Hoosier Roundtable: Previewing Indiana vs Louisville with Matt McGavic of Louisville Report
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00:00 Hello everybody and welcome to the Hoosier Roundtable podcast.
00:04 I am your host, Daniel Olinger.
00:06 And today I am joined by Matt McGavick of the Louisville Report, the Louisville
00:10 publisher for Sports Illustrated and Fan Nation.
00:13 Matt, how are you doing today?
00:14 Doing pretty good.
00:16 You know, just trying to calm down my dog in the background so
00:19 that he doesn't interrupt us.
00:20 But you know, other than that, doing pretty good.
00:22 So yeah, we got a big game this Saturday happening, not at Indiana's home stadium
00:27 or Louisville's home stadium, but at Lucas Oil in Indianapolis for what's a
00:35 bit of an unusual non-conference game and also one that people have a lot of
00:40 opinions on now, given what happened the other day.
00:42 We can actually start there.
00:43 Indiana and Louisville canceling the series moving forward.
00:47 So basically this is the only game.
00:49 Any thoughts on that?
00:50 I mean, on the Louisville side of things with the fan base, I mean, you can expect
00:57 just the typical response there, "Oh, Indiana's a bunch of chickens.
01:00 Oh, they're scared.
01:01 They want to run away."
01:02 But honestly, I can understand it from an Indiana standpoint, just because you're
01:08 in a division that has three of the toughest 10, 15 opponents in college football
01:15 with Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State.
01:17 And no disrespect, Indiana historically has not really competed with those three
01:25 or any other major college football power historically.
01:29 So if you're Indiana and the benchmark is getting to a bowl game, you want to try
01:34 and find as many wins as possible.
01:36 And if that means scrapping a power five opponent for an FCS opponent, you got to
01:40 do what you got to do on your behalf just to sell more tickets and get to a bowl
01:44 game.
01:44 So I get it from a Hoosier standpoint.
01:46 Now in the long run, does it suck to lose out on a regional rivalry?
01:52 Yeah.
01:52 I mean, Jeff Brom here mentioned it in his weekly press conference on Monday,
01:57 saying that he was all in favor of keeping a regional rivalry because it gets the
02:02 fans involved on both sides of the rivalry.
02:05 It gets them talking, gets them interested, gets the buzz going.
02:08 Now he also might have said that because he's 4-1 against Indiana, but two eats
02:12 their own.
02:13 No, yeah.
02:15 Like I'm going to have less strong opinions about it than most people.
02:18 It's like, I just got my job here covering Indiana in the summer.
02:23 I've only been around Bloomington for a couple of months.
02:25 Like, so, you know, I'm still getting used to the region and all those things.
02:29 And I was not an Indiana fan growing up.
02:31 So all those kinds of things like make it hard to see how, like, especially like to
02:37 someone on the outside, they probably go, why would people care that much?
02:39 I definitely get the whole thing about just losing the regional aspect of it
02:43 sucks and it is a fun non-conference game.
02:45 Big 10 divisions will be going away.
02:47 So Indiana will not have to play Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan every
02:51 single year moving forward, which is a huge boost that that's, I think it's
02:55 what a lot of people argue in favor of the cancellation of the series as, Hey,
02:58 we don't have to play those games.
02:59 Don't have to play hard non-conference games.
03:01 It's a lot easier to get to six wins then if that's the case, which would be just
03:06 any year Indiana can make a bowl game is great for the program.
03:09 So just like, I totally get that argument.
03:13 And I mean, my main takeaway is like, you know how people were losing their
03:17 minds during the Chiefs, uh, Lions game that the right tackle kept false starting.
03:21 And my opinion on that was just anyone who was losing their mind
03:25 over that needs to go outside.
03:27 Just like, I, I don't think this is more important than that, but it's the same
03:30 thing where I'm like, if you have really strong opinions about this, like if this
03:32 is dictating your mood for the day, just Indiana canceling a series of Louisville.
03:37 Like, I think you, I think we need to move on.
03:40 Like there are things to be more upset about.
03:42 Yeah.
03:43 Sometimes I have to remind myself that fan is short for fanatic.
