ATLANTA — Indiana football will play for a national title.
The Hoosiers have been the best team in the country all year, and yet, that sentence still evokes double-takes. This program had lost more games than any other college football team until this season. IU was a perennial doormat in the Big Ten, a typically guaranteed win for traditional powers like Ohio State and Michigan.
But yet, here Indiana stands. The Hoosiers punched their ticket to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in style, bludgeoning Oregon 56-22 in the Peach Bowl on Friday.
They’re on the precipice of a stunning achievement. For this team to even be in this position, at all, is remarkable.
“I think it’s one of the greatest stories in college football and all of sports right now. And I think that’s warranted,” defensive tackle Tyrique Tucker told TDH during the open locker room period after the game. “I don’t really know too much about the history, but I just understand that it was pretty bad. And, just to change it around like this and be a part of it is something so special for me.”
Tucker could hardly contain a wide smile as he talked about the journey this team’s been on all season. And that’s someone who grew up in Virginia and had no prior connection to Indiana before he followed head coach Curt Cignetti from James Madison to Bloomington in the 2023-24 offseason.
For native Hoosiers, those who watched IU football for extended time or spent time around fans like that, it’s hard to fathom seeing the program in this position. Wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. grew up in Indianapolis, and didn’t watch IU very much as a kid because of the unflattering history. But now, he said, IU fans are on “the best ride ever.”
“They probably dreamed of days like this to come, and the fact that it’s here now is probably very special to them, man,” Cooper told TDH. “I’m glad that us, as a team, we’re able to come out here and put on for those that’s always been Indiana fans and also just the fans in general. And hopefully we can bring back something home next game.”
Cooper is also part of another group that gives him additional perspective on this program’s rise.
He’s one of roughly 20 to 25 players on Cignetti’s roster who started at Indiana during Tom Allen’s tenure. Those players saw IU at its low points at the end of the Allen era, and they’ve seen what the Hoosiers have become.
Safety Louis Moore is another member of that group, though he left for 2024 and went to Ole Miss before returning for this season. He didn’t mince words: he didn’t see Indiana reaching heights like these before Cignetti.
“We living in some good times right now,” Moore told TDH. “I seen us winning (before Cignetti). I ain’t gonna say I’d seen us this doing this, but we make them believers. We believe in ourselves, so we’re gonna make it happen.”
Indiana has some players who have reached this stage before.
Tackle Zen Michalski and center Pat Coogan both played in the National Championship Game last year — on the same field they both celebrated on Friday night. Michalski and Ohio State emerged victorious over Coogan’s Notre Dame team.
They know what it takes to reach this stage of a season, to have a chance at winning a national title. Indiana football has never been in this position before. That’s why Michalski is particularly happy for guys like Cooper, Moore, Carter Smith, Drew Evans, Kahlil Benson, and others who played in Bloomington before Cignetti’s arrival.
“I’ve been on the other side of it. We played Indiana every year, and, I mean, it sucks. It sucks to lose. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for them going from that to this,” Michalski told TDH. “I’m just so happy for them.”
Indiana’s final challenge to complete this magical season will be taking on Miami at its home stadium.
But this team has faced doubts or difficult tests all year long. Winning games over quality opponents, doing so on the road, being able to come back and win from behind, defeating a traditional power like Ohio State, and proving itself against an SEC staple. The national championship is just one more thing to add to that list. The Hoosiers have spent this entire journey disproving those narratives and are confident they can do it one more time.
“It’s amazing. I was thinking about it earlier, because they keep saying what we can’t do,” Moore told TDH. “It’s always something. Now they’re gonna say we can’t piece somebody in their home stadium in the championship. … But down the line, there’s going to be something beautiful. It’s going to be like, we did everything they said we couldn’t do. That’s the beautiful thing about it.”
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