Before we get into today's episode, I want to give you a heads up. There are three main parts of this episode. Part one, I bring on my good friend Dominic Miranda for our football extravaganza. We're talking Colts. We're talking Indiana high school football. If you are not a Colts fan, if you don't want to get really into the weeds of IHSAA football, then you probably need to look in the timestamps and jump forward to our cost of living segment with Roots Reality where we talk about different costs of living across the state.
It's a pretty brief segment there. And stay tuned at the end of this episode. We have an exclusive interview with Angelo Piso. He is the screenwriter behind Hooers. He's the screenwriter behind Rudy, these iconic Indiana sports films. Today's a sports extravaganza episode.
We have Dominic Miranda with our football extravaganza. We have Cost of living across the state of Indiana and we wrap it out with our exclusive interview with Angelo Piso. Welcome to Get In. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, today is September the 5th, 2025. I am joined with a very special guest here in studio. We have a very special show for you today.
We're dropping this ahead of week one of Colts football. I have Dominic Miranda in studio today. Dom, how are you, brother?
I couldn't be better. Football is back.
Yes,
I'm here with you, Nate Spangle. I'm drinking coffee out of a Depal University cups, baby.
I mean, there's I mean, there's a crisp in the air this morning. It feels like fall. I'm just very excited to be here. So, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to have you on today because you have spent a significant amount of time
at Colts training camp
uh here in the preeason. You've been we've been covering Colts. You might have seen his clips on TikTok recently. He's been blowing up
uh getting these exclusive these exclusive interviews. I mean, he's been covering I mean sports all across the state. He had two sitdowns with the IU coach, the Purdue co Barry ODM, Kurt Signetti. Like he's been crushing it. But I'm excited to learn uh a little bit about what we can expect from this Colts teams from this Colts team. What uh what to look out for, what are keys to win this game, as well as just like what are the biggest challenges that stand before the Colts this 2025 2026 season.
I think I read just yesterday that the Colts are the most pessimistic fan base ahead of this season. So, not where you want to be. I I I think over 85% are disgruntled about current goings on,
which makes sense.
Using the measurement of Colts fans in my group chats, I would agree.
Yeah, that makes sense, right?
I haven't heard I only know one person. His name is Zach Melo who has convinced himself to believe in this season. There's one
look and just being around the team. Yeah, we were there every single day of training camp and just feels like a mediocre football team, you know? Like I'm not I'm not trying to come in here and just be captain pessimist or anything, but it just kind of feels like there's a lot to be desired for a lot of different reasons, but it's a make orb breakak season for both Chris Ballard and Shane Styen for better, for worse. Certainly for Chris Ballard, and I thought maybe heading into the season for Anthony Richardson, too, but it seems like we're being robbed that that uh concrete evidence whether he is a guy or whether he isn't a guy.
So you Yeah. I mean, h what's going to happen? What's the dynamic there?
Okay. Well, let's go back. Like, how did we arrive at this decision for Daniel Jones, right? So, they signed Daniel Jones for what, $14 million, I want to say, uh, to provide competition for Anthony Richardson because he needed it because reports say that he wasn't understanding what went into being a starting quarterback or what needed to happen, what the work ethic needed to be like off the field uh, to to be that way. Obviously, last year was tumultuous getting benched, asking out of the game, coming back then. Joe Flacco was tough to watch and that was just a not a fun season at all for the Colts, I don't think.
And and getting smoked by the New York Giants down the stretch of the season was like the exclamation point to what was just such a season that left so much to be desired. So, we go into training camp. It's a competition between Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones. Okay, there could be better quarterback options out there or a better quarterback competition. Like maybe not the two guys you want battling to be your starting quarterback, but uh here we go. So, I thought both guys looked actually really solid throughout training camp.
And I thought Anthony Richardson, the improvement with him was very notable. Like making the short throws, making the intermediate throws.
Yeah, I know, right? making the layups and having accuracy deep down the field too. The night practice in late July which was awesome by the way. You would have you would had a field day with content there. I kind of wish you would have gone but he was he was throwing it all over the field. He had a great joint practice with the Ravens ahead of the first preseason game and then he gets hurt that first preseason game. That was kind of the nail in the coffin of like because Shane Stiken's reasoning for picking Daniel Jones was the pre- snap stuff, the getting guys organized at the line of scrimmage, the consistency with the operation he kept saying. So like fundamental like operational functionality is I think the term
and leading like leading like being a starting quarterback.
Being a starting quarterback.
He also has a lot more experience with that.
He does. And yeah, for for better for like no matter what Daniel Jones has done, he is you know what you're getting with him. He's like here and throughout training camp steady Eddie right and Shane Sty and you know really good questions were asked in that press conference where he was named starter like
okay in his last 16 games starting he's three and 13 the New York Giants told him to get lost like reconcile this how how do you say that he's going to be
how do you take someone else's trash to make it our treasure
like how is this going to be Sam Darnold or Baker Mayfield or you know those types of guys who've had a revival like I'm skeptical of that personally, but like
I want it to be that way.
I want it to be that way. But I'm just looking at this from a realistic point of view. Like what about Daniel Jones body of work gives you confidence that he is the best option to win right now for Chris Ballard and Shane Stiken? Maybe. But for the health of the Colts organization, how is it you can tell me that this year isn't the year to figure out what Anthony Richardson is or is not?
All right. So, a lot of times talking heads come on and they just like pontificate. If you were the GM Yes. of the Colts. Yes. Today.
Yes.
Well, okay. Like said before the season started, what would you have done at the
I would have started. If if it's even close, if it's even close in the battle, I'm starting Anthony Richardson. His fifth year options coming down the pike. Okay. He's 23 years old. You invested a fourth overall pick in him.
Okay? I'm not saying he's good or isn't good. I'm saying this is the season to figure it out. Unfortunately, Chris Ballard, because of his body of work, knows he's not afforded another year if they have another bad year. So, Daniel Jones is the floor higher with this Colts team. Sure.
But to to just say, "Oh, that's an automatic 8 to9 wins" to me is giving way too much credit to Daniel Jones. I mean, truly, I mean, again, I'm not trying to be captain pessimist here, but what has he done to make us believe that this Colts team just rolls out of bed to eight, nine wins cuz he's the starting quarterback? And I do believe that this quarterback, let's say, uh, this quarterback fiasco has kind of overshadowed everything else across this team, right? Like, I don't know really anything else that's going on with the Colts besides this quarterback battle. Uh, Anthony getting hurt, being healthy, making a good throw, being out of the game, whatever it is, you know, but it's like, what else is going on within the Colts organization to be looking at, worried about? Also, we're going to wrap that up with with we're going to follow it up with what are you hopeful about?
What am I hopeful about this defense? I'm very hopeful.
Okay.
All right. Gus Bradley needed to great guy. Gus Bradley, very nice person. Needed to needed to needed to get get lost kind of because this defense was very vanilla and it has the personnel to be solid. I'm a little worried about the defensive backfield and that's kind of been a that's kind of been a thing for a couple years now. But Lu Anarumo, huge fan. Huge fan. just no nonsense, no BS. Players really respect him. Liatu Lu, second year, first round pick last year, second year uh edge.
Thinking a a breakout season for him. He had a if there was a defensive winner during camp, it was Latu Lu. Very impressed with him. Yes.
Getting off the line of scrimmage, he's trimmer. Like I looked at him, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, that's a defensive lineman." Like he's kind of skinny almost, but he's quick. Very, very excited about him. Um, could he be the first guy to get double digit sacks? And geez, I don't know how long. I used to look up the last time a Colts player had double- digit sacks because it's been a long time. Kenny Moore is back, you know, back there. We got Cam Binham and Charvarius Ward from free agency. Those are two guys who come from winning cultures who know how to play. They impressed during camp. You're not going to have to worry about them.
2019, Justin Houston.
How about that? 2019. That is, by my calculations, six years ago.
Yeah. And yeah, he got his 10th sack on December 22nd.
Late in the year.
Late in the year. He got there.
