LOOK: Indiana continues to struggle with its name and logo
Last week, the word Indiana was spelled wrong on the front of a player’s jersey. This week, well, the Hoosiers’ victory celebration did not go according to plan. The school’s victory flag was hoisted upside down Saturday night after defeating Idaho 56-14.
Indiana has had a rocky start to the season. The misspelling of Indiana was all over social media in Week One when the school sent out a pregame tweet featuring running back David Holloman. On the front of his jersey appeared “Indinia”, an obvious misspelling. Evidently, there’s no spell-check in the equipment room.
Quarterback Michael Phenix struggled Saturday against Idaho, completing 6 of his 8 pass attempts for just 61 yards. The Hoosiers rode their running attack, racking up 179 yards and three touchdowns. The win improves Indiana to 1-1 overall and the focus now shifts to No. 7 Cincinnati’s visit to Bloomington in Week Three.
The jersey error is definitely worse than the victory flag going up incorrectly. But putting up a flag the wrong way is not very far behind.
A disappointing start to season for Hoosiers
Not long after the spelling error came to light, Indiana surrendered two touchdowns to the Iowa Hawkeyes. Within the first three minutes of their season, the Hoosiers were down by a score of 14-0.
Moreover, it didn’t get better for Indiana as the game went on. By halftime, the game was as good as over – Iowa took a 31-3 lead into halftime. Luckily, the Hawkeyes didn’t pile on from there, coasting to a 34-6 victory to begin their season.
Indiana entered the season ranked in the top-25 and considered to be one of the top teams in the Big Ten. But after the embarrassing loss in Week One, the Hoosiers fell out of the AP Poll.
Indiana or Indinia – no matter how you spell it, the Hoosiers’ performance to start their season leaves a lot to question.
On3’s Stephen Samra contributed to this report.