Indiana Hoosiers

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Indiana Hoosiers

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The Indiana Hoosiers football program belongs to Indiana University Bloomington, representing the school in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. It currently resides in the Big Ten Conference, and the team has played its home games at Memorial Stadium since 1960.

The Hoosiers have only won two Big Ten Championships – one in 1945 and another in 1967. However, the team has appeared in 12 bowl games, including the 1968 Rose Bowl.

A number of players from the team have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, including Zora Clevinger, Bill Ingram, John Tavener, and Anthony Thompson, who was also National Player of the Year in 1989.

In 1991, Indiana made a trip to the Copper Bowl and had little difficulty defeating the Baylor Bears, with a final score of 24–0. At the time, the team was led by quarterback Trent Green, who later entered the NFL, and the Hoosiers’ performance is still talked about as one of the best of any collegiate team during the 1991 season.

Coach Bill Mallory was the coach at the time, leading the team from 1984-1996. Despite a series of important successes, he was fired after thirteen seasons and walked away with six bowl games in 13 seasons. He is still Indiana’s all-time winningest head football coach, with a total of 69 wins.

Indiana Hoosiers Standings

The Indiana Hoosiers have also had a strong start to their season, with standout players and a solid overall team performance. Their stats and standings show that they are a force to be reckoned with and a team to watch in the NCAAF.

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The New Hoosiers Era

In 2019, the Hoosiers finished the regular season with an 8–4 overall record and became bowl eligible on October 26. The 8–4 overall season record in the conference had not been accomplished since the team’s 1993 season.

On November 30, 2019, the Hoosiers crushed in-state rival Purdue 44–41, in two additional minutes, to win the Old Oaken Bucket interestingly starting around 2016. On December 8, 2019, Indiana was chosen as a member in the 2020 Gator Bowl against the Tennessee Volunteers; the Hoosiers would proceed to lose 23–22 to the Vols.

Following the perfection of the regular season, both Tom Allen, the team’s head coach, and Kalen DeBoer received watchlist selections for their individual Coach of the Year awards, including DeBoer being named a semifinalist for the Broyles Award.

On December 17, 2019, DeBoer was recruited by Fresno State as its new head coach; DeBoer had served just a single year as the Hoosiers’ offensive coordinator. Following DeBoer’s departure to Fresno State, Indiana reported the advancement of tight end coach Nick Sheridan to offensive coordinator and running backs coach Mike Hart to associate head coach.

Indiana’s first game of the 2020 season was played at Memorial Stadium on October 24, 2020. The team faced the then-number-eight Penn State Nittany Lions and emerged victorious with a 36–35 overtime win. The Hoosiers were then moved up to the number-17 spot in the college football rankings.

Indiana followed that with a 37–21 win against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and a 38–21 victory over the number-23 Michigan Wolverines. That moved the Hoosiers up in the rankings again, landing them in tenth place in both the coaches and AP polls. Following the climax of the regular season, the Hoosiers would be welcomed to the Outback Bowl, where they lost to Ole Miss, 26–20.

Key Players Hoosiers History

There have been several great players to come out of Hoosiers football, but Anthony Thompson is one of the most well-known names of recent times. He won the Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Award in 1989 and also took the Chicago Tribune Silver Football twice. At the time, he was only the third person to have achieved the feat.

Thompson was a runner-up for the Heisman Trophy award in 1989 after, that year, he broke the record for career touchdowns in college football with 65. That record held until broken by Ricky Williams nine years later.

Another Hoosier great is George Taliaferro. In addition to his performance at Indiana, he was the first African American drafted by an NFL team when he was picked up by the New York Yanks in 1950. Taliaferro was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1981.

Hoosiers Championships

Indiana has won two conference championships in its career. One was an outright win, while the other was shared.

In 1945, the Hoosiers won the Big Ten Conference championship under head coach Bo McMillin. They finished the year with a 9-0-1 record, 5-0-1 in the conference, making it the only undefeated season in the school’s history.

It would be another 22 years before the Hoosiers won another championship. In 1967, they took another Big Ten title under head coach John Pont following a 9-2 season (6-1 in the conference).

In their 120 seasons, the Hoosiers have also participated in 13 bowl games. The first was in 1967, and they went to six under head coach Mallory. Of those, they only won two. Since Allen became head coach, the team has gone to three different bowls but have yet to claim victory.

Conference Outlook

The Big Ten, which was previously known as the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, is often seen written as B1G. It is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference and, for decades, only had ten schools enrolled. It now has 14, as well as two affiliate institutions.

Big Ten teams compete in the NCAA Division I, where its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The FBS, previously called Division I-A, is the highest level of NCAA competition in college football.

Hoosiers Coaches

The first-ever Hoosiers head coach of football was Arthur B. Woodford, who led the team for two seasons from 1887 to 1888. The school would see coaches come and go often over the next few years, and it wasn’t until 1898 that a coach lasted for more than two seasons. That was James H. Horne, who coached from 1898 to 1904.

Similar patterns in the head coach rotations lasted for years. In 1934, Bo McMillin was hired, and he stayed until 1947. To today, he is still the longest-tenured head coach of the Hoosiers, beating out Mallory (1984-1996) by one year.

The Hoosiers are currently led by Allen, who was hired in 2016. Over the five years, Indiana has a 25-24 record, just barely breaking .500.

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Indiana Hoosiers FAQs

Who is the Hoosiers’ winningest coach?

Madison G. Gonertman (1896-1897) completed his two seasons with a .781. However, the coach with the most wins is Bill Mallory, with 69.

Where do the Hoosiers play their home games?

The Hoosiers played at Jordan Field from 1887-1924 when Memorial Stadium was constructed. That served as the team’s home until 1959 when it underwent renovations that led to the new Memorial Stadium, which is still used today.

Who are the Hoosiers’ biggest rivals?

There are several teams that are considered rivals of the Hoosiers. These include the Purdue Boilermakers, the most notorious rival team. The Michigan State Spartans and the Kentucky Wildcats are also strong rivals.

Are there any Hoosiers players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Pete Pihos was an end and a fullback for the school twice, from 1942-1943 and from 1945-1946. The gap in between was due to military service. He played for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1947-1955 after leaving Indiana, helping the team win two consecutive championships. Pihos was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1970.

How many Hoosiers players are in the College Football Hall of Fame?

Six Indiana players have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame – Zora Clevenger, Bill Ingram, Pete Pihos, George Taliaferro, John Tavener, and Anthony Thompson.