BLOOMINGTON— It is not true that the Indiana University football team is planning to change its nickname from Hoosiers to Juggernauts. Not yet. Despite the team repeatedly devouring opponents with the ferocity and lack of mercy of a velociraptor.
Once again, Saturday, IU showed up for a weekly assignment with a “What’s-for-lunch?” mentality, destroying visiting Nebraska, 56-7, and turning the Cornhuskers into just another Western Illinois instead of a feared Big Ten opponent.
Freedman
Flexing the muscle of an overpowering offense, combined with a hungry defense, the victory lifted IU to 7-0 for the first time since 1967, 4-0 in the conference. It can be argued this was one of the most significant Hoosier triumphs of the last century. No exaggeration, that.
“It was a wonderful day at the office,” said running back Justice Ellison, who meted out his own form of justice by rushing for 105 yards and two touchdowns. That included an almost-immediate 43-yard run that made Ellison think, “This is going to be a long day for them.”
It was.
About that last century. There may not be another well-known football program where losing has been so ingrained as at Indiana, with the school’s all-time record about 200 games under the .500 break-even point.
If it is too bold to say new coach Curt Cignetti has flipped the culture before Halloween in his first season, he most certainly has changed the narrative. Not only is the perennially losing program nationally ranked, (moving up from 16th last week to 13th currently) tickets to remaining IU home games are almost as scarce as Taylor Swift tickets for her Indianapolis concerts in November.
Well, maybe not quite, but Cignetti’s bunch of transfers and last-minute recruits have people talking crazy stuff. There were whispers the Hoosiers could contend for a national championship and serious mention of reaching the College Football Playoff.
Certainly not by Cignetti, though, the ultimate one-day-at-a-time coach. And not by players, many of whom were playing for James Madison last year. When asked how it felt to make IU history, defensive back D’Angelo Ponds said, “I see it on the Internet, but nobody tells me.”
For Homecoming weekend, it felt Nebraska was out-numbered, not only by a steamrolling Hoosier football team, but by a crowd of 53,082, and reinforcements like singer John Mellencamp, who lives in Bloomington and has an honorary degree from the school. He also had a campus sculpture of himself unveiled Friday,
Joey Chestnut, the competitive hot-dog-eating king, of Westfield, bested some student challengers in a 45-second-long corn-eating contest on the “Big Noon Kickoff” show on campus.
That was show business, but the football players turned the game into showtime. The offense, again led by superlative quarterback Kurtis Rourke, gained 495 yards, and the defense picked off three passes, recovered two fumbles, and held the Cornhuskers (5-2) to 70 yards rushing.
A well-timed interception made by defensive back Shawn Asbury off quarterback Dylan Raiola (28-44, 234 yards), as Nebraska threatened, was returned 78 yards and led to a 35-7 IU lead. Although downed by a last-man-in-the-way at the 19-yard-line, Asbury believed he was gone.
“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “I didn’t even see where he came from.”
That could have been Nebraska’s lament. Often, IU scored with the laser-speed usually seen only in “Star Wars” movies. Among the Hoosier TD drives were series lasting just 1 minute, 10 seconds, 1:17, 1:55 and 2:19. That contributed to the odd and meaningless statistic of Nebraska, leading in time of possession at 32:08 to 27:52.
To say Nebraska was dazzled and dizzied was an understatement.
“This happened on my watch,” said Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who was viewed as restoring Cornhusker football glory. “And I’ll be honest, I didn’t see this coming. I’m not embarrassed of our players, but I’m embarrassed about the job I did.”
Nobody saw the proportion of the blowout coming, even though in its previous games IU had scored 31, 77, 42, 52, 42, and 41 points.
Rourke and his cohort of receivers have been unstoppable, regularly combining for plays demanding replay showings on highlight TV programs. If Rourke (17-21, 189 yards) put the ball anywhere in the vicinity, an acrobatic catch was made. Elijah Sarratt, Miles Cross (seven catches), Myles Price and Omar Cooper Jr. regularly made magic.
The one downer was Rourke missing the second half with an injured throwing-hand thumb. Cignetti said Rourke lost a thumbnail and Sunday, the school announced he will miss this Saturday’s home game against Washington. Back-up Tayven Jackson entered and completed seven-of-eight tries for two touchdowns.
The Hoosiers have stifled hints of braggadocio, and players and coaches repeat the line about having a chip on their shoulders so uniformly it is as if the words are the chorus in the school fight song. Cignetti dreads complacency so much he is bucking for an academy award acting nomination, even with things going well.
“I was a maniac in the fourth quarter of this game, a maniac,” Cignetti said. “But we responded.”
Not even Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood seemed as wonderful as Hoosier Nation’s after this win.