Indiana football vs. No. 2 Ohio State: Can the Hoosiers shock the nation?

Indiana football takes on No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday, November 12, riding a six-game losing streak. Do the Hoosiers have a chance to shock the nation?

Short answer: Probably not.

Long answer: The last time the Hoosiers beat a top-five-ranked opponent in a college football game was November 25, 1967. Indiana beat No. 3 Purdue, 19-14, in Bloomington and ended that season with a 14-3 loss in the Rose Bowl to No. 1 USC.

Indiana has not beaten Ohio State in a football game since October 8, 1988, and has lost 27 straight games to the Buckeyes. The Hoosiers have not beaten a ranked Buckeyes team since October 10, 1987, when they were ranked ninth in the country.

When Ohio State is ranked in the top five, Indiana football is 0-23 all-time and has lost five of the past six games by 20 or more points. The last time the Hoosiers were within one touchdown from beating a top-five Ohio State team was in 2020 when Indiana was ranked No. 9 and the Buckeyes were ranked No. 3 and IU fell short 42-35 in that game (highlights below).

The last time Ohio State was ranked first or second when taking on Indiana was back in 2017 when the Hoosiers lost by 28 points in Bloomington

In the last 10 road games against the Buckeyes, Indiana football is 0-10 and has lost each game by an average margin of 22.8 points per game and has only been blown out by 30+ points once in that time span (41-point loss to No. 1 Ohio State in 2006).

I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but if Tom Allen and this Indiana team want to save this football program and his job, shocking the college football nation on Saturday is the way to get it done.