Reusse: Hoosiers football at long last enjoying its moment in the spotlight

Bill and Sherry Benner are both graduates of Indiana University. Bill got his education degree with a major in journalism in 1973 and entered the world of sportswriting. Sherry received her degree in occupational therapy in 1974, and spent decades working in that area in schools and outpatient rehabilitation centers.

Some of us would see these as equally noble pursuits, although that could be a minority opinion.

Bill left the Indianapolis Star after several decades in 2001, for other jobs in civic promotion and the media related to sports in Indianapolis. The departure from the newspaper did allow Benner to put neutrality aside.

“Sherry and I have been IU season-ticket holders for 24 years,” Benner said in a phone call Tuesday. “I remember one drive back home to Indianapolis, the Hoosiers had gotten blown out again, in front of a small crowd with fans leaving early again.

“And Sherry looked at me and said, ‘Why do we do this?’”

Turns out, it was to be in Memorial Stadium for the late summer and fall of 2024, without having to face the accusation of being frontrunners.

In this college season of Vanderbilt beating Alabama, Florida State being 1-8, Oklahoma celebrating a victory over Maine, Southern California and UCLA being simultaneously lousy, etc., there is no greater surprise than this:

The Michigan Wolverines are coming to Bloomington, Ind., on Saturday as double-digit underdogs.

Indiana entered the 2024 season with 712 losses, the most of any team with a current Division I program. The Hoosiers also had the distinction of having 14 head coaches since 1948 and none had departed with a winning record.

On and on it went for Indiana until athletic director Scott Dolson — a former student manager for notable basketball coach Bobby Knight — hired Curt Cignetti from James Madison last Nov. 30. Cignetti would turn 63 before the start of his first IU season.

Don Fischer, the radio voice of the Hoosiers for losing football and winning men’s basketball for 52 years, attended 10 of 13 spring practices conducted by Cignetti.

“I wanted to see for myself how this new coach ran things,” Fischer said. “First, it was 13 practices, not the 15 permitted, because he believes less is more. When you’ve done your work, that’s it.

“He brought most of his coaches with him from James Madison. He gets in the office at 4:30 or 5 in the morning, makes out a schedule for that day for each coach, and then he lets his coaches coach.

“There was already a lot of talk about his bravado, cockiness, but what I saw was way more important: organization that was absolutely flawless.”

On his hiring, Cignetti was asked how he would get players to Indiana and said: “It’s pretty simple. I win. [pause] … Google me.”

The quote still follows him, as did players: 13 transfers from James Madison, other key pieces from Wake Forest, from Ohio U., etc.

The Hoosiers are 9-0. They did not trail this season until last Saturday, falling behind at Michigan State 10-0, then scoring the game’s last 47 points.

Indiana’s schedule has been demeaned. Then again: Iowa lost 32-20 at Michigan State on Oct. 19, and Indiana won there two weeks later. Nebraska lost 56-7 at Indiana and lost 21-17 at Ohio State a week later.

The Hoosiers finally moved into the top 10 in the national ratings this week. Indiana fans were justified in declaring, “We get no respect,” but then their football teams had been establishing that lack of respect since losing 10-8 to Franklin to finish 0-1 in 1887.

But now this:

“We sat through so many dreadful Saturdays,” Benner said. “Tom Allen had one good year, and then the COVID year, and then it turned again. A year ago, we were playing Rutgers on a beautiful homecoming Saturday, good crowd, and then we got crunched [31-14], and all the students left at halftime.

“Was it ever going to change?”

Benner had the task of accompanying Cignetti at Big Ten football media days in late July in Indianapolis. “He had more swagger and moxie than anyone I’ve met, and that covers a lot of sports people,” Benner said.

Then came the second game vs. Western Illinois: “It was 42-3, something like that, and there were a couple of plays Cignetti didn’t like, and he called a timeout and just chewed them out big time.”

High standards … even in mismatches (77-3 was the final).

“Bill Mallory was here for 13 seasons; hard-nosed guy, good coach,” Fischer said. “His last winning season was 1994, and then he was fired a couple years later. And from ‘95 to 2006, we didn’t have a winning season.

“Terry Hoeppner came in 2005, and I really felt he was a coach that would turn it around, and then he died of cancer after 2006. Many small crowds, and the students that came leaving at halftime.

“They did that for the first two nonconference games this season, too, And then the coach went on social media and told the student body, ‘You can study, you can do whatever you want the rest of the week, but we need you for three hours on Saturday.’”

Closer to 3½ hours, but Cignetti’s point was taken. Besides, who was going to leave a 56-7 blowout of Nebraska?

Now comes this Saturday, Ticket prices are booming. The dominant Wolverines, 2023 national champs, 62-10 all time against Indiana and winner of 24 meetings in a row at one point, are coming to Bloomington — and Cignetti’s Hoosiers are favored by 13½ points.

Didn’t believe it, until I Googled it.