Yeah, I uh they need they need some some activity on the edge, but Cam Binham, Trevarious Ward, two free agent guys I'm very excited about. They cut Juju Brent. That was super tough to see. Warren Central kids second round pick in 2023. You know, I saw stat and you know, upon talking to some other people, this is like kind of common with draft classes, like you're not going to hit on all your draft picks, but only one starter from the 2023 draft class. It's Josh DS. They have five from that class are backups. Five are off the roster and one's on IR.
Dang,
that feels
that feels like a big miss.
That feels like a big miss. And that starts to come that that uh those decisions start to come due, you know, 2025, 2024,
two three years down the line, right?
What's what happened with Guju? Is he on? He's he's on the Miami Dolphins, actually, oddly enough,
he didn't make it all the way back around to the practice to our practice squad. Like he got picked up by somebody else.
Yeah, that's correct. Which is he's got talent. I mean, he was a second round draft pick. He just could not stay healthy.
So, are we going to see him week one?
We were going to see him because Miami Dolphins uh corners are depleted. I don't know if he's a start. He he may be a starter.
Bro, that would be wild.
Isn't that funny? Like,
do you think they picked like a little bit said like, "Hey, come in here and let us know what
Well, the Colts did the same thing. They got Xavier Howard, who was on the Dolphins, was a Pro Bowler and all the things, and he's starting for the Colts after getting picked up a week, week and a half ago."
Is there like an honor code there? Like, hey, you know all of our stuff like, but don't say it.
No, the these teams are trying to win any means necessary. So, okay.
Uh, to answer your question, I'm excited. I think the defense will be the most improved part of the Colts. Most concerned offensive line like losing Ryan Kelly and Will Fryze is no insignificant,
you know, circumstance. Like they both go to the Vikings who now have the best offensive line in the league. Maybe Vikings one of the best run teams in the league. Um, one of the best rosters in the league. I think Jonathan Taylor's going to be fine. I think the Colts skilled players are good. So I think Shane Stiken's thought process is okay. We have a steady Eddie quarterback. wide receiver one.
Who's the true
Michael Pitman? I guess
I like Michael Pitman Jr. Look, he's the toughest player, toughest receiver I think like in the National Football League. But I think as far as ceiling and what you can do, Josh DS. And how about this? We're what 15 20 minutes in. Haven't even mentioned Tyler Warren.
Guy's going to be a stud. Guy is going to be an absolute stud. Very excited about him. But it's just a m it all could all this doesn't matter. Like AD Mitchell, if there was an offensive winner during training camp, it was AD Mitchell. All this does not matter if the quarterback situation is not figured out.
So, I think that's what gives me most concern is just is Daniel Jones gonna be able to facilitate facilitate to these guys and is the offensive line going to protect because you're losing two really talented interior guys during the Green Bay Packers joint practice. Their defensive line smoked the Colts. Smoked them. And I don't even know if they were playing all their starters. Tanner Bordellini, M Gonzaleves, those are the guys filling in for for Ryan Kelly and and uh and Will Fry this season. Quinton Nelson, you know, he's he's going to be what he's going to be.
He's a stud. Braden Smith is back. We love to see that after kind of going through some mental health struggles last year. He was very open about it. Really happy that he's back. Bernard Ryman got paid.
One of the highest paid left tackles in the league. So, I'm worried about the offensive line. We'll see. I just don't know what to expect on Sunday against the Dolphins. But defense I'm excited about. So from what you saw during training camp and you've been see like what like and you know you say you can't tell you know but if you had to like give uh some words of encouragement to Colts fans out there how would you like what would you say to like hey guys like you know or would you say hey you know what expect
look the schedule is lending itself to like a a false sense of hope through about I would say eight games like we we you know the Colts could be four and four which is you know okay what are we doing season go like one of two ways here. Unfortunately, I I kind of foresee the wheels coming off and I could be Daniel Jones could be could light the league on fire and I'll eat all of these words and I I hope it happens. I think that would be great. I think it'd be super cool. And Colts fans deserve so much better. But you don't get rated the the most pessimistic fan base. 93% I think is the number now that I think about it of Colts fans that were pessimistic
going into the season. They have every reason to be. If I knew, oh my gosh, if I knew 10 out of 10 Gold fans, one one is like semi-optimistic. Correct. Shout out to Zack.
Chris Ballard, you know, and he was getting frustrated with the media of like could cuz out of the 20-minute press conference before the season, I think it was last week. 17 and a half minutes were about the quarterbacks. And he's like, you know, we have 51 other guys on the roster. And I'm like, well, you know, you've had 11 starting quarterbacks since 2019, so this is probably what we're going to be talking That' be an interesting question of how you would take those 11 starting quarterbacks to formulate a team of only quarterbacks
like different posing.
Yeah, we're going to have Joe Flacco play center. We're going to have Matt Ryan maybe left tackle. Like out of all those quarterbacks, who would the quarterback of a team of quarterbacks be?
Well, I think Andrew Luck isn't include or maybe he's not included in that.
All right, this is going to be a fun exercise. I think we we we're going to have a little bit of fun here. I like it.
So, since 2019, there's been 11 starting quarterbacks for the Colts. Can you name them all
in order? Maybe not, but okay. Jacobe Brassette.
Yep.
Brian Hoyer, then Anthony Richardson, Gardenner Mchu, Joe Flacco. So that's five. I need to go closer to like 2020. Phil Rivers, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan. Okay, now we're cooking.
It'll be 11 including Andrew Luck.
Okay, so Andrew Luck. So I have three three left. Okay.
Yes.
Um there's some interesting minutia. Oh, Sam Ellinger. Yep. The whole
There's one season in here that had three starting quarterbacks. Matt Ryan, Sam Ellinger, and Blank. Oh, who is it? I'm
He's a He's a a rockstar backup.
Oh, Nick Fos. Nick Fos. Yes. Thank you.
Carson Wentz. How could I forget Carson Wentz?
Okay.
Yeah, that's hilarious. Okay, there you go. Luck, Jacobe Brassette, Brian Hoyer, Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, Sam Ellinger, Nick Fos, Gardner Mchu, Anthony Richardson, Joe Flacco. Wow.
11. If you were making a team
out of those guys, if you had to pick put 11 down,
who would the quarterback be?
Who would the quarterback? I mean, Andrew Luck, right?
It would be Andrew Luck. Philip Rivers would be the quarterback.
Oh, I mean, honestly, Philip Ri, maybe Carson Wentz as your running back or maybe Sam Ellinger. I mean, you got to put like Nick Fos.
Sorry Gardner, you're probably down on the line for me. Like, I don't know. But then you spread like Jacobe.
No, Richardson could be a sweet tight end to
if Philip Rivers was the quarterback. Andrew Luck could be a tight end. He's pretty big. That would be an interesting thought. Like I don't know how would you guys organize. Nick Fos, he's pretty big. He could be on the line. You gota find five guys.
You got to find you got to find your guys who you want to be skilled players out of that group.
Yeah. I mean
and then work back
Yeah, you're probably on the line. Just Yeah, you're on the line.
I don't know, dude. Like did you see like
I can't believe I forgot Carson Wentz by the way. I think I was just trying to put that so far out of my memory.
Yeah, I think that's been a it's been a wild tumultuous time for Colts fans. Uh
but doesn't that just explain the dysfunction like since that's my whole point how can you be optimistic because you the question you asked was what was a glimmer of hope you can give Colts fans and like the schedule is pretty light first half but then I think you there's some very you're they're not at Lucas Oil for a month actually down the stretch of the season because they have an away game they go to Germany they have a by-week they have away game like they're not there for a month and they have like the Steelers and the Falcons and the Chiefs and the Texans during that stretch and I think it could go from 4 and four to 4 and eight really fast. You know what's the bar also like
do you feel confident if if this team is nine and eight say or even 10 and seven we'll throw them a bone 10 and seven they make the playoffs they don't win the division though I don't think they're winning the division do you have confidence they could beat the Chiefs the Bengals the Ravens the Bills do you have that's five teams right there or four teams do you think have confidence they can beat any of those teams? No,
I do not. So, what are you doing if you're you would rather be really good or really bad at the NFL? And the Colts are in the middle right now. And I
and they have been for a consistent period of time.
