Sports
Indiana edges Michigan to reach 10 wins, likely Playoff and wants more: What is this world?
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana junior receiver Elijah Sarratt, a zero-star recruit as a high schooler in Virginia, delivered a figurative roasting to Michigan sophomore cornerback and former four-star recruit Jyaire Hill, leaving him behind in the open field and cruising under a 36-yard touchdown pass from Kurtis Rourke.
Indiana junior defensive end Mikail Kamara, a zero-star recruit as a high schooler in Virginia, got between Michigan senior right guard Giovanni El-Hadi and sophomore right tackle Evan Link and right into the face of quarterback Davis Warren. Both of those Wolverines linemen came out of their prep careers with four stars next to their names, and both were needed to deal with Kamara. Eight stars vs. none. None won.
Indiana, the losingest major college football program, beat Michigan, the winningest, 20-15 on Saturday in front of 53,082 reborn ignorers of November basketball at Memorial Stadium. That’s 10 wins for the first time in Indiana history. That’s 11 wins all-time against Michigan in 73 tries. That’s the one that makes it hard to come up with a scenario in which first-year coach Curt Cignetti and his Hoosiers aren’t among the teams selected for the first 12-team College Football Playoff.
And I swear to you, as sure as Bob Knight could chuck a chair, these people were acting like they had to answer for something Saturday.
“I’m glad we won,” Cignetti said. “I’m not happy with the way we played.”
He said that a few ways while commending his defense and his team for being “gutty,” and he did so after he was asked about the little bit of emotion he let show in the on-field interview with CBS after it ended — while Indiana students stood happily in the stands and didn’t rush the field, because apparently beating the defending national champion is just what they do around here now.
Those couple of seconds on the field to take it all in, some of the smiles Cignetti shared with family members and friends as he walked past the massive IU weight room toward the presser, the fact close to 20 family members and friends crowded into the place … these are the hints of a gigantic moment.
Cignetti and his No. 8 Hoosiers (7-0 Big Ten) weren’t going to say it, not after they let a 17-3 first-half lead over the disappointing Wolverines (5-5, 3-4) dissolve into the need to stop a tying two-point conversion and another U-M drive in the fourth quarter, which the IU defense did. Indiana was supposed to roll over this Quick Lane Bowl-looking Michigan team, as Indiana has rolled over everyone, and that’s not what happened.
Have covered 7-8 Indiana football games. Tailgating scene today tops all of them combined. Bad photo that doesn’t tell the story notwithstanding. pic.twitter.com/HqmoweWGmm
— Joe Rexrode (@joerexrode) November 9, 2024
That’s fine, Hoosiers. There’s a Big Ten championship in play. The game of the season up next, at No. 2 Ohio State after a well-timed week off. So the fact that The Athletic’s Austin Mock has the Hoosiers at 92 percent to make the Playoff and their regular-season finale is against wretched rival Purdue needn’t prompt any public exhales. Especially after this version of Michigan outplayed Indiana in the second half.
But we outside the program don’t have to play ball. We can rub our eyes and shake our heads and laugh almost uncomfortably at the fact we are asking as a college football nation in November whether these Hoosiers have quite enough to win a national championship.
We’re wondering how Michigan hung so tough with Indiana. We’re giving the Wolverines a nice pat on the back for doing so, and gee, what if coach Sherrone Moore didn’t forfeit 31 seconds before taking a timeout late or spend much of the second half proceeding as if just trying to avoid a blowout? After the news conferences on Saturday, back up in the press box, people were watching the Alabama–LSU game and talking about how it might affect IU’s Playoff draw like that’s a normal thing to discuss.
Are we in The Upside Down? How far away from Bloomington is Hawkins, Ind., the supernatural setting for “Stranger Things”?
We can be amazed. We can be enthralled, too. Because Indiana football in 2024 reminds us that this sport is not just math and science. If it were, the Hoosiers wouldn’t have dominated play in the first half and searched for answers after a wobbly second. They would have been trucked like most Indiana teams through the decades against most Michigan teams.
The 247Sports Team Talent Composite, which assesses rosters based on recruiting rankings, tells us Michigan, having lost a lot from last year’s Jim Harbaugh-led natty, is still No. 5 in the Big Ten and No. 16 nationally. Indiana is No. 16 in the Big Ten and No. 57 nationally. There’s a talent chasm between these teams.
Go by the starting lineups and Michigan’s offense averaged 3.45 stars — despite zero-star quarterback and former walk-on Warren — and its defense averaged 3.73 stars. Indiana’s offense averaged 2.81 stars, and its defense averaged 2.0 stars. So, yeah, Michigan is nearly one star per player better with its defense on the field against Indiana’s offense — even without its best player, injured cornerback and five-star Will Johnson — and we’re asking how the Wolverines got all these stops.
Eight of Indiana’s starting 22 on Saturday, Sarratt and Kamara among them, played for Cignetti at James Madison. Players elevate from Group of 5 programs to Power 4 leagues and make a mark frequently. But a whole slew of James Madison players, and a former Mid-American Conference quarterback, threatening a hostile takeover of the Big Ten?
