On the contrary

We knew it wouldn't be this easy. Not our team, not with our history and certainly not when bowl eligibility could come this soon. \nThen again, it doesn't help when Minnesota quarterback Brian Cupito throws for 376 yards and four touchdowns, a sign that the Golden Gophers decided to play their best game all seasons. While Cupito showed potential as a decent quarterback, Minnesota defeated IU for its first Big Ten victory of the season. On paper, this game should have been over before it began. But, in the words of Chris Berman, "that is why they play the game."\nThe Golden Gophers played a style of football faster than Berman talks. Contrary to IU's advantage on paper, the Hoosiers were bumbling and stumbling all game long, unable to erase the Gophers' 35 unanswered points to start the game.\nFor one Saturday, the new-look Hoosiers were whipped around by a Big Ten opponent the way we would have expected from the old Hoosiers. For one Saturday, IU returned to its natural state -- a tortoise. No matter how productive the offense played, it remained unable to catch up with the much faster hare. For one Saturday, the Hoosiers watched the hare -- in the form of the Gophers -- take an early 35-0 lead and never look back. Contrary to the childhood tale, this slow and steady tortoise lost the game.\nThis will be the question answered in the remainder of the season: Which Hoosier team will show up, the old or the new? Will it be the tortoise or the hare? \nContrary to Saturday's team's role as the tortoise, IU quarterback Kellen Lewis was running around like he was the hare. Unfortunately, Lewis' rushing yards are usually an accurate measure of whether or not IU wins. If his yards surpass the rest of the IU rushing attack, it's been a long day for the offense. In three of the Hoosiers' five losses, Lewis was the leading rusher on the team. So Saturday was no exception. Despite throwing for a career-high 321 yards, Lewis also rushed for 75 yards, more than both IU running backs combined.\nI have only a few words of wisdom now for the IU football team. They are words that I have drawn from my native New Jersey tongue: Forget about it. Forget about the 63-26 loss. Forget that this was the easiest game remaining on your bowl-eligible schedule. Forget that Saturday ever existed and certainly forget about next week's game versus Michigan (seriously, forget about that one). Just forget it all and march on.\nContrary to the celebration prepared for the Hoosiers had they won, these formerly frantic turned fanatical fans are once more frantic. As true fans always are, the Hoosier Nation is left to hope for the best and expect the worse. Contrary to anything Frank Sinatra sang: "The worse is yet to come for IU with the Wolverines waiting to get a kick out of IU. The difference could be night and day." \nNonetheless, there are two games left and a possible bowl berth lingering in the late autumn air. All we can do is hope that the Hoosier hare shows up in the remaining Saturdays.\nThen again, there is the contrary.