BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana junior receiver Elijah Sarratt, a zero-star recruit as a high schooler in Virginia, gave Michigan sophomore cornerback and former four-star recruit Jyaire Hill a figurative roast, leaving returned it to the open field and sailed under a 36-yard touchdown pass from Kurtis Rourke.
Indiana junior defensive end Mikail Kamara, a non-star recruit as a high schooler in Virginia, found himself caught between Michigan senior right guard Giovanni El-Hadi and sophomore right tackle Evan Link and right into the face of quarterback Davis Warren. Both of the Wolverines' linemen finished their prep careers with 4 stars next to their name, and each were needed to take care of Kamara. Eight stars vs. none. Nobody won.
Indiana, the worst-losing major college football program, beat Michigan, the winningest program, 20-15 on Saturday before 53,082 born-again November basketball ignoramuses at Memorial Stadium. That's 10 wins for the primary time in Indiana history. That's 11 all-time wins against Michigan in 73 tries. That makes it difficult to assume a scenario by which first-year coach Curt Cignetti and his Hoosiers should not among the many teams chosen for the primary 12 College Football Playoffs.
And I swear to you, as sure as Bob Knight could throw a chair, these people acted like they’d something to reply for on Saturday.
“I’m glad we won,” Cignetti said. “I’m not happy with the way we played.”
He said this in quite a lot of ways while praising his defense and team for being “courageous,” and he did so after being asked concerning the little emotion he expressed within the on-field interview with CBS after it had shown at the tip – while Indiana The students stood happily within the stands and didn't rush across the sector, because apparently that's exactly what they're doing now, beating the reigning national champions.
Those few seconds on the sector taking all of it in, a few of the smiles Cignetti shared with family and friends as he walked past the huge IU weight room to the presser, the incontrovertible fact that nearly 20 family and friends crowded there… these are the clues to a huge moment.
Cignetti and his No They needed to stop a two-pointer and one other UM push within the fourth quarter, which the IU defense managed to do. Indiana should steamroll this Michigan team that appears like a Quick Lane Bowl, identical to Indiana steamrolled everyone, and that didn't occur.
Covered 7-8 Indiana football games. Today's tailgating scene surpasses all of them combined. Bad photo that also doesn't tell the story. pic.twitter.com/HqmoweWGmm
— Joe Rexrode (@joerexrode) November 9, 2024
That's okay, Hoosiers. There's a Big Ten championship in play. Next up is the sport of the season at No. 2 Ohio State University after a well-timed week off. The incontrovertible fact that 's Austin Mock has the Hoosiers at 92 percent to make the playoffs and their regular-season finale shall be against formidable rival Purdue needn't cause a public sigh of relief. Especially after this version of Michigan outplayed Indiana within the second half.
But those of us outside this system don’t must play along. We can rub our eyes and shake our heads and laugh almost uncomfortably on the incontrovertible fact that in November we, as a university football nation, are wondering if these Hoosiers…
We wonder how Michigan was capable of delay so well against Indiana. We give the Wolverines an enormous pat on the back for that, and what if coach Sherrone Moore hadn't blown 31 seconds before calling a timeout late, or spent much of the second half pretending he did just attempting to avoid a day out? Blowout? After Saturday's press conferences, people were back within the press box watching the Alabama-LSU game and talking about what impact it could have on IU's playoff draw.
Are we within the Upside Down? How removed from Bloomington is Hawkins, Indiana, the supernatural setting of Stranger Things?
We could be amazed. We can be excited. Because Indiana football in 2024 reminds us that this sport is just not nearly math and science. If it were, the Hoosiers wouldn't have dominated the sport in the primary half and searched for answers after a shaky second half. They, like most Indiana teams, would have been pitted against most Michigan teams over the a long time.
The 247Sports Team Talent Compositewhich evaluates rosters based on recruiting rankings, tells us that Michigan, which lost big last yr to the Jim Harbaugh-led Natty, remains to be No. 5 within the Big Ten and No. 16 nationally. Indiana is No. 16 within the Big Ten and No. 57 nationally. There is a talent gap between these teams.
Look on the starting lineups, and Michigan's offense had a 3.45-star average – despite the zero-star quarterback and former walk-on Warren – and its defense had a 3.73-star average. Indiana's offense had a mean of two.81 stars and its defense had a mean of two.0 stars. So, yes, Michigan is almost a star per player higher with its on-field defense against Indiana's offense — even without its best player, injured cornerback and five-star Will Johnson — and we wonder how the Wolverines are got all these stops done.
Eight of Indiana's starting lineup, including Sarratt and Kamara, played for Cignetti at James Madison on Saturday. Players move up from Group 5 programs to Power 4 leagues and usually leave their mark. But a slew of James Madison players and a former Mid-American Conference quarterback,
Recruiting rankings mean something, after all, and largely correlate with program success, but they are saying nothing about how a player will grow, work and fit right into a program. These rankings say nothing about how people will get along. Or how they’re coached and developed. You can't predict the selections that shall be made in a dorm on a Thursday night when joyful hour is just across the corner but as a substitute a young man is reaching for the squat or the books.
It's not only science and math, it's art. And an Indiana program known for poor recreations of “Dogs Playing Poker” is getting calls from the oldsters on the Guggenheim.
Yes, Saturday may need given this team that also hasn't had an excellent game a taste of the battles to come back against the game's best. The lack of left guard Drew Evans — one other non-star recruit who has developed right into a standout player — to an Achilles tendon injury in practice last week can’t be ignored given Michigan's 4 sacks and frequent pressure within the second half . The math says Indiana's depth is poor.
Still, the consequence of Saturday's game must be good for Indiana. For one thing, nobody shall be crying disrespect on behalf of the Hoosiers when the rankings are released on Tuesday. More likely, they're wondering why Indiana is so high. There is little question that Cignetti will love and use this.
And he just saw how his players faced unwanted pressure and responded to it. The defense did it over and once again. The special teams made an enormous play: Ke'Shawn Williams' 22-yard punt return to the Michigan 39 arrange a Nicolas Radicic field goal and gave them respiration room. Rourke made an important throw to get IU close enough and later ran for the primary down against a read-option keeper, which ultimately made the winning formation possible.
“We knew it would be a close game at the end and we had to see what we were capable of,” said Rourke.
“If you're a good team and you stay confident, you stay balanced in those moments, then no moment is too big,” Williams said.
Enjoy it for twenty-four hours. Watch the film. Make improvements. The Hoosiers appeared like every other winning team competing in one other championship race on Saturday. However, Williams admitted that in the ultimate seconds he looked around the gang and thought, “This is crazy.”
It was. And that's it.
“I can’t praise these guys enough,” Cignetti said. “I don’t throw a lot of bouquets out there; You know that. But these guys have achieved a lot.”
No, he doesn't throw bouquets. He takes clay that shouldn't be of the very best quality and shapes it into something very top quality. Leonardo da Cignetti said he would take a much-needed day without work on Sunday. Then it's back to the masterpiece.
image credit : www.nytimes.com