REALITY FINDS THE HOOSIERS. That was my first post-game headline after the Old Dominion opener. The photo above was taken with twelve and a half minutes until kickoff. The stadium will be full twelve minutes before kickoff for the 2026 opener.

In the first game of the season, there was a sense of the “pucker factor” playing out when the much-anticipated season finally kicked off for the 2025 edition of Indiana University Football. On the first snap of the game, Old Dominion QB Colton Joseph ran 75 yards for six. When IU got the ball in the early going, it seemed we saw more dropped passes in that first half out of the Hoosiers than we saw all of 2024. IU QB Fernando Mendoza was a pedestrian 18 of 31 for 193 yards and 0 touchdowns. Indiana won 27-14. Turning one’s head sideways after a victory in Bloomington was a new phenomenon for me. Things have to get better, I thought. Things did get better in week two.

In game two, the Kennesaw State University Owls made their first trip to Memorial Stadium. As Tim Brando and Devin Gardner called this one on FS1, Indiana put on a show. Indiana 56 Kennesaw State 9. The Hoosiers pass game improved. 21 of 28 for 280 yards and 5 TDs. Big brother Fernando threw 4 of them. Little brother Alberto Mendoza threw one too. The Hoosiers gained 313 yards on the ground in this one. Lee Beebe Jr. led the way with 90 yards on 11 carries. Beebe would go down with a noncontact injury the next week and be lost for the season. Kaelon Black and Roman Hemby have adequately shared the main rushing chores with 2020 yards between the two of them heading into the CFP Championship game. Defensively, the Hoosiers held KSU to 89 yards rushing on 32 carries while creating two turnovers and stymying the Owls to only converting 2 of 13 3rd down conversions.

For all the accolades the Indiana offense has rightly received with the Heisman Trophy winner under center, the IU defense has been just as spectacular only giving up 11.1 points per game through 15 games heading into the National Championship Game against the Miami Hurricanes on Monday night.

After a 73-0 practice game against Indiana State, the #9 ranked Illinois team came calling to Bloomington’s Memorial Stadium for a rare primetime matchup on NBC. Todd Blackledge sounded stupefied a few times during his 2nd half analysis. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was just saying what the rest of us were thinking.

And so, it was on. Game after game. Win after win. Hoosier fans losing their voices and apologizing the next day for sounding like gravel. I was there. Even when I wasn’t at the game, I was there in voice. When Omar Cooper Jr, came down on his inside foot, somehow, against Penn State, you know the play, I thought I had ruptured a vocal cord.

After a 56-3 win over Purdue, it was on to The Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis.

Having been in attendance the last time Indiana beat Ohio State in 1988, the win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game felt as much like an exorcism as it did what it was which meant the Hoosiers were finally Big Ten Champs in my lifetime. I missed the last Rose Bowl in 1968 by two and half months. I wasn’t going to miss this one.

When the confetti flew after the Hoosiers beat Ohio State, there was a sense of elation over Hoosier Football Nation. None of us knew how good that was going to feel. It really happened. Finally.

On to The Rose Bowl. Indiana dismantled Alabama to the point where, had she been alive to see it, Aunt Barbara, a staunch Ole Miss fan, would have said, “Bless their hearts. Alabam-er was terrible. Indi-an-er didn’t even feel sorry for them.” Indiana won 38-3.

The Hoosiers were not finished after Pasadena. They moved on to The Peach Bowl.

The Peach Bowl was much of the same. Indiana won it on the first play of the game when DeAngelo Ponds intercepted Oregon QB Dante Moore’s first pass and returned it for an Indiana score. The route was on. 35-7 at halftime. In six quarters of Playoff Football, Indiana had outscored Alabama and Oregon 73-10. Incredible. Through two CFP games Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza has completed 31 of 36 passes with 8 TDs and 0 INTs. Three more touchdowns than incompletions. Amazing. We’ve never seen the likes. No one has. I know. I know what Joe Burrow did with LSU in 2019. I saw it. I can read. That was impressive too.

