Indiana is the real deal — it’s time for the college football world to take notice

Indiana used one of college football’s biggest stages — “Big Noon Kickoff” — and the opportunity to play one of the sport’s biggest brand-named teams, Nebraska, to announce itself. Not as a Cinderella story. Leave the glass slippers in the closet. Not as a feel-good tonic in a sport where change is constant. Cook your “Chicken Soup for the Soul” for someone who needs it — like Nebraska.

Indiana wants its name known nationwide as one of the 12 best teams in the country. And after the 56-7 hurting Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers put on Nebraska Saturday afternoon in Bloomington, Indiana, it’s time for the country to start taking this Indiana team seriously. The excuses we would use to keep a team like Indiana out of the playoff conversation are being sliced away like a field full of Nebraska-grown corn.

Indiana hadn’t beaten a team with a winning record? Toast.

Nebraska hadn’t allowed a single rushing touchdown through the first half of the season? Gone. The Hoosiers scored two touchdowns on the ground in the first half alone.

Nebraska walked into Memorial Stadium in Bloomington ranking among the top 10 teams in the nation in scoring defense (11 points per game). And then, just like that, Indiana put up 28 points in the first half, 21 of which came in the second quarter alone, and 56 total points (yes, 56!) in one of the more dominant offensive performances we’ve seen in Big Ten play this season.

And now that we’ve established the Hoosiers as a legitimate contender for both the College Football Playoff and the Big Ten title, we must acknowledge the individual brilliance of Kurtis Rourke and Elijah Sarratt.

We need to talk about Rourke the way we talk about Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel. The Hoosiers’ senior signal-caller, who arrived in Bloomington this offseason after spending the past five years at Ohio University, has been nothing short of brilliant throughout the month of October. Rourke uses token motion, true RPO, better than anyone else in the sport to identify the weakness in any coverage he sees post-snap. He began Saturday’s game by going 8-of-8 through the air, and finished the day 17-of-21 for 189 passing yards with a touchdown and an interception that came on a Hail Mary to end the first half.

Rourke didn’t come out with the team for the second half after suffering an apparent hand injury. He was replaced by redshift sophomore Tayven Jackson. But as Jimmy Johnson once said: Backups want to score too. And that’s what Jackson did. He threw a dime to Sarrett to extend the lead to 42-7 before the end of the third quarter and finished the game 7-of-8 for 91 yards and a pair of passing scores.

Sarratt, who accounted for 1,191 receiving yards at James Madison last year, caught three passes for 65 yards and a touchdown in the win. In the first half, Sarratt and Omar Cooper helped lead an 88-yard drive in six plays, proving this offense’s ability to explode.

Now, sitting at 7-0 and atop the Big Ten standings, there’s little doubt about Indiana and its ability to compete at the sharp end of one of the premier conferences in the sport. The only question left is when will the rest of the traditionalists and glorified glazers begin acknowledging Indiana the way they do Penn State and Oregon? It’s a trick question: You’re already late.

For Nebraska, though? More pain.

The Huskers have not only lost 26 straight against ranked opponents since 2016, but they are now 0-5 in the Matt Rhule era when a win would grant them bowl-eligibility. That 26-game losing streak to top-25 teams is the second-longest active streak among power-conference programs. Only Rutgers has lost more consecutive games to top-25 teams.

It’s back to the drawing board for Nebraska, which now sits at 5-2 with a game against No. 4-ranked Ohio State up next – another matchup with bowl eligibility on the line. Meanwhile, Indiana welcomes Washington to Bloomington, with a chance to improve to 8-0 and match the best start in program history.

Those are the stakes. That’s what playing big-time, big boy football means. Indiana is a big boy. And it’s their time.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him at @RJ_Young.

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