And I just think you got to tear it down. I'm not you know, we'll see what happens. But
make your prediction for this season. I want to know wins, losses, where they end up in the division. Do they make the playoffs?
They don't make the playoffs. I don't know where they end up in the division, but not first. And I think I think optimistically they're seven and 10 with a ceiling of nine and eight.
Nine wins though.
I want to be proven wrong by the way. I hope I'm not just ruining someone's day right now.
It's like I hope it happens.
Yeah. Right.
Any final words on Colts? We're going to shift over and we're going to talk Indiana High School.
Oh yes. That's a much more optimistic thing.
What's more,
John Harrell?
Yeah. John all day long. No, but what's more what's more uh do you go media like AP or do you association? I think AP and USA are like largely the same. I tend to trust AP. I have zero rhyme or reason why I do that.
You don't like the Is this because you're media and you don't like the coaches?
No. No. There's a lot of bias there. That's all. There's, you know,
right 6A like are you on there right now?
Yeah, I'm on the AB poll through week two.
Like so Brownsburg one, Center Grove 2, Caramel 3. What can we You've been around. If you guys don't know, Dom every Friday morning during football season is doing Operation Football. This is at sunrise. He's out at these high school stadiums and he's put on a spectacle. He's jumping through banners. He's driving a truck on the track. Dude, this guy brings the juice. Where where are we going to be at today?
Beach Grove. Beach Grove High School. Hopefully, you're listening right now. Hornets.
Yes. What we liked to do was choose schools that are maybe aren't the biggest or aren't like the most football successful in the mornings, but just have like a great community vibe and we know would show out and like we want to highlight them and their band and their cheerleaders and their school. And so this year what we're doing cuz like our game of the night at night is like just like Brownsburg Cathedral last week. Like that's the biggest game of the slate. So we're going to make that our game of the week and and we've expanded our coverage to, you know, 8 to 12 games at 11:00. It used to be just four and then our our guy Dave Calabro retired.
We're trying to inject some new energy into it. So, we're doing a lot more games in the evening. So, that's where we hammer our big boys, you know. But in the morning, what we do is we've narrowed it down to three schools each week that you can go on wtr. com/fanvote and vote for where you want Sunrise Kickoff to go. It's almost like where's game day going to be?
You know, you know what I mean? But it's like it's for the it's for the vibe and the atmosphere. So, we were at Lebanon week two. We were at Martinsville week one. Martinsville. Wow.
What a what a community. And they won our spirit award last year. So, we started there. That's like a That's what we do. We start at the place who won the year before. But the fan votes been doing great.
It started with just 800 votes, which like yeah, we want it to be more, but then this week it was up to 1300. So, like people are getting involved. People are getting the word out. So, we're going to be at Beach Grove.
Yeah. Let us know in the comments where you want Dom to come out.
Please by all means.
What's the furthest distance away you guys would go? Uh, we went to Cooko my first year for the Today Show. We've been on the Today Show twice, I might add, for Friday morning lights.
If you want if you want absolutely electric energy,
like if you like this podcast, you're going to love Dominic Miranda and Operation Football
1075 the fan every Friday morning at 7:30 talking with James Boyd, Jeff Rickard, and Kevin Bowen about high school football. They were asking me about Colts and I even Purdue last week, too. Everything's on on the table when it talk. Those guys are awesome. I love it. But that's a new thing that we're partnered with. Thank you.
All right, let's talk let's talk high school football.
Yes, please. Dude, it's been great. The first two weeks, by the way, the weather has been sensational.
Sensational.
As we look through, I'll just give you the number ones in each class. So, we got Brownsburg number one and 6A. We've got Newal number one and 5A. We've got Heritage Hills.
Oo,
this is interesting.
Check the USA. Is that the same? Cuz Chitaard's been dominant.
The AP poll says Heritage Hills. Heritage Hills. The coaches association says Chitard. Okay. So, you know,
Chitard's good.
Uh,
Chitaard's good. They got their quarterback back this week as well.
3A Evansville Memorial, 2A Adam Central, 1A, North Decar. What are you seeing from around the state?
Okay, so there's a lot there's a lot that I'm seeing. Brownsburg is ranked 15th nationally.
Nationally.
Dude, what are they putting in the water out on the west side? don't know but I went out there and their facilities are a you got to clip this part absolutely phenomenal facilities best in the state I I bet better athletic facilities than depal university in a lot of universities
why is dep sorry that that a lot better athletic facilities than a lot of colleges is what I will say at roundsburg that's real they just built this new fieldhouse that has a golf two golf simulators full-sized putting green they have two batting cages. They have four or five basketball courts. They got an indoor track. They got a senior's only cafeteria that for athletes, too. It's like grab and go. Huge bulldog logo. It connects to the school. They have a brand new scoreboard, video board. They built another field behind their actual field for like practices and stuff. It Wow. I can't say enough good things. And they always treat me great over there cuz they were on the Today Show last year and that got like a lot of views. People were pumped up about that. So wait, they are 15th nationally.
That's per their uh social media.
What's been the results so far this season?
Okay, so they're 2 and0. They beat Spalding out of Maryland. Uh they put up 36 against them and then they blanked Cathedral last week 29 zip. Um Cathedral uh I talked to coach Bill Peebles before the season. He said like down a little bit of talent as far as Cathedral st standards, but they're gritty. He's like we got a gritty bunch here. But Brownsburg's just a buzzsaw. They won state last year for the first time in however many years and I they are primed to go back to back really.
But I'll tell you what else I'm noticing in class 6A. You know who's back?
Caramel is back.
Caramel is back.
They thumped Westfield last week in what? In a soldout environment. We won't talk about the construction on the press box, right? Little tough little tough out there, but that's okay. That's okay. College environment truly. I mean Daniel Jones, Riley Leonard were both there. I saw I saw Gary Brackett there. I saw Gary Brackett there.
Do we need to be like Do we need to be at
Carl? It was a vibe out there. The student sections were nuts. They thumped Westfield. Kevin Wright is back. All right.
He's the guy who went to IMG, was the head coach. He was on Tom Allen's staff for a little bit. He's back in action. All right. He was at Warren Central for a long time. He led Caramel to crazy heights when he was the head coach.
Now this is his second stint and they're 2 and 0 and they look good. They look good. The quarterback's going to Troy. His name's escaping me right now. Anthony Colner, actually, I believe is his name. Um, he's going to Troy.
He had a pretty ball the game. I I was at that game last week. But that's kind of what's sticking out to me in class 6A. Hamilton Southeastern's quarterback, Terry Walker. He's going to Duke. And my oh my, does he have a cannon of an arm.
I mean, wow. So, Hamilton Southeastern's 2 and0. They have a huge game with Avon this week. Both of them two and0. You know what's interesting is that
Brownsburg looking at the schedule like now they're going to run through a straight which like these are all good schools but like your competition level will be interesting as they go through Franklin Central Avon Fischers Westfield Zensville Noblesville and end the season out with Hamilton. That's a gauntlet
you know like is that a gauntlet? Like
I think so. A Avon started 2 and 0. They have a win over Decator Central.
Wait, how many 6A schools are there?
Oh I don't know.
Are there 36?
I don't I have no idea. Yeah, I think there's like a there's like not that many.
Well, 6A is big. Like you got to be big school or a very successful school. Interesting.
But yeah, look, I think Avon kind of surprising 2 and0. Love to see it. I think HSC's kind of I want to see what they're made of here.
Who's the single best player that you've watched at 68 so far this season?
Well, do they have to be a senior?
No.
Okay. Man Sales for Lawrence North. He is the top rated recruit in the class of 2027. He's a wide receiver. I believe he's 6'4. He is a unit and he has some great hands.
And I was talking to my guy uh Bailey Guessinger yesterday um up north and he said that he he was part of the state championship track team. I didn't realize he was so fast. Munchin sales, but he snatches things out of the air, man. And he they should throw to him 50 times a game. I mean, it's been a pleasure watching him. Uh JJ Finch from Warren Central's on the Dline.
He's going to Bama and he he looks like he's 40. So, he's a stud. Uh, Warren Central first year head coach JT Whitaker. He was Brownsburg's offensive coordinator a year ago. Interested to see how he kind of fits in and hopefully maintains the success that Mike Kersner had at Warren Central a year ago. U, but Terry Walker has a cannon, like I mentioned, quarterback for Hamilton South Eastern.
