It took so long to become real.
Indiana’s win over Oregon was at least spiritually cemented when Ducks quarterback Dante Moore’s pass was deflected at the line of scrimmage before the ball fell right into the hands of Hoosier safety Louis Moore. That was Oregon’s last real shot at winning that didn’t involve a series of events that’d make the Looney Tunes blush.
But there was still time on the clock, dwindling seconds that let this sink in for Hoosier fans everywhere.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more
tortured group in all of college football. There is, of course, the oft-cited stat on the program’s overall aversion to winning football games but that, like all stats, fails to truly tell the story behind those numbers.
Indiana’s Memorial Stadium has played host to dozens of top-10, even top-5 teams over the course of the past several decades. Being in the same league as programs like Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and a few others who’ve enjoyed some great highs will do that. Those fans, clad in cream and crimson, or even bright red when the uniforms were that color, showed up with hope in their hearts and beers in their hands thinking maybe, just maybe, that would be the day.
It never was.
There’s so many stories of less fortunate programs playing David to the top-5 Goliath, surely by the pure law of averages and the frequency of their visits, one day that’d be Indiana, right? No.
More recent examples include that time Indiana was leading at the half against No.5 Ohio State at home in 2017 just to get flattened in the third quarter. Or an overtime loss to Michigan that same season. There was the win over Penn State in the somehow-forgotten nationally 2020 season, but that packed less of a punch without fans in the stands and the Nittany Lions’ collapse afterward. Now here, as fate would have it, Indiana finally pulled it off on the road at Autzen Stadium in Eugene.
But, funny enough, the Hoosiers were no David. They met the No. 3 Ducks on an even footing, sporting a nice No. 7 next to their name heading into this matchup.
Indiana ran the clock down, kicked a field goal to go up by 10, intercepted Moore a second time, kneeled the ball and withstood a few last-ditch swings from Oregon to bring this one home. There’s no doubt all those memories of the “almost” games or blowouts against top-tier teams ran through countless minds like Roman Hemby crashing into Oregon’s defensive front on the goal line for two scores.
The Hoosiers skipped the fun, quirky stage where a luckless program takes down a titan and went right to the top themselves. Fans of this program, particularly those who follow diligently, have known this is a different team than the ones that have suited up in years past for quite a while. National talking heads have, of course, doubted its ability every single step of the way.
This is the kind of win that forces said national voices to acknowledge the reality that’s been staring them in the face since Curt Cignetti began building that first roster last spring. There were no flukes, no asterisks here. These Hoosiers dominated the Ducks on their home turf, outgaining them on offense and bringing Moore to the turf six times.
As for Indiana fans, they deserve to take this triumph and savor it. It’s been a long time coming and was about as well-earned as a win can get.
But it serves as Indiana’s first step (second, in reality) into the top tier of the college football landscape. The Hoosiers are going to be judged differently from here on out, national pundits twisting themselves to “well actually” this team and its accomplishments be damned. The sport’s viewership has seen this team climb the mountain and will expect them to do so again. Can they?
The H0osiers’ postgame demeanor, between Cignetti and star linebacker Aiden Fisher’s calm in the face of these heightened expectations, should say everything you’d need to know about that.
