Another NFL Hall of Fame class announced and another year of the deciders getting it bad wrong!

Over the years I have made my distain at Hall of Fames known. Baseball? Pete Rose. I don’t know what Pete did or did not do with betting slips. Fortunately, I saw Pete Rose play many games at Riverfront Stadium in Cincy. I do know what Pete Rose could do with the lumber in his hand. I do know what Pete Rose could do on the base paths. He gave everything. I do know what Pete Rose could do with a glove on in the infield. While George Foster is my all-time favorite Cincinnati Red, when Pete Rose came up to bat something was different. There was a “feeling” in Riverfront that only Pete Rose could deliver.

The last time I saw Pete play was in 1985. He was a player-manager. In an extra-inning game against the Atlanta Braves, Pete inserted himself as a pinch-hitter. He connected, the runner from 2nd, Eddie Milner maybe, scored. This game was on NBC’s Saturday Game of the Week. According to a friend of mine, Russell Harrell, my jumping up and down attracted a nearby camera man. “Damn, there’s Cheeze!” is what came out of Hurricane Harrell’s wide-open mouth.

I have driven past the exit to the Baseball Hall of Fame more than sixteen times in upstate New York. I have never been compelled to take the exit.

It wasn’t until 2018 did I make a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. FINALLY… after 25 years of being eligible, The Moody Blues were enshrined in this hall in April of that year. FINALLY! This was special. At this point, I had seen the last of my Moodies shows from 1986 to 2017 more than 50 shows. The last concert they played was a benefit in a hotel ballroom with a low ceiling in California. Class to the end.

So here we are again. The question about Ken Anderson and the Hall of Fame. I have driven past the Pro Football Hall of Fame exit in Canton the same number of times I have driven by the Baseball Hall of Fame. I pass both on the way to the Berkshires in Massachusetts.

Look, I know Ken Anderson did not win the Super Bowl he played in. Down 20-0 at halftime is hard to overcome. 26-21 was the final score in Super Bowl XVI. The Bengals turned the ball over 4 times. Cris Collinsworth, after catching an Anderson pass, fumbled at the 5-yard line. Still, Ken Anderson was one of the best. He led the league in passing in 1974, 1975,1981, and 1982. The only man to do that in two decades. For YEARS he owned the record for completion percentage in a game and a season. In 1982 his 70.6 bested the record held by Sammy Baugh from 1945 at 70.3. Anderson’s record stood until 2009 when Drew Brees bested it.

Ken Anderson was one of the best football players to step foot on the field.

This year Ken Anderson was a finalist in the “senior” category for induction to Pro Football Hall of Fame. The voters got it wrong again. I will continue to drive by Canton.

Okay. This is still awkward for me. I remember when the Seattle Seahawks got here 50 years ago. Jim Zorn threw 27 interceptions that year. I remember it from his football card. Didn’t matter. He was fun to watch. Throwing the ball to Steve Largent (54 receptions if football card memory serves and I am going PURELY on that) was his task. The guy from Tulsa, Largent, was a guy that the Cowboys turned away. He is in Canton now. Give me Steve Largent on one side. Give me Isaac Curtis on one side. Give me Jerry Rice in the slot. We win.

Why awkward? I still see the Seattle Seahawks in the AFC West. From 1976 to 2001, the Seahawks were an AFC team. I know. I know. Change. Progress. Whatever. Still, my football card Seahawk heroes played in the AFC West and had great games against Dan Fouts. So there. That is how I like to remember the Seahawks.

Still, I press onward and I root for their quarterback, Sam Darnold in 2026. Sam and I are old friends.

This is Sam Darnold. Redshirt Freshman and playing quarterback for the USC Trojans. From the time I laid eyes on him playing UCLA in The Rose Bowl stadium in November 2016, I became a fan. His command of the position at that age was something to behold.

A few weeks later, in that same stadium, THE ROSE BOWL, Sam Darnold led the USC Trojans to a 52-49 victory in what was, until Indiana kicked Alabama all over THE ROSE BOWL turf, the Rose Bowl I have enjoyed watching the most since. I have that game on my DVR. I have the UCLA-USC game he played in on the DVR too. Truth be told, I upgraded our DirecTV a week before my dad and I went to Pasadena to see that game because I wanted to hang on to it. I did. And I still watch it now and again. Memories.