Bo Pston, quarterback for Decar Central going to Toledo. Uh, Casemir Hicks, wide receiver, DB for Decar Central going to IU. Those guys are studs. Yeah. sales is is a stud, man. He's he's really good.
Oh. Oh. Oh. State.
So, he he's uncommitted also. He's a junior. So,
I think uh I think my guy Bailey also told me that LSU was after him and you should check out his 247 page.
Yeah, I'm looking through right now. I just checked. So, we've got
the top 10 recruits all from interesting schools. Uh you've got Guilford out of North Fort Wayne Northrup. He's going to
Fort Wayne's got a ton of talent.
Receiver 62 and a half. six foot two and a half. I love they have that listed on here. He's going to
26 or 202.
This is the class of 2026.
Okay, got it.
Right. Then Tyler Ruxer, uh, he's going to Oklahoma. He's This is a Heritage Child, the number two recruit in the state of Indiana, and he's going to be catching passes from his boy Jet Goldsberry, who's the number nine. So, we've got the nine and two. And like I don't where they going.
They're uh So, Jets's going to miss and Rex teammates right now. They're both at Heritage Hills.
So like this is a show where it's like
a Heritage Hills two top 10 recruits. We've got a Warren Central and is Terry Walker the third. That's the one you talked about.
Yeah, he's South Eastern.
He he he the ball comes out of his hands. It is beautiful.
Two Wait, Decatur Central's got two top 10s. Uh a non-committed athlete.
Yeah, Decatur Central. Bo Poston and Bo Poston and Casemir Hicks. They're their
stats. Well, Michael Campbell,
he's uncommitted. He told me he's getting a lot of Mac interest.
Yeah, I mean, he's the number eight on 247.
This is interesting. We're getting really into the weeds here today.
I love Indiana High School football.
We're talking Indiana high school football. I'm I'd be curious to see this Heritage Hills team and who they have around them.
I really want to, you know, like they they have two
I believe they won state last year. Am I wrong on that? They did. I believe they did.
Chitaard was up at 4A, right?
Yep. And Chitaard beat him two years ago. I remember that.
Yeah. New PAL. New PAL got bumped up.
Yep. So, Decatur Central got bumped up to 6A and New Pal got bumped up to 5A
and Cathedral got bumped down
and Cathedral got bumped down to 5A. They have massive chip on their shoulder um regarding that.
And at that 5A, you're looking at Newal East Central, you're looking at Bloomington South, Cathedral, which like four
one of the Bloomington South, they've been knocking on the door. This might be the year they they break through. I' I'd love to see that for them. What about Didn't Warsaw make it to state last year? They did. Now they lost. How about this from Decatur Central? They got state runner up against Fort Wayne Snder two years ago. It was my first year here in Indie. They won state last year over Warsaw. Now they're bumped up to class 6A. So, how about those seniors? What a ride they've been.
Yeah. And that was when they were they were runners up sophomores, champions as juniors, and now
now, wow.
Yeah. Isn't that cool? Trying to go again.
But they they've started the season 0 and2. Tough schedule. They were up on uh they were up on Avon 22 to7 and they lost in overtime 30 to28. Tough. And then they played New Pal and New Pal is ridiculous.
This is interesting too. Yeah, New Pal's they haven't lost
in a long time. Yeah.
Uh this is an interesting one too. Uh Lafayette Jeff was whoard to open up the season with.
Great game to start the season by the way.
And Lafayette Jeb's nine at class 5A.
At the time of that game it was a top five game I believe.
Oh
and it was a great game. 3528 was the final.
Then uh
Danny Adams, what a stud.
What a stud that guy is.
He may not wrestle for our team
and he may or may not be featured on channel 13 Friday.
He is the the best kid. Just a great kid.
Oh, he was yes sir in me the whole time. I'm like I don't deserve this.
He's he's great, dude.
He was awesome.
Uh and he's a heck of a football heck of a wrestler. Heck of a football player.
Well, that makes sense.
Yeah, he's just a be and he's on the track team. Rob Doyle told me he when he gets the ball in his hands, he does things running backs just don't do.
What's that line from uh what's that line from? Uh is it the longest year? He makes fast people look not fast.
You know what I'm talking about.
That's he was our play of the night uh week one. That's another new thing.
He had a kickoff return that got called back.
Did he? Yeah.
In that game or last week?
He's a beast.
Okay, cool.
Uh as we move on, we're getting the 4A. We got Heritage Chills at the one, Chitaard at the two, East Noble at the three. This is our first. We're here in This is Fort Wayne area. East Noble's up in that neck of the woods.
Fort Wayne's got good football.
Evansville writes.
That's where we drive.
Don't know much about Evansville. They always
Beach Grove 2 and 0. They were featured in a publication. Surprising 2 and 0 team. And that's why we're going too. That part of the reason they were on the list. 2 and0. They're here. I actually took a screenshot. Their quarterback threw for an obscene amount of yards.
No, they beat Genning. They beat Greenfield Central 28 to N. Yeah, that's that is a good win. and Greenfield Central kind of has dipped. They they've been solid. Get this, though. Through two weeks, sophomore quarterback Bishop Moore has 444 passing yards. All right, I'm not going to lie. I thought that's the number he had last week, but that's still impressive. It's over 200 for high school. Over 200. Um they have Cena this week.
They blame Jennings County 44 nothing. And you know, I don't know too much about Jennings County, but I I you know, I'm guessing they're figuring it out.
Beach Grove, man. We drop down into what everyone's, you know, this is the bottom three are where people love it.
Class 3A. We got Evansville Memorial, Missinoa.
Love that.
And Cascade.
I like saying Missinoa and Mccanoqua. Those are my favorites.
Yeah. They're both in 3A.
Cascade. Solid. They were on our air last week. They beat um Danville, I believe. So, solid win. Danville's bigger school. Yeah. Happy for Cascade. They're That's out by Green Castle, isn't it?
Uh it's out that way. out that way. They're going to be playing North Putnham tonight.
Love that. That's definitely out by Green
Castle. Come on now. Uh it's always interesting. Do you know what the little votes mean? Is this how many people voted for them to be won?
Yes. First place votes.
Oh, so who's like the most unanimous?
Oh, it's got to be new.
New 160 votes for New Evansville Memorial had 158. We drop down to 2A. We've got the flying jets of Adam Central. Indianapolis Lutheran, Brownstown Central, Lapel. Lapel's got a quarterback, right?
Lutheran. Lapel.
You You tell me.
I think they have a quarterback. I think that there's a there's a real player.
A quarterback. Lapel. That's fun to see. My Nate Andrews started his career there. I believe
they beat Hamilton Heights and I think to our Hamilton Heights insider, Andrew Bashet, told us that they had that lapel had a quarterback.
Okay. Well, maybe we should look this guy up. And I always think of Bashet cuz his brother goes there or there. Great people. A lot of playing time for the Bich.
Lutheran has been in 2A now for a couple years after dominating 1A and not losing a game for years and years and years.
We are going to go into this best records over the past x amount of years. I want to see if you can guess.
Yeah, that that would be a good exercise.
Uh final thing we're going to round out when we're talking high school football. We've got the 1A
1A
the 1A polls.
This is great football.
North Decatur, home of the Chargers.
Okay,
I believe that would be shout out Jason Kirkoff. North Gator Chargers. No way. I think he's another fantastic guy.
Yeah. South Putnham, Providence, Madison Grant, then you go into Springs Valley down in French.
Yep. I've been there numerous times covering them in my terote in my terote days. Oh yeah. To see them rank fifth brings a smile to my face. That's amazing.
It's so crazy how like quick uh 1A high school football can change if you just get a class in, you know,
and that's all you need. And when 1A, it's it's awesome. Everyone's going both ways. You got like 30 guys on the team.
Yeah. North Miami. North Judson's been in the mix a lot.
Riverton Park. Uh that's north. That's in Park County. North of Terote. Covered them a lot, too.
Yeah. Solid.
That was Rockville High School. Didn't Rockville get consolidated into Riverton Park?
