IU football is entering uncharted territory.
The Hoosiers will hit the road for the first time this season for a showdown in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a program first.
And if they emerge victorious, another first awaits — the team’s first 4-0 record since 1990.
The last time IU opened the season with four wins, “The Simpsons” aired on television for the first time, the first web page was written and IU’s class of 2013 was born.
It’s not unfair to say, then, that the Hoosiers have a chance to alter history Saturday at Wake Forest.
But for many a longtime IU football fan, hope is dangerous.
And collapse — well, that seems all but inevitable.
The Hoosiers have started the season 3-0 four other times in the last decade — in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010 — failing to make a bowl in all but ’07.
In Wake Forest, they face a number of obstacles that have haunted them in the past, including an abysmal track record away from home, where the Hoosiers have won just one game since 2013.
That win, oddly enough, came against No. 18 Missouri, a game in which the only expectation of IU football was to lose.
Against the Demon Deacons, the expectation is to win, even if history, instinct and better judgement warn against it.
Though a misstep at Wake Forest doesn’t put the postseason out of reach, it is a submission to the reality of “same old IU football,” a school of thought that’s difficult to eradicate in the minds of the fan base and the players.
What a win at Wake Forest does is reshape that culture, securing an undefeated matchup with the defending national champions and the possibility — even if it is slim — of College GameDay in Bloomington.
Of course, with excitement surrounding the program as high as it’s ever been thanks to the #iufb4gameday movement, the most IU-football thing to do would be to roll over at BB&T Stadium and cast the season back into doubt in one swift undoing.
Maybe it’s naïvety, maybe it’s that I haven’t experienced the disappointing annals of IU football long enough to understand — but I think this team is different.
And so does IU Coach Kevin Wilson.
After the Western Kentucky game, Wilson pointed to leadership — not magic, not Swedish Fish — as the catalyst for the Hoosiers’ three second-half comebacks.
Now in Wilsons’ fifth season, these are his players through and through.
They’ve bought into the program, to “next play,” and those principles should serve to ground and guide the Hoosiers to a win Saturday.
Forget the good: GameDay, Ohio State and 4-0. Forget the past: blunders, struggles and all.
Focus on the play at hand, and winning will take care of itself.
vziege@indiana.edu
