College Football

Indiana suffers yet another gutpunch loss, plus Thursday night’s other stuff to know

Thursday night’s full FBS final scores are below, along with some other stuff.

Updated Sep 1, 2017, 12:04 PM UTC

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Maybe the Indiana Hoosiers’ biggest football game in decades ended in something that fits the strange words, “yet another narrow heartbreaker of a blowout loss.”

The No. 2 Buckeyes rolled into town, as did College GameDay and an ESPN Megacast, for the sport’s veritable opening showcase. The Hoosiers came out on fire in front of a lit crowd, led by receivers making circus catch after circus catch against a young secondary. IU led by 14-6 in the second and 21-20 in the third.

And then things like size, speed, raw talent, the weight of all human history, and Calvinist predestination kicked in. OSU RB J.K. Dobbins and WR Parris Campbell broke out highlights of their own — more of the running extremely fast variety than the circus catch variety — and everyone looked up and realized the Hoosiers had rushed for all of negative-2 yards until garbage time. Also, the occasionally rusty J.T. Barrett still ended up with 365 total yards and no turnovers, despite a couple of big drops.

If you didn’t watch and only looked at the box score, you can assume the Buckeyes just ran away with it, and...that’s not necessarily inaccurate, despite how hard neutral fans were rooting for IU to finally pull it off.

Veteran viewers tried to warn newcomers not to get their hopes up about Indiana football. Some didn’t listen. Add this game to this list of Indiana frustrations against top-10 teams over the previous three years:

In 2014, they led No. 6 Ohio State by six until 17 minutes remained, then lost by 15 ...
... led No. 8 Michigan State in the second quarter, then lost 56-17.
In 2015, they lost by a touchdown to a No. 1 Ohio State ...
... by eight to a No. 9 Iowa ...
... were within two of No. 9 Michigan State in the fourth quarter, before losing by 26 ...
... and by a touchdown to a No. 14 Michigan in double overtime, just for good measure.
Also in 2015, IU’s first bowl game in a decade ended with a controversial missed field goal.
In 2016, they lost by five to No. 10 Nebraska ...
... led No. 10 Penn State 31-28 in the fourth quarter before losing by 14 ...
... and led No. 4 Michigan in the third quarter before losing.
Also in 2016, Indiana’s second bowl game in a decade-plus again came down to a kick. Utah made it.

I do not know how Indiana football fans are able to put up with this. They’ve been “sick of” their team’s CHAOS TEAM reputation for years already. I hope they get one of these landmark wins soon.

Thursday’s final scores

No. 10 Oklahoma State 59, Tulsa 24: Mike Gundy’s mullet is looking more badass than ever.
Arizona State 37, New Mexico State 31: NMSU might’ve already given us the best catch of 2017.
Arkansas 49, Florida A&M 7: The only important thing that happened was the SEC Network’s sideline analyst bumping into a ref.
Central Michigan 30, Rhode Island 27, the year’s first overtime, double overtime, and triple overtime game
Cincinnati 26, Austin Peay 14
Idaho 28, Sacramento State 6
Memphis 37, ULM 29
Minnesota 17, Buffalo 7: The P.J. Fleck era opens with an iffy win.
Tennessee State 17, Georgia State 10: The year’s first FCS-over-FBS upset came in the remodeled former home of the Atlanta Braves.
Toledo 47, Elon 13
UCF 61, FIU 17
UConn 27, Holy Cross 20: The Huskies, taking no chances, practiced kneeling out the win over an FCS team.
Utah 37, North Dakota 16
Wake Forest 51, Presbyterian 7