Indiana football? Yes, it’s changed a bit

Before settling into tonight’s college football championship game — 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19 on ESPN — let’s flash back a bit.
It’s Oct. 5, 1991, and the Indiana Hoosiers are hosting Michigan State. Folks in Indiana are interested … somewhat.
With some tickets unsold, the crowd is listed at 46,882. That’s less than half the size of the crowd that will be in Ann Arbor two weeks later, when the Hoosiers visit Michigan.
And don’t expect to see all 46,000 in their seats. As the game starts, many students are still outside the stadium, tailgating.
At least, they’re sort of paying attention. They have a radio, with a play-by-play of the game.
Except then a guy says, “Hey, let’s have some music.” The gamecast disappears.
This seemed logical, somehow. Everyone knew that Indiana is about basketball, not football. Under Bobby Knight, its team had already won three national championships; his 1975-76 team was undefeated (a feat that no college team has matched in the 50 years since).
So football was sort of an afterthought. Indiana did win that game, 31-0. (One hopes someone told the students outside.) It went on to win the Copper Bowl.
But it hasn’t won a bowl game since. For all of its history, Indiana has only won three bowls, while losing 10.
Until this year.
Last season, Indiana hired a coach no one had heard of (Curt Cignetti), from a school no one had heard of (James Madison), named after a president some people had heard of. He brought a ton of his players and changed everything.
In his first season, was 11-2. This season, it’s 15-0, including two bowl wins — compared to three in all previous years.
It won the Rose Bowl, 38-3 , and the Peach Bowl, 56-22. Now it faces Miami for the championship. Lots of people will be watching; this time, the students might not switch over to music.