This past week the football “Mouth of the South”, our friend Paul Finebaum, called himself a “football snob”. That just didn’t sound right. Me calling Paul Finebaum a football snob is sensible. Paul calling himself that is nonsensical. Much like the statement he made this week, and I paraphrase, that if Indiana wins the National Championship, the Hoosiers will be remembered similarly to the 1984 BYU team that finished #1 after defeating a 6-5 Michigan team in The Holiday Bowl. Now that’s more like it! That’s a football snob talking! We know what he has to say for the SEC Shield. It’ll be ‘fine’.

Back to what is important. The most satisfying piece of writing I have ever put down was a paper I wrote in college about the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team. You know. The Miracle on Ice. I tracked down Coach Herb Brooks in Utica, New York. During this telephone interview with Coach Brooks my writing hand was trembling as I took notes. Even if the Indiana Hoosiers beat the Miami Hurricanes in the National Championship Game by a score of 50-0 on Monday, that win won’t impress me as much as The Miracle on Ice.

At the end of the 2004 movie Miracle portraying the story of The Miracle on Ice, Kurt Russell, playing the part of Herb Brooks, said his (Brooks’) favorite moment from that time was when his team was being awarded their Gold Medals standing on top as The Star-Spangled Banner was played in honor of his team. If you know what he said later in the scene, you know why I bit my lip a bit watching what college football has become these days. She ain’t what she used to be. I don’t want to know what Keith Jackson would say. I have played this out in my head and written about it here. Keith said it already. When he was quizzed about the state of college football at the 2017 Rose Bowl between USC and Penn State by Chris Fowler with Kirk Herbstreit watching on, Keith Jackson said one problem was television. He said, “Oversaturation. “Too much coverage.” Chris and Kirk danced around a bit, and they were glad to be heading into commercial. Keith saw it coming. Keith saw TV dollars doing their part to cause the situation college football finds itself in here and now. Have dollars, quarterback will travel. Ask the Duke Blue Devils.

For me, if the Indiana Hoosiers beat the Miami Hurricanes 50-0 in the National Championship Game on Monday, that victory won’t mean as much as The Rose Bowl. Being that Midwest kid who follows college football and lived for that matchup at the end of the year that played out in The Rose Bowl between The Big Ten and The PAC 10, seeing Indiana play in the Canyon at Arroyo Seco was a life’s dream come true. Do I wish it would have been USC from the old days instead of Alabam-er? Of course. But beating the crap out of the Crimson Tide was as good a substitute as one could ask for.

If you would ask me what my favorite moment of The Rose Bowl was, I would say just looking out seeing the Hoosiers on the field. I didn’t want it to end. When Jarrett and I got back to our hotel in LA, we watched the second half of Georgia-Ole Miss. The Rebs won! When that was over, a replay of The Rose Bowl was next. I sat there and watched every play again.

When I got home, I sat on the couch and watched it again with the ability to rewind or fast forward anything I wanted to. Something caught my attention. Kaelon Black’s 25-yard TD run to make the score 30-3. I know the play well.

When I watched this touchdown run over and over and over again, something even more special revealed itself. You see, Kaelon Black is one of those 13 James Madison Dukes who followed Coach Curt Cignetti to Indiana. We can’t quantify the significance of having these guys in the Indiana locker room and the Indiana weight room and on the Indiana practice field to show the rest of the guys the way. The Curt Cignetti way. Without those 13, including Aiden Fisher and Elijah Sarratt, I’m not here typing this. I don’t make it The Rose Bowl to see the Indiana Hoosiers play instead of the USC-UCLA game that I hope to get back to see again someday (providing it is played in The Rose Bowl Stadium). Without the 13 from James Madison, my dream of seeing the Indiana Hoosiers in The Rose Bowl doesn’t come true. I’m not the only one that gets that. After Kaelon Black’s TD, Coach Cig found #8 on the sideline and shook his hand. Coach took off his headset, stepped back, found his old JMU back and shook his hand. You can see some around them looking on like I was. This was special. This was the essence of why I sit here and wind this up and say again, Go Hoosiers!

We’re almost there. Keep working. Every play a life of its own.