That is correct. Well, I think is Rockville still around or is it just Riverton Park now?
Uh no, Rockville is no longer around. Okay, got it. Sad day.
Sad day. Bad day. Um these are awesome teams. Milin's in there.
How about that? South Adams.
That's a great lead in a half. Don't forget Milin Indians. That's who Hoosiers is based off. Correct. We're gonna have Angelo Piso on the show in a little bit. The final thing we're going to wrap out here with Mr. Dominic Miranda is can you name the number one record from 20 2023 through 2025? 32 games maximum.
Okay. So, I'm thinking new.
It's actually not.
So, three seasons now.
So, we're at three seasons.
New Bal's 27 and three since 2023.
And there's a team better than that. They're uh Oh my gosh. Yeah. There's 1 2 3 4 five six seven. Seven teams better than that based on winning percentage.
Indianapolis and Lutheran.
They are number three.
Okay.
Adam Central 30 and two.
Yeah. They they met each other a couple times in
30 and two. If you go through the last four seasons,
Lutheran.
Yes.
Okay. Yeah. 42 and two.
Yeah. They went through a couple2.
Yeah. When they were in 1A, they
Oh my gosh. Ridiculous.
Over the last decade. Oh my god. Last eight seasons. Lutheran.
Lutheran. Okay. So if you go through last five seasons 57 and two if you go through last six seasons 66 and4 last seven seasons 79 and5 last eight seasons 89 and nine
that's ridicul that's video game numbers
last nine seasons they're number two in the last nine seasons they have gone 112
wow
that's a decade almost a decade
112 over the last 10 Indiana high school football seasons what has been the best winning percentage by Any team?
Is it Chitaard?
Not Chitard.
Is it East Central?
Oh, that was a good guess.
That was a good guess.
New Pal.
New PAL.
Okay.
Over the last decade, New Palestine High School is 12 and 12.
Oh my word.
They are the best team.
They're they're solid, man. I don't know what is in the water down there either.
Of the last 18 seasons, 180 and 33 since the recession. They've just been playing football out there.
That Yeah, that I mean they got grit out I love that when you go back though, this week goes forever. 20 best team of the last 20 years.
New Linton 200.
Oh, Linton's good. They got a good tradition, man. I covered them in Teraho as well. Some good football in West Central Indiana.
Okay, the final question. This is a total curveball.
Okay.
Uh total curveball episode here. I hope you guys enjoy this. We're talking all things Colts, all things Indiana.
High school football is the best in this state.
Yeah. The final the final question that I am going to give to you, John Harrell football. goes back 42 seasons. What's the winningest team since 1984?
Dick Doulahan. His Indian high school football record was insane.
What was it?
300 and something and less than 100 losses. So that leads me to throw out like is it Chitaard or Ben Davis?
No.
Is it a Is it a bigger school?
Yes.
Oh, Penn.
Penn.
No way.
Really? Since 1984, Penn High School 434 and 82.
No, that can't be right.
Yeah, Penn.
No.
I mean, unless John Herald's wrong. Two teams. Two teams in the state of Indiana have not lost a 100 games in their career. Ever since Well, I'll say since 1984. Yeah.
Fort Wayne Snder and Penn. Fort Wayne is 409 and 96.
Northern Indiana represent. Let's go.
Penn is 43482. That's awesome.
I could just
the Yman uh lineage doesn't lose football games up there, but football still have the same head coach.
Russ Radkkey. He's the current all-time winningest head coach and he's on the heels of Bud uh Bud Wright.
All right, Dominic, it's been a pleasure. We could we could chat sports all day long. Uh if people want to find you, if they want to watch Operation Football, where can they do that at?
All right, Domiranda TV on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook. Actually, Facebook's just Dominic Miranda professional page. That's actually my best performing social media. So, thank you everybody on Facebook. And then Twitter, of course, or X, whatever you want to call it. Dom Miranda TV, Operation Football Sunrise Kickoff. We love it. It's a ton of fun. I don't know. Ask me week seven. Might be less fun, but Red Bull for the win. And I love the high schools. The community aspect of Indiana high school football is amazing. And I love this place. And I love being here. I love being a Hooer. And this guy is the best for all things who your content.
Y'all are great. I appreciate you. Make sure you stick around cuz coming back after this little break, we're going to have Angelo Bezo, screenwriter of both Hooers and Rudy. It's going to be a great time. We appreciate you watching and we will talk to you soon. Dominic,
thank you.
We've come to the part of the show where we're talking about Indiana real estate. This video can get you a full ride scholarship to Ball State if you listen until the end. I have two local real estate experts, Max and Tyler from Roots, and we're just going to talk about average home price across the state. We're going to rank them in order from highest to lowest based on price. So, the highest price of the day is $353,000. 353,224. What town do you think has the highest average price there?
I know some that it wouldn't be.
Yeah, I know a lot that it wouldn't be.
That's actually pretty high. It might be Syracuse. It very well could be
if that's on like Wii. He gave me a huge hint.
I did give him a huge hint.
I think it's got to be that one.
You should have known by watching Nate's content that that's on. Do you want to go that?
I think we should go Syracuse.
353 224. They're they're going to put Syracuse in there. That answer is correct.
So Syracuse first one's right. Next we have 336 341.
I honestly think Nashville and Bloomington are going to be higher.
Nashville maybe. Nashville higher than Bloomington. I think honestly Hammond could be higher than I'm thinking too. It's a pretty good spot.
What about I'm gonna give you a
hinty. The hint is like think of scarcity a place that lots of people would know and might want to buy. So Nashville might want to buy um if you think in terms of lake properties or investments or things like that where you can't just go buy a house.
Well then Bloomington because you're on Yeah. You've got the lake, you've got the college town.
I think it's going to be Nashville then.
One says Bloomington, one says Nashville.
I know moments ago I said Nashville is more expensive than Bloomington. I would have naturally thought Bloomington could be in this one. So, sure.
Bloomington work.
I think we go Bloomington. Nashville.
Is it Nashville?
Nashville is correct.
I said it earlier. Why did I go back?
Scarce, right? You got to think that it's scarce.
I think it's too many cabins and things that like
But Nashville proper, right? Like Nashville Proper is hard to get into.
Um, next we have 316,973.
I think it's Bloomington.
Bloomington is correct.
Why did I flip them? Why did I flip?
Yeah, you have to think that blind.
You guys are two for You guys are two for three right now. You're the pocket of college rentals. I'm ticked that we're not perfect.
I think that it's going to get hard. This is a huge drop. 262.
Indianapolis.
It's either Indie or Fort Wayne.
Indy.
But think about what you just said. You said a little bit.
Fort Wayne is not as expensive as India.
No, think what you said a little bit ago like about what makes Bloomington so expensive.
Lafayette has way more. It's Lafayette
262 Lafayette. Trust me. I mean they because of inventory. Yeah.
Because of the college. Lafayette is correct.
You're feeding us way too much.
You're throwing us softballs. You need to
You want me to tighten it up? You want me to tighten it up? All right.
Our friends at App Properties in Lafayette are about to be so upset with us.
Next we move to 242 366.
Indie is in the ballpark of like
I would have thought India is higher than that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Indie is at like 275 right now, but
that is not Indianapolis.
Oh,
there's one more that is above that.
That's above Indie.
Okay, so it's probably Evans.
You guys have been in the You guys have been in the ballpark.
Fort Wayne.
Fort Wayne.
Fort Wayne. Correct.
Fort Wayne is beating out Indie.
Next 233611.
That's fair for Indy.
Indie.
Correct. Uh, next we go to 196714.
Evansville or Southbend.
It's one of those. Evansville.
Evansville is correct. The boys are rolling now.
Shout out properties in Evansville.
The boys are rolling now. Next is 186068.
It could be Hammond.
It's Hammond.
I don't know anything about Hammond. I I know nothing about Hammond. So your fault.
Wait, on a map if I pulled it up, would you know where Hammond is?
I think that's the only one on the list that I don't know.
East of South Bend. No. No. Oh, it's over by Gary.
Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Then then we're going south bend.
So South Bend.
South Bend.
I didn't know her hand.
