The Josh Innes Show - I Think I Hate Indiana

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

I get that Indiana football is this really cute story and the world was/is rooting for them. I'm not. Why? I don't think they truly had to suffer. I'll explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, let's get into some other stuff here. So, Indiana last night, I found myself annoyed by Indiana. Like, I didn't want them to win, and I don't like them. And here's part of the reason why I don't like Indiana. My issue with Indiana is that I find something odd and off-putting about being able to take a program that two years ago was completely dead and within two years can win the championship. Like the straight-up overall championship. that's off putting to me. Why is that off putting to me?

Because it feels like they didn't have to earn anything. Like it's not like a rebuild where like, you're like, hey, we're good this year, now we're better. Like, yeah, I get it. They were decent last year. They were good last year. And then this year they win the whole thing. I'm put off by it. Like, I don't think that's the way this should go.

I don't think in college athletics you should just be able to buy your way from being a complete unknown, by the way, a complete irrelevant program. Now, it's one thing if you're in Alabama, LSU, that has a down year, Florida, or wherever. like a school that's got history. When you're a no-name school like Indiana that's been horrible, the worst football program possibly in the history of college athletics, I'm put off by the idea that you can just within two years win the championship. To me, it waters down the idea of the championship. Like, it bothers me that that happens.

Like, what I watch that, like, I know that we're supposed to treat this, like it's the greatest accomplishment in the history of sport, and it's the greatest accomplishment in the history of college athletics. And to a degree it is. Like, it's impressive that they were able to take this nothing program and turn it into a something program. Like, I get that. Like, it is a story and I understand why it's a story. Like, I fully get that, like, Indiana from two years ago having nobody at their games to now everybody's an Indiana fan and they win the national championship in Florida's building.

I'm aware that that's a story and I understand why it's a story. But like today I'm looking at some guy, I guess he's an announcer maybe for Indiana or something like that. I forgot what he was. But he had a picture from a press box two years ago. He says, I took this picture at the Indiana game two years ago where Indiana had to go four overtimes to beat Toledo and the stadium's basically empty. It's fucked up to me that a stadium goes from basically empty. I've never met a human who was an Indiana football fan to now within two years you can just go get the championship. And to me, I think it waters down the championship.

Where's the climb? Where's the Miley Cyrus here? Where's the climb? Where's the, you know, build it, build it, finally get over the top? Where's the Detroit bad boy pistons where it's like, all right, you have to beat the Celtics to get over the hump. And now you finally get over the hump. What hump did Indiana have to get over? All Indiana had to do was throw some cash at a couple guys.

And Indiana runs through it. They get a good coach. Throw some cash at some guys. I don't know. Like, I understand why it's a story. And I understand why people are into it. I understand why it's considered this great accomplishment. I'm just not into it.

Like it feels like it waters down the overall sport. But if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health. From the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today. And may uncover early signs of conditions. conditions like heart disease and cancer.

The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. But it feels to me like when I'm seeing pictures of two years ago, these dudes playing an empty stadium, and I've never seen Indiana football fans ever. And now I'm seeing fucking Mark Cuban diehard Indiana fan

and John Mellencamp and all these fucking people. and I'm like, no, I don't feel this. It's not like when the Boston Red Sox won the whole thing, right? Like, when Boston won the World Series back in 2004, it felt like for years and years and years, these people had had their dicks just ripped off of them, like their hearts ripped out of their chest. They were damn close. Bucky fucking dent or this walk off Homer here. Or like the year before that, they had had the Aaron Boone walkoff home run.

to eliminate them against the Yankees. Like, it felt like they had to deal with strife because they legitimately cared and they were getting their heartbroken. Right? That doesn't feel that way with Indiana. It just feels like for 50, 60 years, no one's given two shits about Indiana football.

It's a basketball school. I guess I don't feel like those people have had to legitimately deal with the pain of being an Indiana football fan because they just didn't give a shit. You know what I'm saying? Does that make sense? Does it make sense in what I'm saying?

I don't feel like they ever had to full on go out and deal with the actual pain of the situation. They never had to deal with, oh, God, we were this close, but a guy missed a kick. They didn't have to deal with Scott Norwood missing a kick. They didn't have to deal with going to the Super Bowl four years in a row or whatever, like Buffalo, and deal with the pain of that. Right? And Indiana hasn't had to do that. All Indiana had to do was like, like, sucked.

And again, no one was hurting over Indiana football. sucking because no one gave a shit about Indiana football sucking because no one gave a shit about Indiana football in general. Now they do. Again, good for the coach, good for Fernando Mendoza. But I don't feel like they earn that. You know, like, I'm an LSU guy, right? LSU dealt with heartbreak and terrible football, but they were always passionate about it.

There was always 90,000 people at LSU games. People gave a shit. So, like, when they would lose, it'd be like, oh, these poor fucking people. Like, they care about it. They're passionate about it. The Red Sox people, they care about it. They're passionate about it. So when they lose, it sucks and it hurt.

