CANDID Coffee Conversations 5/25/25
Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Thank you to all who have made the “Ultimate Sacrifice” for our people and our country! 🇺🇸
Big day in Indianapolis- Indy 500 and Pacers Game 3! Fun Day to band together for local sports!
A special CCC today where I will give my IUFB season prediction and CFP bid prediction in the football section.
Basketball
As we talked about last week, Hoosiers are full go on recruiting the ‘26 and ‘27 class. Hoosiers have gotten some officials locked down for C Latrell Almond, Wing Sammy Jackson and C/G Prince-Alexander Moody. Jackson has locked in a decision date to commit on June 25th.
My favorite out-of-state prospects currently are:
Anthony Thompson Jr. -
x.com/inthegymhoops_…
Ryan Hampton-
youtube.com/watch?v=69J2hb…
Latrell
Almond-youtube.com/watch?v=F……
Jordan Smith-
youtube.com/shorts/wjyOY0l…
Taylen Kinney-
youtube.com/shorts/XMjbrVF…
Chase Branham-
youtube.com/shorts/-ZRVnwW…
Hoosiers going on an oversees trip to Peru. Clearly a need for a brand new roster and staff. This will be huge for implementation of schemes and building camaraderie. This will be fun to monitor.
Football
CFP is going to straight seeding which is honestly the “right way” to do it. Though I loved the matchups of IU playing at ND and Tenn playing at OSU, how great would’ve it been for IU to host Boise St. with Heisman trophy finalist Ashton Jeanty in round 1?
I did a little napkin work to make my prediction for next years CFP. Yes…..IU will snag a bid. That is my prediction. I think the roster is better this year on paper, and I trust CIG and his process to put it together. The schedule is also favorable. Tough 3 games after the 3 non-con games will be the determining factor for a CFP bid.
Schedule breakdown:
Home-Old Dominion- W
Home- Kennesaw St- W
Home- Indiana St- W
Home- Illinois- W 35-28
Away- Iowa- W 28-21 (trap game. Tough environment. Oregon next week)
Away- Oregon- Here me out on this! I think the Hoosiers win this game if they are healthy after games against Illinois and Iowa. Oregon will be coming back across country from playing at Penn State. I think Penn St wins against Oregon 35-17. I think Cig and Co. showed that traveling out west is not an issue last year. Obviously Oregon is very talented. However, they’ll have a young QB growing through adversity next year. This is a coin flip. W/L
Home- MSU- W 42-17
Home- UCLA- W 35-21
Away- Maryland- W 28-7
Away- Penn St.- L 14-28 (PSU will win BIG if the win at OSU. This could be slotted as a night game. PSU White Out at night is a tough win.)
Home- Wisc. - W 31-17
Away- Purdue- W 35-10
Hoosiers will either be 11-1 or 10-2 going into selection weekend. For this to happen and to get a second consecutive CFP bid, they will need to win at least 2 of the following games: Illini, at Iowa, at Oregon, at PSU. To me, they need to beat ILLINI at home and win either at ORE or PSU to secure a bid. SEC SOS is just naturally more difficult and IU’s non-con is extremely weak. They have to get big win in conference to wipe off any doubt vs. a 9-3 or 10-2 Florida, LSU, or even a 11-1 Miami.
Here is my CFP prediction per the napkin.
1.PSU
2.Georgia
3.Texas
4.Clemson
5.Notre Dame
6.ASU
7.Ohio St
8.Bama
9.Oregon
10.UF
11.Indiana
12. GROUP of 5 (Boise st. or Tulane)
Left out: LSU (I don’t trust B. Kelly), MIAMI, BYU, SMU
Possible Bid Stealers to watch: UOFL, IOWA ST., Tulane, Illinois.
Top 4 teams get a bye. Opening round matchups:
#12 Gof5 at #5 ND
#11 Indiana at #6 ASU
#10 UF at 7 OSU
#9 Oregon at #8 Bama
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GO IU! 🔴⚪️🔴⚪️📈🤌🏼
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