A perfect season has done the unthinkable: turned Indiana into the toast of college football

Ed Miller has attended football and basketball games in Indiana since the early 1970s, and he’s never seen a fall like this.

As the leaves change color and flutter to the ground, and the action heats up for one of college basketball’s true blueblood programs, everyone in Bloomington is focused on what’s happening inside the football stadium.

Here, 70-year-old Miller was part of three consecutive home sales, watching the twirling towels and decibel levels reach new heights as the favorite candy-striped basketball pants were replaced by the increasingly fashionable candy-striped overalls. Yes, not even the start of basketball season can tarnish the most unthinkable story of this season in college football: the rise of the Hoosiers.

“It’s normally hard this time of year to keep going to football games, but that has completely turned around,” Miller said. “And now I’m honestly 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 span between postseason wins is still the second-longest active drought among teams with multiple bowl bids.

How bad had it gotten? When ESPN broadcaster Joe Buck identified an Indiana alum during a Monday Night Football broadcast a few years ago, Buck’s broadcast partner, Troy Aikman, jokingly asked if the Hoosiers were still playing football.

Curt Cignetti took the Indiana job to change that image and while fans liked his passion, they were skeptical of his passion. bold, brash promise of immediate success.

“Hey, look, I’m super excited about this opportunity,” he shouted during a basketball game in December. “I have never sat anyone in the backseat before and I don’t plan to start now. Purdue sucks. But that also applies to Michigan and Ohio State.”

No one is questioning Cignetti now.

Nick Saban’s first recruiting coordinator at Alabama is a frontrunner to win national coach of the year this year, especially after Saturday 20-15 win about the defending 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 the combined total of the previous three seasons and must leave behind the half-full stadiums that became the norm in October and November of seasons . past.

“We were happy to have a new coach. We knew there would be a lot of turnover with the football guys, but we could never have imagined a 10-0,” said Jennifer Worman, 47, who lives in a suburb of Indianapolis. “It’s surreal for IU football.”

There will be no shortage of milestone moments in 2024.

– Indianas 77-3 win over Western Illinois in Week 2 was the most lopsided in school history and its history 56-7 win over Nebraska six weeks later tied the school record for margin of victory in league play.

— The Hoosiers 42-13 win over UCLA was their first ever in the Rose Bowl.

— Indiana became the first bowl eligible team with a 41-24 win at Northwestern.

— They have scored at least 40 points seven times, won by 14 or more points nine times and have trailed only twice 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 edge that only this locker room thought possible.

“We have playmakers 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 just click right now.”

Naturally, all of these wins have put players like Rourke, the 2022 Mid-American Conference MVP, in the postseason awards debate. Some even think Rourke belongs in the Heisman Trophy race.

He is 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 after a 2 1/2 sack, 4 1/2 tackle for loss performance as Indiana has reclaimed the Old Brass Spittoon in the state of Michigan.

Elijah Sarratt also previously played 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 is tied for sixth with six touchdowns.

And while some say a soft schedule helped the Hoosiers, that didn’t happen in other years.

Indiana may be the most balanced team in the country. It ranks 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 that the Hoosiers should make the expanded 12-team playoff field — win or lose at Ohio State. And it brings back memories of Bob Knight’s three national championships and has done what no one thought possible: temporarily overshadowed Indiana basketball as the victory flag flew at Memorial Stadium for the 12th straight week.

“I’m checking off some boxes, football-wise, that I never thought I’d be able to see,” said Randy Pruitt, 58, of Columbus, Indiana, who has watched the Hoosiers exceed his wildest expectations. “Make a bowl, that’s probably what we thought. There was no way we would be listed in the top 12 teams and the playoffs. Maybe we’re still overlooked, I don’t know. But this was not on the radar.”

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