We’ve heard from some Chicagoland Hoosiers who often feel ignored by local media, even though northern Illinois is teeming with graduates of Indiana University, not to mention families with students who go to college in the other Bloomington, the one in Indiana.
Monday night offers a chance for some rich Indiana revenge. And, no, the future plans of the Chicago Bears are not involved.
Not only are the Indiana University Hoosiers playing for a national championship — they’ve gotten to this point with dominating style.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at where IU sits right now. It seems like forever ago, but recall that Illinois and Indiana faced off in September in what was billed as a clash of Big Ten teams not named Michigan or Ohio State that had legitimate Bowl Championship Series aspirations. In fact, Illinois came into the game ranked ninth at the time while Indiana was ranked 19th (as crazy as that sounds now). If anything, IU’s performance was more dominating than the 63-10 score indicated; that’s how one-sided that “clash” was.
“We broke their will and just pounded them,” Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said after the game. No niceties with this guy. No false modesty — “That’s a great team over there; just wasn’t their day.” Just pounded them.
Indiana has been breaking a lot of teams’ will ever since. Cignetti has become an unlikely super-coach, scowling on the sidelines no matter how much his team is overwhelming an opponent. We now know, thanks to a Wall Street Journal profile, that Cignetti eats exactly the same burrito bowl from Chipotle every single day, other than when he’s traveling with the team.
The guy is so maniacal he can’t be bothered to think about lunch options.
Then there’s quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who’s played the position so well that he easily won the Heisman Trophy and surely will be the first signal caller picked in the upcoming NFL draft. His younger brother Alberto, currently the Hoosiers’ backup QB, wants to vie for the Hoosiers’ starting job next season. Who bets against him? And who doesn’t love a heartwarming family story, as Fernando lauds his mother Elsa, who’s battling multiple sclerosis, as “my light, my inspiration”?
So, even if their governor is working to force Bears fans to travel to his state to watch their team play in a new domed stadium, our neighbors to the east will get our support tonight against the University of Miami Hurricanes.
Chicago is the unofficial capital of the Midwest, after all, and the home of the Big Ten. So as strange as it might feel, today we say: Go Hoosiers!
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