Above is a picture I took as Coach Curth Cignetti’s 2024 Indiana Hoosiers were making their debut against the Florida International Panthers. The Hoosiers won 31-7. Home game # 1 of the Cignetti era. Attendance: 44,150. Many of those showed up after kickoff for the new coach’s first game and the school that had spent more time perennially losing instead of winning.

Fast-forward. Yesterday a sign was unveiled in the South endzone marking the teams 2025 National Championship. I saw it all last year. I still find time when I have processing issues. It was remarkable, amazing, unlikely, unheard of, and unreal. We’ll never see anything like it again.

Yesterday was a little bit different. Attendance 54,439, beyond published capacity. The Hoosiers defeated the North Texas Mean Green yesterday 52-16. QB Josh Hoover shut down some doubters yesterday. Not only did he hang tough after getting his helmet turned around on his head, but he was also 13-16 for 231 yards and 4 touchdowns…and NO interceptions.

Now kids enjoying their blood on Halloween can either go as Rocky, Gene Simmons, or Josh Hoover. It’ll happen.

Indiana’s offense looked pretty good yesterday. The defense spent more time chasing runners downfield than we saw last year. Who cares? It was 150 degrees on the Memorial Stadium turf yesterday. Folks were falling out all over the stadium. It was hotter on the field. Next game up.

Did you see the end of the Michigan game last night? Unreal. I don’t spend a great deal of time rooting against Michigan. What the Big Ten did to Western Michigan is unforgiveable. The game was clearly over. The last play notwithstanding, Western had so many missed calls that went against them. Holding, facemask, running into the kicker. It was awful. It was blatantly awful.

I joked last night that Bert Jones must have a cousin working as the Michigan clock operator. Of course, this is an allusion to ONE SECOND that was preserved on the clock when Bert was playing QB for LSU in a game in Baton Rouge against Ole Miss in the early 70s. Last night’s ONE SECOND episode may not have been as blatant as Bert’s. Still, it was even worse. There was inexcusable video review in play here in good ole 2026. Michigan won 13-12. What was even more telling that things are worse in Ann Arbor that I ever imagined they could be was when the crowd rushed the field. You win by one point, thanks to the Big Ten refs, over a team you were favored against by nearly 30 points. Then you rush the field. Bo Schembechler would not approve and has obviously been largely forgotten.

Ohio State rolled over Ball State as was expected. The Buckeyes play Texas next week. I think this one is in Austin. Ohio State sits as a slight favorite right now. That’s subject to change. Julian Sayin and Arch Manning. In the parlance of Keith Jackson, “It should be a good one.”

Iowa cruised to a 40-0 victory over Northern Illinois. Looks like Coach Ferentz was a good sport. It was 33-0 at the half.

At the end of the 3rd quarter, Washington is ahead of Washington State in The Apple Cup game. Nice to see these old PAC-12 teams playing each other and keeping this rivalry alive. Husky Stadium is packed in Seattle.

In a similar matchup, Big Ten team UCLA was the visitor at ACC foe California last night. Cal’s stadium was packed and it looked wonderful, as these two old PAC-12 teams were going at it again. Much more fun than watching UCLA play Wisconsin in a conference game. UCLA pulled away. Tied 24 each at the end of the third quarter, UCLA put up 21 uncontested points in the 4th to win it 45-24.

Oregon had a time with Boise State yesterday. 34-27 was the final score in favor of the Ducks. It was tied 27 up. This was a game played at Oregon. I made mention in my college football preview that I believe Oregon losing both their OC and their DC to supposedly greener pastures (greener bank for sure) will have an adverse effect on said Ducks. We’ll see.

My Mississippi mother was aghast this afternoon when I told her I had picked the Louisville Cardinals to beat the Ole Miss Rebels tonight in a game played in Nashville. “Why would you do that?” That was the question I had to answer. I told her I was for the Rebs too. I just feel this a Jeff Brohm W in the making. This neutral site favors Louisville. Why? It’s just down I-65 and Brohm was successful once upon a time along that road in Bowling Green, Kentucky at WKU. That, and I think U of L’s running game will go and go tonight. Yes. I am for the Rebs, Mom. Hotty Toddy!