Quarterback Fernando Mendoza has experienced nothing but success in his one season at No. 2 Indiana. Receiver Omar Cooper Jr. has been through just about everything in his four years with the Hoosiers.
Now the tandem that created one of college football's biggest plays
this season hopes to deliver another memorable moment in what could be their final home game together Saturday against struggling Wisconsin.This will not be just another senior day at Indiana (10-0, 7-0). For the second straight year, the Hoosiers enter their final two home games with a perfect record, on the cusp of clinching a playoff spot and the possibility of reaching their first Big Ten title game.
But second-year coach Curt Cignetti doesn't believe the narrative will become a distraction from how the Hoosiers have reached this point.
“I doubt any of them are thinking about the end right now because everybody understands sort of where we’re at and what’s possible,” Cignetti said this week. “I think we’re on a little bit of a mission here, and that’s really been the focus. I think that’s how the kids are thinking, too.”
Mendoza emerged as one of the top players in the transfer portal last year and wound up choosing the Hoosiers in part to reunite with his younger brother, Alberto. The older brother has been even better than advertised by leading the league with 31 total TDs while emerging as a Heisman Trophy favorite and possibly the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.
Cooper, meanwhile, endured 4-8 and 3-9 seasons and won only three Big Ten games in his first two years at Indiana but has since become a key figure in a remarkable two-year turnaround.
The Hoosiers are trying to extend their school record 14-game winning streak at home and protect the program's highest ranking against the Badgers (3-6, 1-5). And Cooper's incredible go-ahead TD catch in the final minute not only gave Indiana its first win at Penn State, it helped them — finally — shed the label of America's losingest football program. Northwestern now has 716 losses all-time, one more than the Hoosiers.
Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell knows what his team is up against after snapping an 11-game losing streak against Power Four opponents last week.
“I don't even know if you asked a coach from within (the program) like if they could pinpoint exactly what it is,” Fickell said when asked about the Hoosiers turnaround. “There's a lot of things that have gone into it. Great coaching is one of them, great quarterback is another. But whatever they've done a really, really good job of in the last few years.”
The biggest question for Wisconsin is who will play quarterback Saturday.
Billy Edwards Jr. was the opening-day starter but sprained his knee in that first game and has only played, briefly, in one game since. Danny O'Neil and Hunter Simmons started a combined total of seven games, but when O'Neil was carted off the field with a leg injury last week, Fickell went with first-year quarterback Carter Smith who went 3 of 12 with 8 yards and scored on a 2-yard run in a 13-10 win over then No. 23 Washington.
Who will start Saturday?
“You always have a plan,” he said when asked what he'd do if the Badgers lose any more quarterbacks to injuries. “We've still got to figure out who's one and two before we start to think about who's the fourth going into a game like this.”
Given the schedule, the CFP selection might want to consult with the Badgers before making its final pairings.
Saturday's game will be Wisconsin's sixth this season against a team ranked in the CFP's Top 25. The Badgers already have faced No. 1 Ohio State, No. 4 Alabama, No. 8 Oregon, No. 18 Michigan and No. 21 Iowa.
But Fickell's players aren't blaming the brutal schedule for their losses.
“I love every bit of it,” outside linebacker Mason Reiger said. “I’d rather play the best five teams in the country than play none of them. It’s a challenge, sure. It’s not easy to play these good teams, but at some point in college football you want to play the best teams because to be the best, you’ve got to go against the best.”
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AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee in Milwaukee also contributed to this report.
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