Will I hang on to Sam Darnold’s Super Bowl win over the Patriots for ten years on my DVR? I doubt it. I love college football more than I do the NFL. But I will hang onto it for a while. Go Seahawks!

Each January 24th I think about it all over again. I still don’t like it. The hurt is still there.

Much like we just witnessed the greatest college football story in history when the Indiana Hoosiers went 16-0 and ended a season that will be talked about for a long time, the 1981 NFL season too had gridiron renaissance qualities. The Cincinnati Bengals played the San Francisco 49ers in Pontiac, Michigan in an indoor stadium called The Silverdome in Super Bowl XVI. The last time I saw The Silverdome the massive parking lot was working as a drive-in theater.

In 1980, both the Bengals and the 49ers finished the regular season with 6-10 records. The teams turned things around in 1981 like nothing we have seen since. The Bengals were 12-4 and the Niners were 13-3. It was a case of which Cinderella do you root for?

In 1981, Coach Bill Walsh gave the 49ers keys to the offense to a young quarterback a couple of years removed from Notre Dame named Joe Montana. The Niners had the whole package. Offensively they worked magic with their passing game. Their run game was less than stellar. Ricky Patton led their ground attack with less than 600 yards. Earl Cooper and Paul Hofer and a couple other guys carried the ball too. Where the Niners were really stout was on defense. Ronnie Lott, Dwight Hicks, Carlton Williamson, and Eric Wright were a defensive backfield to behold. Fred Dean and Jim Stuckey were on the D-Line. Keena Turn and Hacksaw Reynolds playing linebackers were not guys you wanted meeting you while you were running the ball. I know Joe Montana had the goods for the duration of his career. He shined much brighter in years to come. For the game Montana was 14 of 22 for 157 yards in Super Bowl XVI. Sounds like Mendoza numbers from Monday night. The defense won it this time for San Francisco.

The Bengals didn’t help themselves in Super Bowl XVI. Ken Anderson threw two interceptions, and two fumbles were lost also. One by Archie Griffin and the other by Cris Collinsworth.

While Joe Montana was the young hotshot, Ken Anderson was working on his 11th NFL season when success finally came around. The AFC Central was a brutal division in the 1970s and early 80s. Getting past the Pittsburgh Steelers just didn’t happen in those days.

For me, the game turned to the 49ers when Ken Anderson suffered a shot to the head that would be more than illegal today when, on the Bengals’ first drive, Jim Stuckey rocked Anderson’s world, and Anderson came up a bit wobbly. He stayed in the game. On the next play, the most accurate QB in the league threw an interception. Dwight Hicks looked like the intended receiver, and he returned the oskie 27 yards the other way. The Bengals went into the locker room at halftime down 20-0.

The final score was 26-21. The Bengals just couldn’t put up enough points in a valiant comeback. Ken Anderson was 25-34 300 yards and 2 TDs. I still pull this game up on YouTube now and again. There never a pro football team that I enjoyed watching more. I still feel that way, all these years on.

In the Indiana School Fight Song, Indiana, Our Indiana, the words “Never Daunted” show up. After Monday night, the Indiana Hoosiers Football Team finally caught up with its fans. Fans that I know by name. Fans I know by geography. Give me an Indiana map, the one that is shaped just like that wonderful outline with a big “I” on it hanging in Assembly Hall. The one that used to be at center court of that hallowed hall. I will show you places on that map where Indiana fans, Never Daunted, are located. Fans that have been Never Daunted for decades.

Did you see the crowd at The Big Ten Championship Game? I did. Count me as being there. Beating Ohio State used to be the end all be all. This time, more work was to be done.

Did you see the crowd at The Rose Bowl? I did. Count me as being there too. My senses were on such overload that day, all I could think was, and I told our son, Jarrett, “I don’t want this to end.” The most emotion I felt all day was when Indiana’s Marching Hundred played Indiana, Our Indiana. Those words “Never Daunted” were sung loudly and proudly. For me, the best moment of that song was when the last note of the song ended and the Indiana faithful sounded like thunder through the Canyon at Arroyo Seco when the faithful yelled, at the end of the song, “IU!” Those two syllables rolled like thunder. That hit me hard, in a good way. In earnest, I was shocked that I did not shed a single tear all day. Sensory overload was both bane and glory.

