Where football is serf

Indiana went out to Nebraska and dropped a big ol' cowpie last night, and now a couple of questions beg to be asked.

Just how bad were the three teams the 3-2 Hoosiers beat to start the season?

Also, what is the definition of  "disarray", and who exactly meets it now?

Because Nebraska is supposed to be the photo in the dictionary next to that word, having fired its head coach after two games and turned the rest of this season into a holding pattern. The Cornhuskers are an awful team with no incentive not to be, and presumably easy pickings to which IU could help itself.

And then ...

And then, the Hoosiers had to call timeout on the very first play of the game because quarterback Connor Bazelak couldn't get a play changed.

Varying levels of ridiculousness followed, and, instead of easy pickings, Indiana got picked clean, 35-21.

Just which team meets the definition of "disarray" is now on the table.

Consider: Indiana lost by two touchdowns to a team that was flagged 12 times for 111 yards in penalties. It lost to a team that lost at home to Georgia Southern and, last week, was humiliated 49-14 by ancient rival Oklahoma. 

It lost to a team whose only win, until last night, was against FCS school North Dakota on Labor Day. The week before, the Cornhuskers traveled all the way to Ireland to blow a 28-17 lead and lose to Northwestern, which has subsequently lost to Duke, an FCS school (Southern Illinois), a MAC school (Miami) and Penn State.

Indiana lost to those same Cornhuskers in traditional Indiana fashion, through gaffe and general helplessness. It countered Nebraska's hanky-fest with 11 penalties of its own, totaling 92 yards. The Hoosiers managed just 14 first downs; couldn't run the football (67 yards on 2.9 yards per carry); and couldn't convert third downs (2-of-15). 

And in the second half, where games are decided?

The Hoosiers managed just two first downs, were outscored 14-0, and had the football for just  28 snaps.

And if you're thinking here this just sounds like IU football returning to its natural state -- a diversion until basketball starts -- understand that it's 2022 and the world has changed. Everything that drives corporate college athletics is is almost exclusively about football now, which is why Indiana has poured some much dough into the program and its physical infrastructure in the last decade or so. 

In other words, football is king. No Power 5 school can afford for it to be a mere serf anymore.

At Indiana, of course, the latter is pretty much what football has always been. But the tolerance for that -- tolerance for cutesy stunts like Lee Corso calling timeout to take a picture of the scoreboard after IU scored first against Ohio State back in the day -- is exhausted. Which is why Tom Allen's hefty buyout is likely the only thing that will keep him around for the time being, two years after being named the national coach-of-the-year.

It was all a deliriously fun ride, that pandemic-shortened season. But it can no longer be a single happy chapter. It has to be the driving narrative.

And at Indiana, it appears, they're still waiting on that narrative.