'Never Daunted': Indiana Football's Win at Iowa Shows Culture, Character

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Beneath the stands in Kinnick Stadium's South endzone, any pain Indiana center Pat Coogan felt from the Big Ten equivalent of a Roman gladiatorial match took a backseat to the emotions of the No. 11 Hoosiers' dramatic 20-15 win over Iowa on Saturday evening.

Indiana, which trailed in the fourth quarter for the first time this season and had its back firmly against the black-padded walls in Kinnick Stadium, scored a touchdown with just under 90 seconds remaining to enter its bye week undefeated — and with a wave of momentum.

"I was telling the boys in the locker room, the best feeling in the world is knowing you can get so much better and knowing we're not even close to the peak of maximizing our abilities and talent," Coogan said postgame. "We have so much room to grow, so much room to get better, and that's the best feeling in the world.

"As an athlete, as a college football player, that excites me, that excites the boys. That's what I was telling them."

Nothing about Indiana's win was pretty, all the way down to the bitter end, when quarterback Fernando Mendoza start-and-stopped his way into his own endzone for a 40-yard loss and safety. It cost Indiana two points, but it killed the final three seconds of the game.

Smooth or aesthetically pleasing? Hardly. Effective? Certainly.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said it was a blend of good, bad and ugly, but moreso bad and ugly than anything else. The Hoosiers put a lot of undesirable things on film, Cignetti said, and winning decisively is always preferred.

But Cignetti also learned an invaluable lesson about his team Saturday night: It has guts.

"We've got a lot of new guys, but we've got a lot of good, a lot of the right stuff on this team," Cignetti said. "We were tested really hard, and we found a way to pull through it."

Coogan, no pun intended, was at the center of it.

On the final play of the third quarter, Mendoza scrambled from the pocket on 3rd and 15. He gained 14 yards before Iowa safety Xavier Nwankpa put him on his back right in front of the Hoosiers' bench.

While Cignetti spoke extensively with officials about a late hit penalty, Coogan rallied his teammates on the sideline. Several rows of Hoosiers encircled him. Coogan, one of four game captains who's still less than eight months into his time as a Hoosier, said he felt it was his responsibility as a leader to get his teammates refocused.

"I told them we're going to win this game," Coogan said. "This is why we train so hard. This is what we play for, fourth quarters in these environments, games like today, that's what we do it for."

He said a little bit more, too.

"I can't give you a word for word of what he said," senior linebacker Aiden Fisher said, smiling. "But it got a lot of people going."

But Indiana didn't convert on 4th and 1 to start the fourth quarter, as senior running back Kaelon Black was dropped for a 1-yard loss. It started a four-possession stretch where the two teams mirrored one another's possessions.

Iowa kicked a go-ahead field goal just over two minutes later. Indiana countered with a game-tying field goal three minutes after. The Hoosiers' defense intercepted Iowa backup Hank Brown, who replaced an injured Mark Gronowski for the final three possessions, but Mendoza threw his first interception of the season with less than three minutes remaining.

The Hawkeyes had a chance to, for all intents and purposes, put the dagger in Indiana.

Facing a 3rd and 5 at the Hoosiers' 24-yard line with just over two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Iowa called a screen pass. Indiana didn't have any timeouts remaining, save the two-minute timeout, and the Hawkeyes had blockers in front of running back Kamari Moulton.

But Brown's throw was uncatchable, and kicker Drew Stevens' 41-yard field goal hooked wide left the next play.

Instead of capitalizing on Mendoza's gravest mistake, Iowa made two of its own. The Hoosiers didn't waste their extra breath.

After a three-yard rush from senior running back Roman Hemby, Mendoza hit receiver Elijah Sarratt for a 24-yard gain over the middle, pushing the Hoosiers into Hawkeye territory. Three plays later, in an all-important 3rd and 10, Mendoza found Sarratt again, this time for a 49-yard catch-and-run touchdown.

Mendoza brought his hands together and thanked the heavens. After crossing the goal line, Sarratt emphatically placed one foot in front of the other, savoring each step before his teammates arrived to celebrate. Coogan hugged Mendoza.

"I was thinking, 'Thank you, Jesus,'" Coogan said. "And then one stop. Running on the field, just hugging everyone, and then running the sidelines. Just like, one stop, please. One stop. But it's a surreal feeling. It's college football at its finest. It's amazing."

