In late July, I had the chance to interview Indiana wide receiver Elijah Surratt during Big Ten Media Days on the Cover 3 Podcast. I asked him a question that was gnawing at my own brain, and until that point, I hadn’t heard anybody else publicly consider.
As Surratt sat next to me, I asked him if he wondered why, while everybody else was looking for “the next Indiana,” nobody seemed willing to accept the idea that Indiana was “the next Indiana.” Why was everybody so sure the Hoosiers were a one-year wonder?
I would hope far more people are considering the possibility after Saturday night.
Surratt scored two touchdowns as the Hoosiers whooped No. 9 Illinois 63-10, and in the process, let the college football world know they don’t plan to go anywhere. Sure, you can mock their nonconference scheduling habits, and you can question how they’ll handle a schedule that’s more difficult this season than last year’s (on paper, anyway), but you can’t question Saturday’s result. Though I’m sure they’ll try anyway.
It reminds me of what we saw last season.
Indiana started the 2024 season 6-0 with conference wins over UCLA, Maryland and Northwestern, but nobody was taking them seriously yet. They were falling victim to the defense mechanism the College Football Hivemind has any time a team nobody expected to be good starts doing things that suggest they’re a good football team.
“Oh, you beat that team by four touchdowns? Well that’s only because they suck. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Then Nebraska came to town in mid-October. The Huskers were 5-1 themselves, and while they weren’t ranked, they were seen as Indiana’s first real test. Indiana spanked them 56-7, but while they moved up to No. 13 in the polls the next day, they still weren’t taken…
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