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Watching Indiana football is always... an experience, that’s for sure.
Reality seems to bend, things just don’t quite feel right. Have you ever been in an empty gas station, rest stop or even just a park on a clear, quiet night between the hours of 1-3:00 A.M.?
You know that feeling? Well, sometimes it feels like that. That or immense joy when the Hoosiers win or make a key play on either side of the ball, like the long touchdown pass against Illinois or when the defensive line phased through the Illini offense on fourth down like the T-1000 in Terminator 2.
Anyway.
Sometimes the Hoosiers aren’t playing, but you can still capture that unique Indiana energy by tuning into some of the Indiana-adjacent teams floating around out there. Here’s a few and how they tie into the Hoosiers.
The Washington Huskies
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This one was a obvious choice. Former Indiana offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer took the head coaching job at Fresno State following an immensely successful 2019 season in Bloomington.
He used that success to find a Power Five job at one of the Pac-12/10’s sleeping giants in Washington.
Considering that DeBoer has won literally everywhere he’s been and the players are so bought in that they literally gave him the game ball after a dominant win over Kent State, I’d expect those winning ways to continue.
On top of that, DeBoer brought in former Hoosier hero Michael Penix Jr. through the transfer portal. Penix Jr. proceeded to carve the Golden Flashes’ defense like a Thanksgiving Turkey.
The best part? With Washington being as West as you can get without running into a downtrodden Hawaii program or whatever Alaska’s got going on, they’re in Pac-12 After Dark territory. The perfect end to a day of college football viewing.
The South Alabama Jaguars
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After wielding the playcalling powers of the Hoosiers’ 2020 defense like a wizard straight out of Tolkein’s Legendarium, Kane Wommack landed a dream job coaching the South Alabama Jaguars down in Mobile.
Wommack nearly led the Jaguars to a bowl appearance in year one and added plenty of talent, including a few former Hoosiers, through the transfer portal this offseason.
If you tire of big names going “PAC 12 TEAM LOSE WHAT MEAN FOR PLAYOFF?!?!?” on the bird app, I highly recommend you check out some Group of Five programs that are running some interesting schemes on both sides of the ball.
And after seeing the way Wommack threw the kitchen sink at Justin Fields, resulting in the current Bears’ quarterback’s worst performance at the college level, I’d put South Alabama at the top of your list.
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