My Two Cents: Disappointing Ending Doesn't Diminish Greatness of Indiana's 2020 Season

Indiana's dream season in 2020 came to a disappointing conclusion on Saturday with an Outback Bowl loss to Ole Miss, but it doesn't take away from the historic moments that took place all year.

TAMPA, Fla. – Hollywood had been queued up just as the ball sailed outside the upright. OIe Miss had just scored a touchdown with four minutes and change to go, but had missed the extra point. Their lead was just six points, and Indiana was getting the ball one last time.

The screenwriter was on line one. From the start, this entire Indiana football had been pure fiction, pure "Rudy" ... pure "Remember the Titans" ... pure ... "Outbreak.'' In the middle of a pandemic that was killing people left and right, the Indiana Hoosiers were having a football season for the ages. 

His script was almost finished, and it was beautiful. It had drama, like quarterbacks flying through air to touch pylons. It had tear-jerker moments, like a father and son hugging after the son was injured and out for the year. It had demons being crushed, bad guys who had pushed our heroes around forever. And it had conspiracy theories too, of Big Brother screwing our hero out of what they deserved.

All that was missing was the ending.

But there it was, right there for the taking. Lights, camera ... first-and-10 with 4:01 to go at the Indiana 25. It was going to be a touchdown drive for the ages. 

There were running plays that worked early for a first down, and then our bearded gunslinger, quarterback Jack Tuttle, completed a 19-yard pass to David Ellis despite his separated shoulder killing him with every throw. Three more runs, including a sneak by Tuttle on third down, got a third first down and the Indiana was at the Ole Miss 33 with 1:18 to go.

Tick, tick, tick

But on the first down play, a read-option, Tuttle made a mistake. Instead of handing off, he threw out in the flat to Whop Philyor, our local star who had a record-setting game just a few miles from his old high school. The play lost two yards.

Then on second-and-12 there was a breakdown in protection and Tuttle was sacked for a 6-yard loss.

"That really put us in a bad spot, and it was tough to overcome that,'' Indiana coach Tom Allen said. "That to me is where it kind of got off schedule, the first snap of the last series, then the sack. Not going the right direction. We got way behind the chains in that last drive and that's what killed us.

On third down, Tuttle threw the ball deep, but no one was open and the pass was batted away. The fourth down play fell apart completely.

"Fourth-and-18 is tough,'' Allen said. "They're playing two man with that, with tough windows to throw in. That's a long way to go for a quarterback run or a check-down throw. It made it challenging, and they made the plays.''

Just like that, our great Hollywood script was balled into a wad and dropped into the garbage.

Hollywood's response?

You're fired.

It just wasn't supposed to end this way

Indiana football 2020 will be remembered as one of the greatest seasons in school history. It wasn't 1945 great – a 9-0-1 season led by Hoosier George Taliaferro — or the 1967 Rose Bowl team great, but isn't it probably third? 

Probably so, mostly because of HOW it had to play out in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. This season has started and stopped so many times since last March, and literally every day was surrounded by uncertainty. Are we practicing? Can we work out? Can we leave our apartment or dorm room at all? Can I see a girlfriend, a parent?

It was unprecedented college football.

There were many people who didn't think we should even be playing college football during the pandemic, including people in the Big Ten office. They shut it down, and then restarted it once the SEC, ACC and Big 12 decided to play anyway. An abbreviated schedule started in late October, but the league had to cancel at least one game every week because of COVID, outside of the first week.

Players were tested every day. They stayed in their own little bubble, just for the opportunity to play a game that we could watch. They made major sacrifices like no players ever before them.

"They've been through a lot, and it's just been an amazing season for so many different reasons,'' Allen said. "They've been through so much, given so much, worked so hard, sacrificed so much just to come to a bowl game. I'm just heartbroken for them they weren't able to finish with a win.''

The wins came week after week. It started with the ultimate drama, beating No. 8-ranked Penn State 36-35 in overtime when quarterback Michael Penix Jr. flew threw the air and clipped the edge of the pylon for the win. Indiana had been 1-22 all-time against the Nittany Lions before that.

They ended a long losing streak to Michigan that dated back to 1987, shut out Michigan State on the road for the first time in decades and even beat Wisconin in Madison for the first time since 2001. All amazing things on their own, but collectively it was pure magic. Indiana had never beaten all four of those schools in the same season.

You understand NEVER, right? This was epic.

