Trent Green isn't the most recent Indiana Hoosiers quarterback to beat the Ohio State Buckeyes. That would be the late Dave Schnell, who defeated OSU in 1988. Green is, however, the last IU quarterback to not lose to Ohio State. His Hoosiers played the Buckeyes to a 27-27 tie in 1990, something he still laments more than three decades later.
"Well, first off, we shouldn't have tied," Green told Athlon Sports. "We actually scored the winning touchdown, and they called it back on a holding call. I'm still a little bitter about that, because I don't think that was a holding call."
Since that game, Ohio State has won 28 straight against Indiana. The Buckeyes lead the series 79-12-5. "It's hard to say it's a rivalry when it's been so one-sided," says Green. But this Saturday at the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio, the undefeated No. 5 Hoosiers have perhaps their best shot at beating the No. 2 Buckeyes since Green was under center.
Indiana (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten) is in the midst of the best season in school history. The scene in Bloomington, Indiana, might reach a breaking point with a win over Ohio State (9-1, 6-1 Big Ten), which would matter a great deal for College Football Playoff positioning and push the Hoosiers one step closer to their first Big Ten title game appearance.
Green says he has a group chat with some of his former Hoosiers teammates that's "taken on a life of its own with the season, the way that it's going." The 15-year NFL veteran hasn't been able to make it back to Bloomington for a game this season due to his role as a CBS NFL analyst. Still, Green keeps up with his alma mater by staying in touch with former Hoosiers players John Miller, Greg Farrall, Scott Bonnell and Matt Bomba, whose son James now plays tight end for Indiana.
Before the season began, Green says he just wanted to see progress on the heels of last year's 3-9 campaign under a new coaching staff. What Green heard in the offseason about the work ethic and discipline head coach Curt Cignetti had instilled in the program encouraged him.
When Green was a high school quarterback being recruited by Rice University in the 1980s, he crossed paths with Cignetti, who was the Owls' quarterbacks coach at the time. Of course, Green ended up with the Hoosiers, and now they have a shared affinity for Indiana.
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"As things got rolling, you could just see everybody buying in," Green says of Cignetti's arrival. "The unwavering attitude and approach Cignetti has had at every step of the way, whether it be his first press conference, his first team meeting, talking to the media at Big Ten media day. I mean, all along the way, he's done what he's done, and he's backed it up."
Cignetti's introductory press conference -- when he said: "It's pretty simple. I win. Google me." -- proved to be prophetic. It started with nonconference victories against Florida International and Western Illinois. But before long, the Hoosiers were beating up on Big Ten foes Northwestern and Nebraska. Then Indiana got past Washington without quarterback Kurtis Rourke and took down Michigan State and Michigan in successive weeks.
Cignetti was rewarded with a contract extension, and Rourke is in contention for the Heisman Trophy. The speed of this turnaround has Green wondering if college football programs around the country will try to replicate the Hoosiers' roster-building blueprint.
"This is something that started when coach was hired in the offseason, the mindset he had, the guys that he brought in. Obviously, that's a big part of it, transfers that he brought in," Green said. "But really it's getting everybody to buy in. And I think that's what you see. You see it from his coaching staff, you see it from his players, that everybody's bought into what he's saying, and now the university has bought in as well. It's carried over onto the field and the unprecedented success that they're having."
But now they have to play the big one against the Buckeyes. And there's still a rivalry game against Purdue to wrap up the regular season before a potential conference championship or CFP appearance.
Green wouldn't go far as to make a prediction for Saturday's game, which he said he'll be watching from his hotel room in Las Vegas before he calls the Broncos-Raiders game on Sunday. He simply believes the Hoosiers need to keep doing what they've been doing to compete against Ohio State.
"That's the problem when players, coaches, teams, you get into a game of this magnitude -- people try doing too much, right?" Green says. "You've got a formula for success, so just stick with your formula and don't waver. Don't try to be a team that you haven't been all season. Just do the things that you do, and do them well and execute."
Indiana has done a lot of things well this year. Cignetti's team takes great care of the ball, excels at getting to the quarterback, routinely rips off chunk plays and ranks second nationally in scoring offense (43.9 points per game) and seventh in points allowed (13.8 ppg).
As the Hoosiers' have kept winning, some observers have poked holes in their résumé due to their strength of schedule, which ranks outside the top 100 in the FBS. Green doesn't pay that argument much mind.
"There were zero expectations around the country about what Indiana was going to do," Green says. "Now, all of a sudden, it's like 'They didn't play anybody.' Well, wait a second, they were the team that was supposed to be everybody's homecoming game, right?"
The Hoosiers have beaten the team in front of them week after week. If they do that again Saturday, there won't be any further questions about Indiana's place in the 12-team playoff. And a loss to the No. 2 Buckeyes won't necessarily be disqualifying.
"They've already established themselves as one of the best programs in the country in a short period of time," Green said of Indiana. "But in order to -- not that they need to validate anything, but I think there's a lot of people externally, outside of the university and around the country, that want to see how they handle the pressure being on the road at Ohio State against a team that's really, really good."
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