CRAWFORD | Indiana arrives in Pasadena: Big stage, same steady approach

PASADENA, Calif. (WDRB) -- Indiana came to the Rose Bowl the way astronauts used to board rockets: calm, clean-shaven, and carrying their own luggage. No brass band. No bon voyage. Just business.

The first space travelers could make even a trip to the moon seem mundane. Give them a chance, and Indiana’s players can do the same number on their other-worldly success.

They’re 13-0, and they travel like it’s 0-0. They don’t preen. They don’t peacock. They show up, clock in, and dare you to call it luck.

You’d miss them if not for the four-story-high likenesses of Heisman trophy winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza and others on the side of the team hotel, like Mount Rushmore in shoulder pads. That doesn’t happen when you come into town to play UCLA.

The Hoosiers aren’t here to make history. They brought it with them. They’ve turned this whole season into a suspension of disbelief. And now they’re in Pasadena, where disbelief gets a parade.

“You’ve got to embrace the culture around the Rose Bowl and the significance of it, the history,” linebacker Aiden Fisher said, like a man being told to admire the scenery while piloting a jet. “But you can’t take it for too much.”

There's significance, and there's Cig-nificance, where Coach Curt Cignetti doesn’t overhype the big moments. He stacks them. Like bricks. Like lunch pails. Like first downs.

He has created the extraordinary the way it is usually created, with a thousand daily boring tasks, performed to their highest level. He wasn’t about to set that aside now, not for a three-week layoff, not for the most storied bowl game of them all, and not even for Alabama, one of college football’s most storied programs.

“His mannerisms and how he goes about our business and how he wants us leading and our eyes focus forward, nothing's really changed,” offensive lineman Pat Coogan said. “Now. doesn't matter that it's the Rose Bowl necessarily, like we know the opponent. We know how big this game is.

“But at the end of the day, the game's played in between the white lines, so we’ve got to go out there and perform. And he's put together a great prep for us, a great mindset for us, so we're all excited. It starts with him, and he's done a great job of having our eyes focused and detailed. He’s a professional. We’ve followed him all the way here. So, we need to keep following his lead. That’s the plan.”

They practiced Monday morning in Bloomington, flew west, and arrived in time to chase the sunset across the Pacific. Tuesday, they’ll meet the media. Thursday, they’ll meet Alabama. The pageantry will be on full display. History will hang in the balance.

The Hoosiers will say it’s just another game.

But this one’s played in a bowl made of roses. And if Indiana has its way, it will end as a thorn in the side of another college football power.