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There are plenty of elements that will decide Monday night’s College Football Playoff final between the Michigan Wolverines and Washington Huskies.
But perhaps the biggest one of them all is…the Indiana Hoosiers?
That’s right. The Hoosiers, who went 3-9 this past season, have their hand prints all over the national championship games.
Chris Vannini of the The Athletic dove into how this came about, and the results are eye-opening.
Let’s look past the obvious. Washington star quarterback Michael Penix Jr. transferred from Indiana to play for Huskies head coach Kalen DeBoer, who previously served as his offensive coordinator at Indiana.
Everyone knew that.
But let’s dig a bit deeper.
Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart served as DeBoer’s running backs coach on that same 2019 Indiana team. In fact, Vannini reveals that Hart’s current kitchen table came from DeBoer when the two were working together.
Though, again, that’s only just the start.
Seven members of the Hoosiers’ staff or roster are set to take part in Monday night’s game.
Washington co-defensive coordinator William Inge served as an assistan at Indiana from 2013-19. While Huskies tight ends coach Nick Sheridan did the same from 2017-2021
On the other side of the coin, Wolverines tight end A.J. Barner played at Indiana from 2020-22, and Michigan backup QB Jack Tuttle was a Hoosier from 2019-2022.
Though if Tuttle plays on Monday night, something likely went very wrong for the Wolverines.
“There were great people there,” DeBoer told Vannini of his time at Indiana. “It made it enjoyable and that led to a lot of work getting done and the work led to success. When you have fun doing your job and you have fun coming to practice every day as a player, that’s what we had there. That’s why you see so many successful people and guys doing the things that they’re doing.”
Indiana fans will likely watch Monday’s game wondering what could have been had all that talent remained in Bloomington.