ATLANTA — Rematches can happen in college football, and they’ve become less rare in recent years with College Football Playoff expansion and erosion of divisions in various conferences.
But it’s still not a common occurrence for two teams to play multiple times in the same season. And No. 1 Indiana and No. 5 Oregon both face that scenario in Friday’s Peach Bowl, with a spot in the national championship game on the line.
IU won round one, a landmark 30-20 victory in October at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. That game firmly set the Hoosiers on track for the Big Ten championship game, and later the No. 1 seed in the CFP. The Ducks are also undefeated since then.
The challenge for both sides is taking stock of that first matchup, while staying mindful that both teams look different than they did nearly three months ago and will change things up.
“Half the game in football sometimes as coaches, you chase ghosts and you try to overanalyze things that happened before, but ultimately you try to stick to the same process you’ve used throughout the season,” Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said at Thursday’s press conference. “Just so happens you’re playing the same team twice.”
This is new territory for the Hoosiers.
Indiana has never reached the CFP Semifinals before this year. But the program hasn’t faced a team twice in the same season since 1931.
IU’s coaching staff doesn’t have much familiarity with it, either. This is head coach Curt Cignetti’s first same-season rematch since 2017, when his Elon team faced Furman in his second game with the program and then again in the FCS Playoffs. Cignetti’s Phoenix won the regular-season matchup on the road, but lost the rematch at home by one point.
Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan have never called plays against the same coordinators twice in the same year. It’s a big test for the coaches.
“That game was so long ago now, they’ve learned a lot more about their players, just like we have. And they’re doing a little bit of different things, and we’re doing some different things now too,” Shanahan said during Wednesday’s media availability. “I think that’s the fine line that we’re all trying to balance, taking what the first game gave us, but also, accounting for the changes and the natural things that happen throughout the season.”
Both Shanahan and Haines admitted it’s tricky for them, as play-callers, to completely ignore what happened in the first IU-Oregon game this year.
Indiana players, like quarterback Fernando Mendoza and linebacker Aiden Fisher, among others, have preached the need to treat this game preparation like they’re taking on a brand new team because of the way both sides have evolved throughout the season. And the Hoosiers and Ducks will both enter the game with a set of scripted plays, as usual, for the first series or two.
But after that, it’s difficult for the play-callers, in the moment, to treat this like a new opponent. Haines and Shanahan have faced Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi already this year. They know how Stein and Lupoi called the game in October, how they reacted to certain looks thrown at them, and it’s hard to just forget those tendencies entirely.
“In the game plan process, it has been tricky. I feel myself saying, ‘I don’t want to do that again. I already brought that pressure and hit the quarterback. Now I’ve got to do it this way. … But why?! The first one worked!’ So it’s a very delicate balance there,” Haines said Wednesday. “It’s just trying to avoid paralysis by analysis. I want it to be Indiana’s defense against Oregon’s offense, not necessarily what happened in game 1 and how they might think I’m doing this. It takes too many weird avenues. Straightforward, do what we do, play good defense.”
The Ducks have more familiarity with rematches than Indiana. They’ve had it in each of the last two years: Washington swept Oregon in the Pac-12’s final season, and Ohio State got revenge on UO in the Rose Bowl last year.
Oregon coaches are trying to utilize lessons learned from that letdown against the Buckeyes. Lupoi said the Ducks ran into some trouble by not changing enough for the Rose Bowl from the regular season game.
“Believing that they’re gonna do the same exact thing might not necessarily be the truth,” Lupoi said Wednesday. “We’ve certainly done some different things since that game (against Indiana in October). They changed some things up too. It’s going to be an awesome matchup.”
Lupoi and Stein have both dealt with additional distractions the Hoosiers haven’t had. Both coordinators are leaving Oregon after its season ends for head coaching jobs: Lupoi at California, and Stein at Kentucky.
It’s just another layer to a high-level coaching matchup. Both Cignetti and Lanning are extremely highly-regarded head coaches who have won conference titles and been on numerous award lists. Haines is a Broyles Award finalist, and Shanahan has been in the mix for that distinction the last two years as well.
This rematch is an intricate chess match on the sidelines and in the coaching boxes, featuring some of the best in the profession. Both sides have a lot of respect for each other, and know they have a tough game ahead. Haines said he’s glad that Stein is leaving the Big Ten because he’s so good. The future Wildcats head coach gave Haines similar praise.
“He’s as good as anybody I’ve gone against. He really is. How he gets his guys in position consistently to make plays. They just do little things that just nag you. It’s like a fly that you just can’t get off,” Stein said Wednesday. “I have the utmost respect for him as a coach. His players, they have some elite players on his side of the ball.”
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