My two cents: Second Trimester Goes Perfectly for Red-Hot Hoosiers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Much was made a month or so ago of how Indiana's football schedule was divided up nicely around its two bye weeks. This stretch in the middle, a four-gamer with Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska and Northwestern, looked like the perfect opportunity for Indiana to do something special

And they did. A clean sweep. Four-and-oh-wow!

The Hoosiers head off to that second bye week now with big smiles on their collective faces, That's because they boat-raced Northwestern Saturday night in the first-ever November night game in Memorial Stadium, working on their night moves to the tune of a 34-3 victory. The Hoosiers are now 7-2.

Every game at Memorial Stadium this year has been a blowout, and it's somewhat shocking that Saturday's 31-point win was the CLOSEST game at The Rock all year. Indiana has won by 52, 35, 35 and 31 points and, of course, lost that stinker to No. 3 Ohio State 51-10.

Those numbers are good, but Indiana coach Tom Allen had three others in mind after Saturday's, and it tells you everything you need to know about him, and the strength of his beliefs.

He has full faith in all involved that this Indiana football program can be something special. And there are three numbers that mattered to him when he took over three years ago — 50, 26 and 10.

"When I was named head coach a couple years ago, I challenged our team, challenged our coaching staff with three numbers — 50, 26 and 10 —and wrote them on the board and talked to our guys about what they meant,'' Allen said. "At that point it had been 50 years since we won the Big Ten, 26 years since we won a bowl game and 10 years since we had a winning season at Indiana.

"I told our team, I told our coaches, we're going to accomplish all three of those, and if you don't believe we're going to do that, you need to leave, and I was very honest and open and sincere about it. ... I want a coaching staff and a football team that believes. Those numbers grew to 52, 28, 12 as this season started. We just knocked off the last one tonight, which makes it a big, big deal, getting that seventh win to secure a winning season here at Indiana for the first time in 12 years.

You can believe that a winning season would come, and you certainly can believe that winning a bowl game is there for the taking, too. Everyone, from Allen on down, said as much last week when Indiana got its sixth win at Nebraska. The goal was never to be bowl eligible — it was to go win that bowl. It's been 28 long years since that's happened around here, since the 1991 Copper Bowl victory over Baylor.

That 52 number — being Big Ten champions — feels a little more daunting, certainly. It's been easy to say NEVER for half a century, but now you at least have to wonder. Maybe?

Freshman cornerback Tiawan Mullen, who has as much swagger as anyone on this team — yeah, it's a South Florida thing — tells everyone you better believe.

"I came 16 hours from home to be here, and I told Coach we were going to get this thing rolling and it wasn't going to take two years, three years,'' said Mullen, the Pompano Beach standout who played a huge role in both first-quarter turnovers that basically ended this game before it started. "We have great players here, a great staff and we're going to get this thing rolling.

"We're showing everyone that we'll compete in every game now. We're rolling.''

The drizzle of honesty over all of this is that the Hoosiers are beating who they are supposed to beat, with only Nebraska being a slight surprise. But being 7-2 now, well, it's something to cherish, because it just hasn't happened very often in these parts.

Where statements can be made are in the final three games of the season after the bye week. There is a showdown first at No. 5 Penn State, a team that has beaten Indiana 21 of 22 times. Then comes the final home game of the year against No. 14 Michigan, who has beaten IU 23 times in a row and 37 of the last 38. Then, Purdue. 'Nuf said.

Those would be STATEMENT wins. Bringing up those game isn't meant to diminish what the Hoosiers have done in the past month. But those won-loss records against Penn State and Michigan are scary. And daunting

But what it does is this:

So, you say there's a chance?

Indiana had lost five in a row to Nebraska and hadn't won in Lincoln in 60 years, and now that's history. Even Northwestern under Pat Fitzgerald has pushed Indiana around. The Hoosiers were just 1-9 in their last 10 against the Wildcats.

That record alone shows how much Saturday night meant to the Hoosiers. They completely embarrassed a team that's done that to them for years.

The tide is turning. Slowly, but also surely,

So, for a change, we can be excited about what comes next. Usually when basketball season starts, there's no need to talk football anymore outside of the Bucket game with Purdue. That's not the case this year.

Basketball season starts Tuesday, but this football talk isn't going to stop anytime soon.

And that's a very good thing.