LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The mirror used to be cruel.
Every time Indiana lined up across from Penn State, it saw what it wasn’t. Bigger program, deeper pockets, fuller stadium, top 10 ranking. The Nittany Lions didn’t just dominate the series, they embodied a kind of football Indiana could only aspire to.
But mirrors have a funny way of breaking.
On Saturday, Indiana returns to Beaver Stadium as the No. 2 team in the country. Penn State isn’t ranked at all. The Hoosiers are 9-0. The Nittany Lions are 3-5, have fired their head coach, and are still chasing their first conference win.
For the first time in program history, Indiana won’t be looking up at Penn State. It might not be looking at them at all.
This was supposed to be a College Football Playoff résumé builder — for Penn State. Instead, it’s a high-risk trap game for Indiana, which expects to debut Tuesday night as the No. 2 team in the first CFP rankings and will now have to validate that status in a building where it’s never won. Penn State leads the all-time series 25-2, including 13-0 in Happy Valley.
That record doesn’t seem to matter much now. Not just because the numbers have changed, but because the programs have flipped roles, and philosophies.
Curt Cignetti’s Indiana team leads the Big Ten in scoring (46.4 ppg), rushing (245.7 ypg), and total defense (248.3 ypg). They’ve forced 21 turnovers and allowed fewer than 100 rushing yards in eight straight games. Cignetti’s team is winning Big Ten games so comfortably that its primary fourth quarter strategy has been milking the play clock.
If Indiana was any more methodical, it would look like a TSA screening line. But the Hoosiers don’t search your bags. They confiscate your confidence.
It’s the kind of complete, process-oriented, power program that Penn State used to pride itself on being. You know. Last season.
“You get out what you put in,” Cignetti said this week. “The game gives you nothing.”
That quote could’ve been lifted off Joe Paterno’s desk. It’s just coming out of a different locker room this week, from a visiting head coach who Penn State reportedly wanted to pursue, whose team looks like what Penn State was supposed to be.
Terry Smith knows it. The Nittany Lions’ interim head coach, thrust into the role midseason after James Franklin’s firing, spoke reverently of his friend Cignetti, calling him a “methodical coach,” a “player developer,” a man who “runs a great program.”
“He’s got those guys playing as good as anyone in the country,” Smith said. “I respect everything he’s doing, and he’s doing it the right way.”
Those are hard words to say when your own team has lost five straight Big Ten games, hasn’t scored more than 24 points in a month, and is still trying to figure out how to throw the ball down the field.
This week, Smith all but promised that would change. “We will throw the ball down the field,” he said, which is mainly an admission that they haven’t yet. But his quarterbacks are green, his defense is battered, and his program is caught in mid-transition, not just from one coach to another, but from one identity to another.
There’s no shame in losing to Ohio State. But there is some when you lose your way.
That’s why Saturday matters. Not because it’s a rivalry, because it hasn’t been. Not even because it’s a résumé test for the Playoff. But because it’s a reflection.
Penn State will see itself in Indiana. But it will not recognize the reflection.
Indiana’s 20 wins since the start of last season are second-most in the nation and most in any two-year span in school history. Its streak of 23 straight weeks in the AP Top 25 is the longest in school history.
Even Smith seemed to acknowledge that this Indiana team is what he wants his own team to become.
“They refuse to quit,” he said of his own players. “They haven’t laid down yet.”
That’s admirable. But it also sounds like the bare minimum. Indiana has moved past the effort discussion. It’s preparing to finish November unbeaten.
These two programs illustrate the difference between surviving the storm and steering through it. It’s not the first time they’ve done that. Usually, it’s just been Indiana looking for shelter.
Not that Cignetti is putting any trust in any of that. Penn State may be struggling, but there’s talent on the field. And, there's that history. When you're 0-13 in a place, you show up with something to prove, even if you're a two-touchdown favorite.
“They're in the top 25 in the ESPN football power index. 22, I think, still,” Cignetti said. “Same guys they started the year with for the most part that was ranked No. 1 to No. 3 in the country, so a lot of good football players at all positions, playing really hard here. Terry has done a really good job of sort of rejuvenating these guys, and it'll be his first opportunity to play a game at home. Tough place to play, 100,000 plus people. They're a really good football team. … We’ve got to stack days, just like always. Be prepared. Have the right mindset.”
Still, it’s quite the reversal.
The two programs on the field Saturday don’t just wear different uniforms. They represent different moments in time. One wants to return to its past. The other is creating a future, hoping to smash another mirror on the way.
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