That Was The Season That Was: Good analysis by 11W's Ramzy Nasrallah
We Regret the Error
The most consistently terrible program in the history of college football just went 16-0.
This was the most impressive season and turnaround the sport has ever seen. Indiana claimed the Heisman, the conference title, the Rose Bowl trophy in gruesome fashion, the Peach Bowl trophy with similar violence - and the national championship beating a team teeming with expensive blue-chip talent on its home field.
Books will be written and movies scripted about the 2025 Hoosiers, who - to borrow Ryan Day’s philosophy - now get to have their stories told forever. Meanwhile, the 2025 Buckeyes just added another chapter to their Regrettably Lost Seasons tome.
If that sounds negative, consider the new national champions don't even have one of those big, sad books. Every single season of IU football has been garbage, the lamentable adulation which accompanies pathetically low expectations - or solid gold.
The way in which Curt Cignetti was able to pull this off will require thousands of words containing rich detail and numerous vantage points, since one person alone can't win a national title. It takes a coalition of the committed to do that.
But for this humble web site devoted to an annual contender which shed its Cinderella slipper decades ago, this is a very abrupt learning experience. IU's title was not won in the traditional manner. This was a brand-new strategy for a quickly evolving and chaotic era. And it worked, quite literally,
perfectly.
The Buckeyes got a close look at what winning meaningful games in 2025 looks like, and based on this experience - here are ten strategies we should expect Day's program to prioritize as it works to stop writing sad chapters in a big, privileged book no one wants to read.
No.1: Win in the Margins
No.2: Survive and Advance in the Trenches
No.3 Deploy a Dangerous Quarterback
No.4 Deploy a Predictable Kicker
No.5 Follow the Jim Tressel Sacrament for Punting
No.6 Act Like a Wealthy Program and Quit Multitasking
No.7 Elevate Portal Management and Free Agent Evaluations
No. 8 Prepare for Uninvited Chaos
No. 9 Optimize Deployment to Win the Games Not Yet Played
No. 10 Be Ready When Luck Happens
