IUFB at Penn State - Saturday, 11.08.25 @ Noon on Fox-TV

[OliviaPope40]

14 minutes ago, LamarCheeks said:

Didn't get to post this yesterday, so am doing so now. 

What do you do when you win a game in front of 107,000 fans you probably should've lost on an incredible Mendoza-to-Cooper toe-tap TD pass that keeps you unbeaten? 

YOU SING! 

https://x.com/IndianaFootball/status/1987264225484677489?s=20
 

Love how it's Charlie Becker leading the team in song.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

And. We Back!

Happy to read y’all this morning.

Amazing fun and nervousness wrapped up in 1 yesterday.


Sent from my iPad using BtownBanners

[AKHoosier]

It killed me not being able to come here to revel in the magic of that TD catch to seal it.

And to think I almost turned my TV off out of frustration a few minutes before, thinking all hope was lost.

What an ending. I have probably watched 20 different versions of Cooper's TD catch on X by now.

[OliviaPope40]

Alright who blew up the site

[Pagoda]

2 hours ago, Magnanimous said:

Was this site down during the game? I was at the game, and with 100,000 people in attendance there was no cell service and no checking BTB during the game.

Let me tell you all that that was a great win despite Penn State being 3-6.They still have top 15 talent playing for them and when they click they can compete with most teams. It’s incredible how much they have tripped up late in games this year, because they could easily also be 8-1 with a loss still to Ohio State. Yesterday felt like their last stand and they showed up against us.

I’m from a Penn State family and have gone to games there since I was a kid. While it wasn’t a nighttime whiteout environment, their crowd still showed up and brought a lot of intensity once Penn State showed they were going to play with a pulse today. It affected our execution at some times, but Mendoza and Coogan were largely unfazed. But the point is that we got their crowd’s best in the second half and still rallied with complete composure.

I wouldn’t look too much into this game from the “are we legit for barely winning?” lens. Penn State is a very talented team with a top 5 home field advantage. When it mattered most, with our best WR out of the game, we drove right down the field and won it. Some pundits will see this as a gritty road win against what was supposed to be a national title contending team. Others will hold it against us and say we got lucky to beat a winless Big Ten team. And all will say we clearly are a step behind Ohio State…It’s nonsense. We won in a situation that plenty of top teams lose every year, including Ohio State last season with Michigan. I also remember Ohio State once struggling with a Zander Diamont team at home the same year they won the title.

We may get jumped by A&M this week in the rankings, but who cares. This team is a national title contending team, and we now have Wisconsin, Purdue and a bye to clean things up and get healthy for the Big Ten Championship, which we very much can win.

Great post.  Well said.  Thanks for the in person account of the game.

Teams evolve over the course of the season.  Over the next three+ weeks, as you said, hopefully we can get healthy and a little more in sync as a team. 

We can play as well as anyone in CFB and therefore anything is possible.

[mamasa]

2 hours ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

The catch was incredible but how did Fernando make the throw?  And yes, btb was down for reasons that are above my pay grade.   I blame it on @Hovadipo but he's passed 3 separate lie detector tests absolving him of blame.

I was seriously worried when I couldn’t get on here!! I popped over to HSN (still a great group of posters over there!!) for a quick fix!!

[Stuhoo]

I must admit, when PSU surged in the second half, it was a good time to not be able to read the board.       :)

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Officials get a lot of grief but on our final drive, 2 catches were reviewed and their rulings on the field upheld.  Either one gets overturned and we probably end up with a loss.

[Golfman25]

Damn what a game.  I much prefer the blowouts though.  This was tough on the old heart.  No clue what that squib kick was about.   

This was an easy game to overlook.  I didn’t realize it was their first home game in several weeks.  They are a much better team than the record indicates.   They have more talent than most of the teams we have played.  You could see it on the offensive and defensive lines.  You could see the speed differences.  
 

Lets finish out strong, get healthy, and Pack Lucas Oil to make it a home game.  

[Hovadipo]

3 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

No clue what that squib kick was about.   

That’s the decision we’re stuck with since we don’t have our kickoff guy that can reliably put it through the back of the endzone. Singleton is a really good kick returner and we weren’t tackling worth a crap yesterday. Probably the lesser of two evils to squib it and play defense. 

[Brass Cannon]

Wasn’t able to watch but was very happy to see the result when I looked at my phone. Watching replay Penn State remembered who they were and we still won. 
 

