Proof of life, or something

 The good news from California this morning is the boys of '67 can finally stand down. They no longer can lord it over all who came after them in the football desert that is Bloomington, In., and odds are they're pretty happy about it.

This is because the Hoosiers finally made it back to the Rose Bowl again. And, unlike the boys of '67, they won there.

Did I say won? I mean, won.

Whipped UCLA 42-13 in Pasadena last night, confirming for now everything Curt Cignetti has been telling us: That on his watch, these were not going to be the same old Indiana Hoosiers. They were going to attack on both sides of the football, and hit you in the mouth when necessary, and beat ... your ... ass. The old days of the reflexive inferiority complex were over. Football was no longer going to be a diversion to keep the alumni occupied until basketball season.

It's true the Hoosiers came into last night 2-0, but it was a Monopoly money 2-0. In Florida International and Western Illinois, Indiana beat up on Millard Fillmore Elementary and We're Even More Elementary Than Millard Fillmore Elementary. Western Illinois, after all, has lost 27 straight games, and has lost all three games this season by a combined 182-52 score.

Indiana strapped a ridiculous 77-3 beatdown on the hapless Leathernecks, and thus went west with much still to prove. A 2-0 record is better than an 0-2 record, sure, but what would the Hoosiers do when they faced a real football team?

Played like a real football team is all they did.

The defense swarmed and attacked and made UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers run for his life, sacking him twice, picking him once and limiting him to 137 yards on 14-of-23 passing. It held the Bruins to 3.7 yards per rush, 238 total yards and stopped them six of eight times on third down.

And the offense?

Well, quarterback Kurtis Rourke was a real boy, too, throwing for 307 yards and four touchdowns on 25-of-33 passing. Six Indiana receivers caught at least three balls. Three caught touchdowns, with Ke'Shawn Williams snagging two.  The Hoosiers stacked 25 first downs, went 9-for-12 on third down, and piled up 430 total yards.

These were not, in other words, your usual counterfeit Hoosiers. Significantly so on defense, where the Hoosiers looked nothing like the welcome-mat Hoosiers of years past. Instead of waiting for the game to come to them, they took the game to Garbers and Co.

Now, let's be honest here: This was not a particularly strong UCLA team. They're not great. They may not even be good. But they're a major-conference school with resources, and they're in L.A.

Which means you can get athletes to come there if you even halfway try.

Which means Indiana winning 42-13 after a cross-country trip at least signals proof of life in B-town, and that times have changed. How much, as always, remains to be seen.

But for once, that looks to be the fun part.