When a team finishes a season 16-0 and wins the national title, it's easy to forget about the close calls along the way, but they were there for Indiana last season. The Hoosiers found themselves in close contests on the road against Iowa, Oregon and Penn State during the regular season. In the national title game, they were up against it against Miami.
The common thread across all four games was the ability to overcome adversity and make the plays necessary to win. The needle to that thread was Fernando Mendoza. It's why he won the Heisman Trophy, and it's why he went first overall in the NFL Draft.
All offseason, the biggest question about Indiana's encore was how well Josh Hoover could fill Mendoza's shoes. On Saturday, in Lincoln, Nebraska, against a team and 90,000 Nebraska fans desperate for their moment in the sun and a return to relevance, Josh Hoover had his Mendoza Moment. It was not a pretty performance overall.
In fact, statistically, it was easily Hoover's worst performance since coming to Indiana. Hoover completed only 12 of his 22 passes in Indiana's 20-17 win, as he had to deal with a strong wind blowing through Memorial Stadium all afternoon. It caused him to sail throws to open receivers down the sidelines, and sometimes come up 10 yards short of them.
Had he been able to make those throws in the first half, perhaps Indiana never would have found itself in the position it was in when Hoover helped save the day. To Nebraska's credit, the Huskers did just about everything they had to do in order to pull off an upset. They dominated the ball on offense, running 83 plays to Indiana's 44.
The problem was that they couldn't turn those plays into points. Not until Nebraska QB Anthony Colandrea suddenly found himself scampering through the Indiana secondary for a 39-yard touchdown run to give Nebraska a 17-6 lead with 12 minutes left to play. As Nebraska fans collectively lost their minds, and the rest of us suddenly found ourselves wondering if this was really going to happen, Hoover and the Hoosiers' offense stepped back onto the field in the most adverse situation this 2026 team had seen all year.
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