Respect for Indiana football has come hard.
It had to. And why wouldn’t it? A Big Ten doormat for decades, the Hoosiers just weren’t ordained for this. There’s always been a relatively small circle of college football programs with the combination of talent, resources and commitment to stand on the top of the hill. Some leave the circle and eventually find their way back in (Miami). Others have been gone for years, leaving us to wonder if they’ll ever return (wake up, Nebraska). But rarely does a new face like Indiana crash the party.
In the immortal words of comic George Carlin, “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.”
Well, Indiana is a new member, and it’s about to breathe first life into Hoosier Glory. It will do so at the expense of Miami’s efforts to reclaim glory of its own, although the Hurricanes’ presence alone in the College Football Playoff title game is evidence enough of its return to national prominence. And it will do so emphatically, as it did in advancing with ease past recent CFP opponents Alabama and Oregon.
Indiana 28, Miami 13.
Make room for a new seat in the clubhouse.
Legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban, in his current role as an ESPN analyst, said before IU’s 38-3 dismantling of UA that his Tide-fan golfing buddies were presuming an Alabama win over the Hoosiers. Because they just weren’t in the club. Per Saban, they said, “I can’t get it around my head that Indiana’s good in football, because I think of them as a basketball school.”
Count me guilty of the same, at least until a couple of months ago.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, a former Saban assistant at UA, has made IU football into a national power. Of course, it’s only sustainable if the school’s NIL wherewithal for football stacks up with the bluebloods’ on an annual basis. But for now, there’s no denying IU has transformed.
Dismissing the Hoosiers in 2024 wasn’t all that difficult, despite an 11-2 season. With the 35th-ranked schedule in the country, that IU team was drummed by its toughest opponent, Ohio State, and was beaten fairly handily in its first playoff game by Notre Dame. I chalked up IU’s outstanding 2024 as an anomaly. A year later, the Hoosiers were back again, steamrolling opponents with a tough defense and a balanced offense led by an eventual Heisman Trophy winner in Fernando Mendoza.
Still, I was a skeptic. Not even a 10-point road win at third-ranked Oregon made me a believer. Then the Hoosiers dispatched a charter member of the insider club − Ohio State − in the Big Ten title game. A year after the Buckeyes hammered IU 38-15 in a regular season game, IU slayed the defending national champs with a conference title on the line.
Then, finally, IU had my attention.
Two blowout CFP wins later, the Hoosiers are now well past the proving grounds. They’re every bit as hot as OSU was in blazing through last year’s CFP field, and Miami is unfortunate to be in their path.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
