this ship around in a hurry.

 

[JScottWriter]

If his buyout wasn’t so bad I would say get Franklin. Even though he can’t win big games but at least we wouldn’t be a dumpster fire. I agree about Smith, he doesn’t look like a coach and he makes some mind boggling decisions. I hope next time we get a coach it’s not a last second decision and they can actually do a full search from the end of the season.

 

[Spartanmack]

Trae Waynes wants them to hire Franklin too. I don’t get it. It’s not clear to me that he’ll make us a consistently upper 2nd or lower first tier B1G team but highly likely he’ll continue to lose 85-90% of big games. I know it’s hard to justify having higher expectations but if we want to compete with elite teams, we can’t be settling for their table scraps.

Plus, how motivated is Franklin going to be taking a step down to rebuild a dumpster fire with a $50mm firing bonus in his pocket already? We could be getting the late teens version of Dantonio on day 1 without experiencing any of the success.

 

[gotime909]

Graham Couch seems to believe that if the Indiana game goes really bad, Smith may be fired becire the UM game.

Personally I don't think hes a great coach, but id rather they put 30+ million into their NIL and buy a team over the next couple years and keep Smith than to give that money to Smith to not coach.

 

[Spartanmack]

Graham Couch seems to believe that if the Indiana game goes really bad, Smith may be fired becire the UM game.

Personally I don't think hes a great coach, but id rather they put 30+ million into their NIL and buy a team over the next couple years and keep Smith than to give that money to Smith to not coach.

I saw that as well. But I have a similar opinion to you on this. I don't think he's a great coach, didn't love the hire but the program was an absolute dumpster fire and his hire was only slightly better timed than the rush to bring in Tucker. And it's year 2.

Excuses aside, the progress to date is a big fat 0 - it shouldn't be hard to show improvement for a program this deep in the shitter. So it's not looking good for Smith long term. If we show a commitment to NIL (we're a top 15 or 20 program in revenue) and bring in some portal and HS talent, then if Smith isn't the guy we can get rid of him a lot cheaper next year with a hopefully less bare cupboard (assuming we don't lose everything in the portal).

The first problem with this approach is if he's not the guy but shows some improvement, we're just settling for more mediocrity by kicking the can further down the road. Seems like a no win situation. The second problem is it relies on NIL and not losing a bunch of talent in the portal, both of these realities are a big part of what's making me lose interest in college sports these past few years.

But we're a hockey and basketball school anyway, right?

 

[byco42]

I gain no satisfaction from seeing our sister institution's football program languish. This NIL nonsense eliminates any chords of connection to any school, its ethos, tradition, intangibles, et.al. Players and coaches are no longer able to take the long view of their involvement in a given football program. NIL fosters WIIFM in a detrimental way. Actually, I've always believed that recruiting is inverted; it should be the high-school prospect convincing the coach why said player is worthy to be a part of a football program. Too much to consider, I expect.

 

[Spartanmack]

Graham Couch seems to believe that if the Indiana game goes really bad, Smith may be fired becire the UM game.

Personally I don't think hes a great coach, but id rather they put 30+ million into their NIL and buy a team over the next couple years and keep Smith than to give that money to Smith to not coach.

Forgot to ask, does anyone think the Indiana game isn't going to be really bad?

 

[byco42]

Forgot to ask, does anyone think the Indiana game isn't going to be really bad?

In a related matter, anyone see that the IU QB with :03 on the clock and 4th down, up by 7, with IU a 6.5 favorite last week vs. Iowa, took the snap and ran FORTY YARDS BACKWARDS to take a safety to close out the game?

Favorite bettors were not amused, underdog bettors got a free gift.

This explanation seems "incomplete" to me.

OK, I'll say it: Beats "trouble with the snap."

 

[Spartanmack]

In a related matter, anyone see that the IU QB with :03 on the clock and 4th down, up by 7, with IU a 6.5 favorite last week vs. Iowa, took the snap and ran FORTY YARDS BACKWARDS to take a safety to close out the game?

Favorite bettors were not amused, underdog bettors got a free gift.

This explanation seems "incomplete" to me.

OK, I'll say it: Beats "trouble with the snap."

That was insane. I'm pretty sure even with NIL and all the other changes to college football, point shaving is still illegal.

But I think it was the week before last. Last week, Iowa was putting a nail in Luke Fickell's coffin at Wisconsin...

 

[Michchamp]

In a related matter, anyone see that the IU QB with :03 on the clock and 4th down, up by 7, with IU a 6.5 favorite last week vs. Iowa, took the snap and ran FORTY YARDS BACKWARDS to take a safety to close out the game?

Favorite bettors were not amused, underdog bettors got a free gift.

This explanation seems "incomplete" to me.

OK, I'll say it: Beats "trouble with the snap."

Huh. So maybe there was a reason we heavily restricted sports betting in America for decades? It's like that Chesterton's Fence thing!

There's going to be a lot of "Oh so THAT'S why we had that law/regulation/policy" going around in America in the next decade. At least among the 10% of people (and 10% may be generous) with two functioning brain cells. The rest will keep blaming disasters on chemtrails, vaccines, alien abductions, the Bermuda Triangle, Government Weather Control Devices, etc.

 

[Spartanmack]

Huh. So maybe there was a reason we heavily restricted sports betting in America for decades? It's like that Chesterton's Fence thing!

There's going to be a lot of "Oh so THAT'S why we had that law/regulation/policy" going around in America in the next decade. At least among the 10% of people (and 10% may be generous) with two functioning brain cells. The rest will keep blaming disasters on chemtrails, vaccines, alien abductions, the Bermuda Triangle, Government Weather Control Devices, etc.

As I said before, I'm pretty sure point shaving is still illegal. And the regulations you're referring to were still in place when Chris Webber was getting paid to shave points while at uofm. As they were with virtually every other point shaving scandal. This is nothing more than an attempt to control a behavior you don't like. Clearly, you're not a 10%er - but that's not news. You've thoroughly demonstrated that for years.

 

[Spartanmack]

Nick Marsh transfer buzz getting to the point where he felt the need to address it. He spoke about it without really saying anything about it. Does anyone think he's not gone?

 

[Spartanmack]

a bit past midseason but I didn't fell like starting another thread. It's been a really rough season, not to mention half a decade plus. Even Magic is fed up enough that he's calling out the team publicly.

We need to go 3-1 to make a shitty bowl game that no one will watch. Can they beat Minnesota, Iowa and Maryland? With the current state of psu football, at iowa is probably the toughest game left on our schedule.

How bad is penn state without Allar? They're likely to lose their next 2 (@ osu and vs indy). It would be kinda funny (and pathetic) if MSU and psu faced each other with both teams seeking their 1st conference win in week 11.

Is there anything that turns things around for the balance of the season? Could Alessio be the difference? I certainly have my doubts but they probably have to try something, right?

Do we even want it to turn around? If the team goes 3-1 or even runs the table before Smith is fired, he could save his job without ever beating a decent team - his best win so far is against an average Iowa team last year. Every other power 4 win was against teams with losing records.