Atlanta —
They stood a few yards apart on the confetti-strewn field, one a redshirt senior offensive lineman who serves as the anchor of his team, the other a sophomore defensive lineman who has yet to log his first career start.
They were discussing the same big thing – the machine that is now the Indiana Hoosiers – but from entirely different perspectives. Yet both said the same word over and over again.
“We’re afraid to death of complacency,’’ said Pat Coogan, the lineman.
“We never want to be complacent,’’ said Daniel Ndukwe, the defensive lineman.
It sounds simple. It is not, of course. No one wants to settle at anything but the human spirit being what it is, invariably it happens. A slight ease off the gas pedal, a millisecond taking the eye off the prize, the need to catch one’s breath.
Except, apparently, among the Hoosiers who play football as if not playing football hard would be an unforgivable sin. It is the only way to explain what Indiana is doing right now because otherwise it is too absurd.
The reckoning in college football is not coming via financial windfall, as everyone thought that it might in the NIL era.
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