03:47 Yeah.
03:47 Well, speaking of fans, uh, how are Louisville people feeling going
03:52 into this matchup versus Indiana?
03:53 Obviously Louisville's a bit favored.
03:55 I have it down here.
03:56 Uh, Louisville, I think is 27th and SP plus the metric that ES and
04:00 Bill Connolly puts out Indiana is 79th.
04:03 I think that might exaggerate the gap a little bit between the teams, but
04:06 generally speaking, Indiana is considered one of the lower half teams in the big 10.
04:11 Louisville, while not like a great or elite team considered by most is still
04:15 like pretty good, came off was eight or nine wins last year, I'm forgetting.
04:19 It was eight wins.
04:20 Eight wins last year.
04:22 And the two and oh, so far as the one over Georgia Tech is, and we'll talk
04:25 about how, uh, in doubt that went against Georgia Tech was for a while, but Louisville
04:30 definitely the favorite entering this game, but it's the game of unlike the
04:33 Ohio state game in week one, it's one that Indiana fans are looking at, at
04:36 least like there's a shot.
04:38 So how, how do, how is Louisville approaching this game?
04:40 You think?
04:41 I mean, Louisville fans, they feel really good.
04:44 I mean, yeah, Louisville season has been far from perfect at this point.
04:48 I mean that Georgia Tech game that the second quarter, they
04:52 couldn't have looked any worse.
04:54 They allowed 28 points to tech in one quarter and didn't put up any points
04:59 themselves and found themselves down 15 at halftime.
05:02 Now some credit is due in the fact that they scored 27 unanswered and were able
05:06 to win by when they were leading by two scores in the final two plus minutes.
05:11 And so Georgia Tech got a late garbage time, a touchdown.
05:14 And, but, and then you follow it up with an expected domination of Murray
05:19 state at home and Jeff problems.
05:20 First home game.
05:21 I mean, expectations are still as high as they were before the season.
05:26 Now, some of the expectations amongst the fan base are a little high.
05:31 I've seen pockets of people say 10 and two 11 and one are undefeated.
05:37 And I'm not going to go that far yet.
05:39 I, I remember in the off season, I, I projected this to be about an eight and
05:44 four, maybe bordering on nine and three, depending on how the cards shake out.
05:48 But heading so far, if you're expecting them to have an eight and four season or
05:54 any somewhere within that region, it's off to the start that you needed.
05:59 So what makes us Louisville team?
06:01 Like, as you said, eight, eight or nine puts them right at that, like 27,
06:05 that SP plus threshold, like not like one of the top, top teams in, in college
06:10 football, but still a very well above average team, a good team.
06:13 What kind of makes them that like talking to Indiana coaches this week, they've,
06:16 they've stressed a lot that they've seen some big playability from their offense.
06:19 Uh, we talked to the defensive line coach, Paul Randall today.
06:22 He was very big on, um, needing to stop Louisville's run game and
06:26 how well they've played so far.
06:27 So just, I'm guessing that as most people ascribe to Jeff Brompton, a lot of like.
06:33 The capability of this Louisville team relies on its offense.
06:36 Oh yeah.
06:38 And when you think about a Jeff Brom run team or just this Louisville team in
06:42 general, the main factor behind their two and O success has been their offense.
06:47 Well, maybe not the main, but like the, the, the biggest part of it, cause the
06:51 defense has played a big role as well, but the offense, especially that running
06:55 game, which has been kind of unexpected.
06:57 I mean, you and I both know that Jeff Brom run teams, they rely heavily on
07:01 passing the ball, passing the ball, and then passing the ball some more.
07:05 But for the first two games in the season, they've actually ran the ball more times
07:11 than they've attempted to pass it by a decent margin.
07:14 And it's not only that, not only are they not trying to force feed a running game,
07:19 it's not working.
07:19 The run game has been phenomenal.
07:22 And granted the competition has not been great in Georgia, Georgia tech and very
07:26 state, but they're currently number three in all of FBS in rushing yard.
