The Hoosiers are in the College Football Playoffs? I’m ready for it!

Yes, I still need someone to pinch me. Coach Curt Cignetti and the Indiana University Hoosiers football team have done something that no longtime Hoosiers fan thought possible.

The Indiana Hoosiers – the traditional doormat of college football – are playing in the College Football Playoffs! As a long-suffering football fan of the Cream and Crimson, I’m ready for it. But I’m also a little bit sad. You’ll see why.

A few IU football memories

Here’s a few “postcard memories,” as my Dad liked to call them, about my journey with the Indiana football Hoosiers.

1988 Peach Bowl vs. Tennessee

Capping a successful 1987 campaign (they finished the regular season 8-3 and beat both Michigan and Ohio State in the same year for the first time in a century). the Hoosiers faced the Volunteers on January 2, 1988.

I don’t really remember this game. I do remember that Indiana played Tennessee in the Peach Bowl. This presented a potential conundrum for our family. We lived in the Knoxville area for a time when I was very young and we had become Tennessee Volunteers fans. At the same time, Dad had basically taught us this important life lesson while growing up:

We only cheer for two college teams: Indiana and whoever is playing the University of Kentucky.

Dad, on multiple occasions

This was modified slightly. We really only cheer for three teams: Indiana, the University of Evansville, and KY. But I digress.

With the soft spot in his heart for the Tennessee Volunteers and his never daunted spirit for Indiana’s Cream and Crimson, what was a fan to do? Well, cheer for Indiana, of course.

I remember he explained his reasoning while we were at a UE men’s basketball game. He decided to cheer for whichever program would benefit the most from a win. The Vols were a bit of a juggernaut. The Hoosiers? This was only their fifth bowl ever. And they’d never won a bowl game.

Advantage: YOUR Indiana Hoosiers!

This conversation buried itself deep down in my soul so much that it led to my relatively complex hierarchy of college sports fandom that I shared back in 2010. I still mostly agree with that list. Would probably drop Xavier off, though.

Unfortunately, Indiana lost the Peach Bowl that. They still haven’t won a bowl game.

That time when tying Ohio State was a bad thing

I remember when fans were upset that Coach Bill Mallory settled for a tie against Ohio State back in 1990. That was the last time the Hoosiers didn’t lose against the Buckeyes. And they’ve basically played each other every year since then.

Yep. That’s 30 straight losses. It’s ugly.

Although the rules don’t allow ties anymore, I’d be over the moon if Indiana were to tie with Ohio State.

The electrifying Antwaan Randle El

Antwaan Randle El was my favorite Hoosier of the early 2000s. He’s one of my favorite Hoosiers. Period. He was a bright spot in the dark story of Indiana football. I still have my Randle El Steelers jersey that I got after Pittsburgh won Super Bowl XL.

He shoulda won the Heisman. Just sayin’.

A long line of head coaches

After IU decided to send Bill Mallory – the most consistently successful Indiana football coach in a generation^ – packing, I guess they thought the next coach would take the Hoosiers to the next level of football greatness. Here’s what we got instead:

Cam Cameron
1997-2001
32.7% winning percentage)
Cameron had the previously-mentioned most exciting player in college football at the time and still couldn’t get his team to become bowl eligible

Gerry DiNardo
2002-2004
22.9%
DiNardo had a losing record with the XFL’s Birmingham Thunderbolts, and yet IU thought he’d be a good replacement for Cameron. He never won more than three games in a season. ?And somehow, his team managed to figure out a way to beat then-number 23 Oregon at Oregon. Go figure? Of course, they followed up that surprising performance by losing to KY in the now-defunct Bourbon Barrel game 35-51. That was one of only two victories for the clawless Wildcats that year.

I didn’t think things could be more bleak for the Hoosiers after Cameron’s performance. DiNardo said “Hold my beer…”

Terry Hoeppner
2005-2006
39.1%
Hoeppner brought some hope and grit to the team. The future really did look bright with him at the helm. His team’s mantra was “Play 13,” meaning that his teams were going to be competitive enough to earn bowl berths. Unfortunately, his career was cut short by brain cancer and his teams never did get to play that 13th game.

Bill Lynch
2007-2010
38.8%
Lynch served as head coach in the spring fo 2007 when Hoeppner took a leave of absence due to his battle with brain cancer. Let’s face it, Lynch was a nice guy, but he was a bit in over his head in the Big Ten. He did manage to get the Hoosiers to play 13 in the season immediately following Hoeppner’s untimely passing. They lost to Oklahoma State 33-49 in the Insight Bowl. It was the Hoosiers’ first bowl game appearance since Bill Mallory led his squad to the Independence Bowl in 1993.

Kevin Wilson
2011-2016
35.6%
Wilson talked a good game. And delivered. Kind of. I guess.

