We’ll talk about it as long as we have good memories and still know each other’s names. Thirty years on, Gus Stephenson and I still laugh about the day we were in Bloomington, Indiana watching the Southern Miss Golden Eagles as they flew into Memorial Stadium for an afternoon affair with the Indiana Hoosiers on the gridiron. Thanks to a blocked field-goal at the end of the game, Indiana pulled the game out 29-27 in a September game that would be Indiana’s second win of a 2-9 season. Thank God we didn’t play 12 back then.

My dad attended Southern Miss and earned a bachelor’s degree in education. A few years after my parents moved north to Indiana, dad enrolled in a master’s degree program at Indiana University. He completed that course of study as well. Though it was 1995, ten years since my dad was blowing a whistle in my and Gus’ direction to let us know a football play was over or it was time to head to “the hill” to see which North Harrison Cougar football player was going to pass out first, Gus looked at my dad and said, “Coach, who are you going to be for today?” My dad sprang out of his seat, pulled up his Indiana Hoosiers sweatshirt and yelled, “I can’t lose, Gus!” Under his nice red sweatshirt was a nice golden t-shirt that proudly displayed a classic USM. I can’t lose Gus.

That is where I am today, Gus. I can’t lose. Well, I can’t completely lose.

Y’all know where my football allegiance lies. I was born a Hoosier and can find my way to Memorial Stadium walking backwards with a blindfold on. That does not change the fact that after Indiana fired Coach Bill Mallory on Halloween Day in 1996, I fired Indiana. Oh my, was I ever mad. And I hardly ever get mad. Firing Coach Mal did it. Coach Mallory, hired in 1984, made Indiana Football respectable. Before Coach Mallory came to Indiana, the Hoosiers had played in a grand total of TWO bowl games in school history. Coach Mal took the Hoosiers to 6 bowl games in 13 seasons. And this was when a bowl game was a bowl game. The College Football Playoff was a long way from watering down the bowl games that have more than doubled in bowl game number since 1995. Getting to a Bowl game in the 1980s and 90s was a very big deal.

Yep. When Coach Mallory was fired, I fired Indiana. I looked to my Mississippi roots and found a new team to invest my heart in. Learning the words and the proper cadence of “Hotty Toddy!” was a joy. Watching Deuce McAllister run through the middle toward a Heisman Trophy hopeful seaon was fun. When the Rebs came to Vandy I was there. When the Rebs made it to Lexington I was there. Over the years, I have seen the Rebels play in as many towns and more stadiums than I have seen the Hoosiers play in. Jackson, Oxford, Lexington, Nashville, Shreveport, Winston-Salem, Knoxville, and Tuscaloosa are where I have seen Ole Miss play. I’ve attended Indiana games in Bloomington, Champaign, Indianapolis, Bowling Green, Iowa City, Lexington, Shreveport, and Pasadena. 8 to 8.

My parents were both born in Mississippi. I nearly was. My mother had sixteen brothers and sisters. There are more cousins than I can name without some coaching. The number of relatives that “finished at Oxford” (they like to say that, or at least they used to) dwarfs the number of family that graduated from Indiana. Most of that number I fortunately married into. And my dear wife, Carrie, loves football too.

So you know where I am going with this. Yes. I think Ole Miss will defeat Miami tonight. I think Indiana will defeat Oregon for a second time this season tomorrow night. And let me say, while I have no animosity toward Oregon, they haven’t been in The Big Ten since lunch and there is no need to despise them yet, if this Oregon team was wearing Cream and Crimson heading into the playoffs this year they would have been given the treatment Indiana was given last year. No respect. Oregon’s schedule this season has not been very demanding. They shouldn’t have a player on their team hurting anywhere. I know, I say that and maybe I should just keep my mouth shut. But after the way Indiana has been ridden like a sore mule by so many SEC pundits, I said it.