Never Daunted. That explains the Indiana fans. Look, Indiana fans have always been there. Some, like me, got mad when a coach was fired and we had to take a little time. Some have been so exhausted by the endless losing that they had to take a break from climbing the ramps and the stairs of Memorial Stadium. For years it felt more like a death march than a celebration. Never Daunted, so many marched on. And on and on. I never stopped rooting Indiana on, except for one game a long time ago; we won’t talk about that. The son of a football coach, I take coaches more seriously than I probably should.

The photo above was taken before Coach Curt Cignetti’s Indiana University Head coaching debut, as The Marching Hundred played Indiana, Our Indiana. The Florida International Panthers were defeated by the Indiana Hoosiers 31-7. We were all relieved and a bit surprised with such a positive outcome. The Never Daunted crowd at Memorial Stadium that day walked away with a little more pep in their step. That pep has not been lost on them. Under Coach Cig, the Hoosiers are 15-0 at home. In their Crimson jerseys, the Hoosiers are 18-0, having played their three CFP games as the designated home team. We all know what happened. The Hoosiers are the 2025 National Champions and I will never tire of saying that. Coach Cig used my word for it all when he said “surreal”. Exactly.

As much I enjoy listening to The Indiana University Marching Hundred play Indiana, Our Indiana, the song the band plays a little later in pregame is my favorite. The song has been my wish for each and every Indiana University Football Team that took the field. INDIANA FIGHT is the name of that song. The message is as realistic as the name of the song suggests. After climbing these ramps, after climbing these stairs, after paying more money for one ticket than a season ticket cost when Anthony Thompson was hauling the mail, after watching so much despair, INDIANA FIGHT! Even on the gloomiest of nights, INDIANA FIGHT!

So don’t wonder why more people than can fit in Memorial Stadium showed up in Pasadena and Atlanta. Don’t wonder why there were more Hoosier fans in Hard Rock Stadium than that of the real home team playing that game. These folks are Never Daunted. Watching the Hoosiers play football has not always been easy. That’s why INDIANA FIGHT resonates the way it does. It’s a punchy tune by nature and has helped so many fans stay strong. And this year, finally, a 16-0 Indiana University Football Team has lived up to so many fans, through thick and thin, who are Never Daunted.

Look for “The Rock” to be packed, rocking and rolling when toe meets leather on September 5th, 2026, when The Mean Green from North Texas visit Memorial Stadium in week one of the season. I for one, will hear Indiana, Our Indiana and INDIANA FIGHT collide like we have never heard them before. That may be the moment I shed a tear.

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.

By Danny Johnson

Hard to imagine the word regret coming within seven miles of the words Indiana University Football right now. There was some regret found today for me. Regret. Anger. Betrayal. Longing. No, were weren’t studying Shakespeare. That would be where the freshman English classes are right now. My sophomores have been studying Guy de Maupassant’s short story The Necklace for the last few days. In the story, a lady loses a necklace that was loaned to her. She doesn’t do the smart thing and admit she lost it from the upscale lady she borrowed it from. She decides to replace it. For the next ten years, after the lady and her husband take out exorbitant loans, the couple work like dogs to pay back the money they procured to buy a diamond necklace replacement. The original necklace, we painfully find out, was paste. Faux diamonds. Worth a pittance of what the tired couple paid and toiled over for ten years. Guy de Maupassant was famous for short stories that ended with twists and turns. As I was thinking about asking my students if they had ever lost anything, something I lost a long time ago came back to haunt me once again.

On the smartboard today was a picture from 1925. This was a picture from the first designated Oaken Bucket Football Game between the Indiana Hoosiers and the Purdue Boilermakers. A hundred years later, Indiana University Football is on the precipice of winning the school’s first National Championship. Today I told the students about the treasure I lost in 1981. A treasure that was first presented at the first Oaken Bucket Game on November 21, 1925.

Miss Maude. That is what we called her. She was my nextdoor neighbor. She was the town librarian. She was a historian. She turned me on to Paper Lion by George Plimpton when I was ten. Writing started to just mean more to me at a young age. Miss Maude was my friend. Miss Maude was a student at Indiana University in 1925.

