Perfect season has done the unthinkable — turned Indiana into the toast of college football
Perfect season has done the unthinkable — turned Indiana into the toast of college football
Ed Miller has attended Indiana football and basketball games since the early 1970s, and he’s never seen a fall quite like this.
As the leaves change colors and flutter to the ground, and the action ramps up for one of college basketball’s true blueblood programs, everyone around Bloomington is focused on what’s happening inside the football stadium.
Here, the 70-year-old Miller has been part of three straight home sellouts, seen the spinning towels and decibel levels attain new heights while the favored candy-striped basketball pants have been replaced by the increasingly fashionable candy-striped overalls. Yes, even the start of basketball season cannot tarnish this season’s most unthinkable story in college football — the rise of the Hoosiers.
“It’s hard this time of year usually to keep going to football games, but that has totally flipped,” Miller said. “And now, honestly, I’m a little disappointed in basketball. I’m more excited about football than basketball, and I didn’t think I’d ever say that.”
For decades, Indiana football was mired in mediocrity or worse — irrelevance.
Indiana has the most losses (713) and the 10th-lowest winning percentage (.422) in FBS history. The Hoosiers three bowl wins are the fewest of any Power 4 team and the 33-year run between postseason victories still is the second-longest active drought among teams with multiple bowl bids.
How bad had things gotten? When ESPN broadcaster Joe Buck identified an Indiana alum during a Monday Night Football telecast a couple years back, Buck’s broadcast partner, Troy Aikman, jokingly asked if the Hoosiers still played football.
Curt Cignetti took the Indiana job to change that image and while fans liked his passion, they were skeptical of his bold, brash promise of immediate success.
“Hey, look I’m super fired up about this opportunity,” he shouted at a December basketball game. “I’ve never taken a backseat to anybody and don’t plan on starting now. Purdue sucks. But so does Michigan and Ohio State.”
Nobody’s questioning Cignetti now.
Nick Saban’s first recruiting coordinator at Alabama is a frontrunner to be this year’s national coach of the year, especially after Saturday’s 20-15 victory over the defending national champion Wolverines.
Indiana earned just its second series win since 1988 while sealing the first 10-win season in school history, perhaps fittingly, against college football’s winningest program.
No. 5 Indiana (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten, No. 5 CFP) now has one more win than its combined total over the previous three seasons and finds itself ditching the half-full stadiums that had become the norm in Octobers and Novembers of seasons past.
“We were excited to get a new coach. We knew there was going to be a lot of turnover with the football guys, but we never could have imagined 10-0,” said 47-year-old Jennifer Worman, who lives in an Indianapolis suburb. ”It is unreal for IU football.”
There have been no shortage of milestone moments in 2024.
— Indiana’s 77-3 victory over Western Illinois in Week 2 was the most lopsided in school history and its 56-7 win over Nebraska six weeks later matched the school record for margin of victory in league play.
— The Hoosiers 42-13 victory over UCLA was their first ever at the Rose Bowl.
— Indiana became the first bowl eligible in the team with a 41-24 victory at Northwestern.
— They’ve scored at least 40 points, seven times, won nine times by 14 or more points and have trailed only twice briefly all season.
— And if the Hoosiers win at No. 2 Ohio State, something they haven’t done since 1987, a win over rival Purdue (1-8, 0-6) could send them to their first Big Ten title game.
It’s a season on the brink only this locker room thought possible.
“We have playmakers all across the board,” sixth-year quarterback Kurtis Rourke said earlier this season. “It makes my job a lot easier. The O-line is playing great so we can run and pass. We’re just clicking right now.”
Naturally, all these wins have put players such as Rourke, the 2022 Mid-American Conference MVP, in the postseason award debate. Some think Rourke even belongs in the Heisman Trophy race.
He’s hardly alone.
Defensive end Mikail Kamara, a transfer from James Madison, leads the conference in sacks (9 1/2) and earned two national defensive player of the week awards following a 2 1/2-sack, 4 1/2-tackle for loss performance as Indiana reclaimed the Old Brass Spittoon at Michigan State.
Elijah Sarratt also played previously for Cignetti at James Madison and now ranks fifth in the Big Ten in catches (38), yards (685) and yards per catch (18.0). He’s tied for sixth with six TD receptions.
And while some contend a soft schedule has helped the Hoosiers, it didn’t in other years.
Indiana may in fact be the most balanced team in the nation. It’s ranked second in scoring offense (43.9 points), seventh in scoring defense (13.8) and among the top 25 nationally in passing offense (23rd, 276.5 yards), run defense (first, 72.7), pass defense (22nd, 183.3), turnover margin (tied for 12th, 1.0 per game) and takeaways (20th, 17).
It’s enough to convince Indiana fans the Hoosiers should make the expanded 12-team playoff field — win or lose at Ohio State. And it’s rekindled memories of Bob Knight’s three national championship runs and has done what nobody thought possible — temporarily overshadowed basketball at Indiana while the victory flag at Memorial Stadium flies for a 12th consecutive week.
“I’m checking some boxes off, football-wise, that I never thought I’d be able to see,” said 58-year-old Randy Pruitt of Columbus, Indiana, who has seen the Hoosiers exceed his wildest expectations. “Make a bowl, that’s probably what we thought. No way would we be mentioned in the top 12 teams and the playoffs. Maybe we still get overlooked, I don’t know. But this wasn’t on the radar.”
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By MICHAEL MAROT
AP Sports Writer
