
Rich Eisen is one of the best sports voices on the air these days, and he's got a much bigger platform again now that he's back working at ESPN along with his NFL duties. He's one of my favorite watches every day.
Eisen is a Michigan man, and he's paid close attention to Big Ten football for years. On Friday, he talked about No. 1 seed Indiana, who crushed Alabama 38-3 and is now the odds-on-favroite to win their first-ever football national championship.
Eisen said Indiana ''is now the bullies of college football''.
Here are some of his best lines from his Friday show. The full video of his college football take on Indiana is below. It's about 15 minutes long.
“In football, Cinderella doesn’t really exist. Except, potentially, Cinderella is coming at you by an Indiana team that just beat Indiana by 35 points. Now that’s some Cinderella stuff.
“Indiana going into Pasadena coming off of their bye week, with all six previous bye week teams, not a single one going into the Rose Bowl had won a game. They were 0-6. And so Indiana, we’re all in the media trying to describe what this means here.
But I don’t think words can possibly express that the Indiana Hoosiers are now the bullies of college football. Tell me if I’m wrong. They are the bullies of college football. They are steamrolling with their grit, they are steamrolling you with their power, they are steamrolling you with their coaching, they are steamrolling you with their Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, they are steamrolling you with a bunch of receivers you’ve never heard of, they are steamrolling you with an offensive line that is just road-grading. They are steamrolling everybody.
“They handed Alabama its first loss by 35 or more since a loss to Arkansas in 1998. They took Alabama over their knee and just spanked them.
“You know Chris Fowler does not talk in hyperbole, but he and (Karl) Herbstreit said Indiana embarrassed Alabama. It just goes to show you that in this day and age of NIL and the portal that Indiana can utilize. Others might have more bag than Alabama, but no one has more sack than Indiana.
“I don’t know, man. What a godsend Curt Cignetti is to Indiana, and to college football.
“Only one team has won in a bye week and that’s Indiana. Can everybody get a Cignetti in their lives? Unbelievable. I can’t believe Indiana has become what it has become. Congrats to everybody at Indiana for that.’’
“I think the playing field has been leveled in college football, and the Cinderella story is the bully on the block. This is Indiana’s tournament to win. ''