I could have very well been wearing this shirt the day Maude called our house and asked me to walk across Cross Street, our houses were on adjacent corners of Cross and Jackson. Miss Maude said she had something for me. I ran. If Miss Maude was calling, it had to be good. It was.

Sitting at Maude’s kitchen table, I waited and squirmed I am sure. Keeping still was not my forte when I was young. My grandfather often said I reminded him of a “worm in hot ashes”. Somehow I was okay with the worm part. The hot ashes were what offended me. Anyway, here comes Maude from her bedroom back to the kitchen with a case of some sort.

Maude sat down next to me. She opened up the case. “I have a few things I want you to have.” She then proceeded to hand me three different items. These things had been given to her on November 21, 1925 at the first Indiana-Purdue Oaken Bucket Game. She was there.

There was a metal football that could fit in the palm of your hand. It was more oblong and shaped like a rugby ball.

There was a red button about 3 and half inches in diameter with “INDIANA” across it at a slight diagonal from upper left to lower right.

There was a commemorative two-part ornamental metal piece that was made to pin also. This was THE ITEM. The metal had a print of the stadium and writing that indicated the date and the occasion. This was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. I have yet to find its likeness in a search engine. I know it is rare.

In 1979, we moved from 204 Jackson Street in Brownstown to an outpost in the middle of nowhere. My Mayberry was gone. Leaving my friends behind, including Maude, was a hard thing to deal with.

On a fall day in 1981, I gathered the three treasured items that Maude had given me. They were always on my dresser in a plastic Indiana stadium cup that once teemed of Sprite at an IU Football game. I placed these three items in a paper lunch sack. They were to be props for a speech that I was making about the Old Oaken Bucket Game. When the speech was finished and the bell rang, I placed the lunch sack with my treasures in my locker. To this day, students at North Harrison don’t have locks on their lockers. We trust each other. We always have.

When lunch was over that day, I opened my locker to grab my math book for my next class. My lunch sack and the items from the first Oaken Bucket Game in 1925 were gone. This was not a good afternoon for me. These items have been but a memory ever since. Someone knew. Someone knew what I had and how valuable these things were. I never imagined someone stealing them from me. They did.

Each time I watch Purdue come into Bloomington for the Old Oaken Bucket game, like the last one in 2024 that Tim Brando and Devin Gardner called in the snow, I hurt just a little bit.

Seeing the current Indiana Hoosiers playing for the National Championship 100 years later has opened that wound all over again. An Indiana victory over the Miami Hurricanes will certainly help me cope with the pain. Go IU!

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!

We didn’t see this coming. We never thought it would be this bad for the place where “It Just Means More…” More what? More butt-whuppins?

Looking at the teams representing the Southeastern Conference in post-season college football, be it bowl games or playoff games, the one team the SEC needs to thank right now is Ole Miss. The Rebels have 2 of the league’s 4 victories so far in the new year. Bama beat Oklahoma in the playoff too in an SEC v. SEC playoff game. Traditional bowl games? The SEC is 1-5. The total win – loss tally for the SEC in the post season is 4-9. Texas beat Michigan in the Citrus Bowl. Way to go Arch! Glad to see Michigan go down.

If there were two great reasons to attend The Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, those reasons would be having the opportunity to see Indiana fans take over The Rose Bowl Stadium, I have heard the crowd was 80 percent IU fans. More there for this one than we can fit into IU’s Memorial Stadium. The other reason would be to see SEC Network pundit Paul Finebaum made out to be a donkey.

For Paul Finebaum to be made to look like a donkey, Indiana would have to pummel the Alabama Crimson Tide in The Rose Bowl. Mission accomplished. Indiana pummeled Alabama 38-3. The game didn’t seem that close. Indiana outgained Alabama 407 yards to 193.

Don’t worry SEC faithful. Call Paul. Paul will still have an excuse to help you believe this Indiana beatdown was just an apparition. We must not forget Barry Krauss and Jeff Rutledge and Ozzie Newsome. Bama’s life is not in the here and now. Walking down Rosemont Avenue before the clearing that leads to the palace that is The Rose Bowl Stadium, I heard an Alabama faithful yell, “Roll Tide! We got this. We got Coach Bryant! The Bear is looking down on us! Indiana is going down!” I swear I have heard that guy’s voice on the Paul Finebaum Show.