Iowa encroached on Indiana's territory, but only just. After the Hawkeyes reached the Hoosiers' 49-yard line, Brown threw four consecutive incomplete passes. Indiana drained the final 16 seconds with three kneels and Mendoza's safety.

Celebration ensued. Chants of "Hoo-Hoo-Hoo, Hoosiers," rained down from the Indiana contingent in the Northeast portion of Kinnick Stadium. Cignetti, and several players, acknowledged and celebrated with Hoosier fans in the Southeast corner.

There were 69,250 fans, most of whom sporting yellow and black, inside Kinnick Stadium for Iowa's Homecoming game. It was loud, it was hectic and it was physical.

And yet, it turned into a statement-making Saturday for Indiana.

"I think it proves this is a team that should be taken serious," Fisher said postgame. "It just speaks to how much we care about winning. It doesn't matter at what point the game is at, we know at some point we're going to have a breakthrough point. Everybody just kept chipping away, kept chipping away. We knew at some point we were going to be able to break free and win this football game.

"But I think it just speaks to the culture that we’ve set here. We expect to win these close football games. That’s kind of, like, what we do now."

After Indiana's 73-0 victory over Indiana State in Week 3, several Hoosiers said they'd learn more about their team against Illinois, then ranked No. 9, in Week 4. It was considered Indiana's biggest test, an early-season litmus bar and probable indicator about the Hoosiers' potential this season.

Indiana found Illinois an easier test than expected, cruising to a 63-10 victory. Saturday in Iowa City, the Hoosiers faced a much tougher exam. They were confident they had the answers, but it's hard to know whether you can put out the fire until the flames start burning.

Coogan's speech, Sarratt's touchdown and Indiana's final defensive stand sent the fire department packing.

"It's a huge gut check moment," Coogan said. "Like, now we know, right? We haven't been tested like that. It's Week 5, and we truly got tested. We truly ran into adversity, we truly had to rally together. And an even bigger proponent of that is, it was just us out there. This crowd was crazy.

"It was really just us against, shit, the world, it felt like. So, it was a gut check moment, and we stepped up to the plate, for sure."

Last season, the Hoosiers only trailed twice in the fourth quarter — at Ohio State on Nov. 23 and at Notre Dame on Dec. 20 — and lost both games. They hadn't trailed in the second half, let alone fourth quarter, this season until Saturday.

Indiana is now 16-2 under Cignetti, and 14 of those wins came by more than one possession, the exceptions being vs. Michigan last season and Saturday against Iowa.

Cignetti noted he didn't coach in many close games across his five years at James Madison University, either, which means several of the transfers who followed him from Harrisonburg, Va., to Indiana lack experience in narrow contests.

That includes Sarratt, who had four 20-plus-yard receptions in the second half alone in addition to his game-winning touchdown.

The moment wasn't too big.

"For us to be in that, to be trailing, and be able to fight back and win, is very important," Sarratt said. "Because we know it's going to be times like that in the future. So, I'm glad we were able to pull through."

It also includes Fisher, an undisputed team leader who's armed with confidence that his team has the intangibles necessary to win close games.

"I just think at the end of the day, it was going to come down to who wanted it more and who was a closer football team that trusted one another more," Fisher said. "And I think that's us every time."

Indiana didn't always look like itself Saturday.

The Hoosiers totaled 337 yards of offense, their fifth-lowest mark in 18 games under Cignetti and over 250 yards below their season average. They were called for a delay of game exiting a timeout in the first half. They scored only two touchdowns for just the fourth time under Cignetti's guidance.

Defensively, Indiana, which entered the day with a top-five third down defense in the FBS, allowed seven conversions on third or fourth down.

But the Hoosiers didn't quit. Their record is unblemished, and while their team isn't, they learned Saturday they have the culture to overcome it.

The lights shut off at 9:30 p.m. local time in Kinnick Stadium. They were never too bright for the Hoosiers, who for three-and-a-half hours had their culture, toughness and character tested underneath them — and came out smiling on the other end.

"It shows, shit, never daunted," Coogan said. "For us to come in here, Kinnick, place was rocking, great test — it shows what we're made of. We hit adversity, and we responded. And it truly shows the character of this football team.

"This won't be the peak of our season, 100% it won't be, and we got to keep stacking."