Written by: Nate Comp (@NathanComp1)

For many fans, the end goal of this regular season had already been accomplished prior to this contest against Northwestern. Indiana had done it; they had secured their sixth win and ensured that they were going to be playing a 13th game.

That sense of accomplishment is exactly what Indiana fans were worried was going to be in the minds of the players as they took the field for the first night game in Memorial Stadium history. It would be easy to become complacent and let a poor Northwestern team make this a game.

But like they have before, this team showed that it is different.

“This is a very hungry football team right now,” said Coach Allen. “They are not shocked by what they’ve done. They expected it.”

The defense set the tone for the 34-3 rout from the start, when Tiawan Mullen forced starting quarterback Aidan Smith to fumble on what would have been a 22-yard scramble. Michael Ziemba recovered. Cam Jones forced another fumble that Mullen recovered just two possessions later, and the onslaught ensued. The Hoosiers never looked back.

“Nobody came here to just get six wins, just to get seven wins,” said wide receiver Nick Westbrook postgame. “We came here to get as many wins as we can.”

At night’s end, the Indiana defense had allowed just 199 yards of total offense. The Wildcats were 3 of 14 on 3rd down and possessed the ball for a mere 21 minutes.

Leading the charge once again on defense was true freshman cornerback Tiawan Mullen. Mullen stuffed the stat sheet with a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, a tackle, and a pass defended.

Brought to Indiana with the mindset of turning the program around, he was able to share a special moment with Tom Allen on the sideline during the game once the victory was all but secured.

“He’s got a special mindset. He grabbed me tonight and was like ‘Coach, this is what I told you we were gonna do when we came here.’”

For players like Mullen and this new wave of Indiana talent, it was never about just getting to a bowl game. The expectation was never to just win half of its games. The new Indiana expects to win every game it plays.

And for the first time in a long time, it’s nearly perfect at doing that.

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