Indiana zenith

 I want to be wrong about this. Let's get that straight right off the hop.

Also: I think what Tom Allen has done in Bloomington is amazing and pretty close to impossible, creating a culture of belief and family that has turned Indiana University's football program into a Program, and something more than just a side dish for basketball.

Also, also: I think equally remarkable is the way he's upgraded the talent level in B-town, particularly in the offensive line and defensive down seven, which are the areas that separate the elites from the, well, Indianas.

Indiana has always had skill players. What the Hoosiers have now are skill players AND the grunts up front who let the skill players do their thing.

All of which is why the Hoosiers are ranked in the top ten for the first time in over half a century.

All of which is why the biggest football game they've had in almost that long happens tomorrow in Columbus, Ohio, when they take on the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes.

What I feel about that is what I hope I'm wrong about.

What I feel -- queasily, in the pit of my stomach -- is that even though this Indiana team can go toe-to-toe with the Buckeyes, even should, somehow it won't.

I'd love to see it go down to the wire, and maybe beyond. I'd love to see Michael Penix, down there at the end, stretching for the pylon again for the W. I acknowledge that's possible. I acknowledge that's possible in a way it hasn't been for a very long time.

But I don't think it will happen. 

What I think will happen instead is Ohio State wins by a couple of touchdowns, and maybe more.

I don't know why I feel this way. I have no reason to believe this Indiana team -- coming off a thorough racking of Michigan and a no-doubt shutout of Michigan State in East Lansing -- won't rise to the occasion the way it has every time out so far this season.

But I can't help what I feel. Call it a hunch, or Indiana's beige football history exerting far too much influence -- to the point where if I close my eyes I can still Ted McNulty playing quarterback for Indiana instead of Michael Penix, and Dennis Cremeans or Ken St. Pierre lugging the ball instead of Stevie Scott.

Ah, the bad old days. There are so many of them, and they pile up on you. They make you refuse to believe what your eyes are telling you. They make you expect the other shoe to drop because the other shoe almost always has, and when it does it's almost always with an almighty thud.

I hope I'm wrong, waiting around for it this time.

I hope I look like an utter fool for doing so somewhere around 3:30 Saturday afternoon.

I hope to hear all of you saying "You're an idiot, Mr. Blob" about the same time.

I mean, not that it would be all that different than usual.