BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WDRB) -- In a season full of creating history, No. 5 Indiana football has an opportunity to create even more on Saturday with a trip to Columbus to take on No. 2 Ohio State.

With ESPN's College Gameday, Fox Sports Big Noon Kickoff and the Big Ten Network Tailgate all in Columbus, it's going to be the game of the weekend in college football.

For the first time in the university's history, the team is 10-0. In Bloomington on Friday, the nerves going into the weekend were building.

It was a rainy night on campus. The weekend before fall break, many students had left campus already. But that played well for those sticking around.

Some of them were at Nick's Ole English Hut, which is a staple on game day in Bloomington. Although the crowd was thin for a Friday night, many of them were Bloomington natives and IU alumni who have remained in the area.

They have felt the pains of losing football programs for decades.

"When I was here, this was the worst program on the planet," said IU graduate Kevin Evans. 

While football used to be a warmup to basketball season, there have been a few coaches that almost delivered a winning program. But nothing like this.

"We never would have expected this," Evans said. "Never would have expected 10 and 0 for the first time in school history."

IU's football program has struggled for decades. With an overall record below 500, it has lost more games than any other Division 1 program. No coach has left IU football with a winning record since 1948. 

Because of that history, the expectations going into this season weren't very high.

"Absolutely not. If anything, all of us were dreading the football season. At least, over the summer a lot of my friends were talking about it and it is setting us up for disappointment," said Evans. "But again, a new coach, we have had a lot of new coaches. I think (Curt) Cignetti is an amazing fit for this team."

Football has been an after thought at IU for a while, and it took a few games into the season for some students to buy into the hype around new head coach Curt Cignetti. But he has taken the campus by a storm, and is credited with breathing new life into a program that is used to being in the red.

"The student body and this town has never seen this kind of success from a football program, and we are ready for it," Evans said. "I mean we have been hoping for it, dreaming about it for decades and we are finally achieving that success. It's fantastic."

A win, or even a close game on Saturday, will put the program into another league. 

"This is the biggest game this team has ever played. We have a chance to go 11 and 0, and back in the day that was all the games you played," Evans said. 

While a win would settle a lot of nerves, the Hoosiers have a tough hill to climb against Ohio State, which has won the last 28 matchups in the series. Social media is having a hard time believing that IU can pull off the upset.

After Tuesday's College Football Playoff rankings, IU's critics ramped up talks about how the Hoosiers don't deserve the No. 5 spot due to their strength of schedule.

Saturday is IU's big opportunity to prove that it belongs amongst the best teams in the country. ESPN projections still give the Hoosiers a 95% chance to make the playoffs if it loses to the Buckeyes, but if they get blown out that percentage might not remain the same.

IU's last victory over Ohio State came in 1988, but in a season full of making new history, that trend has a chance to continue.

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