It's just east of It is technically just uh No, it's West Southbend. Southbend is correct. 186068. This is an interesting one. I don't know if you guys will get this one. 184825.
It's Brazil.
It's Brazil
because Brazil is going to have less inventory than a Teraho and Muny.
Brazil's pretty close to that legal marijuana. We're going to go Brazil.
Brazil. Terot's closer. Brazil is correct. 184825. You've come to the end. You have three places.
Beating out.
You have three left.
Hammond. Scarity.
Terote. Muny. 172839.
I want to say it's Hammond next.
I don't think it's Hammond. I think it's Muny.
Yeah. College town.
Who's going to win this? Who's going to win this negotiation?
It's got to be my
It's Hammond.
I don't think it's Hammond.
It's got to be Hammond. Like is there enough people commuting from Hammond into Chicago? I think is the question.
I don't know enough about Hammond to be honest. I think I stopped there at the Jimmy Johns on my way to Michigan.
I want my Was it Jimmy John's night? Was it Jimmy John's nice?
It was. It was decent.
All right, we're going Hammond.
Hammond is correct. Thank you, Jimmy John's. No free advertising.
Jimmy John,
no free advertising.
Yeah. Okay. Well, then light work.
It was nice. It all came down to was the Jimmy John's nice average sale price of a home in Hammonds 172839. Gentlemen, you are left with Terraote and Muny.
What is with Muny and Terote falling?
The number is 157, 692.
It's terote.
You think Teroot is
undoubtedly it's terote. I play so much blackjack in that casino. It's teroot.
You guys are correct. Dude, 157692 college Indiana State. Go Sycamores. Go Larry Bird. And finally, rounding out the cheapest home on this list of 12, Muny. You can get into my average price of 150,000 $263.
Are a Ball State student and you are living in student housing, you're doing it wrong. Go buy a three-bedroom property and rent it to two of your friends. Stop paying your tuition.
There you go. Boom. We just said, "How can you go to you can get a free this video can get you a full ride scholarship to Ball State if you listen until the end."
And if you have college debt, it's on you, not on me.
Boom. All right, gentlemen. Thank you for stopping by. Obviously, these are our friends from Roots Reality. Thanks for playing. They know.
I was pretty impressed. You guys did a pretty good job. Stay tuned cuz at the end, there's going to be a crazy twist in this episode that you'll never expect. Did you know that Indiana has been a hub for sports innovation for over a century? Starting with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where pioneers tested game-changing tech like seat belts and anti-lack brakes, that forward-thinking spirit is still in overdrive today, and Sports Tech HQ is at the center of it. They're on a mission to scout the most groundbreaking sports tech that is shaping the future of sports, and to bring those innovators right here to Indiana.
Guess what? It's working. Sports Tech HQ already has 38 companies in its collective that call Indiana home. With 16 relocating from around the world in just the past year, home to a world-class sports infrastructure, Indiana provides the perfect foundation for entrepreneurs to advance innovations that can change the game for fans, athletes, and teams. Sports Tech HQ is the leading global hub for an industry that is projected to reach 100 billion by 2030. Discover how these companies are driving the future of sports through Indiana's robust ecosystem of partners at stthq.
org. Today I'm joined by Angelo Pito, the legendary Indiana screenwriter behind Hooers and Rudy, two of the most iconic sports films of all time. His work has earned Academy Award nominations, recognition from ESPN and USA Today, a permanent place in the Library of Congress. Piso's next project, The 500, tells the story of the first Indianapolis 500 and could complete his accidental Indiana trilogy. Today we're going to be talking about growing up as a Hooer and then creating the movie Hoosiers. It's iconic.
We all know this. I'm really excited. We're also going to be talking that next week Angelo is coming to town. He's going to be talking at Ted Sports. It's going to be incredible. So, he's going to give us a little sneak peek about what we can expect there, but you're going to have to hear more about it next week at TED Sports.
Angelo, welcome to the show.
Thank you,
man. I'm uh I'm really excited. So, we learned a little bit. you are uh what not born but raised in Bloomington. Then you spent some time in in a few other places and now a boomerang back to Bloomington. Is that correct?
That's correct.
So I I mean obviously we want to get into talking about Rudy, talking about Hoosiers. Uh those are two iconic films. Uh like how did the process of bringing a movie about the state around the state of Indiana around basketball to life? How did that go? like how do you even like where do you start when you want to bring a movie to life?
Uh this is an idea that David Anspa and I who was the director of the film. We were fraternity brothers. We talked about the various films that we thought would could be shot in Indiana. This is when we were both film buffs but not film majors. And um we both end up going to the grad school at University of Southern California in film. And I got a job uh in a series of jobs ultimately six years of what they call development jobs or executive jobs working for various uh studios and production companies working with writers, directors, really learning how to make movies because there's so many different aspects to it.
um not only just the the craft part of it uh but also you know the politics and um knowing uh just how to speak the different language of people there in LA and at that time everything was centered in LA not so much anymore. Yeah. I mean I ended up uh working with some great writers and directors and producers and actors and um learned about how to make a movie um before I set out to write my own. And uh it was just an experiment I was going to try to I figured, you know, I'd worked with so many writers. I'd read so many screenplays, but I I kind of always wanted to try my hand at it. And so a company I was working for transition was transitioning between allocation of their assets or their investments uh from what was Timelight Films ultimately became Tristar and HBO.
And um I had offers a job to either place or to take a six-month parachute paycheck, which I did. And I went off and I wrote Hoosiers. Since I'm trying to compress the story as much as I can. Um there was a three-year gap between when I finished it and when we started getting it made, and we we probably faced a couple hundred nos along the way, rejections left and right, and u that's the nature of the business, quite frankly. Well, if you faced 200 nos, right? Like like specifically like what was the yes that you felt like, okay, this movie is going to happen?
My version of yes, not that yes, we like it. There there were a number of companies. Well, yes, we like it, but we'll we'll help we'll go out and try to raise money to make it. The only matter the only yes that matters is someone with a paycheck. I mean, a checkbook or the ability to say, "Let's make this movie." And it was a smaller company.
And the odd thing about this company was that the person who said yes had never seen a basketball game. He had never heard of the state of Indiana. He was British, not well educated, and I say that with all due respect. He just didn't go beyond high school. He was a boxer and a soccer player and a kind of a hustler kind of guy. and uh he had um collected through means of which I'm not really sure a bunch of laundered mafia money from uh credit lea and he started making movies because movies was his passion somehow he read the script and he started crying and he had a rule if a movie made him cry that he would have to explore making it and the reason it made him cry was not because of anything other than the fact that his father was an alcoholic and that he would often walk on the pitch and um complain to the referees.
So when shooter the scene with shooter and his son and that whole through line of that story, it was like that was the reason the movie got made. That's how crazy this business is. You never know. We had Gene Aman attached as the actor for one whole year and everybody turned us down and to the point where this financier didn't want Jane Aman. He wanted Bert Reynolds, you know. So, uh, and Bert Reynolds said yes.
And we actually killed that by having a meeting with him and and making sure that he didn't want to work with us. So you're telling me the reason that the movie Hoosiers was made was because this British financeier who had an alcoholic father resonated so much with the movie that he cried.
Yeah,
that isn't talk. You talk about Yeah, that's a crazy industry. What I need to know from you, where did you first hear the story of the milein Indians?
I think growing up in Indiana, everybody hears the story. I mean it's the classic state folk myth and uh if you have any interest in sports uh and particularly basketball I mean every paper in every small town or big town would trot that story out at the beginning of every year and especially during single class system you know I think in part it was to to make you know these smaller teams you know give give a sense to them it was possible that anything was possible. So yeah, I mean, everybody everybody I knew knew about the story.
Did you play high school basketball?
No, I wasn't good enough.
Ain't that the truth? Me neither. Wow. So you you get the paycheck, right? You you can make this movie come to life. How does how does bringing a movie had Indiana ever had movies and how much of the filming was done here versus other places?
There had been movies shot in Indiana. Um and the most recent one was Breaking Away. It was shot actually shot in Bloomington and that was in 1978. So, um, you know, the the there weren't tax rebates and tax credits and at that and that's changed the game. That's why Indiana has no movies now and never will until they do. In in our case, yes, we shot everything. 100% was in shot in Indiana.
