by On being an Indiana Hoosiers football fan, Part 3. Part 2
The Michigan Wolverines came to Bloomington, bringing their championship pedigree and NFL-caliber roster to a sold-out Memorial Stadium. They lost. The Indiana football renaissance under Coach Curt Cignetti marches on.
Back on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, more than 150 million Americans went to the polls to cast their vote.
Indiana Hoosiers head football coach Curt Cignetti received 487 of them.
That’s what an instant legend Coach Cig has become, in the greatest season Indiana football has experienced.
With Saturday’s 20-15 win over reigning national champions Michigan, the No. 5 Hoosiers have their first 10-win football season and with two games left to play. The Allstate ‘playoff predictor’ gives Indiana a 92% likelihood of making the CFP. (But: Tell that to Florida State).
So far this season, IU easily defeated UCLA on the road; dismantled a stellar Nebraska defense in a 49-point rout in Bloomington a month ago, serving notice to the nation that they were a force to be reckoned with; and then one week ago, after spotting the Spartans a 10-point lead in the first quarter at East Lansing, unleashed an avalanche of unanswered points on MSU.
I am so grateful to finally have this breakout moment for Indiana football while I’m still breathing. I never thought it would happen.
This was Phi Gamma Delta’s Dads Weekend 2024. To be reconnected to IU and my fraternity, as I currently am with son John and his FIJI boys enjoying their senior year, goes above and beyond.
(And, what a semester!! Check out the FIJI buzzer-beater to win the IU Greek Basketball Association championship… The IU champs now advance to meet Purdue’s GBA winners on the floor of Mackey Arena in December)
Great to see everyone again this weekend. It’s been a tremendous pleasure to get to know these 30 terrific college seniors and their fathers. Four years just flew by.
Friday night the town was absolutely lit and although Saturday postgame was more diffuse (the 3:30 kick meant that many had long been cocktailing already), it was nevertheless crowded on Kirkwood (the bars). Our group hung out mostly at FIJI afterwards.
John and I were among 53,000 LOUD attendees Saturday in a ballgame that went down to the final two minutes. It wasn’t pretty and IU had to earn this one — but the defense came up big.
After leading at the half, 17-3, IU needed — and got — a defensive stand late, forcing a turnover on downs in the final Michigan possession to preserve the win.
Clinging to a five-point lead with 1:41 remaining, the Hoosier defense stopped the Wolverines a yard short on a 4th-and-10 from the Michigan 33. The IU offense then gained one final first down when QB Kurtis Rourke (17-for-28, 206 yards, 2 TDs 1 INT) sneaked across the marker in his only QB “keeper” attempt of the game, a brilliant call to get IU into victory formation.
Indiana held Michigan to its fewest total yards (206) since 2016. Not even Michigan superfan Conor Stalions could have helped their anemic attack. Just, you know… As a super fan.
Meanwhile, the Michigan fans near us didn’t cover themselves in glory. They were “too cool for school” when IU was up early, and the moment the Wolverines got back in the game, it was shit-talkin’ time.
“JAMES MADISON, MY ASS!” Oh, and we got to hear lots of unsolicited, in-depth analysis brought from the gridiron mountaintop down to us newbies. With the final stop of the ballgame on fourth, my man in the Brady jersey behind me was OUT, hastily blazing a path down the row.
We called out, “BYE!!” to the delight and similar piling-on by surrounding seatmates and we got no response from him.
Speaking of BYE…
Indiana has a bye week next week before traveling to Columbus to face No. 2 Ohio State on November 23. The Hoosiers close out the regular season against Purdue at home on November 30. Indiana and Oregon remain the only two Big Ten teams that have yet to lose this season.
Now, about that bye week. Giving Coach Cig and this staff an extra week to prepare for Ohio State, while it goes off and plays next weekend (at NU) is borderline unfair.
From the offensive line to defensive secondary, Indiana has demonstrated week in and week out all season how well prepared it is for each opponent. IU has maximized every previous opportunity. Its average margin of victory is a Big Ten-best 30 points. Michigan is the only team to get within 14 points of the Hoosiers.
When facing NFL talent all over the field, IU made the plays that mattered while Michigan settled for field goals.
Cig, who is a lock for national COY, called his shot the moment he was introduced last December at Assembly Hall, “Purdue sucks… So does Michigan and Ohio State!!”
The Hoosiers are ballin’. You’re on notice, OSU. We’re coming for you.
UPDATE: 10-1 #2 Ohio State 38, #5 Indiana 15
The Hoosiers posted a great first drive and we had ’em. And then two punt-team blunders turned the game around. Defense played well as usual, but credit goes to the Buckeyes for limiting our offense and blowing up the QB five times.
Whatever doubts there might have been regarding IU’s playoff chances with the loss vaporized with the SEC chaos that rained down Saturday with key losses by Ole Miss, Bama and Texas A&M. Win Saturday versus Purdue and we are IN.
The Hoosiers’ historic season rolls onward.
UPDATE #2 Tuesday 11/26
The #10 Hoosiers also landed in the 10-slot in tonight’s CFP rankings update. Win, and my school is in the Playoff.
Oh, and I wanted to get something on the record before any more time passes. Saturday on the first play after IU’s late and unsuccessful onside kick, OSU ran a draw play which should’ve gone for six but the running back instead hook-slided at the 1-yard line to retain possession and run clock. Kinda needless up by 15, but okay. Next play was Victory, with about :55 to play. The Buckeyes downed it and let both the play and game clocks run down — before FAKING Victory on the next play and punching it in for the rub-it-in score. Afterward Ryan Day told the sideline reporter, “Leave no doubt.”
Cignetti is not going to forget this. We’ll see you fuckers at Memorial Stadium next Fall.
Stuart Wade 
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