No coach wants to provide an opponent with clichéd bulletin board material ahead of a big game. Yet Georgia head coach Kirby Smart may have done just that if Indiana advances out of the first round of the College Football Playoff.
During an appearance on College GameDay ahead of the Hoosiers' game against Notre Dame on Friday, Smart mistakenly called the school Purdue:
Purdue and Indiana may not have the most heated rivalry in college football, but their history goes back more than a century. Their first meeting was all the way back in 1891.
If anything, the fact that neither is a traditional powerhouse in college football has probably heightened the animosity. No matter how your season was unfolding, the battle for the Old Oaken Bucket was an opportunity to erase a lot of that disappointment.
Getting confused for Purdue is always going to anger the Hoosier faithful. The combination of who said the remark and when he said it is likely to add to the annoyance.
As Pat McAfee was quick to point out on GameDay, Indiana closed out the regular season with a 66-0 hammering of the Boilermakers. It was the most lopsided outcome ever between the two schools. They were mirror images of one another as the Hoosiers went 11-1 and Purdue finished 1-11. There was no doubt as to who was superior on the field.
Some are likely to see Smart's comment as a Freudian slip, too. Maybe he's not affording Indiana the respect it deserves based on how it has played this season.
Should Curt Cignetti's squad beat Notre Dame, you can bet this will be a small subplot ahead of the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day.
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