Wow. How did you land at uh the Who's Your Gym in Nightstown as the spot? We did location scouting, you know, for I mean at least a month before we we we brought our opened our offices here. And we were trying to find the town um that had everything, the exterior of the town, the school, the interior of the school, and the gym. And we actually found the place that was perfect. It was called Waveland, Indiana.
But um unfortunately they had they were tearing down the gym and the school or maybe it was just maybe it was just the gym. But uh yeah, we we actually went before their town board and said, you know, could you please hold off and let us shoot here? It would be perfect. And they I don't I think they just with a lot of skepticism, they looked at us like what? You're making a movie about that about you. I don't think it ever sunk in that uh that we were real and uh we did not make a compelling enough argument.
So, um they went ahead and destroyed the school while we were filming in other places. So, what we did was we did a a a combination of three. We couldn't find that a town that had everything. So, we found the exterior of the town in New Richmond, which is right outside of Crawford'sville. And then exterior and interior the school is uh was in Nineveh which is near camp adterbury and of course the gym in Nicetown. And uh we love that gym.
It has a lot of character and the extraordinary thing about it is it looks exactly the same 40 years later. I mean they've done a great job at keep in keeping it uh in pristine quality.
Were there any other gyms that were finalists to be involved in the movie? We had to find other gyms to play the sectional and regional and uh we always knew we were going to shoot at HLE but uh I I really don't recall um I think we we did the game uh not I think I know at St. Ner's Catholic School we shot that what's where shooter walks onto the floor for the first time. No, I don't remember any finalist.
Was there a thought to take the movie to Milin and shoot like where the history had happened? The practicality of having to shoot a movie is that you need a crew uh base and you need a place where everybody stays and the offices and um you have to be able uh because one of the bigger expenses in making a movie is housing uh the people that um that work on the film. And you know with our budget we are only allowed a little more than a couple handful of people that we had to bring in. Now if you shoot in milein then you have to you have to house just about everybody because it's away from Indianapolis. So we used so many local people there and and our charge uh and what was demanded of us was that the every location had to be within 45 minute drive time of Indianapolis in order for us not to be on the road forever and lose shooting time and not having to house people. So yeah, we couldn't shoot in southern or northern Indiana.
Everything had to be around Indianapolis. as you, you know, went through production, were there any moments where you just like looked around and like how the heck is this happening in Indiana and in Indiana basketball like like those moments that just that you look back on and are just so fond of? when you make a movie and certainly this being our first movie it's such a allconsuming exhausting process and we had a lot of trouble with Gene Aman at the beginning you know who kept on complaining about you know how his career was tanking and he he had to end out of desperation he took this job and he didn't respect us and it was really it was hellish I think that the word that best describes my experience on the movie was survival uh just trying to make it day by day. I just don't remember ever not being tired and uh I don't even know how we ended up doing what we did. You know, we we just kept on facing crisis and problem after problem and somehow we were in the God loop or something.
If we didn't fix it, it got fixed somehow. It's a miracle that any movie gets made. It's a double miracle if any movie gets made that turns out well or turns out like you intended it.
At what point after it was released did you know you really had something here? It was not after it was released. Our final cut was 2 hours and 28 minutes along and we didn't get a great response from the studio. Um, you know, we got mixed generally supported response from our friends and family, but you can't count that as, you know, that doesn't mean anything. Our first test screening and test screenings are you recruited audience out of a shopping mall basically what it comes down to. We have no vested interest and know nothing about the movie. And it was in Irvine, California. There was 200 people from that who re-recruited from that shopping mall.
It was the most extraordinary experience that uh I think I had on the entire movie. Not only did they laugh and cry and um and at the right places and there was a standing ovation and more importantly they gave us um the highest score in the history of Orion Pictures which was the distribution company. We scored a 95 which is re and Dave and I knew we had something we we had that we had a movie that resonated with audience that worked for an audience. So the financing company had an overall deal what they call a put deal with Orion Pictures that they had to release three pictures of theirs uh over a three-year period. And this was their picture that they put forward for this year. And Orion didn't like the film and they didn't want to release the film.
They didn't like the script. They were never supportive at all and they hated the title. In fact, they insisted on their own title, which is the last shot. How awful is that? Well, the reason they said they were going to overrule Hoosiers was because Hoosiers was not translatable for the foreign market, etc. They also insisted that we release the film at under two hours because that those were the days where you had uh turnover three they wanted three screenings of their films.
uh a night and that's when it mattered. With a two and a half hour movie, that's only two screenings a night. At any rate, so after we walked out of the the theater uh during that screening, that successful screening, the president of the company turned to us and said, "All right, you can have your stupid title. I'll give you that. Uh you still have to cut a half hour of the movie." And he said, "Uh, we're not going to even give you notes.
You obviously know what you're doing, so you figure it out." So Dave and I went and we uh you know it was it was a couple of excruciating weeks of getting that last 30 minutes out.
What did you have to cut from those 30 minutes?
So on the in the 20th anniversary they did a special double DVD release. Uh MGM now own the rights to all their Ryan pictures and they said would you like to do a director Scott? And of course we were thrilled you know David was thrilled we were thrilled. The problem was that the company, by the way, you know, the financing company had gone bankrupt, which was not a surprise. Uh, and um, they had sold the negative of the film. Uh, I, you know, it's probably Guitar Pics.
Now, we we actually found a a rough cut. When I say rough, it was actual film. It was in the garage of the editor's uh, the the editor's garage, and it was all scratchy, and it was a mess. in order to pay the lab cost to fix it, it was exorbitant and they said no. So what we did in that second DVD was we took those 30 minutes and we did an audio commentary and talked about each one of the scenes without having them be cut in it. It started off about five years ago because we really tried to push uh well the technology really got more sophisticated and cheaper and making that stuff work in terms of fixing the images.
So we kept on pushing them, pushing and pushing them and they kept on saying no until Gene Hackman passed in the spring. Hooers was the number four stream film the week he after he passed and um they said yes. So David is uh just completed um the new director's cut. Um not all the minutes are going back in because we kind of you know re-examine them and there are some things that we from our perspective now 40 years ago uh 40 years later we thought you know didn't work. I'm just really thrilled. It's probably uh you know, we didn't put 10 minutes back in.
We actually cut a scene, okay, that we never liked. And um but I think the film works better than ever. I think it looks great. It sounds great. We have a new we have the the the great Jerry Goldsmith who did the scores for both of our films. Um he had his orchestrator is doing, you know, finding stems and cuts and music to orchestrate the new new stuff.
And uh it's it's a better movie than it was and it will be there MGM is thinking about re-releasing it theatrically in selected areas but the very minimum it will be on by Christmas it will most assurely be be on Amazon Prime.
So by Christmas we'll be able to watch the 2hour and 20 minute director's cut of Hoosiers re-released.
Yeah.
Wow. This is unseen footage that no one that the public has not seen before
unless they bought that two discs uh you know DVD in 20 years ago.
But then they would have heard the commentary not actually seen it right. We
we showed the scenes but we talked about the scenes before and we we we described what why you know it was out of context. It's not cut in the movie, but we talked about why we ended up cutting it and um and and I think in matter of degree how much we missed it not being there, you know, cuz some of the things is like we're really unhappy it's not in the movie, you know, like how does Buddy get back on the team? I mean, that's one of the questions that people ask me cuz he was kicked off the team, all of a sudden he appears uh all of a sudden later in another uh you know, scene uh without explanation. Well, we had se a scene where he comes and asks the coach to come back to the team. So that I mean something like that's in there for of course.
Man, I'm really excited to watch that's going to be on the Christmas list this year for sure. You talked about that moment in California when everyone gave you the highest score of an Orion picture, right? like
the audience. We knew the the film worked for the audience. You know, part of of how a film um becomes successful in the marketplace, theatrical marketplace at the time and still today. How much is the studio going to commit to spend on publicizing and marketing it and Orion did not want to spend anything on it? And and they still did not believe it was going to play nationally even after that California screening. So, we had to prove that the film worked in Indiana first, you know, because they they're they were hoping the movie didn't work in Indiana so they wouldn't have to do a national release.