The last game Coach Bryant coached was on December 29, 1982. That game was a victory over Illinois in The Liberty Bowl in Memphis. Bear Bryant is not here to help you anymore, Bama. Nick Saban is not around. You don’t have Devonta, A.J., or Najee to help you anymore.

Just like the Paul Finebaum types who had a field day running down Coach Ray Perkins after he was the poor guy named to replace Bear Bryant -not that Perkins was the most affable guy- Coach Kalen DeBoer has been given the inauspicious distinction of following Nick Saban as the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. You know how this movie goes, even in times of change. Especially in times of change. Tuscaloosa is not exactly the embodiment of change.

Going into The Rose Bowl, Paul Finebaum said Indiana was the team that had more pressure on them than the Alabama Crimson Tide. Had I been dipping snuff at the time, I would have swallowed it. Maybe that is what has to be said on the SEC Network.

In reality, it goes like this: If Indiana gets beat by Alabama, that is the natural order of things. Of course we beat the Hoosiers in football. Indiana plays in The Big Ten. They don’t play in the SEC. We’d beat them with cornstalks if that was the game. We’ve got the talent. Indiana isn’t worthy enough to take the field with the Alabama Crimson Tide. We’ll take the Hoosiers to school with one hand behind our back.

You get the idea. This ideology is just as misguided and elitist and as snobbish as it sounds. Most of the Bama football faithful are football snobs. Ask any Ole Miss fan. They’ll tell you.

No. The pressure was really on the Alabama Crimson Tide heading into The Rose Bowl. What if the unthinkable happens? What if the unspoken happens? What if Indiana kicks Alabama’s tail up and down the field and doesn’t even allow a Bama player the courtesy he rightly deserves and that is to score a Tide touchdown?

The unthinkable happened. The unspoken happened. In the process, the Alabama fans that actually made it to The Rose Bowl were silenced. I never heard a “Roll Tide!” Bama fans were sorry they showed up. They were thinking about how smart their friends were back home in Dallas County or Orange Beach or Hoover or fill in the blank. The Bama silence was worth getting my ticket scanned, as I walked into The Rose Bowl. The final score was Indiana 38 Alabama 3. The Hoosiers held the Crimson Tide to 193 yards of total offense; the fewest Bama has gained in a game since a win over Tulane in 2008. There was no blaming this one on the refs. In the process, lowly Indiana, that basketball school, proved what most of us who are not Alabama fans or affiliated with ESPN which feeds and waters and takes care of the SEC Network, knew all along. Putting a 3 loss Alabama team that couldn’t gain a yard rushing in their SEC Championship Game in the College Football Playoff made about as much sense as putting in an 8-5 Duke team that actually won their conference.

Am I glad Indiana had the opportunity to expose the SEC bias that is trying to offset so many other changes in college football beyond traditional control? Yes. Yes, I am. Not a football fan worth his or her reality thought Alabama had a chance to beat Indiana, providing he or she had actually taken the time to look at Indiana and what they have accomplished this season after the great season they had last year. The Hoosiers are 14-0 this year and 25-2 so far in the Coach Curt Cignetti’s two-year tenure.

The Hoosiers still have some work to do. As the highest ranked CFP team, they are designated as the home team and will wear their crimson jerseys. In Coach Cig’s time, the Hoosiers are 16-0 in crimson and have outscored their opponents 757 to 188. Ask Alabama. They know.

Know this. Neither my rant here nor the Hoosiers taking the Tide to school will have any sort of lasting effect on Paul Finebaum or the Tide fans. I get it. The Tide fans will still know more about football than the rest of us, thanks to Bear Bryant and Nick Saban. And Paul Finebaum, whose professional forte is akin to playing the part of a Mid-South Wrestling manager to his stable of growling callers be they from Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, or Baton Rouge, will still be sitting there smiling with his callers. Paul will find a way to keep them stirred up and keep them believing the SEC is the standard bearer and purveyor of football truth no matter how many bowl games the SEC teams lose or how pathetic Alabama looked against lowly Indiana when they lost The Rose Bowl 38-3.