07:30 They're a tick above 300 yards per game and their main bell cow in the running
07:35 back room in George Jordan is currently the FBS leader in yards per carry at 16
07:40 and a half, which is, I'm not an expert, but that's, that's pretty good.
07:44 It's pretty good.
07:45 Yeah.
07:46 He's ran for about, I think it's 280 yards on just 14 carries.
07:50 So yeah, pretty good.
07:52 But then.
07:53 When you take into account the passing game, it adds to a whole other, whole
07:58 another dimension and that's even with the kind of a disjointed start passing
08:04 wise for global, especially in that first half against Georgia tech where Jack
08:08 Plummer, the former Cal and Purdue transfer looked just out of source.
08:13 He was visibly nervous and it led him to affect, it led him to affect accuracy.
08:18 A lot like he was, I think three of 10 to the, he started three of
08:23 10 in that Georgia tech game.
08:24 And he was missing guys on just simple in routes and slants.
08:28 And it's not like he was missing guys on deep bombs down the field.
08:31 He just didn't have it.
08:32 Now, to his credit, he did rally in the second half of that game and did look
08:37 much more confidence against Murray state, which I would hope so, but it seems like
08:43 his decision make his decision making was there, but the actual decisions themselves
08:48 at times were a bit late, leading to some late throws and some throws that have a
08:53 little bit too much air on them.
08:54 He's, he's kind of hit and miss or that on that regard, but when he's hitting
08:59 global, it's hitting is they have one of one of the more explosive wide receivers
09:04 in college football in Jamari thrash, who came over from Georgia state last season,
09:09 put up 1100 plus yards on 61 catches and seven touchdowns.
09:13 And so far through the first two games of the season, it's, he's shown that the
09:17 transition from the group of five to the ACC has been nothing.
09:21 He's been just as good as he was with the Panthers.
09:25 He's got a top tier speed, great, a great catch radius, and just
09:30 has phenomenal body control.
09:32 He's, he's a total package of what you would want in a power five wide receiver.
09:38 He's, he does a lot of things really well.
09:40 So they just have to kind of figure out some things on Jack corners behalf.
09:44 He's has to get his confidence in order.
09:48 He has to be consistent first and foremost.
09:50 And if, if we'll can be consistent with their passing game and continue to be.
09:55 A force in the running game.
09:57 I'm not saying they have to average 300 yards a game because that's ludicrous,
10:00 but if they can play complimentary football on offense, this can be a top 10, top 15
10:07 offense and all of that BS when it's, when the season's over.
10:10 Yeah.
10:11 For any Indiana fans, if you have a point where you can pause listening to this, I
10:14 would look up Jamari thrashes touchdown against Murray state.
10:17 The way he accelerates, like it's one of those things where you, he doesn't look
10:22 like the other people on the field.
10:23 I know it was an SCS team, but like the acceleration is pretty special.
10:28 Um, and yeah, I was going to ask about plumber cause I was watching the game,
10:31 their game against Georgia tech earlier today.
10:33 And it's kind of, and he's been around college football for a while now.
10:36 Plumber, plumber is not new to the game, but, uh, what I was going to say, I don't
10:40 even know if it's like late decision-making more than just, I don't think he drives
10:44 the ball very much.
10:45 I think he'd like, he said there's a lot of air under most of his throws, which
10:47 can be great on some, but he's not like a velocity thrower.
10:50 Like he doesn't like, which is the complete opposite of Indiana's quarterback,
10:54 which is the Hoosiers main storyline going this game, Tavon Jackson first game
10:58 where there's no like, Oh, is it Tavon?
11:00 Is it Brendan moving by a four foot two?
11:02 No, it's Tavon's the guy he's going to start.
11:04 Can't imagine.
11:05 Like he would have to probably throw like five picks and a half to get benched.
11:08 Cause the optics of like benching him after like a bad start would be pretty
11:12 bad if you, you assuredly came out on Monday, say he definitely won the job.
11:16 So probably expecting him to see the whole game, but he has the opposite
11:19 thing from plumber where Tavon like really drives the ball.
11:23 And we haven't seen him air it out much because against Ohio state,
11:26 Indiana kind of ran triple option and played to lose by less, did not really
11:29 try to throw the ball at all.
