I can't wait on IU-Ohio State and, what the heck, I have a prediction/guarantee to make

One more sleep to go before the Big Ten title game at Lucas Oil.

I can’t remember being this jacked about an event in any city I’ve worked. And I covered the Butler-Duke at Lucas Oil in 2010.

As you may have heard, this Saturday night, the No. 2 Hoosiers – yes, IU is a football school, until further notice – take on the No. 1 and defending national champions Ohio State. No. 1 offense (IU) versus the No. 1 defense (Ohio State). Fernando Mendoza versus Julian Sayin. Jeremiah Smith vs. De’Angelo Ponds. And so on. The matchups are delicious.

If I’m being honest, this doesn’t feel like real life. I now have a specific sensation I can attach to the term “surreal.” I didn’t feel this way about any game in any city I ever covered – and there have been a bunch. This feels like something from my childhood, when the Miracle Mets won the World Series in ’69, the Knicks won in ’73. And, growing up an Islanders fan – if you remember Billy Harris, you’re officially a sicko – I went along for the ride during the Islanders dynasty.

I mean of course, I’m excited. I matriculated in Bloomington for four years, even went to occasional classes. My eldest daughter attended the university. We just paid off the college loan. Let’s just say I’m not terribly good with money. Yes, I’ve had some issues with the administration, especially regarding the IDS fiasco, but I still have a strong connection to the school. Even gave the hockey club some money. I’m a regular sugar daddy.

The Hoosiers are such an outlandish story, so audacious, so mythical in its scope, I find myself paralyzed about writing anything that might not meet the moment. Does that make sense? Or maybe I’m just being lazy. There’s that possibility.

Let’s just say this clearly and forcefully: No college football coach has ever done a more remarkable turnaround job in the modern history of sports than Curt Cignetti.

That’s it. That’s the tweet.

(You’re not on Twitter, Bob. And it’s X now.)

I hear my Northwestern friends mentioning Gary Barnett, who got the Wildcats to the Rose Bowl in 1995. But it took him four years to get there.

I hear from the Wisconsin and Kansas State factions, bringing up Barry Alvarez and Bill Snyder. But it took Alvarez four years before he got them to they enjoyed success, and it took Snyder three years before the Wildcats produced a winning record.

Cignetti did this in 10 minutes, taking full advantage of the new tools at his disposal, specifically the transfer portal. He got Indiana, a program with four winning seasons the previous 30, to the College Football Playoff in his very first year. Now, he’s got them on the doorstep of the Big Ten Championship Game, with at least one more to go in the CFP. I don’t really have to back up this statement, do I?

Go ahead. Name another coach who has taken over a historically terrible program and taken it to the conference and national mountain top in one, two years? You can’t.

You just can’t.

It’s completely unprecedented.