INDIANAPOLIS — The noise is exhausting. A mudslide into the deep, dark depths of strength of schedule and head-to-head feeding the daily disarray.
Now breathe, if just long enough to enjoy the college football story of the century.
‘It’s like a dream, a wonderful dream,’ said Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
That keeps getting better ― and isn’t ending any time soon.
Take a break from complaining about the College Football Playoff. Forget about Notre Dame and Miami and Alabama and every other blueblood trying to justify CFP flaws.
It sounds utterly preposterous to even say it.
“For any of those Indiana doubters out there,” said Indiana linebacker Isaiah Jones, “this was the last thing that needed to be proven.”
And wouldn’t you know it, in the biggest moment of this two-year metamorphosis, the No. 2 Hoosiers left no doubt with a punishing 13-10 victory over defending national champion and No. 1 Ohio State in Saturday night’s Big Ten championship game.
A win so complete and so program-defining, the enormity of the moment will reverberate throughout the sport. It wasn’t just the win, but how it underscored the unthinkable reality that the worst program in the history of the sport has completely changed course in a matter of two seasons.
Indiana hadn’t beaten Ohio State since 1988 — a span of 32 straight games without a win (one game was a tie) — and then did so with everything on the line: an unbeaten regular season, the conference championship, the No. 1 seed in the CFP, and the Heisman Trophy.
And one more thing: Indiana will play in the Rose Bowl — after a first round bye — in the quarterfinals of the CFP. The Hoosiers haven’t experienced the ‘Granddaddy’ since 1968, when O.J. Simpson led USC to a 14-3 win.
That’s how long this program has been in the college football hinterlands, how long Indiana football has been an opportunity for students to party in a half-empty stadium and alums to pass the time before basketball season.
“It’s another step we needed to take as a program,” said Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, and wouldn’t you know it, the architect of this improbable turnaround isn’t done yet.
The coach who sat at his introductory press conference in 2024 and declared, ‘I win, Google me,’ who spent his first season at IU saying the outlandish and outrageous because the program needed traction, who has won 24 of his first 26 games and continues to set school records with every game played, knows there’s more on the horizon.
The quarterfinals in the Rose Bowl. The semifinals in the Fiesta Bowl. The national championship game in Miami.
The national flipping championship game. My god, what world are we living in?
A world where Indiana has the best quarterback in college football, where Mendoza left Cal and had offers from Georgia and Miami. And chose Cignetti and the Hoosiers.
“Because he wins, and because he would make me a better player,” Mendoza said.
That was Mendoza throwing a perfect back shoulder 50-50 ball to Elijah Sarratt for IU’s only touchdown and the eventual game-winning points, and a dime of a deep ball to Charlie Becker in the fourth quarter to effectively seal the victory.
“I looked up, and it was there,” Becker said. “An unreal throw.”
It’s a world where the best defense in college football is in Bloomington. Holy Bobby Knight, defense at Indiana.
Long ago, Hoosiers coach Lee Corso called a timeout against Ohio State in the first quarter of a game while leading 7-0. Told the team to get on the field so they could take a team picture.
Then lost the game 49-7.
This time around, Indiana held Ohio State’s high-powered offense — which boasts not one, but two Heisman candidates in quarterback Julian Sayin and wide receiver Jeremiah Smith — to 322 yards. The defense had five sacks, nine tackles for loss and an interception, and harassed Sayin all night.
Indiana has given up 60 points in its last six games, and gave up 55 points in the four biggest games of the season (Illinois, Iowa, Oregon, Ohio State).
“We tell each other all the time, if they don’t score, we win,” said IU linebacker Rolijah Hardy, who knocked away a fourth down pass in the Indiana end zone late in the fourth quarter with the Hoosiers protecting a precarious three-point lead. “They weren’t scoring there. No way.”
It’s a world where Cignetti arrived at Indiana, and knew the roster had to be turned over. He didn’t brag about bringing Gucci, he just brought a core of players who previously turned around James Madison — then added more from the transfer portal.
He won 11 games in 2024, and got the largest alumni base in the nation (800,000-plus strong) engaged and invested, and suddenly the NIL money started flowing. And the next thing you know, Indiana has an elite quarterback.
Then it beats Illinois by 53, gets a major road win at Oregon and sets up the biggest game in school history by routing rival Purdue by 53 points. Moments after that game last week, Cignetti walked into the cramped locker room at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana, and said they made too many mistakes.
You’re not getting away with playing like that the rest of the way.
“Coach Cig preaches to us over and over, just be the best version of yourself,” said IU linebacker Aiden Fisher. “That’s why this team rises to the occasion in big situations.”
Long after the celebration in front of a packed house at Lucas Oil Stadium, after Indiana won its first Big Ten championship in nearly 60 years, John Mellencamp’s ‘Small Town’ blared throughout the place.
“I’ve seen it all in a small town, had myself a ball in a small town…”
Mendoza ran off the stage in the middle of the field, and eventually found his way to the bowels of the stadium outside the Indiana locker room. There a large but quaint crowd of 20 or so Mendozas who made the trip from Miami, celebrated like they never have.
There, in the middle of the celebration in a wheelchair, was Mendoza’s mother, Elsa, who is battling multiple sclerosis. Fernando Mendoza leaned in, his bloody arms wrapped around his mother, and whispered in her ear.
They hugged and cried and smiled and laughed.
Elsa watched her son take a big hit on the game’s first play, and lay motionless on the turf for 20 seconds before slowly walking off the field. He came back one play later, and directed the greatest win for the worst program in college football no more.
“The community in Bloomington, how long they’ve waited for this,” Mendoza said. “My Mom and my family making the long trip from Miami. It just meant the world to me.”
The story of the century.
And it’s not over yet.
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