His winning percentage wasn’t pretty. But he did manage to get a team to the Pinstripe Bowl, where they lost to Duke in overtime thanks to a controversial field goal call. They went to the Foster Farms Bowl the following year, but he didn’t coach in that game because he resigned after multiple internal investigations into mistreatment of players.

While the program had shown signs of improvement during Wilson’s tenure, he failed to return the Hoosiers to the glory days of the Mallory Era.

Tom Allen
2016-2023
40.2%
Tom Allen’s Hoosiers showed tiny glimpses of hope. IN 2019, he led the Hoosiers to a 7-3 regular season record, finishing the season with the football team’s first top 25 ranking since 1993 (in the Bill Mallory Era). The 2020 Gator Bowl against Tennessee was an exciting affair. But the Hoosiers fell just-short, losing by 1 to the Vols. During the COVID season of 2020, Allen’s team was really good. They beat Michigan for the first time in forever, had an amazing comeback win against Penn State, won the Old Brass Spittoon (the traveling trophy with Michigan State), and played Ole Miss in the Outback Bowl. They lost to the Rebels, but the game was exciting. “LEO” (Love Each Other) was the team’s mantra and it looked like players were ready to run though walls for their coach.

Then the wheels fell off. Allen’s Hoosiers won a total of three Big Ten games the following three seasons. His combined record those three seasons was 9-27. Much like under previous regimes, Allen’s Hoosiers weren’t even beating the teams they “should” have beaten on paper. After a brief rise to prominence, the Hoosiers were back to being college football’s doormat. And a laughing-stock, honestly.

Enter Coach Curt Cignetti*

Each of these previous coaches promised a new culture of winning. Some spoke with an air of humility and determination. Others spoke with bravado and maybe even a little bit of smugness.

Each of them had the same result.

Perennial doormats. Losses to teams Big Ten teams have no business losing to. A culture of losing.

So I think you’ll understand when Curt Cignetti showed up about a year ago at the men’s basketball game against Maryland. He told the crowd:

“Purdue sucks. So does Michigan and Ohio State.”

Coach Curt Cignetti

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought. We’ve heard this before. Just another blowhard coach trying to gin up some false interest in a losing program.

I guess I should have googled him earlier.

Because this guy made his team a bunch of believers. I admit, early on in the season, I didn’t really believe it. I thought it was just some overreaction by a fanbase that’s desperate to be anything other than the hapless Hoosiers. But they kept winning. Big. And I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Because I’d seen this before. You know…fool me once…and all that jazz…

But they kept winning. And winning. And winning some more.

Still lost to Ohio State, though. But they did beat Michigan. Oh, and they brought the Old Oaken Bucket back home in record-breaking fashion.

The Hoosiers are College Football Playoffs

Now, all of a sudden, we find ourselves in a season unlike any other. The Hoosiers visit Notre Dame for the opening round of the College Football Playoffs.

I wouldn’t have believed you if you’d told me about this 10 years ago. Shoot, I wouldn’t have believed you if you’d told me this midway through this year’s season.

But here we are. And I’m ready for it.

I’ll probably cry some tonight

I’m not going to lie, though. I’ll probably cry at some point tonight. Probably when the game begins. Or maybe at the end. I don’t know.

But it won’t be because of anything happening on the field. And it won’t be because of the result (win or lose).

You see, Dad was diagnosed with cancer last year. While he was going through treatment, I decided that once he beat this cancer and regained his strength, we’d go to the next bowl game IU played in – wherever it was.

He finished treatment. Everyone thought he’d won. Maybe this bowl trip wasn’t too far out of the realm of possibility. Cignetti’s team just needed to live up to his hype. A 6-6 season during his first season would be miraculous, but also could be attainable.

Then August hit. They found more cancer in a different place. Then he had a stroke. And things just spiraled out of control. Dad died just a few days before IU ran Purdue out of Memorial Stadium. I’m sure there will be moments when I want to text him about a play that just happened, or some other crazy thing that occurred in the game.

This College Football Playoff game, regardless of the outcome, will have a hint of sadness. I hope you understand

So I’ll cheer my broken heart out for the Hoosiers today. But I’m sure I’ll also ponder what might have been…but isn’t.

Oh, Indiana
Our Indiana
Indiana, WE’RE ALL FOR YOU!

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endnotes

* Ahem. The 2024 AP Coach of the Year. You should Google him.
^ Bill Mallory finished his IU head coaching career with a 47% winning percentage. That’s…not great. But that’s the best winning percentage an IU football coach had had since Bo McMillin (56.1%). He led the program from 1934-1947.
# I was in 8th grade and didn’t really know many seniors. Plus, I’m really not sure if people did open houses back then. I know I didn’t have one when I graduated from high school. And I’m not sure if any of my friends did, either. Unless they did have them and didn’t invite me. Unfortunately, there’s a small chance that really could have been the case.