Indiana going two and ten every year with Jerry DeNardo didn't hurt anybody because no one cared. Now they care. So, no, it just feels empty to me. I actually hate Indiana football. I really hate Signetti. And there's something off about this Fernando Mendoza. anybody who's like too nice and too godlike like he is that feels sort of like there's something else there. There's something strange about it, right?

Like there's odd and off-putting things about this guy. Anybody like he's weird obviously, right? Like I'd never heard the guy talk. I used to bet on him all the time when he played in Cal. Like I feel like I discovered Fernando Mendoza. late night, Saturdays, midnight, East Coast, like one o'clock in the morning shit, and there's Fernando Mendoza slinging it against, you know, Stanford. And I used to watch those games and bet on him because the guy could sling.

Watching him in that, though, and watching him talk and like, it's to the point where he's so nice and so syrupy and so, and so Mayberry, something's off about. I don't know what it is. I'm not saying that the guy's got like, you know, severed body parts of hitchhikers in an industrial freezer in his kitchen. I'm not saying that there's a smell of decomposing bodies wafting from his apartment that people on the floor below and a floor above are complaining about. What I am saying is there something weird. Like when someone's that nice and that chaste, something's a foot. there's a vibe that I'm kind of like, hmm, he's got a Mike Meltzer vibe?

No, Meltzer's a weirdo. Yeah, I say weirdo. Meltzer's got a weird personality. But like, I know who Meltzer is. So Meltzer, so while Meltzer gives off a sort of serial killer vibe, it's not this type of serial killer vibe because like Meltzer is just straight up serial killer vibe. This person has the vibe of someone who shouldn't give off a serial killer vibe.

but does give off a serial killer vibe. Like a guy who's like super chaste and religious and I just want to thank my Lord Jesus Christ and the hoggy's up front and blibbub and then we come to find out that like he's killing hitchhikers. Like the seven minute abs guy in something about Mary, right? Like how about seven minute abs? Then it turns out that he like almost killed the guy. That's sort of the vibe that I get in that. I don't know. I hate that.

And it's very me. I'm aware that it's very me. to hate something like Indiana, a story like Indiana. I'm very aware of that. I'm very aware that me hating Indiana football winning is very on brand. I don't dismiss that it's very on brand. It is definitely on brand for me. But it's to me cheapening.

I feel like Indiana winning the college football playoff cheapened the college football playoff. And look, I'm aware of what college football. is now. I'm not against paying dudes. Like, look, I'm an LSU guy. Lane Kiffin just signed 40 dudes in the portal. And they're just, I don't know where LSU is getting all this cash, but they're getting all this cash and they're paying guys. That's the way the sport is now. That's the way it all is. So, look, I accept it. I'm not some guy that's going to yell at the mountaintops about how shitty it is, about how all this works. But I still struggle with the idea that Indiana, who did not even

give a shit about football for 50, 60 years, decides to care about it and within two years wins the whole thing. I think it cheapens it. I think the idea, like, now the idea of a school like Indiana being able to win the whole thing doesn't cheapen it, you know, like the little guy that can make good. I just don't feel like they've had to deal with the pain. And you might say, well, Josh, how would they not? They've sucked forever.

When you suck forever, you just don't give a shit. You're not going to convince me that John Mellencamp was a suffering Indiana football fan. You're not going to convince me that Mark Cuban was a suffering Indiana football fan. Of course, they weren't because they didn't give a shit. No one cared. No one went to the games and no one cared because it was an obsolete program. Now within two years, they're winning fucking championships. And it just the whole process waters it down.

Would Indiana be equivalent to the Houston Cougars winning the Natty? Not even close. Now, I don't believe that anybody really gives a shit about Houston Cougar football in Houston. Like, you can try, people try to lecture me on that for years and years when I was there. They said, oh, what about the, nobody gives a shit. They built them a brand new stadium. Turn on a Houston Cougars game. It's half empty.

No one gives a shit about the Cougars. Even though they've moved to the Big 12 and they're a legit container. That's the other thing. Like, at least the Cougars have had moments. Like, no one gives a shit about the Cougars, but they've had moments. Right? Like, they had a Heisman trophy winner. They won football games at one point.

They were in the big game, in the Southwest Commerce. They had moments. Indiana football's never had a moment. Like a moment for Indiana is winning like five games. Like that's a big accomplishment for them. So when I'm watching that last night, I'm rooting against them because I think it's actually to the detriment of college football that a program that does not give a shit.

To me it's not fair. Like let's think of a program that hasn't won anything but really gives a shit, right? Like LSU people really give a shit, but they've won. Alabama people really give a shit, but they've won. Who's a program that real? Ole Miss. Let's look at Ole Miss. The Ole Miss people really do give a shit.

a shit. They're lunatics and they're fucking crazy and their bipolar, schizophrenic whack jobs, but they give a shit. Like justice would have been Ole Miss winning. You lose your coach, you care, they always have cared, they fill up their stadium, their passionate tailgators, like them winning would have had some form of karma or justice. A team that hasn't given a shit for 50 years, now just showing up and winning the championship, actually fucking sucks. They just decide one day we're into football. And then they went, that sucks. In my opinion, that sucks.

So take from that what you will.