11:31 And then against Indiana state, a very poor FCS team.
11:35 It was just short throws and rather than catch, cause there was nothing going on
11:38 in that game that really mattered too much.
11:40 So this is really the first time we'll get to see like, how does Tavon
11:43 push the ball downfield?
11:44 How do you all this?
11:45 Like, like he doesn't, he, again, very opposite from Jack Plummer does not
11:50 try and throw these looping up in the air moon balls.
11:52 It's a lot of drive the ball and it like takes a downward path to his receiver.
11:57 So it's a lot of drive.
11:58 So I I'm really interested to see that.
11:59 And I don't know if you've seen that same name of plumber, where
12:01 it's just a lot of floaters.
12:02 I have seen a lot of that, but it's funny.
12:06 Like three plays after he had a really bad pick in that Murray state game, where
12:11 the decision was not only a touch too late, but the ball just hung up there for
12:16 so long, it was almost like a punt on the very next drive was that touchdown to
12:20 thrash where he put that ball on a frozen rope in a window that was maybe five feet
12:26 long, like that was a strike that you see at the NFL level.
12:29 And when you throw a ball like that, Jamari thrashed, I mean, more times
12:33 than not, that's probably going to go for a touchdown.
12:35 And that's where the consistency factor comes in because he has shown on occasion
12:41 the ability to deliver with velocity.
12:43 It's just more often than not, he's putting a little bit too much air on the,
12:48 under the ball and trying to be trying to put too much touch on it versus trying to
12:52 be more decisive and throw quick strikes.
12:53 Yeah.
12:55 And just like, I know no one's going to say like, Oh, plumbers is amazing
12:59 quarterback or Louisville has one of the better quarterbacks in the country, but
13:02 we've seen him play at the college level.
13:03 He's won games at the college level before, like pretty much known, known,
13:07 like good enough quarterback around the sport versus like Indiana was whole off
13:13 season just fine by the fact that there are two guys had never started a college
13:16 football game before these first two weeks.
13:18 Like the, and obviously Indiana state, like I said, it was about as fake of a
13:22 game as you could get with how easy that opponent was.
13:24 So.
13:24 This is going to be really Tavins for starting in an NFL stadium where he's
13:29 played a lot before in his home state with his whole fan base really amped up
13:33 to see him play for the first time in there.
13:35 A game that again, like when Indiana fans were going through the schedule,
13:38 like you said, like Mark off Ohio state, Penn state, Michigan is losses.
13:41 Like Wisconsin was marked off as a loss for a while.
13:45 Although not sure about that anymore, but this was yet one of those games where
13:49 it's like not a guaranteed win, not a guaranteed loss.
13:51 Like if they can play well, there's a chance.
13:54 So it's a very big game for that.
13:56 Who are some players that Indiana fans should know about on Louisville's
13:59 defense, because like I said, like Indiana's defense is the story of their
14:02 team so far, it's been lights out the first two weeks, Louisville's offense
14:06 is pretty explosive is then lights out for them the first two weeks.
14:09 What, who are some guys on Louisville's defense who people should be looking out
14:12 for?
14:13 The first person that comes to mind is absolutely Ashton Jelani.
14:17 He's their defensive end.
14:19 He's actually one of their top returners, not only on defense, but
14:23 probably the entire team.
14:25 He's one of maybe four or five guys on this roster who has a legitimate shot to
14:31 be drafted in the NFL draft next, uh, next season or next year, excuse me.
14:35 He has phenomenal burst.
14:38 He has one of the highest motors I've ever seen out of a defensive end.
14:43 It's come through here in the last five, 10 years or so.
14:46 And there's been some pretty solid pass rushers at times.
14:49 And he's got this drive and motivation that he's the guy that whenever you hear
14:57 a coach say like, Oh, he's a play through the whistle kind of guy, he's that.
15:00 And plus it comes with a pretty solid pass rush, a tool like skillset.
15:05 It's, it's gotten better.
15:06 It hasn't shown itself a lot in the first couple of games.