Weeks ago I declared Ole Miss to be the biggest threat to Indiana’s ability to hoist a trophy that says CFP National Champions on it. That they made the plays to come back and defeat Georgia in The Sugar Bowl was not at all an aberration to these eyes. And my inclination that Ole Miss has the goods was long before Lane Kiffin jumped ship and gave these boys even more reserve. Oh Lord, I thought, look out!

My affinity for Ole Miss did have legs before Coach Mallory was fired at IU. In 1988, when Indiana was in the best of times of the Coach Mal days, the first of my mother’s sixteen siblings died in April, April 18th. My Uncle Durwood Hines had a brain tumor. We still miss him. He and his wife, my Aunt Barbara, had no children. In the fall of 1989, Aunt Barbara took me to Memorial Stadium in Jackson to see Ole Miss play Arkansas. We repeated this at the same place with the same teams in 1991. In the 90s and into Eli Manning’s senior year in 2003, Aunt Barbara and I took in games at Oxford, Lexington, and she came up to witness a few Indiana games too. She considered the Indiana Football experience in Bloomington to be “quaint”. Aunt Barbara left us two football seasons ago. What I would not have given to have called her on the phone from The Rose Bowl last week and asked, “How do you like us now?” She would have said, “Y’all have come a long way, Danny. I’m happy for you.” With the seasons Indiana and Ole Miss are having in 2025, Aunt Barbara and I would have been burning up the telephone and thankful we didn’t have long distance bills like we used to.

Indiana University is finding success thanks to two reasons. They put in their thumb and pulled out a plum in head coach Curt Cignetti. In doing so, Indiana has also decided to make football a priority like it never was before and it shows. The lack of institutional interest had long been a sore spot with football people like me. And we went through some coaches that were doozies. I tried to warm up to Cam Cameron. Gerry Dinardo felt it. No help from admin. Tragically we lost Coach Hep. He was turning things around. Kevin Wilson was a disaster. Coach Allen is a guy I really liked. And I hate that it did not work out for him. He walked out of Bloomington with plenty of presidents in his pockets. I don’t feel bad for Tom. Thankfully, Indiana hired some administrators wanting football to succeed. Thankfully too they hired Coach Cig. There is not a better football coach in the land and he coaches the Indiana Hoosiers. Say that three times and let it sink in.

Don’t ask me how many football games I have seen in Bloomington. I wish I knew. I go back to the early 70s there. How many basketball games have I seen at IU? One. Uno. 1-sy. Had Oklahoma beaten Alabama in the first round of the CFP and probably given Indiana a little competition in The Rose Bowl, the Sooners would have been the 80th FBS team I have seen play in person. I’m stuck on 79. Paul Finebaum probably doesn’t believe someone in Indiana like me exists.

Should the Ole Miss Rebels come calling to Miami to take on the Indiana Hoosiers on January 19th, I won’t be there. Attending The Rose Bowl was the top of the mountain for me. I know. I’m getting ahead of myself. There’s still business to take care of for the Rebs and the Hoosiers. The Hoosiers don’t make mistakes. If Indiana continues to play with the same resolve and result they won’t be defeated. One lost fumble in game one and NONE since. 7 first downs given up by penalty ALL SEASON. Turnover ratio +18. 76 touchdowns scored to 13 scored by their opponents. You don’t get this far and then fart do you? Yeah, I know. We have seen it before, right? Have we? I don’t think so. This isn’t Florida. This isn’t Nebraska. This isn’t Alabama. This isn’t Clemson. This is an Indiana team that has been more dominant this season than most anything college football has ever thrown at us. And even with their stellar performances, some will never accept greatness from Indiana of all places.

The Rebels make me nervous. Their quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss, is akin to an Indiana story. He too came from out of nowhere and is leading like few have before him. Should Indiana play Ole Miss for the title game and I think they will, I WILL NOT be wearing an Ole Miss T-Shirt (and I have many) under my Indiana sweatshirt. Still, I will be able to say, even if I have to grit my teeth a little under the circumstance, “I can’t lose!” Not a bad dilemma at all. Go Hoosiers!