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From The Stands - Purdue

I need to note a moment here. It's important that I tell you this before you listen. I finished recording here in my Personal Pressbox and then I got out my laptop to immediately upload everything. As I did that, an IlliniBoard subscriber came down the stairs to

SOC - Purdue

This won't mean anything to you, but I'm in this groove where I write the SOC and the postgame post in the exact same spot. Friday night, house is quiet, I write the SOC at the end of the kitchen island. And then 24 hours later,

Those Were The Days - Purdue

Craig Has The Scout - Purdue 2026

Coming Up Who: Purdue Boilermakers When: Saturday, October 3, 2026, 3:15p CDT Where: Home Sweet Home How: BTN Opponent Primer: Head Coach: Barry Odom. A 2024 bowl trip to Orlando taught me everything I need to know about Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. Kid, wand, prophecy, destiny. Let

Let's Be Frank

What's the purpose of the weekly NERDstats post? To look at the forward-facing metrics and see what they might tell us. You have thoughts on what the football has looked like (and what it might look like in games to come). I then go look at the

Hauck Thoughts

I gave it 24 hours. I wanted for the press conference today. And now I think I'm ready to give you my thoughts on Bobby Hauck being gone after only four games as the Illinois defensive coordinator. But first I want to tell a story that hopefully frames

We Know What We're Doing But They're Better At Doing It

I don't have time to look up the study right now. I did a quick AI search and it gave me a chart so I'm just gonna go with that chart. The topic: how much college football has changed over the last few years. The specific

From The Stands - Ohio State 2026

Isn't the whole point of the credential so that security people know who has permission and who does not? It's not really that big of a deal – two Ohio State ushers try to usher me out during this recording and the first person then saw my

SOC - Ohio State

I feel like this SOC might be a little longer than usual. I feel like rambling. That's probably a dumb way to start this since I can't edit it. If it ends up being the standard 950 words or so, I'd then go remove

Those Were The Days - Ohio State

During the podcast episode with Carey Davis this week, I had this thought that the "fullback in the flat" game at Ohio State might have been 1999 (right as I was telling him that I remember it from the 2001 game). And it turns out that it was

Craig Has The Scout Ohio State 2026

Coming Up Who: Ohio State Buckeyes When: Saturday, September 26, 2026, 11:00 AM CT Where: Ohio Stadium (Columbus, OH) How: FOX (Big Noon Saturday) Prepare yourself for Gus Johnson (Play-by-play), Joel Klatt (Color Analyst), and Jenny Taft (Sideline Reporter). Opponent Primer: Head Coach: Ryan Day Ryan Day

Let's Get It Started

Three games down, nine games to go. 3-0 was the goal, 2-1 the result. We now head to Ohio State as four touchdown underdogs. I keep going back to our last drive in the Duke game and thinking about one particular moment. We're down four and

One Question Mailbag - NIL

In lieu of an "other stuff" post, I'm going to answer a question from the comments from yesterday. It's in reference to this whole "instead of paying for a scoreboard, we should pay players" thing and my constant "it doesn'

Disconnect

All I can say is that there's a disconnect. There are the people in the tailgating lots and in the stands, and then there are the Illinois Refuses To Pay NIL The Scoreboard Is The Reason We Aren't As Good This Year Bobby Hauck Killed My