LINCOLN, Neb. — No. 7 Indiana football looked beat.
With the Hoosiers’ 21-game winning streak on the line, Nebraska senior quarterback Anthony Colandrea broke a 39-yard touchdown run to put the Cornhuskers ahead by 11 points with 12 minutes remaining in the game.
Nebraska didn’t score again.
The Cream and Crimson stormed back with consecutive touchdown drives to seize a 20-17 win over the Cornhuskers on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Two weeks after Northwestern senior quarterback Aidan Chiles routinely eluded the Hoosiers’ defense, Nebraska used the same approach with its own shifty quarterback.
While Indiana was 1-120 when trailing by double digits in the fourth quarter since 2004, head coach Curt Cignetti had a history of negating big performances from Colandrea.
Colandrea torched Cignetti’s James Madison University for 377 passing yards with the University of Virginia in September 2023. However, the Dukes scored back-to-back touchdowns to erase an 11-point fourth quarter lead.
Two years later, it was déjà vu for Colandrea.
Through 45 minutes of action, Indiana was outgained by 75 yards and had half of Nebraska’s time of possession. None of that mattered when the final whistle blew.
“You gotta have an indomitable will,” Cignetti said postgame. “A will that cannot be defeated or subdued, and you gotta be resilient.”
On the Hoosiers’ first play after Colandrea’s explosive touchdown, their will to win was evident. Redshirt senior quarterback Josh Hoover found junior wide receiver Nick Marsh for a 75-yard catch-and-run touchdown.
The quick strike silenced the Lincoln crowd and breathed new life into the Indiana sideline. From then on, the momentum was with the Cream and Crimson.
“The talk on the sideline was just belief,” Marsh said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can mentally fight, physically fight. I think today was more of the mental challenge, and we came out on top.”
Under Cignetti, the Hoosiers have trailed in just 11 out of 35 games. When Nebraska took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, it was the first time Indiana fell behind in 308 days — its last deficit was in the Big Ten Championship game against Ohio State on Dec. 6, 2025.
It’s a situation the players aren’t accustomed to. But that didn’t change their mentality.
“Those are the games you want to be in,” redshirt senior linebacker Isaiah Jones said. “You want to win these big games. You want to be down. You want to feel what it’s like when you touch the stove, feel when the pressure’s on.”
The Hoosiers forced a punt on Nebraska’s next drive and faced a fourth-and-1 on the Nebraska 44-yard line with under eight minutes to play.
Offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan crowded the line of scrimmage, making Nebraska anticipate a run. Instead, three Hoosiers sprinted downfield.
The Cornhuskers covered redshirt freshman tight end Brock Schott on the sideline. However, that left Marsh and junior wide receiver Charlie Becker wide open. Hoover chose the former, and the result was a 44-yard touchdown that gave Indiana the lead.
And it wasn’t just the offense that took over late in the game. After Marsh’s second touchdown, Indiana’s defense forced back-to-back turnovers on downs to maintain the lead.
When the pressure was on, the Hoosiers had tighter coverage, a quicker pass rush and more efficient tackling. They didn’t give Colandrea the space he excels at exploiting. With 1:15 remaining, redshirt senior defensive lineman Tobi Osunsanmi sacked Colandrea on fourth down to win the ball back.
“Indomitable will, like coach Cig said,” Jones said. “No matter what happens, we’re gonna get the win. And it might not be pretty, but that’s what we’re out here to do.”
The victory improved the Hoosiers’ record to 6-0 in 2026 and 32-2 under Cignetti. Indiana is now bowl eligible for the third straight year. It’s only the second such streak in program history, and the first since 1986-88 under head coach Bill Mallory.
The Cream and Crimson were outgained. They didn’t run nearly as many plays, had fewer first downs and trailed for 46:44. Cignetti admitted his team “never quite got the run game going.”
Instead of filling up the box score, the Hoosiers focused on the scoreboard. After 60 minutes, it read 20-17 in favor of Indiana. The three-point victory is a testament to its willpower, belief and poise.
“Never once did I ever feel any kind of panic on the sideline, in the locker room, at all,” Hoover said. “Great response by our team. Never panic, just keep playing.”
Follow reporters Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and Nathan Shriberg (@NShriberg and naashri@iu.edu) and columnist Elakai Anela (@elakai_anela and eanela@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