Heismendoza was great considering he was running for his life the whole game.  Anybody who thinks Sayin is the heismen does watch the games. The guy looks ok while sitting behind a steel curtain and throwing to future nfl wide receivers 

[AKHoosier]

4 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

Damn what a game.  I much prefer the blowouts though.  This was tough on the old heart.  No clue what that squib kick was about.   

This was an easy game to overlook.  I didn’t realize it was their first home game in several weeks.  They are a much better team than the record indicates.   They have more talent than most of the teams we have played.  You could see it on the offensive and defensive lines.  You could see the speed differences.  
 

Lets finish out strong, get healthy, and Pack Lucas Oil to make it a home game.  

Not gonna lie I hated the squib kick at the end. I was like "what are they doing??!!"

Just kick it out of the end zone and make them put together a drive. 

[Stuhoo]

Just now, Hovadipo said:

That’s the decision we’re stuck with since we don’t have our kickoff guy that can reliably put it through the back of the endzone. Singleton is a really good kick returner and we weren’t tackling worth a crap yesterday. Probably the lesser of two evils to squib it and play defense. 

^^This^^

And in retrospect it was a good decision, in part because even the poorly executed squib kick allowed our defense to finish out the game. There was almost zero disaster component on that play.

No threat of a Katron Allen/Singleton PSU running game with 38 seconds remaining meant that our defense was a great bet.

[Stuhoo]

2 minutes ago, AKHoosier said:

Not gonna lie I hated the squib kick at the end. I was like "what are they doing??!!"

Just kick it out of the end zone and make them put together a drive. 

Warren wasn’t getting it that deep-about to the goal line. Wouldn’t have been the worst idea to just kicked it out of bounds and given it to them on the 35.

[Stuhoo]

One more key takeaway for me:

That 4th quarter interception was almost completely on EJ Williams. He did nothing to come back to the ball or shield the oncoming DB. And that’s not the first time it’s happened with EJ; the pick six Mendoza threw against Oregon was the exact same problem.

Once Sarratt is back I’d expect to see more Becker and less EJ; that stuff just can’t be happening.

[Brass Cannon]

1 minute ago, Stuhoo said:

One more key takeaway for me:

That 4th quarter interception was almost completely on EJ Williams. He did nothing to come back to the ball or shield the oncoming DB. And that’s not the first time it’s happened with EJ; the pick six Mendoza threw against Oregon was the exact same problem.

Once Sarratt is back I’d expect to see more Becker and less EJ; that stuff just can’t be happening.

Noticed that too.  A lot of Mendozas picks aren’t on him.  His pick against Maryland just was Waffle House getting hurt 

[American HoosierX]

What an incredible win that was, still riding high and now get to go watch us play b-ball in person, what a weekend.

And I dare I say, Cig was actually happy at the end.

[JSHoosier]

28 minutes ago, Brass Cannon said:

Wasn’t able to watch but was very happy to see the result when I looked at my phone. Watching replay Penn State remembered who they were and we still won. 
 

Heismendoza was great considering he was running for his life the whole game.  Anybody who thinks Sayin is the heismen does watch the games. The guy looks ok while sitting behind a steel curtain and throwing to future nfl wide receivers 

I doubt he wins the trophy but that last drive and throw is what you want to see from a Heisman level QB.

We've blown out most teams so there hasn't been many times we've had to tell him 'go win it'.

[Hoosier987]

Hell of a last minute drive! Charlie B and Cooper were sensational. When Sarrat comes back, there’s not a better 4 WR group than Sarratt, Cooper, Becker and Williams 

[Pagoda]

38 minutes ago, JSHoosier said:

I doubt he wins the trophy but that last drive and throw is what you want to see from a Heisman level QB.

We've blown out most teams so there hasn't been many times we've had to tell him 'go win it'.

Perhaps.  I’m not exactly disagreeing.

One might say Fernando had the Iowa drive to take the lead late in the 4th, the Oregon drive after the pick-six (wasn’t totally his fault, but some of his fault) to take the lead midway through the 4th, and yesterday.  Those are some memorable moments in tough road games.

He and Sayin are both around +160 or 170 right now.  Decent chance (knock on wood) this comes down to the B1G Championship game performances / winner.

Personally, while it would be cool, I don’t care much about the Heisman and its popularity contest nature.  Obviously the on field results matter a million times more and I’m also more interested in Fernando getting a great draft pick and big ol’ contract.  Future potential QBs will notice that the most.