Indiana edges Michigan to reach 10 wins, likely Playoff and wants more: What is this world?

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana junior receiver Elijah Sarratt, a zero-star recruit as a high schooler in Virginia, delivered a figurative roasting to Michigan sophomore cornerback and former four-star recruit Jyaire Hill, leaving him behind in the open field and cruising under a 36-yard touchdown pass from Kurtis Rourke.

Indiana junior defensive end Mikail Kamara, a zero-star recruit as a high schooler in Virginia, got between Michigan senior right guard Giovanni El-Hadi and sophomore right tackle Evan Link and right into the face of quarterback Davis Warren. Both of those Wolverines linemen came out of their prep careers with four stars next to their names, and both were needed to deal with Kamara. Eight stars vs. none. None won.

Indiana, the losingest major college football program, beat Michigan, the winningest, 20-15 on Saturday in front of 53,082 reborn ignorers of November basketball at Memorial Stadium. That’s 10 wins for the first time in Indiana history. That’s 11 wins all-time against Michigan in 73 tries. That’s the one that makes it hard to come up with a scenario in which first-year coach Curt Cignetti and his Hoosiers aren’t among the teams selected for the first 12-team College Football Playoff.

And I swear to you, as sure as Bob Knight could chuck a chair, these people were acting like they had to answer for something Saturday.

“I’m glad we won,” Cignetti said. “I’m not happy with the way we played.”

He said that a few ways while commending his defense and his team for being “gutty,” and he did so after he was asked about the little bit of emotion he let show in the on-field interview with CBS after it ended — while Indiana students stood happily in the stands and didn’t rush the field, because apparently beating the defending national champion is just what they do around here now.

Those couple of seconds on the field to take it all in, some of the smiles Cignetti shared with family members and friends as he walked past the massive IU weight room toward the presser, the fact close to 20 family members and friends crowded into the place … these are the hints of a gigantic moment.

Cignetti and his No. 8 Hoosiers (7-0 Big Ten) weren’t going to say it, not after they let a 17-3 first-half lead over the disappointing Wolverines (5-5, 3-4) dissolve into the need to stop a tying two-point conversion and another U-M drive in the fourth quarter, which the IU defense did. Indiana was supposed to roll over this Quick Lane Bowl-looking Michigan team, as Indiana has rolled over everyone, and that’s not what happened.

Have covered 7-8 Indiana football games. Tailgating scene today tops all of them combined. Bad photo that doesn’t tell the story notwithstanding. pic.twitter.com/HqmoweWGmm

— Joe Rexrode (@joerexrode) November 9, 2024

That’s fine, Hoosiers. There’s a Big Ten championship in play. The game of the season up next, at No. 2 Ohio State after a well-timed week off. So the fact that The Athletic’s Austin Mock has the Hoosiers at 92 percent to make the Playoff and their regular-season finale is against wretched rival Purdue needn’t prompt any public exhales. Especially after this version of Michigan outplayed Indiana in the second half.

But we outside the program don’t have to play ball. We can rub our eyes and shake our heads and laugh almost uncomfortably at the fact we are asking as a college football nation in November whether these Hoosiers have quite enough to win a national championship.

We’re wondering how Michigan hung so tough with Indiana. We’re giving the Wolverines a nice pat on the back for doing so, and gee, what if coach Sherrone Moore didn’t forfeit 31 seconds before taking a timeout late or spend much of the second half proceeding as if just trying to avoid a blowout? After the news conferences on Saturday, back up in the press box, people were watching the Alabama-LSU game and talking about how it might affect IU’s Playoff draw like that’s a normal thing to discuss.

Are we in The Upside Down? How far away from Bloomington is Hawkins, Ind., the supernatural setting for “Stranger Things”?

We can be amazed. We can be enthralled, too. Because Indiana football in 2024 reminds us that this sport is not just math and science. If it were, the Hoosiers wouldn’t have dominated play in the first half and searched for answers after a wobbly second. They would have been trucked like most Indiana teams through the decades against most Michigan teams.

The 247Sports Team Talent Composite, which assesses rosters based on recruiting rankings, tells us Michigan, having lost a lot from last year’s Jim Harbaugh-led natty, is still No. 5 in the Big Ten and No. 16 nationally. Indiana is No. 16 in the Big Ten and No. 57 nationally. There’s a talent chasm between these teams.

Go by the starting lineups and Michigan’s offense averaged 3.45 stars — despite zero-star quarterback and former walk-on Warren — and its defense averaged 3.73 stars. Indiana’s offense averaged 2.81 stars, and its defense averaged 2.0 stars. So, yeah, Michigan is nearly one star per player better with its defense on the field against Indiana’s offense — even without its best player, injured cornerback and five-star Will Johnson — and we’re asking how the Wolverines got all these stops.

Eight of Indiana’s starting 22 on Saturday, Sarratt and Kamara among them, played for Cignetti at James Madison. Players elevate from Group of 5 programs to Power 4 leagues and make a mark frequently. But a whole slew of James Madison players, and a former Mid-American Conference quarterback, threatening a hostile takeover of the Big Ten?

Recruiting rankings mean something, of course, and correlate in bulk with program success, but they say nothing of how a player will grow and work and fit into a scheme. These evaluations say nothing about how people will get along. Or how they will be coached and developed. They can’t predict choices made in a dorm room on a Thursday evening when happy hour beckons but a young man hits the squat press or the books instead.

It’s not just science and math, it’s art. And an Indiana program known for bad replicas of “Dogs Playing Poker” is getting calls from the folks at the Guggenheim.

Yes, Saturday might have offered a glimpse of potential struggles ahead against the best in the sport for this team, which still hasn’t played a great one. The loss of left guard Drew Evans — another zero-star recruit turned excellent player — to an Achilles injury in practice last week can’t be ignored in Michigan’s four sacks and frequent second-half pressures. The math says Indiana’s depth is tenuous.

Yet the way Saturday’s game went should be good for Indiana. For one thing, no one will be screaming disrespect on behalf of the Hoosiers when Tuesday’s rankings come out. More likely, they will question why Indiana is as high as it is. There’s no doubt Cignetti will love and use that.

And he just saw his players face unwanted pressure and respond to it. The defense did it over and over again. The special teams made an enormous play, Ke’Shawn Williams’ 22-yard punt return to the Michigan 39 to set up a Nicolas Radicic field goal for breathing room. Rourke made a crucial throw to get IU close enough and later ran for the first down on a read-option keeper that finally enabled victory formation.

“We knew eventually we’d come to a game that would be close and we’d have to see what we’re made of,” Rourke said.

“When you’re a good team and you stay confident, stay poised in those moments, you know, no moment is too big,” Williams said.

Enjoy it for 24 hours. Watch the film. Make improvements. The Hoosiers sounded like any other winning team involved in any other championship chase Saturday. Williams did, however, acknowledge that he looked around in the final seconds at that crowd and thought: “This is crazy.”

It was. And it is.

“I can’t say enough about these guys,” Cignetti said. “I don’t throw many bouquets out there; you guys know that. But these guys have accomplished quite a bit.”

No, he doesn’t throw bouquets. He takes clay that is not supposed to be of premium quality and molds it into something very much of premium quality. Leonardo da Cignetti said he’s going to take a much-needed day off Sunday. Then it’s back to the masterpiece.

(Photo of Zach Horton and Elijah Sarratt: James Black / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)