‘It’s a pinch me moment.’ School, fans rally around IU football’s 10-0 start

BLOOMINGTON — The congestion typically found on the streets of town leading up to kickoff of an IU football game was nowhere to be found last week.

The tailgaters arrived early and filled the parking lots surrounding Memorial Stadium making it a free-for-all for the few late-arriving fans.

Every bit of asphalt was teaming with RVs, pop-up tents and folding tables filled with generous helpings of finger foods in anticipation of IU’s showdown against Michigan, and it was a scene that didn’t go unnoticed in the athletic department.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it like that,” Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson said in an interview with The Herald-Times.

Dolson was named athletic director in 2020, but he’s been a fixture in the department going back more than a decade. He also graduated from IU and was a student manager for former basketball coach Bob Knight in the late 80s.

“People got here so early, which is exactly what we wanted, and the energy was amazing,” Dolson said. “They were having so much fun and there was so much excitement.”

That excitement carried over to the game itself as a sold-out crowd of 53,082 fans did their part in helping IU maintain its undefeated record.

The No. 5 Hoosiers (10-0; 7-0) are off to their best start in program history — this is the first time they have won double-digit games in a season — and have crashed the College Football Playoff picture as one of just four unbeaten teams left in the country under the watchful eye of first-year coach Curt Cignetti.

They head to Columbus on Saturday for a game against No. 2 Ohio State (8-1; 5-1) that will have a seismic impact on the CFP rankings and likely determine which team gets a spot in the Big Ten title game.

“It’s the first year of the expanded College Football Playoff, we found out last week we were…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/pinch-moment-school-fans-rally-143557780.html

Author : IndyStar | The Indianapolis Star

Publish date : 2024-11-15 14:35:57

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