I want to believe IU football is for real. Truly, I do. But something is holding me back. Therapy may be required.
Hoosier Nation, such as it exists for IU football, is amped at the idea of being 6-0, bowl bound and ranked 18th in the nation. Some of us have followed the program since 1978. We know better.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- I want to believe.
Damned right I do, having followed – and yes, rooted for -- the historically bedraggled IU football program since the minute I stepped onto campus in Bloomington back in 1978.
Like anybody else, I’m thrilled about the Hoosiers’ 6-0 start, the fact they’ve rolled all their opponents in a way that would seem to suggest this isn’t just another IU team that got fat on a favorable schedule.
But I’m traumatized in a way that makes trusting the Hoosiers next to impossible. Maybe I need therapy. But that’s another column.
Let me take you back to a simpler time, well before NIL and transfer portals. The year was 1978 and the Hoosiers were led by Lee Corso (all the best to Coach, by the way), quarterback Scott Arnett and linebacker Joe Norman.
The season began with a 24-17 loss at 13th-ranked LSU. No reason to celebrate of course, but a reason for hope, which hasn’t often been the case for IU football. Losing at LSU, at night, that was no embarrassment. What it meant was, we hadn’t completely checked out on the football team and started thinking hoops. There was a sliver of competency. That’s something.
Then the Hoosiers went to Seattle one week later and beat Warren Moon’s 12th-ranked Washington Huskies, and suddenly, the fan base was energized. I’m not saying they won their first six games by a thousand points, as has been the case this year, but a win and a close loss on the road to two highly-ranked teams gave us a reason to think grandiose thoughts – like, maybe, a bowl game. A winning record? Something?
The next game on the schedule was No. 10 Nebraska, a perennial powerhouse at the time, and this was going to be a big deal, a very big deal. Memorial Stadium was going to be a sellout – rain be damned – and the game was being shown on ABC’s regional coverage. That doesn’t sound like much in this modern day when every team is on TV or streaming somewhere, but back then, an IU game on regional TV was a sign that our humble football program had come of age.
And then the game started.
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