Favorite Games, No. 7: Michael Penix Jr.'s Record-Setting Day at Ohio State
Editor's Note: This is the fourth installment in our 10-part series on HoosiersNow.com publisher Tom Brew's 10 favorite Indiana games during the 2020-21 school year.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Because the Big Ten football season was so condensed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seemed like every Saturday took on a little more meaning than usual.
That was certainly the case on Nov. 21, when No. 9-ranked Indiana, which was 4-0 at the time, traveled to Columbus to take on No. 3-ranked Ohio State. Indiana had already beaten two ranked teams (No. 8 Penn State and No. 23 Michigan), and now they were looking for another upset and a clear path to their first-ever Big Ten Championship Game.
It was supposed to be the game of the year in the Big Ten, but the Hoosiers were still getting very little respect. Ohio State entered the game as a massive 21-point favorite.
For the longest time, the experts looked to be right. Ohio State scored a touchdown just before halftime, and then scored again right after the break to take a 35-7 lead. It looked like the rout was on.
But Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. wasn't about to let that happen. The Hoosiers made a comeback for the ages. The defense kept Ohio State out of the end zone the rest of the way and Penix kept throwing the ball all over the field, mostly to Ty Fryfogle, who basically wrapped up the Big Ten Receiver of the Year award on this Saturday.
Penix and Fryfogle connected on second-half touchdowns of 63, 33 and 56 yards to get the Hoosiers back in the game. And when it was all said and done, Penix had completed 27 of 51 passes for 491 yards and five touchdowns. It was the second-highest total in IU history (Richard Lagow, 496 yards vs. Wake Forest in 2016), and it happened on the biggest stage.
It was the greatest day I've ever seen from an Indiana quarterback, mostly because he did it against Ohio State on the road, the best team in the league that would play for a national championship less than two months later. With a COVID lockdown in place, there were no fans at all at the game. There were just a handful of media members allowed in, and it was great to be there to witness such a tremendous individual effort.
Penix's performance was so impressive that even NBA legend LeBron James tweeted about it.
Indiana never got the game even, but did get it to 42-35 with 10:26 to go, and they did have two more possessions with a chance to tie, but couldn't get it done.
"We didn't get the result we wanted today, but we showed everybody that we're going to fight for the whole 60 minutes,'' Penix said. 'There were a lot of great things that happened out on the field, but we made a few too many mistakes.
"We'll just keep working and keep getting better. There were definitely a few throws I wish I could have back. We fought back, but we've just got to finish. We had a chance.'
There was really only one throw that Penix wished he could have had back. During the third quarter rally, he threw an out route that Ohio State cornerback Shaun Wade jumped. He picked off Penix's pass and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown. It turned out to be the deciding points.
"That was a bad mistake. I should have never thrown that,'' Penix said.
Indiana hasn't beaten Ohio State since 1988, and this was a great opportunity. Moral victories don't count, of course, and coming close this time wasn't enough, either. But it proved a lot to the country, and it was the only regular season loss the Hoosiers suffered all season.
It said a lot about how great a quarterback that Penix can be. He outplayed Ohio State's Justin Fields that day, and Fields was only a Heisman Trophy finalist who became the first-round pick of the Chicago Bears in this spring's NFL Draft. Penix was that good. Sadly, he tore his ACL the following week in the win against Maryland and was lost for the season.
It sets the stage for what might lie ahead. And if you're curious, Indiana's seventh game of the 2021 season is against Ohio State. That's on Oct. 23 in Bloomington.
Previous 'Favorite Games' stories
- NUMBER 10: Indiana's football team has struggled at Wisconsin for decades, so it was very sweet to go up there and steal a 14-6 win on Dec. 5, 2020 in quarterback Jack Tuttle's first-ever college start. CLICK HERE
- NUMBER 9: Armaan Franklin was having a brutal shooting night against Iowa in Assembly Hall on Feb. 7, 2021, right up until he hit the game-winning shot with 1.8 seconds left to go. CLICK HERE
- NUMBER 8: Collin Hopkins hits a walk-off home run after a long rain delay to help Indiana beat Illinois 6-4 and end the Hoosiers' five-game winning streak. CLICK HERE
