Todd’s Take: Bloomingeddon At Indiana Was Expected … But Not Like This

This pregame focus was on the hype off the field. That was fun, but Indiana’s football team showed everyone who the big stars really are.

Todd Golden | Oct 19, 2024

Indiana Hoosiers wide receiver Myles Price (4) celebrates scoring a touchdown during the fourth quarter of a game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Memorial Stadium. / Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – This wasn’t the column I expected to write today. Coming into Saturday it was more focused on the sizzle, not the steak.

Indiana’s perfect start to its season had turned heads. It was certainly true here in Indiana, where Hoosiers’ fans starved for football success were shoving each other out of the way to jump on the bandwagon.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has echoed the famous line from “Field Of Dreams” a few times in describing what the Hoosiers’ football success would mean.

“Build it and they will come,” he’s been saying.

He’s absolutely right, but it’s a matter of who they are. Fans? Sure. The more the merrier.

They is also national television. They is also Big Noon Kickoff. They is also the Barstool College Football Show. They is weirdness like professional competitive eater Joey Chestnut.

Indiana-native singer-songwriter John Mellencamp walks down the sideline of a game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Memorial Stadium. / Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images

I exclude John Mellencamp, because he’s a lifelong Indiana fan and has given big money to IU football over the years. But his presence is certainly going to bring some eyeballs to Indiana football from his fans who wouldn’t otherwise give it a moment’s thought.

It’s hype. Winning produces it. There’s nothing wrong with it – in fact, there’s quite a bit right with it. It’s a lot of fun.

That’s where my focus was to be today. I wanted to experience everything Bloomingeddon could offer. The good, the crazy, and some of the necessary evils like long lines, adult beverage-fueled revelry and traffic headaches. (Rogers Street/Kinser Pike to the bypass to the stadium from my house was my friend. This ain’t my first Bloomington rodeo.)

Indiana football success was all new to me, after all. I had only been to one Indiana game before that had this kind of juice to it – the Cincinnati game in 2021 – which I attended as a fan and as a dad before I covered Indiana athletics to see my daughter play in the Marching Hundred.

Apart from seeing my girl play, that game turned out to be a dud – a heat-stroke inducing one at that – and the Tom Allen regime turned the wrong way starting with that game.

Fans hold signs during the Fox Big Noon Kickoff show outside of Memorial Stadium before the start of the Indiana versus Nebraska football game on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herlad-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

I wanted to soak in this atmosphere. Was this middle-aged man going to go brave the kids and head into the Big Noon Kickoff pit? I sure was and I sure did and it was a lot of fun. Was I going to try to catch a glimpse of Mellencamp – whom I still have regret about not being able to see in 1987 when my transportation failed me when I had tickets to the Lonesome Jubilee tour? I digress, but heck yes.

I wanted to take my head out of the game and live in the moment. Bloomingeddon, you had to be here! That was the idea banging around in my head.

I could have written that column, but not too long after the Indiana football team took the field, it dawned on me that the most entertaining Bloomingeddon was going to happen between the lines.

Indiana's Justice Ellison (6) scores a touchdown during the Indiana versus Nebraska football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

From the time Indiana running back Justice Ellison broke free for a 43-yard run against an allegedly impregnable Nebraska run defense on the third play of the game, it was clear that this was going to be Indiana’s day. Ellison would later score a 5-yard rushing touchdown against a Cornhuskers’ defense that hadn’t given up a running TD all season.

Nebraska hung in there for a time, but it was becoming clearer as the game went along that if Nebraska did indeed increase the degree of difficulty for Indiana as everyone had expected, the Hoosiers would handle it just fine. More than fine in fact. They delighted in the chance to set a new bar where they were the team to be compared to. Not to be compared to everyone else.

Not even a quarterback injury – the worst-case scenario for any team – could slow the Hoosiers down. Quarterback Kurtis Rourke injured his thumb in the second quarter and did not play in the second half. Indiana produced just as many points (28) in the second half with Tayven Jackson running the show as it did in the first with Rourke.

The sheer scope of Indiana’s domination had to have even the most wildly optimistic Indiana fan agape. I know I was. From the field, I took a picture of the scoreboard at the two-minute warning and joked on my Twitter feed, intended to be in a “Rosemary’s Baby” voice, “this is really happening!” I predicted a win, but I didn’t see this rout coming in a million years.

(Rosemary’s Baby voice …)

THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING! pic.twitter.com/tKx7QLHrLs
— Todd Aaron Golden (@ToddAaronGolden) October 19, 2024

I saw Bloomingeddon all right. Nebraska was on the receiving end of a beatdown I could scarcely imagine.

My in-hindsight thought after the game was that the hype I focused on pregame was understandable, but misplaced. The stars people know may have been outside Memorial Stadium, but the stars people need to know about and will continue to learn about were putting on the performance of a lifetime on the field.

Build it and they will come. Darn right. Only next time, when the inevitable hype comes with it, I’ll be better prepared for Indiana-style Bloomingeddon.

The off-field stuff is fun. The Hoosiers took it to a completely different level on the field.

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