15:11 That's that's because I think Georgia tech probably held him a lot more than the
15:16 refs want to admit, and he saw limited time against Murray state because it's
15:22 Murray state and you want to get reps to some of the younger players there, but
15:26 that that's someone to keep an eye on because the biggest storyline with
15:29 Louisville's defense last year was, was how prolific they were when it came to
15:34 sacks tackles for loss and just overall disruption plays now granted that that
15:39 scheme is no longer with Louisville.
15:41 And a lot of those guys that made that happen are no longer are now in the pros
15:44 or have moved on to other programs, but he is one of the few holdovers from the
15:49 front seven that still has that aggressive mindset and aggressive
15:53 background with them.
15:54 So, and he's gonna, he's definitely gonna be someone that wants to try and carry
15:57 that into this matchup with Indiana, especially since he's, I don't want to
16:01 say he's been off to a slow start, but his stat line on the season so far would
16:06 indicate that maybe he hasn't been an impact like he would want to be at this
16:11 point in time.
16:12 And I'm curious what, what side, like obviously defensive ends, like we're not
16:16 limited to one side of the field.
16:17 I'm assuming he's attacking both, but which one he likes to operate more against
16:20 because it's of note that Indiana.
16:22 So we kind of knew their top seven guys were aligned, but they've shifted around
16:26 a bit.
16:26 Khalil Benson is basically taken over right tackle after Matt Bentford out of
16:30 year before, but then got injured in the first game against Illinois in 2022.
16:34 Now he's moved into guard.
16:36 They had Josh sales, junior start at left tackle against Ohio state, but then it
16:40 was the younger guy, Carter Smith, starting at left tackle in the first
16:44 half of the Indiana state, and then back to sales second half.
16:46 And.
16:46 Tom Allen has not been clear.
16:48 Was that injury related?
16:49 Was that rest related?
16:50 Where is the Indiana state?
16:51 And you were just trying to get guys in to see what happens and trying some stuff
16:54 out.
16:55 And we've been told absolutely nothing about that.
16:58 So not really sure.
16:59 So at least on the right title, it seems very clear.
17:02 It's Khalil Benson.
17:03 He's been off to a pretty good start.
17:04 This season even held up pretty well against JT to him a little out against
17:07 Ohio state.
17:08 So I am curious to see if like, or at least to hear this drawing, does he attack
17:13 the left or the right more on the offensive line?
17:15 I would say it's about equal and they've, the coaching staff has made mention on,
17:21 on numerous occasions, especially in fall camp, that if they see a mismatch, they're
17:25 going to want to try and exploit it no matter what the alignment is.
17:28 Cause I know Jelani, he took a fair amount of reps on the left side, but I've seen
17:35 him take reps from both sides over the first two games of the season.
17:38 And with the way that.
17:40 Uh, Louisville's defensive alignment is, I mean, that, that allows for a lot of
17:44 flexibility and plus I haven't, I haven't seen it yet, but a little defensive line
17:49 coach mentioned that he wouldn't rule it out that like, Hey, if there was a mismatch
17:53 with Jelani against a guard or center, he wouldn't be averse to maybe getting him
18:00 some snaps in the middle of the line at either D tackle or nose tackle.
18:05 Granted, I haven't seen that yet and that's not exactly his forte and he likes
18:10 being out on the edge, but Mark Hagan, the D line coach and co-defensive
18:14 coordinator was very precise with his language.
18:17 Like, Hey, if we, if we see a weakness on that offensive line, we're going to try
18:21 to exploit it first and foremost with Ash and Jelani.
18:23 Yeah.
18:25 It's just so hard for me to tell, even as someone who's covering the team, how
18:28 good this Indiana offensive line is when they weren't, they didn't have a real
18:32 game plan in week one and then game week two, they're playing such an overmatched
18:36 opponent.
18:37 So really not hard to tell, like their offensive line has looked a lot better
18:41 than last year where their offensive line was pretty much the worst position
18:44 group on their team in 2022.
18:46 They, under Bob Bosa, their new offensive line coach, they have looked at least
18:50 like they are not the disaster they were last year and they did have a lot of guys
18:54 coming back who were like, have played a lot of college football.