There is a postscript here. As much as I enjoy what is happening in Bloomington, I worry about the Hoosiers’ ability to beat Oregon, Indiana’s opponent in the semi-final, twice in one season. I worry even more about the Hoosiers having to face the Ole Miss Rebels in the CFP Championship Game, should they both get there. I root for the Rebels. I’m not an SEC hater, understand. I’m a football realist. Enough of a realist to argue with myself when I start to doubt the Hoosiers. In their crimson jerseys, Indiana is hard to rationally argue about, no matter how lowly and nascent Indiana Hoosier Football may be.

So, the Indiana Hoosiers will be playing in The Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day 2026 at the Rose Bowl Stadium. Be still my beating heart.

In November of 2020, yes, that year. My dear wife, Carrie, and I were spending a quarantined week along Topsail Island looking at the Atlantic Ocean. Feeling the ocean breeze, I was on the phone one sunny afternoon getting about as close to Indiana playing in The Rose Bowl as I figured I ever would. Dave Kornowa was talking to me on the phone, as I jotted down notes and hung on every syllable.

Dave Kornowa kicked the field goal for the Indiana Hoosiers against the USC Trojans on New Year’s Day 1968. USC beat IU 14-3 that day. I would see the light of day for the first time two and a half months later. We talked for nearly two hours about that magical 1967 season. I will always be thankful that Dave took the time to talk to me. I think we both enjoyed it.

Yet here we are all these years later and life has other plans.

Yes, I know. Seeing that capital A is about as enticing as looking at a D for Duke. That seems to be the resounding theme from so many Alabama fans I am hearing from as to what their thoughts are about playing lowly Indiana. Being the traditionalist, I would have preferred a rematch with Oregon in this game. You may get the picture. At least I could pretend it would be a matchup against a Big Ten school and a PAC-12 school.

We’re stuck with Bama. The last time I attended one of their bowl games, the Minnesota Golden Gophers beat them in the Music City Bowl back in December of 2004. Hey, at least Bama and Minnesota were playing in a Bowl Game! Indiana was not. At that point, the last bowl game the Hoosiers played in was the Independence Bowl in 1993. I was in Shreveport for that one too. Not the Hoosiers finest day. Coach Frank Beamer’s run of a ton of Bowl Games for Virginia Tech started that day. What a coach he was.

I was asked today if I am excited about being in Pasadena for The Rose Bowl on January 1st.

No, I won’t be in the press box. This rejection notice did not take long to receive. I had to try, right? But, I will be there.

My answer was that I am still trying to process it. You know, being there. In earnest, The Rose Bowl is my favorite game of the year. As a child of the Midwest, The Rose Bowl is the home of my heroes. Warren Moon in 1978 playing for Washington. All those USC teams with student body right tailbacks. Ricky Bell. Charles White. Marcus Allen. Rick Leach and Rob Lytle playing for Michigan. The great Ohio State teams. Iowa in 1985. This was and is THE GAME. We can get past the fact college football, not helping itself out these days, is still a great game.

So, having been to The Rose Bowl Stadium to see UCLA host USC a couple times, my favorite game outside of The Big Ten and The Egg Bowl, I know what is out there. I know the way. Keith Jackson called it “The mansion at the end of the yellow brick road.”

Keith Jackson Broadcast Center Tribute at the Rose Bowl Stadium

Having spent some time on the field, I know what’s there.

And now I suppose this is truly real. Indiana plays in The Rose Bowl in my lifetime. And I know the way there.

I am not sure how it could be better than this. Beating Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game was the cherry on top of the sundae. Maybe The Rose Bowl will be the whipped cream. Or the rainy cream.

I don’t care if it rains or not. I will be there, and I know the way. I’m still trying to believe it all.

Look, I have already written about the players and the stats and some of the intangibles. Indiana has the best coach in the nation. Who could argue that? This is Indiana. And Coach Cignetti is making a great many top program coaches look bad. At INDIANA. I know. I’ve been hanging around Memorial Stadium at IU for more than 50 years. I’m sure there are some Alabama fans that expect the Indiana Football Team to be delivered to Pauley Pavillion for the game. They know it all. I enjoy their history. I know that Coach Bear Bryant beat Illinois in his last game 43 years ago tonight. I was watching and cheering Coach Bryant on. (I know the post says December 30th… my server for this webpage is in the old country… Bear’s last game was December 29th where I am in Indiana today!)