The only loss was at Ohio State, by one touchdown against a team that will play for a national championship next Monday. That was the only blemish. And when the Big Ten changed the rules for Ohio State to play in the Big Ten title game despite not playing a league-mandated six games, Indiana got screwed.

And that was just a start.

The Hoosiers were ranked every week after the Penn State win, and got as high as No. 7 in the country at the end of the year, rarified air for this Indiana program. They deserved a New Year's SIx bowl, but the College Football Playoff committee, which had them ranked No. 11, passed them by. They liked at-large teams Iowa State, Florida and Georgia better, and the SEC bias among that committee – which is legendary – was clearly as play again.

A homecoming without the happy

What was left for the Hoosiers was this Outback Bowl game in Tampa. Sure, it was a slight in the pecking order, but once it was said and done, it was a game well worth embracing because it was a home game for Tom Allen, who's lived here twice in two coaching stops, and for a dozen players who call the Tampa Bay area home. 

It was a New Year's bowl game in Florida for a second straight year, which is huge in a state that really matters to the Hoosiers. There are nearly two dozen players from Florida on the roster, with more to come.

Game embraced, but a victory had to be embraced too, and that didn't happen. It was, without question, their worst performance of the year. Ole Miss played at a quick tempo, which took Indiana out of some of its aggressive packages. They moved the ball too easily, even thought they only scored 26 points, 14-and-change below their record-setting scoring average.

And most painfully, they made it look easy late in the fourth quarter, after Indiana had made that great rally to tie the game. They flew right down the field in six plays and scored to go back ahead.

It was a dagger that Indiana couldn't overcome. It was its sixth straight bowl defeat, and their bowl losing streak now reaching 29 years and counting.

The loss hurts – and hurts a lot – simply because of all the wins that came before. And because it's the last game of the season, it's a loss that's going to be hard to swallow for a long time.

"It's going to hurt, and it should hurt if you're invested a whole lot like these guys have, sacrificed a whole bunch to be in this position,'' Allen said. "It's a tough one, for sure. Like everything else, everything you go through helps create the person that you are, the positives and the negatives, the opportunities that you have that you don't take advantage of. 

"At the end of the day I'm the head coach, this loss falls on me. That's the way it works. I accept that. That's what makes it sting so much because I wanted it for these kids so bad.''

The end of the day? No doubt, that's part of it, too. When you're having a magical season, you never want it to end. That's college sports. Many of the same people will be back in 2021 – probably a lot more than you would guess right now – but it still won't be all that they went through this year, from COVID, to health scares to losing their star quarterback to a second ACL injury.

It's a tough way for it to end, but these memories will last forever. Indiana isn't a laughingstock football program anymore, and Tom Allen and his coaches and players deserve an enormous amount of credit for that.

"This has been a season for the ages. I mean, all we've been through, it's been so hard.'' Allen said. "Everybody has been through this, but a lot of teams decided not to play in bowl games because they knew their guys had been through so much already. Our guys chose to play, they wanted to play. 

"But there was a lot that we had to work through because there were just some tough things there with all that. They had been (inside their bubbles) for a long, long time, hadn't been with their families, knew they weren't going to be able to go home for Christmas, all those things. It's been a challenging year. We've done some amazing things, got chances to win a lot of great games that this group will always be remembered for. They are a special group. 

"To lay a tremendous foundation for next year, I'm excited about next year. A lot of those seniors are going to make a decision, and the NCAA has given them an opportunity to come back. Some will, some won't. We'll know for sure here in the next couple weeks. Either way, we're going to love and support them, whatever they feel is best for them and their future, we'll talk that through with them.''

Love this team? No doubt. Support them? Of course. It was a dream season for sure, just without the ending we all would have liked.

But we made it, from start to finish, in a year where a lot of people didn't think that could happen.

And 2020? We'll never forget. There's no movie, but there are memories. And that's good enough.

Related stories on Outback Bowl game

• GAME STORY: Indiana comes up short against Ole Miss, losing 26-20 on Saturday in the Outback Bowl in Tampa. CLICK HERE
• TUTTLE INJURY: Indiana quarterback Jack Tuttle fought through a separated shoulder throughout Saturday's game. CLICK HERE
• OLE MISS PACE: The Rebels used a fast-paced passing game to keep Indiana's defense on its heels, and it worked in a turnover-free game. CLICK HERE