IU vs. Illinois

Today had been marked on IU football fans calendars since the college schedules were released early this summer.  IU was to host Illinois in what sports media was stating would be the first big playoff determiner of the season.  The hype around the game had been so big that Memorial Stadium had been sold out since July and parking passes were gone by August 1st.  It was all that the IU football fans in our family had been talking about this week especially since sports reporters had been calling the Hoosiers out for lack of strength in schedule as our first three opponents had been walkovers. 

Because of the hype, the game was scheduled at 7:30.  We were glad that IU football was a key talking point today, but it was extremely hard to wait for it to start.  When the Notre Dame vs Purdue game was delayed due to lightening, we became worried that we wouldn't even get to see the Hoosiers play as NBC would not switch from their top money maker of the day to IU football.  Thankfully, the game started on Peacock which in the end was even better as for the first five minutes all that was shown was Memorial Stadium packed with fans waving white towels with campus in the background. It was absolutely amazing to see.

The game was close in the beginning with the Hoosiers leading 14-7 after the first quarter, but something changed shortly after the break and IU turned it up a notch.  Our football team went into the half with a 35-10 lead and never looked back winning 63-10.  It was the biggest win over a top ten team ever and stopped all of the negativity surrounding our strength of schedule.  Doug summed it up best when he told me shortly after the game ended that he could rewind it and watch it all over again.  Both Cal and Cameron called to celebrate with us. Cal had watched with his IU friends in Chicago while Cameron had a front row seat in the stadium.  Both were absolutely ecstatic.  It was definitely a top five IU football moment that none of us would forget anytime soon.