18:57 So I think they'll be able to hold there.
19:00 Um, where is like, if there is one, what would you say is the weakness or the
19:05 point to attack in this Louisville defense?
19:07 Cause again, we're still trying to figure out so much about this Indiana
19:09 offense and how it's going to work.
19:11 And really they're only reliably consistent things so far has been get, get the ball
19:15 to Jalen Lucas and then he goes like, that's, that's really about it.
19:19 Cause nothing else, you know, like his nothing worked in the Ohio state game.
19:24 And then Jalen Lucas is two first touches against Indiana state.
19:26 We're both 25 yard touchdown runs.
19:28 So, I mean, if you'd have asked me this question a month ago, I probably would
19:35 have said the, the linebacker room is specifically the two inside linebacker
19:39 spots, because the, the big topic of discussion or the discourse with the
19:44 defense was that, okay, we really like how the defensive line is in terms
19:47 of depth and quality starters.
19:49 We really like how the secondary is in terms of depth and quality starters.
19:52 Linebacker specifically the inside linebacker is kind of the big question
19:56 mark because most of the guys in that linebacking room are either in the
20:00 NFL or with new schools and the guys who are going to be stepping into new
20:03 roles are either newcomers who have very little experience or returners
20:08 who also have very little experience.
20:10 But through the first two games, I mean, the linebacking
20:14 core has been serviceable.
20:16 It's not been the weak spot that I anticipated to be Keith Brown in
20:22 or a transfer from Oregon has looked solid TJ Quinn has looked phenomenal
20:26 over the, over the past two games.
20:28 He was someone that the coaching staff talked a lot, talked a lot
20:31 of over the off season and guys like Jalen Alderman and Stan Kwan-Clark.
20:36 Kind of younger guys, the experienced guys, they've, they've looked good when
20:40 they've gotten their fair share of reps.
20:41 But I would, I would say that their weak spot now is probably on the back end
20:47 at safety, but that's only because of injury before the season started.
20:52 Global lost MJ Griffin to a season ending lower leg injury.
20:56 And he was one of the four or five guys that I mentioned earlier was probably
20:59 going to be hearing their name called for the NFL draft.
21:02 So they lost him.
21:04 And then in fall in Austin fall camp, and then also in fall camp, they lost a depth
21:08 piece and D'Angelo Hutchinson who hasn't played yet, but he looked solid in fall
21:12 camp.
21:13 So now he's out for some extended time.
21:15 And then in the Georgia Tech game, Louisville's other starting safety
21:21 alongside Griffin, Josh Minkins, he suffered a hamstring injury.
21:24 Now he played through that, but he was held out in the Murray state game and
21:28 his status for the game against Indiana is still up in the air.
21:31 So as of right now, there's only two scholarship safeties that are even
21:37 less available to, to play.
21:40 And that's, that's not enough.
21:44 And even worse, they're both transfers.
21:46 Devin Neal came over from Baylor and Cameron Kelly came over from North
21:49 Carolina slash Penn state or slash Virginia.
21:52 There there's two UNC transfers that had prior stops.
21:56 It gets kind of confusing, but anyways, it's not a completely dire situation
22:00 because the way that this defensive scheme is, they've got the star position,
22:04 which is basically a linebacker safety hybrid.
22:06 So guys from that position could slide in and take reps at true safety if need
22:12 be, especially Benjamin Perry, the starter at star who started his collegiate
22:16 career as a true safety.
22:18 So there are some options as it pertains to moving guys around, but considering
22:24 in terms of just true safeties, as it pertains to this scheme, excuse me,
22:30 the fact that you only have two, potentially two guys available for
22:34 this game is a huge question mark.
22:36 Yeah.
22:37 Two scholarship safety.
22:39 That is pretty rough.
22:41 And yeah, what you were saying that the star position sounds a lot like what
22:45 Indiana has in their Husky position, which is played by Noah Pierre currently
22:48 just that kind of like malleability or speaking from someone who grew up as an
22:53 Eagles fan just sounds like what they had Malcolm Jenkins do for years on that team.
