Omar Cooper Jr.'s game-winning toe-tap touchdown at Penn State will forever be etched as one of the most iconic images in Indiana football history.
It was so acrobatic, so unexpected that even usually unflappable coach Curt Cignetti acknowledged he nearly teared up during his postgame interviews.
Now, though, after finally winning on the road against the most prominent college football program in Cignetti's home state, No. 2 Indiana faces a potentially
more daunting challenge this week — turning the page so it can focus on struggling Wisconsin.
“I did get a little choked up there at the end just because I was so proud of our guys. Our backs were against the wall there, and boy, it wasn’t looking very good," Cignetti said Monday. “You think about my journey, 10, 15 years ago, did I ever think I’d lead a team into that stadium? No. Lead a team into that stadium victorious? No. But it mainly centered around how our guys responded and the challenge they overcame to get it done.”
The play has been replayed dozens of times since Cooper's touchdown in the final minute at Beaver Stadium gave Indiana a 27-24 victory, and the Football Writers Association of America dubbed the catch as its “crunch time” play of the week.
“To be able to catch the ball, look down and then get your feet in position, great job by (director of athletic performance) Derek Owings developing (Cooper’s) corps to allow him to do that in the air and Coop working like he has the whole offseason, and in the fall," Cignetti said.
Previous Hoosiers coaches often thought their players were challenged by the effort to handle success.
But Cignetti helped change that perception last year when Indiana did the unthinkable by emerging as a national powerhouse.
The Hoosiers kept winning after capturing their Big Ten Conference opener for their first win at the Rose Bowl. They navigated a rare victory over Michigan to improve to 10-0. And with the program's first College Football Playoff berth at stake, they made a statement by handing Purdue its worst loss in school history, 66-0.
They also stumbled twice — losing at eventual national champion Ohio State to knock them out of the conference title chase and a season-ending playoff loss at eventual national runner-up Notre Dame.
But it was those two losses that provided extra motivation to surpass last season's feats.
“I think we’re on a little bit of a mission here, and that’s really been the focus,” Cignetti said. “I think that’s how the kids are thinking, too.”
It has showed.
When then-No. 8 Illinois visited Memorial Stadium in September, the Hoosiers responded with a 63-10 rout. When it looked like they might go down at Iowa, quarterback Fernando Mendoza found Elijah Sarratt for a tiebreaking touchdown in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter. And when most people wrote off their chances at then-No. 3 Oregon in September, especially after Mendoza threw a pick-6 to tie the game, Indiana answered by scoring the final 10 points to snap what had been the nation's longest active winning home and regular-season winning streaks.
Saturday trumped all three.
“This, by far, is the best moment of my career, and to be able to share it with such amazing brothers, like at Cal, an amazing brotherhood there — I still have a lot of friends there — but to share it with what we've all been through, the Iowa game, the Oregon game to the Penn State game,” quarterback Fernando Mendoza said after Saturday's win. “Those are all games you have circled, especially being on the road.”
Aside from being the final regular-season home game, this weekend's game against the quarterback-depleted Badgers (3-6, 1-5) probably has not been circled. Wisconsin won its first Big Ten game last weekend, when it upset then-No. 23 Washington at home.
On paper, it looks like a mismatch between the nation's highest scoring team (44.5 points per game) and the third lowest (12.6).
But Mendoza and his teammates don't have to be reminded about the high stakes they'll be facing — a chance to play in the Big Ten title game, a second straight playoff berth and maybe even a home game in the postseason. So if they're not ready to play the Badgers, last week's big play and big win will certainly lose some luster.
“I think we need to understand we’re going to get everybody’s best shot,” Cignetti said. “We’re not sneaking up on anyone anymore. We got Iowa’s best shot at Iowa. We got Penn State’s best shot at Penn State. Oregon was obviously a big game on the road, and we’ll get Wisconsin’s best shot. So we’ve got to have a good week of preparation.”
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
