The Hoosiers’ best start in decades continued with a victory in Evanston on Saturday.
6-0. In October.
The Indiana football Hoosiers are officially bowl eligible, ranked, and head into a bye before a showdown at home with Nebraska.
It wasn’t necessarily an easy one. Northwestern hasn’t looked strong throughout the year, particularly on offense, but absolutely made Indiana earn it with countless plays in the second half that brought That Old Feeling back.
You know the one.
The Hoosiers head into the fourth with a lead before a parade of mistakes, penalties and plays from the opposing side let what looked like a perfectly winnable game slip away. It’s happened before, plenty of times under the previous coaching staff.
This one? No.
Indiana, time and again, has made the plays its needed to when it’s mattered most to keep a game in reach or slam the door. That’s third down conversions, late stops on defense and putting points on the board late to extend aforementioned fourth quarter lead.
This isn’t necessarily the first bit of adversity the Hoosiers have faced on the year. The UCLA game came with its wacky second half penalties leading to a few ejections and the defense looked lost at times against a Charlotte quarterback that was buried deep down on the depth chart.
But they overcame those moments to get to Evanston with a 5-0 record. And they did it again in the fourth quarter to leave 6-0.
Anyway, I’d set aside some time and cash for bowl travel in December and leave it at that. Indiana has six more regular season games left to improve its position and dare to dream even bigger.
There’s more to come.