Lastly, the Ole Miss Rebels are the team that scares me the most. They have a QB who would fit in nicely at Indiana. He’s a gem in the rough. Not a 4 star. A no star. Those are the guys that are driving Indiana, and this is going to be fun.

I’m a stats guy. I always have been. My football coaching father told me there is only one stat folks remember and that is the one on the score board. I get it. In college I gave an informative speech explaining the NFL QB rating system. I think it has been tweaked since then. Ken Anderson’s 1981 QBR of 98.5 was explained on a black board in Crestview Hall. Doing my best John Madden, chalk dust flying, and me telling classmates “This is how it works, boom!”

Sure, another stats guy or gal from Alabama could bring another litany of numbers to dazzle you with. Ones like how Alabama has spent more than 900 hundred weeks in the AP Top 25 poll over the years and Indiana has only spent 95 weeks in the poll with 26 of those 95 coming in the Coach Curt Cignetti era. They would be correct. Good for them. This is not about revisionist history. I’m just saying, on paper, Alabama is in trouble. Thankfully paper is not worth much. Kind of like that line when art critics are arguing.

Critic #1: “How can you call that work unimportant? It’s hanging in the Metropolitan!”

Critic # 2: “Well, so is toilet paper.” My apologies to Pat Conroy and The Prince of Tides.

The following are numbers based on the first 13 games played by Indiana and Alabama. There is a reason Indiana is the number one team in America. My dad would say, “Look at the dadgum score board. Indiana is 13-0.” I get it dad. These stats taken from each school’s website and NCAA stat website.

Scoring: Indiana 41.9 to 10.85 Alabama 31.2 to 17.38

First Downs given up by penalty: Indiana 7 Alabama 19

3rd Down Defense: Indiana .281 Alabama .347

Penalty Yards per game: Indiana 28.46 Alabama 41.92

Turnover Margin: Indiana +17 Alabama +7

Fumbles Lost: Indiana 1 Alabama 7

Tackles for Loss: Indiana 8.6 per game Alabama 5.7 per game

QB Passing Efficiency Rank: Indiana #2 Alabama #39

Field Goal kicking: Indiana 15 of 16 Alabama 13 of 20 (Bama was 2 for 2 against Oklahoma Saturday so now 15 for 22; you know I love all kickers.)

Heisman Trophy Winner: Indiana 1 Alabama 0

That Heisman Trophy is great and all. I’ve never seen a trophy score a touchdown.

Last one and probably the most telling:

Rushing Yardage Comparison:

Indiana 221.6 yds per game Indiana’s opponents 77.6 yds per game

Alabama 109.9 yds per game Alabama’s opponents 120.6 yds per game

My dad is right. I won’t give a rat’s bladder (apologies to Captain Furillo) if Bama has 500 yards passing and -34 yards rushing as long as Indiana scores one more point than Alabama. At the end of the day, I am just an old stats guy. Trouble is I can recite Terry Bradshaw’s stats quicker than I can Patrick Mahomes.

At the end of the day, I can tell you that I fell off the turnip truck 40 years ago. Alabama fans will tell you Indiana hasn’t played anyone. A few Alabama fans, and I have enjoyed looking in on some Bama podcasts today, did take notice that Indiana University is in Bloomington and not Indianapolis when the Hoosiers defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes in The Big Ten Championship Game to run their record to 13-0.

One more stat. This one is from the January 22, 2011, edition of The Birmingham News. The article announcing that Alabama assistant coach Curt Cignetti was leaving the Tide and cutting his $250,000 salary from Alabama in half to become the head coach at Division II Indiana (Pa.). THE STAT? This story was in the middle of page 4C that January 22nd day.

Today I heard Paul Finebaum tell Matt Barrie that the pressure in on Indiana more than it is Alabama, as we head into this New Years Day battle in The Granddaddy of the All. I miss Keith Jackson. How can Paul’s logic even start to stick to the wall? It can’t. Alabama has much more to lose than Indiana does and Paul knows that. He’s an SEC cheerleader and he is a good one. Bama has the legacy. IU is building one. The last time the Indiana Hoosiers played in The Rose Bowl Stadium, Indiana won 42-13. The last time Alabama played in The Rose Bowl, Bama lost 27-20 in OT. With a nod to my dad, those may be stats to remember as well.