Good morning, and welcome back to Indiana football, an experience that will make even the most even-keeled sports fan descend into chaos.

Before tonight's game, let's review some recent history.
I'm going to start at 2008. bill lynch is now permanent head coach after taking over for his close friend terry hoeppner, who'd passed away before the 2007 season. lynch took that '07 team to its first bowl game in 14 years
hoosiers start out 2-0, all's good right? welp, in week 3 they host ball state and after a gruesome injury to ball state WR dante love, IU loses by 22 points. the ball state coach? brady hoke.

later that season, they blew a lead to central michigan. CMU's coach? butch jones.
coming off a bowl berth, indiana went 3-9 this season and in the bucket game, joe tiller finishes his purdue tenure with a 62-10 victory.
2009 starts out with the hoosiers going 3-0. next is a trip to the big house. michigan goes up late thanks to tate forcier, but IU still has a chance to win or tie with the ball.

then bill lynch throws his gum.
hoosiers go 4-8 that season but not before blowing a 28-3 lead against northwestern (they lost 29-28)
2010. hoosiers start out 3-0 again! michigan comes to btown this time!

neither team is unable to stop the other all day but denard robinson runs it in with 21 seconds to go. wolverines win 42-35.
after 2010, lynch is gone, replaced by kevin wilson. the 2011 season is the start of a complete rebuild and IU goes 1-11, but one loss stands out: UVA scored twice in the final 90 seconds to beat us 34-31 even though we'd come back from 23-3 earlier
2012: new optimism for the hoosiers! tre roberson starts out the year on fire, then at a game at umass, he breaks his lower leg in two and is done for the season

next game, IU comes back down 38-25 to take the lead on ball state only before losing on a last second FG
a mediocre MSU team is homecoming that year. hoosiers jump out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter, but never score after halftime and lose 31-27.

yet IU still has a chance to win the leaders division in mid-november despite its 4-5 record, due to OSU and PSU bowl suspensions
of course, that sliver of hope comes to an end when wisconsin rolls into town and crushes IU, 62-14. the hoosiers give up a total of 163 points in their final 3 games that year
2013 rolls around and with roberson, nate sudfeld, tevin coleman, ted bolser, cody latimer, and shane wynn, IU's offense is STACKED.

the defense, however, can't find a way to stop navy and a young keenan reynolds dominates the hoosiers, setting the tone for the year
yet despite this, IU has a chance to go bowling if they hold off minnesota on homecoming

the game starts off real bad, but the hoosier offense wakes up in the second half and eventually takes the lead. but as usual, the gophers score a late TD. let's see what happens next...
on IU's final chance while driving down the field vs minny, the hoosiers lateral the ball, drop it, gophers recover, game over.

hoosiers dominate purdue in the bucket but finish 5-7 and no bowl depsite all that talent
we still got 4 more years left folks!

2014 is kind of a wash, because sudfeld broke his collarbone against iowa which ended his season. but at least zander diamont got to stunt on purdue in the bucket game
2015. start out 4-0! #1 ohio state in town! #iufb4gameday!

IU driving late on the buckeyes and have a chance to tie or even win in the closing seconds but a final 4th down pass falls just out of reach and maybeee there was contact in the end zone idk idk
two weeks later the whole rutger horror happens.

also we lost 52-26 to MSU that year which is weird because i remembered that game being close but apparently sparty scored 24 unanswered in the 4th quarter which i guess makes sense lol
having reeled off 5 straight losses, michigan rolls into town in mid-november.

jordan howard has the game of his life for IU, but so does jake rudock for michigan, who throws a 4th down TD to send the game into OT. from there, michigan wins 48-41. not mad, actually laughing!
yet despite this, IU wins its last two and goes bowling for the first time in 8 years.

against duke in the pinstripe bowl is an all-offense affair. then this happens. the kick was, still is, and always will be, good
in 2016, tom allen comes in and shores up the defense. but the offense regresses without sudfeld.

yet despite richard lagow throwing for almost 500 yards against wake forest, he also throws 5 picks as the hoosiers lose a winnable game
also that year, IU hosted nebraska and dominated for 3.5 quarters but lost because they gave up 17 points early to the huskers

they also were up on big ten champ penn state in the 4th quarter, only to lose by 14. and they barely beat purdue to claim their 4th straight bucket
despite this, IU now has back-to-back bowl games for the first time in 25 years! program is stable, right?

nope. news breaks of kevin wilson mistreating players and he gets fired and is replaced by allen. wilson, of course, goes on to become OC under urban meyer at OSU
so allen comes aboard and the defense is stable, but the offense continues to regress new OC mike debord, who'd been cast off at tennessee by butch jones, who got canned a year later.
IU has this three game stretch in 2017:
- loss at home to michigan in OT
- loss on road to sparty despite being up by 6 late in the game
- loss on road to maryland 42-39 despite the terps starting their 7th string QB or something
but despite starting the season 3-6 (0-6), IU knocks off illinois and rutger and still has a chance to make its 3rd straight bowl with a win over purdue, who's also 5-6. yet the boilers dominate IU all day and the hoosiers finish the year at 5-7 without a bowl
so alas, today we start another season of indiana football.

when the chaos erupts once again, don't say i didn't warn you.

go hoosiers.
Good morning. Once again, we’ve made it to another season of Indiana football.

Before this year starts in a couple hours, let’s add 2018 to this thread. Spoiler alert: it was more of the same!
Hoosiers start out 4-1. But the cracks are starting to show when the offense no-shows against Sparty and the team has to squeeze one out against rutger.

Then the bottom falls out and IU allows 6 TD passes two weeks in a row - first to OSU (fine), then to Iowa (uhh)
IU plays better against PSU in a losing effort, but then ona Friday night in Minneapolis, the Hoosiers go down 31-9 to Minnesota.
And then it happens. A frantic comeback out of nowhere! IU ties the game up late!

Of course, IU immediately allows a Minnesota TD on the next drive and loses 38-31.
After a close win over Maryland, IU needs one of two against Michigan or Purdue to reach a bowl.

Hoosiers take the lead at halftime in the Big House, but the the Wolverines wake up late.
And then a week later, Rondale Moore happens and Purdue wins a second straight bowl-or-bust Bucket where both teams came in at 5-6.

The Hoosiers end the season once again in the purgatory of “not a bad team” but also “not even bowl eligibile” that has summed up the past decade.
Today, there is hope. A new OC, a restructured defensive staff. A new QB. And a game in the state capital to start it all off.

Let’s just hope there’s more positivity when I update this thread again a year from now. Go Hoosiers.
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