22:56 But no, I, I, the safeties are definitely a problem.
23:01 Like whenever you have that many injuries.
23:03 It is so like with Indiana, we're not sure what the health test is of
23:07 Cam camper, their best receiver and EJ Williams, a Clemson transfer for them.
23:11 Because both kind of left the Indiana state game of injury.
23:14 Again, the team refused to give updates before the Saturday game
23:17 with the official report.
23:18 Just a few hours before the game.
23:20 So not sure how they're going to go, but Indiana does have some wide receiver depth,
23:24 but there's just been no attempt to really push it deep very much at all in either
23:28 game.
23:29 So really hard to tell if Indiana can take advantage of that, the linebackers, like,
23:33 as you said, they're playing well so far, but if they struggle for Louisville, I
23:36 could see that being a problem for Louisville's defense, just because.
23:40 Indiana with Jalen Lucas, when they get into the outside of this runs, like if
23:43 they can just like, you know, hold up against the D line to like help them get
23:46 to the edge, if Jalen Lucas, I think when you sent me a questions to answer earlier
23:51 today, I was saying like, he's very, he's a player that makes you cross your T's
23:55 and dot your eyes.
23:55 Cause Jalen's small enough and not like.
23:58 Can it obviously win any, but there's really limited ways you can get Jalen Lucas
24:02 the ball.
24:03 But if you like blow something on defense, if you forget to like, if he's on a
24:07 check down, you forget him for a sec, if you do not contain properly on a wide
24:10 zone run, he has the speed, like the really elite speed that if you miss on
24:16 one of those, he will really punish you for it.
24:18 So you have to be like, just dialed in on him whenever he's on the field, just to
24:22 make sure.
24:22 Cause if, if you contain him, then he's not going to do that much.
24:25 Like he, if your coverage is sound, Jalen Lucas is not going to kill you for it.
24:28 But if your coverage is not sound, then that's where he really kills you.
24:32 And then they have two other good running backs and Christian Turner and Josh
24:35 Henderson, who are pretty much between the tackles guys, but who will like, if
24:39 linebackers aren't tackling very well, they can like turn four yard runs in the
24:42 seven yard run.
24:43 So that would probably pertain well to India, this running game, just to get it
24:47 going for linebacker struggle there.
24:48 But.
24:48 It was still such a small data size, such a small data size, like that we're
24:53 working with and between two vastly different opponents for Indiana really
24:57 are to tell if they can impose their will in any way on Louisville.
25:01 So heading into this game, I mean, I'm going to guess you could probably
25:04 predict Louisville when I'm probably going to predict Louisville to win.
25:07 What's kind of like your read?
25:08 What would be a score break from you have for this?
25:10 I think it's going to be a lower, lower score game just because Indiana's defense
25:16 is, is underrated and has some quality guys on that.
25:20 And plus there've been some times where.
25:21 Yeah.
25:22 Louisville's run game has been going really well.
25:24 They're, they're offensive passing attack has been a little disjointed this time.
25:29 So I think Louisville comes out 28, 17, somewhere in that ballpark.
25:36 Like I think Indiana does enough, um, offensively like to maybe get going,
25:42 but can't hold, can't completely hold them defensively.
25:44 Yeah.
25:46 I was right in the same range, like basically like Louisville 27, 21, or
25:50 something along those lines where said not a super high scoring game, but
25:54 Louisville, Louisville's offense eventually breaks through just to get a few more
25:57 points that it feels so weird after they held Ohio state at 23, but so much of
26:01 that was also as Ohio state fans will tell you so much of that was Ohio state's
26:06 play calling, being a pretty questionable in that game and how they approached it.
26:09 So I do, I do think Louisville just has, they have just too many more weapons.
26:14 I have too much trust that Louisville does have a good offense.
26:18 Then.
26:19 Indiana, Indiana offense, I think is probably still below average for right
26:23 now, just given that I can't trust that what they against Indiana state.
26:26 And as much as I want to say this Indiana defense is for real, it's like 2019, 2020
26:31 level, Indiana defense where they were carrying them to very good seasons.
