Indiana football is on course to play for the Big Ten Championship and earn a spot in its second straight College Football Playoff.

The Hoosiers had dominated their previous three Big Ten opponents, winning by 45 at Maryland, 50 over UCLA, and 25 over Michigan State. Saturday at Penn State hinted briefly at another rout—until the Nittany Lions flipped a 20-7 deficit into a 24-20 lead late in the fourth quarter.

With 1:51 left and no timeouts, Indiana faced 80 yards to go with Penn State holding all momentum. The Hoosiers’ previous three possessions had yielded an interception and two punts. Their top receiver, preseason All-American Elijah Sarratt, remained sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Omar Cooper’s circus catch capped an epic, game-winning drive IU football needed, and got, Saturday.

How many times have Indiana football fans seen this movie? IU gets a last chance in a tight game against a more talented opponent and fails to get it done. 

IU had never faced stakes this high, second-ranked, trying to stay unbeaten at Beaver Stadium against a prideful Penn State team that entered the season as a national championship favorite but arrived reeling from five straight losses and the dismissal of its head coach a month earlier.

Then came the sack and a seven-yard loss… 87 yards from the end zone with the clock rolling.

With the Penn State crowd roaring, quarterback Fernando Mendoza, under pressure all afternoon, found Omar Cooper Jr. for 22 yards on a seam route. An out route to EJ Williams moved the ball to midfield. After an incompletion, Mendoza fired over the middle to tight end Riley Nowakowski and into PSU territory. 

The drive’s unsung hero sophomore Charlie Becker, thrust into the starting role with Sarratt injured, next made a terrific catch on second-and-10 from Penn State’s 24. Mendoza threw a laser to Becker, who absorbed a hit at the catch point and held on for a 17-yard gain.

With 0:48 left, Indiana now had first-and-goal from the seven. Penn State sent all-out blitzes twice. Incomplete both times, Mendoza hit as he threw both times.

Third-and-goal. Another blitz. Mendoza leaped, threw off his back foot while eating the hit. The ball streaked to the middle endzone’s deepest point, where Cooper rose up, snagged it at its peak, and dragged his left toe inside the line as his body carried him out of bounds.

Touchdown. Indiana 27, Penn State 24. 

Indiana’s first-ever win at Happy Valley improved the Hoosiers to 10-0 in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history.

“We refused to lose,” Curt Cignetti said afterward. “In the bleakest, most dire moments it was the most improbable victory I’ve ever been a part of.”

This marked the third time this season Mendoza has led a game-winning fourth-quarter touchdown drive on the road, following similar heroics at Iowa (20-15) and Oregon (30-20). 

All three came after costly fourth-quarter interceptions. Mendoza has turned mistakes into his finest moments.

“When [Mendoza] got sacked, in that moment how many people in this room counted us out?” Cignetti asked during postgame remarks.

His stat line — 19-for-30, 218 yards, one passing touchdown, one interception, one rushing touchdown — won’t dominate highlight reels. But Heisman moments are measured in drives that define championships.

“If you’re looking for a Heisman moment, that was it,” said linebacker Aidan Fisher.

Mendoza, characteristically, deflected. “Our goal isn’t to win the Heisman,” he insisted. “Our goal is to go 1-0 against Wisconsin, beat Purdue, and have our best playoff yet.” (Indiana has never had a Heisman Trophy winner, though running back Anthony Thompson was runner-up in 1989.)

He’s earned a seat at the New York Athletic Club ceremony in five weeks. Three clutch road victories. A signature drive, capped with a circus catch and clutch comeback victory. A program that’s never won like this, winning like this.

When Cignetti arrived from James Madison, he brought with him the wild notion that Indiana could be elite, that Memorial Stadium could host a contender, that IU could hunt rings.

Cig is currently 21-2 at IU, with a roster has been middling at best — 67th nationally in talent, per recruiting rankings of blue-chip prospects. (Penn State sits 10th.)

Here’s what he’s built in less than two years:

  • A program that refuses to accept its own history
  • A culture that expects to win anywhere, anytime
  • A team that plays at its best when circumstance demands it

Fittingly, Saturday’s win relinquished — to Northwestern — the dubious title of college football’s all-time losing-est program. All yours, Mildcats.

Saturday at Beaver Stadium, Indiana football became something it has never been before, a program that wins games it once would have lost.