Synopsis
From veteran sports reporter Lew Freedman of theChicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and now The Tribune of Seymour, Indiana, comes the definitive account of the most improbable championship run in college football history.
Outside the Indiana University locker room, the Hoosiers were nobody’s pick to win it all: a program buried under a century of losing records, a fan base accustomed to disappointment, and a new coach most people had never heard of just two years earlier. Curt Cignetti had four words for the skeptics: Google me. I win.
Two seasons later, the Hoosiers stood alone—16–0, national champions, and the standard by which all future college football turnarounds will be measured. Their quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, held the Heisman Trophy. Their coach held the record books.
Indiana University Football and the Greatest Turnaround in College Sports tells the full story from a reporter who covered it all. In this book, Freedman recounts the trailblazing career of All-American George Taliaferro, what followed, and how everything changed when the IU Hoosiers hired coach Curt Cignetti.
Relive the most exciting moments in IU football history: the stunning road victory against the Oregon Ducks; the fifty-three-point defeat of Purdue to claim the Old Oaken Bucket; the victory over the undefeated, No. 1–ranked Buckeyes for the Big Ten Championship; and the march to the national championship—and more.