26:35 It's just such a, so many new players on the team.
26:38 And it was such a, just only the two games so far.
26:41 No, like after the last two seasons, weren't very good for them on defense.
26:44 I can't like.
26:44 Well, surely as confidently say that Indiana definitely has a good defense
26:49 as I could say, Louisville has a good offense.
26:50 So I'm probably going to think to pick, take Louisville just by a little bit
26:54 there, but I do think like, I would say anyone who just looks at this game, like
26:58 on the Saturday and schedule and says, oh, Indiana dead on arrival, like not a good
27:02 football team and no chance of this game.
27:03 Like, I wouldn't say that.
27:04 Indiana definitely has some life in this game.
27:06 Oh yeah.
27:07 For sure.
27:08 Like they, they definitely have a chance.
27:09 If Louisville doesn't take them seriously or has too many miscues or commits too
27:15 many penalties, cause they've committed seven penalties in each of their first
27:18 two games, I mean, Indiana can certainly capitalize on those.
27:20 I mean, they, they for sure have an avenue to victory, but I think Louisville
27:25 has to commit way more mistakes than Indiana does in this game.
27:29 Yeah.
27:30 Indiana football is historically speaking, Indiana football has never
27:33 been like one where mistakes are okay.
27:35 If you, if you're Indiana, you can't say, oh, we can just not care about that part.
27:40 And I'm going to let you go here in a sec, Matt, but I did want to ask you this.
27:45 Where does Louisville rank in the FBS in terms of just all main team?
27:49 Because between Jamari, Thrasher, Storm, Duck, there's a guy I saw that, who is
27:53 this guy from the kicker Brock?
27:55 What's the last name?
27:56 I'm.
27:56 Travelstead.
27:57 Travelstead.
27:58 That sounds like such a random character you meet in a video game town.
28:01 Like get to go talk to Brock Travelstead.
28:03 I just, I was going up and down the roster for Louisville.
28:06 I was like, these are some names right here.
28:09 Oh yeah.
28:10 No, then it's hard to have a wide receiver name, more badass than Thrash.
28:16 Just Jamari Thrasher is pretty like, I that's.
28:18 That's up there with like, you know, the great ones, like Prince Fielder is
28:21 obviously the one that comes to all those ones, all any historic sports name where
28:25 it's like, oh, this guy was born to be a really great athlete.
28:28 Mm-hmm.
28:30 Yeah.
28:30 And I want to know how Storm Duck didn't end up at Oregon with a name like that.
28:34 Like the NIL deals were there.
28:36 Oh my goodness.
28:37 So, and I mean, I've known about Storm Duck for years.
28:40 Cause I remember hearing about him at North Carolina.
28:42 Cause his name is Storm Duck.
28:44 Like how can you not hear about Storm Duck?
28:46 But yeah, I just, it was such a pleasant surprise scrolling up the Louisville
28:50 roster and seeing that name.
28:51 Yeah.
28:52 And then Cameron Kelly, I looked at his name and I'm like, oh yeah, he was
28:56 definitely born in the early two thousands.
28:58 Uh, well thank you so much for talking to that.
29:03 Uh, let everyone know where they can find you online and just where they can
29:06 check out all your Louisville coverage.
29:07 Uh, you can find me on Twitter @Matt_McGavick.
29:12 You can find the @BesidesTwitter account or @Axtwitter.
29:15 I'm still calling it Twitter.
29:16 You can find @BesidesTwitter account.
29:18 Yeah, seriously.
29:18 @UofLReport.
29:20 And if you want to go straight online, go for that.
29:22 You can find it at si.com/college/louisville.
29:25 All right.
29:27 Well, I think that's going to wrap it up for us today.
29:29 Uh, thank you all for listening to the Hoosier Roundtable podcast.
29:32 You also hear me and Jack later this week, talk a little bit more about
29:36 Indiana versus Louisville and kind of previewing a little bit more of what we
29:39 want to see on the Indiana side of things that are there after today.
29:42 Matt kind of helped us get to know Louisville a little bit better.
29:45 and thank you all so much for listening.