It’s one of those weeks where there aren’t enough inches of newspaper space to hold everything swirling around in this balding head of mine.
So, I am going to use what space I am allotted (which is very generous, by the way) and condense my thoughts on several subjects into one column.
Think of it as a pregame tailgate meal, and you just picked up plates and plasticware.
After the dismantling of Nebraska by the Indiana Hoosiers Saturday, the whole world of college football knows that something incredible is happening at Bloomington.
Fox Sports color commentator Joel Klatt put it best in the fourth quarter when he said, “IU fans, if you have been wondering if this is for real…it’s for real!”
IU fans would be right and justified in wondering. They’ve seen 4-0 starts before with wins over small schools and sub-Big Ten-level football programs. They’ve looked like conference contenders, until they actually had to play a team with big boy football players.
No one is going to confuse Nebraska’s football team with Alabama or Georgia, but in the progression of finding out how good the Hoosiers are, the Huskers were the next mile marker.
Indiana spray painted that marker crimson red.
How? How is this possible?
Is it just the new coach?
Yep.
It’s centered on the fact that they hired a coach in Curt Cignetti that embraces the transfer portal. Heck, he brought a bunch of his guys from James Madison with him last spring.
Cignetti comes across as brash and unafraid of being aggressive on the field and off. And he gives the vibe that he understands that you have to break eggs to make an omelet.
The reality of it is that IU will likely be favored in every game except one the rest of the season, and that is the Ohio State game.
Imagine what it would be like if the Buckeyes and Hoosiers were both undefeated for that game.
We talked about the White Sox stadium situation, and since then majority owner Jerry Reinsdorf publicly admitted that he would consider selling the team.
White Sox fans rejoiced.
Then news broke that there was a group who had come forward to express interest in buying the team.
That group is led by former big-leaguer Dave Stewart, who is most remembered as a starting pitcher for Oakland and Toronto.
Then the rest of the story came out. Stewart and his group had a primary goal of bringing major league baseball to Nashville.
Sox fans started fretting again.
If you put one-and-one together, you get the Nashville White Sox.
Reinsdorf could sell to them under the pretense that the new owner would be moving them from the South Side, not him.
But, Chicago sports fans are savvy, and they can smell a skunk a mile away. Selling to Stewart and his group would be the same thing as moving the team on his own. And remember, Jerry also still owns the Bulls. He still has to deal with the fans of Chicago.
I also need to acknowledge what has happened at Triton over the last 10 days.
To be 100-percent clear, I am not going to report news on the story or go on and on about what happened.
That’s not for me to do—at least not now.
I will, however, speak about what happens next and moving forward.
Having this happen in the final two weeks of the regular season, when they are having a very good season, is very unfortunate.
But those left behind to pick up the pieces of the season—the other coaches and the players—are living out a life lesson that they will be able to draw from for the rest of their lives and one we all can learn from in the process.
First, every decision you make has an impact on the people around you, even when you can’t see how they could.
Second, having a pool of quality people around you matters. Triton football will survive this because they have a person like Athletic Director Rodney Younis, a very successful head football coach himself, right there to step in and take the reins of the program. He brings a calmness and stability to the program that you won’t find in a lot of small schools.
The people of the Triton School Corporation can have great confidence that their boys are in the best of care with Younis at the helm.