By Lilly Donahue | Indiana University
Weeks 1-4
via GIPHY
In Indiana’s first four games of the season, they pulled out close win after close win to start 4-0. After barely squeaking by Southern Illinois due to a failed 2-point conversion, we snuck out wins over Florida International, Western Kentucky, and Wake Forest, all of which are expected for a Big 10 team. But we were two games away from a bowl, so how could anything go wrong?
Weeks 5-6
IU came out on fire against a really good Ohio State team, and almost tied the game late. For an IU-OSU game, this was an optimal outcome, but our quarterback, Nate Sudfeld (now with the Redskins), was banged up most of the season, throwing our rail-thin, son-of-a-soap opera star sophomore quarterback into the game. Zander Diamont, who played in a few games the year before, put on a brave face and decent performance against the Buckeyes. The next game, at Penn State, did not go as planned. In a game that some speculated as a possible IU victory did not go as planned, and resulted in a loss.
Week 7
The Hoosiers returned home for a game against the subpar (at best) Rutgers Scarlet Knight. Fans, including myself, thought this would be the game where we would move one step closer to becoming bowl eligible (if only we knew). IU played great and jumped out to a 25 point lead, but somehow, we managed to squander it away to lose by one point and get one of our few features on ESPN for sucking so much. I witnessed this collapse firsthand, and everyone in the stadium looked as bewildered as Mr. Krabs by the end.
Weeks 8-11
Each game during this period was like watching your team play an FCS school that you should demolish. At the start of the game, IU pulled ahead, and fans chuckled about their chances of actually winning. Then, we kept this lead until the start of the 4th quarter, when fans began to worry about our chances of actually winning. And then, in classic IU fashion, we drop kicked our chances of winning into oblivion and chalked up four straight L’s, leaving our bowl chances in a do-or-die scenario.
Weeks 12-13
We did it! Somehow, IU managed to pull out victories over Maryland and Purdue (ok, well Purdue sucks but who cares we’re going BOWLING), and not only are we going to a bowl game, we’re going to the BIG FREAKIN APPLE to play Duke, another traditional basketball school, in, get this, a baseball stadium. So yeah, these weeks were some of the best in recent Indiana football memory.
Bowl Week
As rage machine Spongebob implies, the game did not end well. The Hoosiers actually played a heck of a game, engaging in a shootout that set up an IU field goal to tie the game in overtime. And then IU won and Duke was never heard from again. Well, that’s what would have happened if the refs (who I think were the NFL replacement refs from a few years back) had called the kick, which went over the top upright, good. Let me be very clear: THE. KICK. WAS. GOOD. Am I still bitter? Have you watched 10+ seasons of IU football’s futility? So yeah, I’m still bitter.
Take a look for yourself:
