ESPNU regular schedules “classic” college football games during its “off hours” during the football season. Many of its classic telecasts foreshadow coming weekend games. Thus, it was no shock that the 2010 Michigan-Indiana game was telecast in Thursday’s early hours. It was also no shock that Michigan would beat IU 42-35 on a late Denard Robinson scamper, the capper to the jitterbug’s 216-yard rushing day. What would have been shocking would have been a Hoosier triumph that day in 2010. Or any day for that matter.
Indiana has not beaten Michigan since 1987. The telecast of the 2010 game trumpeted how Michigan had come from behind to beat IU the year before, 2009, 36-33. The 2009 game was quite singular in that the Wolverine triumph was Michigan’s only conference triumph in its Big 10 campaign. Rich Rodriguez had major difficulty in his 3-year disaster in Ann Arbor but even he could not manage to lose to IU. Indiana had even more bad luck in RichRod’s first year in 2008. Their long-time tormentor was not on their schedule! That 2008 Wolverine squad went an unthinkable 3-9, even losing to a MAC team (an uncharacteristically poor Toledo squad) for the only time in its storied history.
In the ensuing decade, the beat has gone on for the Hoosiers but not without many more incredibly painful defeats Last year, the Wolverines may have been looking ahead to Ohio State when they found themselves facing a 17-15 deficit at halftime against the Hoosiers. After a scare, UM prevailed 31-20.
In the past 2 games in Bloomington, Michigan did not prevail in either tilt in regulation, winning both thrillers in overtime, 27-20 and 48-41. So close and yet so, so far away for the Hoosiers. The resurgent Wolverines would be foolish not to expect another very tough game in Bloomington tomorrow against a quality Indiana team that gave Penn State all it could handle in Happy Valley last Saturday.
In 67 games against Michigan, IU has only prevailed 9 times and has succumbed in each of the past 23. In 1987, Bloomington was rocking after a 14-10 upset of a Bo Schembechler squad. In Schembechler’s legendary 21-year stint in Ann Arbor, that would be his only loss to IU. Even then, IU had another incredible near miss at the Big House 40 years ago during the Schembechler era. The eternal underdogs had courageously fought back from a 21-7 4th quarter deficit to knot the game at 21. With 6 seconds to go, Michigan had the ball at the Indiana 45 during pre-overtime days. Wolverine QB John Wangler threw a strike at the IU 20 to the legendary Anthony Carter. Carter evaded a pair of Hoosiers to score and set off one of the most electric celebrations in Big House history.
Few, if any, rivalries have been more cruel. If an upset is pulled off by Indiana tomorrow, one would expect no town to party more hardy than in Bloomington. And how could they possibly be blamed?