Indinia*

 (*And, yes, we know that's misspelled)

Or maybe it isn't.

Maybe what showed up on the front of freshman running back David Holloman's jersey -- "Indiana" somehow spelled "Indinia" -- was only a Distant Early Warning for what kind of day it was going to be out there in Iowa City. Because after that, "Indinia" went on to misspell "win."

Also "expectation."

Also "What the hell was THAT?"

Iowa 34, Indinia 6. That's what that was.

It was an outcome you could almost have predicted, if you're a long-time follower of IU football. They are the masters of deflation, these football Hoosiers. They are the kings of raising expectations and then shattering them like a petulant child flinging a china cup. If they had a mascot, it would be a cheery red balloon that slowly loses air as the game goes on.

Certainly everything up to Saturday was a cheery red balloon for this Indiana team. Hadn't the Hoosiers gone 6-2 last year and risen to No. 7 in the polls? Didn't they return quarterback Michael Penix and a whole pile of guys who could play? Hadn't Tom Allen created a culture -- LEO, for "Love Each Other" -- that was attracting the sort of recruits Indiana never used to get, and even a former USC running back (Steven Carr)?

And so, yeah, the expectations were through the stratosphere. Old-timers from the 1968 Rose Bowl team were predicting this would be the team to go back to Pasadena. They were saying the Hoosiers would go 10-2 or 11-1. L. Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated even did a feature story on Allen and his program.

And then ...

And then Penix threw a pick six.

And then he threw another pick six.

And then he threw another pick -- Iowa didn't take this one to the house, but still -- and suddenly Indiana was down 31-3 and and the game was gone.

Iowa 34, Indiana 6.

A throwback result, but not the sort of throwback the sons of '68 envisioned. 

This one looked more like a throwback to 1973, 1974, when the Hoosiers went a combined 3-19 and lost by scores that looked a lot like Saturday's: 24-0, 49-9, 38-17, 37-7. It won't be that bad in 2021 -- look for the Hoosiers to stomp Idaho next week and then give No. 8 Cincinnati all it wants -- but it won't be 11-1 or 10-2, either.

The Blob sees 8-4, maybe, and another bowl game. And the Bucket will stay in B-town.

In retrospect that cheery red balloon was likely overinflated, as cheery red balloons tend to be in the weeks leading up to a new season. Penix, for instance, struggled in the last game he played last year, going 6-of-19 for 84 yards against Maryland before the Terrapins knocked him out for the season. And then the Hoosiers lost to a 4-5 Ole Miss team in the Gator Bowl, after grumbling that they got dissed out of a New Year's Day game.

So maybe the expectations were a step or two beyond realistic to begin with.

Still.

Iowa 34, Indiana 6?

No matter how you spell it, no one expetced that.