COLUMBUS — Imagine if they rewrote the ending to Hoosiers and Hickory High had played UCLA instead of South Bend Central, the basketball hoop was 13 feet high, and Jimmy Chitwood hit nothing but … air.
That’s kind of what happened Saturday at Ohio Stadium.
With a swaggering new coach and a roster full of mid-major transfers, the upstart and undefeated Indiana football team rolled in as the feel-good story of the season.
Then came reality.
Ohio State 38, Indiana 15.
In the most unlikely top-five matchup in the century-old history of the Horseshoe, the big, bad Buckeyes (10-1, 7-1) played the hits to the delight of a full-throated crowd of 105,751.
Here was the Ohio State team fans expected in this chips-to-the-center season, and, if we’re being honest, here, too, was the Hoosiers team most anticipated the first time they faced a top-end team.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Indiana and what coach [Curt] Cignetti has done over there,” Ohio State quarterback Will Howard said. “They’ve had a heck of a turnaround. But you've got to remember you’re coming to play the Buckeyes, man. It’s a little different.”
For all of Cignetti’s fire-up-the-base rhetoric from the offseason — you might recall his applause line during an Indiana basketball game (“Purdue [stinks], but so does Michigan and Ohio State!”) or his message to recruits (“Google me, I win”) — talent tends to beat talk.
And we saw it Saturday.
The verdict: Ohio State does not stink.
Neither do the Hoosiers, for that matter.
Asked afterward about Indiana’s playoff candidacy, Cignetti replied: “Is that a serious question? I’m not even going to answer that, because the answer is so obvious.”
He might be right. We’ll save the already tired Indiana-versus-the-SEC debate for another day.
Saturday was about Ohio State.
The Buckeyes — who shopped on Madison Avenue for their transfers — saw to it in their most comprehensive performance of the season.
There was Howard completing 85 percent of his passes to an embarrassment of playmakers in another effort more efficient than a solar panel; sophomore safety Caleb Downs — an All-American at Alabama last season — electrifying with a 79-yard punt return for a touchdown; and the defense blitzing and bullying Kurtis Rourke and the Hoosiers’ league-leading offense. The Buckeyes sacked the former Ohio University passer five times and held Indiana to just 73 yards before a late garbage-time TD drive.
“Our guys just played with a chip today,” head coach Ryan Day said, “and that’s the way you got to play.”
No, it didn’t quite look that way from the start.
Like a rusted Ford Aerostar on a frozen morning, the Buckeyes wheezed out of the driveway.
The mood in Ohio Stadium after they opened with a three-and-out, then allowed an 11-play touchdown drive? Tense. After they got stuffed on fourth-and-1 on the next drive? At least the Citrus Bowl will be fun! (I’ve been to a lot of places. No one does apocalyptic angst like Ohio State fans.)
From there, however, once Indiana was done posing for pictures in front of the scoreboard, order as we know it was restored.
The Buckeyes showed the difference between a roster of very good players and one stocked with many of the very best players in the country.
Add to that a pinch of defiance — see: the doomsday reaction to standout center Seth McLaughlin suffering a season-ending Achilles injury in practice last week — and it was all Ohio State.
It scored touchdowns on four of its next five possessions and kept coming … and coming.
To the chagrin of sportsmanship scolds, the Buckeyes floored it to the finish.
In the final minutes, Ohio State took a break from trolling Cignetti on the scoreboard — “BUCKEYES WIN??? GOOGLE IT!” — to send one final message.
With 1:52 remaining, Treveyon Henderson broke off a 39-yard run before sliding down at the Hoosiers’ 1 to bleed the clock.
Most figured the Buckeyes would take a couple knees to end the game. Instead, Day kept the pedal down and Howard punched in a 1-yard run. The place went bonkers.
Some contended the display was beneath Ohio State, which has not lost to Indiana since 1988.
Counterpoint: The Buckeyes are trying to sharpen their edge as the stakes keep rising — up next: Michigan — and the Hoosiers still had their starters in the game. Indiana signed up for 60 minutes. I see no issue.
“We just felt like we wanted to put an exclamation point on the win,” Day said.
Hoosiers II, it was not.
First Published November 24, 2024, 1:13 a.m.