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“Hoosiers” — the tale of a tiny high school winning the state basketball tournament — is the greatest underdog story ever told out of Indiana.
Yet as much as little Hickory High was an unlikely champion, it wasn’t completely improbable. The sweet shooting Jimmy Chitwood, after all, was the equivalent of a 5-Star talent. He just happened to grow up on a nearby farm. Not even mighty South Bend Central had an answer for him.
The current Indiana Hoosiers football team — the one that sits 10-0 and is ranked fifth in the country heading into a mega clash no one saw coming at No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday — has no one as heralded as Chitwood.
IU is a team full of coaches and players that almost no major program wanted; a group who rather than accept being passed over by big-school recruiters, worked and worked and worked to prove them wrong — and then still drew limited interest as possible transfers last year.
One person did believe in them, 63-year-old Curt Cignetti, himself an ignored asset. Cignetti spent 27 years as an assistant before he could even land a Division II head coaching job. He won and won — “Google me” — but didn’t get to the Power 4 until this year, when IU tapped him.
Together, the undervalued coach and his undervalued players clawed their way to the Big Ten, albeit at Indiana, whose 712 losses is the most in the history of FBS football. They arrived from mostly the Sun Belt and Mid-American Conference to form a low-expectation group (picked to finish 17th in the 18-team Big Ten) with chips on their shoulders and purpose in their play.
Given the chance, they would show everyone they were wrong. Ten games in, mission accomplished.
Hollywood endings are hard to find in real life — so who knows what happens in Columbus, let alone beyond. The Buckeyes are nearly two touchdown favorites…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/only-washington-dc-could-view-the-underdog-story-of-the-indiana-hoosiers-as-a-problem-172403160.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-11-21 17:24:00
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