So, we opened on 110 the in 110 theaters on Christmas uh weekend or Thanksgiving weekend um a month before and and of course we did pretty well and uh which gave us the right to uh gave us the opportunity for them to open nationally with you know it wasn't a big release it was like I think 600 theaters and then it actually did well enough they started building they started adding theaters and it was still in the theaters four or five months theater. So
those were those days. Movies are not in the theater for I don't care how good the movie is.
It's it's screaming by that time.
Well, you took the success you had from Hooers and you rolled that into your next film which is iconic to I'm from Northern Indiana. I have a bunch of friends who are lifelong Notre Dame fans. Let's talk about briefly about Rudy and where you first heard the story of Rudy Rudiger and how that came to life. Well, uh, the first time we heard about it was through a friend who was the basketball coordinator. Rudy went up to his found out that he was connected to Hoosiers and he felt that we were the guys that make his story. And so the story got back to us.
I said no. I wasn't interested in it. I, you know, the three reasons I said no were one, um, I didn't want to do another sports movie set in Indiana. That going to talk about nichify me, you know. Number number two, I grew up in Bloomington and um I had a friend whose father was extolling the virtues, the glory, the tradition of Notre Dame football to the point I wanted to kill him. Rooted against Notre Dame all my life.
I did not like Notre Dame and and I even had um I shouldn't say this. I had a relative who was a Notre Dame grad who was so arrogant about it. He went like he kept on talking about that he went to God's university. I can't tell you how much that just pissed me off. I'm not doing this movie under any circumstance.
So, you the writer of Rudy did not like Notre Dame.
I've said this publicly many, many, many times in my life. In fact, that's crazy.
I think I've said it so many times that since we made the movie 35 years ago or whatever it is, I've never been invited back to Notre Dame ever.
No way. Ever. The alumni association invited us back um for one event and that was it. But the university, no, I've never been invited. We've never invited to see a game to speak in front of a uh the student body or the class or you the funny thing about that is is you know they have uh student orientation week for freshmen, freshman orientation week and they screen the film like every night.
No way. the last night they screened it at the stadium.
If they if the University of Notre Dame invited you on campus, would you go?
Absolutely. I have nothing against them. I I listen, I've grown to appreciate Notre Dame. It's a special place. It really is. It's unique. And um I never really I'd never been on campus before and uh it never it had any reason to go but uh when I started doing research I started seeing it and I it was important for me to see uh that campus that university what was special about it from Rudy's point of view in order to to be um right authentically.
How did you go from no I'm never making this movie to creating this movie and it being iconic. You know, Rudy, who was fundamentally incapable of hearing the word no, never let up when we said no. I mean, he even flew out and tried to talk me into it in person, you know, but uh I kept on saying I no, no, no, no. Then then it was two years after he first talked to us that David Answire of Hoosiers and my you know partner there and our we had a little company at that time. He was talking to two producers about a uh a baseball movie that he wanted to do. Um or no, they wanted him to do a baseball movie and then they started talking about sports stories and he so David spun this Rudy yard and these guys went nuts because they had just had lunch with the president of the studio, Colombia Pictures.
They just had lunch with him and he told them that one of his great disappointments his life was being turned down by Notre Dame. That was his dream school and he ended up going to Michigan State. But he had Notre Dame paraphernelia and football stuff in his office. He said, "If we can't sell it to men, this you will never sell it to anybody in million years." I said, "I'm not going to do it. I don't want to write."
He said, "Please just go and sit because you're a team. They're not going to do it just for David. They're not going to do it. Just sit there." Okay. So I did I mean normally I would pitch the writer pitches, right?
So I went in in Frank's office and uh I didn't think it would I I never thought it was a commercial idea. You know, if you reduced it to like a sentence or paragraph, it sounds banal. So I uh I went and sat and David did the pitch and I was shocked when Frank Price leaned over and said, "I can't wait to see this movie." And I walked outside and I just was, "Oh my god, I can't do this." and uh they basically threatened to beat the out of me if I did not do it because this would not this the deal would be busted if I didn't say yes. So out of friendship I got on the plane and flew to Southbend uh spent time with Rudy and Notre Dame and tried to figure out how to write it.
Wow. I mean it's like iconic. There's a lot of like talking. How much of it was obviously dramatized for that and how much of it was like truth the real story like this did they really lay their jerseys down for Rudy so he could be a part of the team be truthful if not to the letter of the truth than the spirit of the truth so example the jerseys what had happened was a a number of the seniors when he wasn't on the dress list a number of the seniors went to the defensive coordinator and Rudy played on defense and offered their jerseys up to let Rudy dress in their place. Um, I just thought it would be much more much more of a visual correlative to to see it, you know, and see it in that f in that way rather than have two couple people walk up to Joe Yanato, hey, Rudy can dress in my place. just not as dramatically and visually as compelling, but I I feel like we kept to the spirit of the truth, if not the letter of the truth.
Yeah, I I agree with that. I love it. I know we're getting close on time. I do have to ask, what can we expect from your uh your your appearance at TED Sports next week? what I'm talking about in my 13minute little talk and there are a lot of other activities which I I'll get to the second activity in a second but uh what I'm what I'm really going to focus on is you know the fundamental principle of what guides me in terms of my work in this business which is so very difficult what I've learned and I'm tying it directly into Rudy and and I'm doing it in this way which is the fact that Rudy was the script that uh the story I wanted to write the least was the most important script that I ever wrote because it was my story and I didn't realize it at the time because to me one of the pre one of the problems for me going in was it felt a little bit cliche the little engine that could the little underdog that you know chased his dream I didn't want to I didn't want to write a chase your dream story and but what I did find that was so incredibly aligned with my own journey was that Rudy had what it took that I learned I had to have and didn't have at the beginning which was I was told these three things you know at the very beginning and I didn't live them I didn't know how to live them which was when you try to make it in the film business it's like diving into a sea of nos swimming toward an island of yes that you don't even know exists and even when you climb on an island it's going to start sinking That's number one.
Number two is you can never let anybody define your work or who you are within the context of the business. Once you personalize it, once you personalize rejection, you're done. You're you're finished. And I was I struggle with that, you know. And then um the thing that I I I found in Rudy was that he's that guy. He's the guy that is like the, you know, the third principle was if you're rejected, you will be constantly constant con constantly and you don't personalize it, you have to be like one of those bozo dolls with the the the sand at the bottom.
You bounce right back up. Rudy did not give away the power of someone defining who he was, what he was capable of, and what he could do. and and uh and even though all the odds and all the kind of facts, you know, would guide a normal person away from chasing this crazy dream, he took it upon himself that this was what he needed to do. And those are the people who are successful in my business because you will live in the sea of nos.
That's incredible. Uh Angelo, I've really appreciated this time. We're excited. You're going to be speaking at Ted Sports Indianapolis. That's September 9th through the 11th. people can grab tickets. Uh, shout out to our friends at Sports Tech HQ for making this introduction. I do have one final question for you that we ask every guest that comes on the show. This question is, what is a hidden gem in Indiana?
The Indiana Dunes and how extraordinary the dunes are, how beautiful they are. That state park and uh we we had our family had a a a summer cabin up there and we would go up there every summer. So I to me the the dunes are a special gem that um are worth visiting every single for for all those people in southern Indiana who just like to you know go to Brown County and uh which I love by the way. Brown County is beautiful. Um and uh McCormix Creek and so on. But uh yeah, that's a great one. Hey Angelo, I appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you. We're really excited. September 9th through the 11th at Ted Sports Indianapolis. Go grab your tickets now and we'll talk to you soon, brother.
All right. Thank you. That's a wrap. Happy Friday. This was an awesome episode. We had our football extravaganza. We talked cost of living in the state of Indiana and we got our exclusive interview with Angelo Piso. Incredible. So pumped. If you like this episode, if you want more content like this, more timely stuff, let us know. Shoot me an email, nateprangle.com. We really appreciate the feedback. Please remember, leave us a review. Be honest. Hopefully, it's five stars. Let us know what you thought about this episode and how we can continue to make the show better. We'll talk to you soon.