Recruiting rankings mean something, of course, and correlate in bulk with program success, but they say nothing of how a player will grow and work and fit into a scheme. These evaluations say nothing about how people will get along. Or how they will be coached and developed. They can’t predict choices made in a dorm room on a Thursday evening when happy hour beckons but a young man hits the squat press or the books instead.
It’s not just science and math, it’s art. And an Indiana program known for bad replicas of “Dogs Playing Poker” is getting calls from the folks at the Guggenheim.
Yes, Saturday might have offered a glimpse of potential struggles ahead against the best in the sport for this team, which still hasn’t played a great one. The loss of left guard Drew Evans — another zero-star recruit turned excellent player — to an Achilles injury in practice last week can’t be ignored in Michigan’s four sacks and frequent second-half pressures. The math says Indiana’s depth is tenuous.
Yet the way Saturday’s game went should be good for Indiana. For one thing, no one will be screaming disrespect on behalf of the Hoosiers when Tuesday’s rankings come out. More likely, they will question why Indiana is as high as it is. There’s no doubt Cignetti will love and use that.
And he just saw his players face unwanted pressure and respond to it. The defense did it over and over again. The special teams made an enormous play, Ke’Shawn Williams’ 22-yard punt return to the Michigan 39 to set up a Nicolas Radicic field goal for breathing room. Rourke made a crucial throw to get IU close enough and later ran for the first down on a read-option keeper that finally enabled victory formation.
“We knew eventually we’d come to a game that would be close and we’d have to see what we’re made of,” Rourke said.
“When you’re a good team and you stay confident, stay poised in those moments, you know, no moment is too big,” Williams said.
Enjoy it for 24 hours. Watch the film. Make improvements. The Hoosiers sounded like any other winning team involved in any other championship chase Saturday. Williams did, however, acknowledge that he looked around in the final seconds at that crowd and thought: “This is crazy.”
It was. And it is.
“I can’t say enough about these guys,” Cignetti said. “I don’t throw many bouquets out there; you guys know that. But these guys have accomplished quite a bit.”
No, he doesn’t throw bouquets. He takes clay that is not supposed to be of premium quality and molds it into something very much of premium quality. Leonardo da Cignetti said he’s going to take a much-needed day off Sunday. Then it’s back to the masterpiece.
(Photo of Zach Horton and Elijah Sarratt: James Black / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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The ESPYS brought some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment to New York City on Wednesday night, a day that typically ranks among the slowest on the sports calendar.
But this year’s ceremony was preceded by a World Cup semifinal match in Atlanta that was already being described as an instant classic. Lionel Messi and Argentina punched their ticket to a second straight World Cup final with a win over England. The defending champions will meet Spain on Saturday in nearby New Jersey, just a short trip across the Hudson River from where comedian Marcello Hernández opened the ESPYS.
The “Saturday Night Live” star wasted little time taking a few jabs at Jake Paul, Tiger Woods and other sports figures.
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Marcello Hernández speaks onstage during the 2026 ESPY Awards at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
“Mike Tyson ripped my watch off. Welcome to the ESPYS!” Hernández joked after making a boxing-style entrance in a robe with Tyson as part of his entourage.
“I must say, it’s an honor to be here among so many great athletes, and Jake Paul,” Hernández began in his roughly 10-minute monologue.
Paul appeared to take the joke in stride, laughing and applauding as cameras cut to him in the crowd. Hernández then stayed on the YouTube star-turned-boxer, needling him over his history of fighting older opponents.
“Jake, that’s just a joke. Don’t fight me,” Hernández continued. “My dad and my stepdad are both here. They’re over 50, and I know that’s how you like them. So, fight them instead.”
Paul kept laughing as Hernández’s bit played out, eventually closing with the comedian shifting attention to his father and stepfather, who were shown in the audience.
Atmosphere at the 2026 ESPYS at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Square on July 15, 2026, in New York, New York. (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
Hernández later used Caleb Williams’ “Madden 27” cover as a lead into Woods.
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“I want to congratulate Caleb Williams, the quarterback for the Chicago Bears, who will be on the cover of the new Madden video game. Congratulations to Caleb,” Hernández said, before adding, “And Tiger Woods will be on the cover of Grand Theft Auto.”
Woods was arrested in Florida in March on charges of DUI after a car crash. The arrest report said a deputy found pain pills in his pocket and observed signs of impairment at the scene. Woods later announced he would take time away from golf to seek treatment.
Hernández also worked North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick into the monologue, using the 74-year-old’s relationship with Jordon Hudson as part of a joke about the New York Knicks’ title drought.
“The Knicks won their first championship since 1973. And to put into perceptive how long ago that was, in 1973 hockey players didn’t wear helmets, basketball had no three point line. And in 1973, Bill Belichick was the age his girlfriend is now.”
The Knicks later took home the ESPY for Best Team.
Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and other members of the 2025-26 Knicks championship team took the stage to accept the award, but Josh Hart was noticeably absent. Brunson drew laughs when he joked, “I want to say thank you to the ESPYS for pulling Josh Hart’s invite.”
Earlier in the night Brunson also received the “Best Championship Performance” award.
Jalen Brunson accepts the Best Championship Performance award onstage during the 2026 ESPY Awards at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City on July 15, 2026. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for W+P)
Former NBA player Jason Collins, who died in May at age 47 following a battle with Stage 4 glioblastoma, posthumously received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Former MLB pitcher Jim Abbott received the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, while Scott Ruskan was honored with the Pat Tillman Award for Service.
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The ESPYS are held every summer, bringing together top athletes and other stars to celebrate the best moments from the past year in sports while honoring figures recognized for courage, service and impact. In past years, the ceremony has been held in Los Angeles, but shifted to New York this year.
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ATLANTA — The jury is still out on whether Lionel Messi is the greatest soccer player ever. But there should be no doubt he’s the greatest to ever play in a World Cup.
And you don’t need the records, the wins or the goals to prove that — although he certainly has enough of those. You just need to see Messi at his most magical, as he was Wednesday, setting up a pair of game-changing goals in a seven-minute span to lift Argentina to a 2-1 win over England and into Sunday’s World Cup final with Spain.
“It’s really hard to speak right now, but I’m going to try not to cry,” Lautaro Martínez, who scored the winning goal two minutes into stoppage time, said in Spanish. “I’m already overwhelmed inside. It’s incredible. Everything we’ve achieved is just incredible.”
Like their 13-game World Cup unbeaten streak, dating to the opening game of the 2022 tournament in Qatar. Or back-to-back trips to the final, which gives them a chance to become the first repeat champion in the men’s tournament since Brazil in 1962.
Argentina’s Lautaro Martinez scores his team’s second goal in front of England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford (1) and fellow England players Ezri Konsa (2) and John Stones (5) during a World Cup semifinal in Atlanta on Wednesday.
(Erik S. Lesser / Associated Press)
But it hasn’t been easy. Eleven of Argentina’s 19 goals — including both scores in Wednesday’s semifinal — have come after the 75th minute. They trailed in the 80th minute or later in two of their last three knockout games, only to rally both times.
And Messi has either scored or assisted on three of the four goals that rescued Argentina.
“This group, in the face of adversity, keeps going, keeps going, and never gets tired,” Martínez said. “And we have the best in the world as our example.”
On Wednesday that meant heartache for England, which was as close to a World Cup final as it has been in six decades, leading 1-0 on Anthony Gordon’s second-half goal with just five minutes left in normal time.
But after taking the lead, England turned strangely conservative, dropping all 11 players behind the ball at times, daring Argentina to score. Eventually it did, with Enzo Fernández curling a right-footed shot from about 20 yards past England keeper Jordan Pickford and in at the left post to tie the game.
It was a pass from Messi that found Fernández in space at the top of the box, earning the Argentine captain his record 11th World Cup assist.
“The opponent doubted themselves,” Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni said. “We smelt blood and went for it. We all felt it. “
The tie didn’t last for long though, with Messi threading a perfect cross from the right wing to Martínez, who found space between English defenders John Stones and Ezri Konsa at the far post. Messi’s pass just cleared the leaping Stones, then dipped to Martínez, who nodded it home.
England’s Harry Kane and England’s Jude Bellingham are dejected after losing to Argentina during a World Cup semifinal on Wednesday in Atlanta.
(Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)
When the ball hit the net, the sellout crowd at Atlanta’s massive Mercedes-Benz Stadium erupted.
“Once again, despite falling behind, we managed to turn the game around in stoppage time. That speaks volumes about this group, about this team that never settles, always wants more, always strives for more,” Martínez said.
It also gives Messi a chance to strive for more in Sunday’s final. He has already played in more World Cup games, scored more World Cup goals and had more World Cup assists than any man in history. With a win over Spain, he can join another elite group of men: those who have won back-to-back World Cup titles.
History will eventually decide if it was Messi’s brillance or the tactical surrender of England coach Thomas Tuchel that truly turned the game around. Tuchel, however, said he had no regrets.
“We played the matches how they were,” he said. “We overcame every obstacle. We were very, very close today. It’s not a moment now to analyze the full tournament because we lost a crucial match.”
His captain, Harry Kane, who lost in the semifinal of a World Cup for the second time in three tournament, was also not interested in second-guessing.
Argentina’s Lionel Messi sits on the shoulders of a teammate and celebrates after beating England in a World Cup semifinal on Wednesday in Atlanta.
(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)
“We had a lot of good moments in this tournament, a lot of good games,” he said. “We talked about knocking on the door. We’re close, we just have to find that missing piece in the final stage of the tournament.”
They may be closer than they think: England is the only team this century to score the first goal in a World Cup semifinal but not reach the final, according to the OptaJoe statistical service.
Argentina’s team, meanwhile, is missing nothing — except maybe a second title,
“The people of Argentina should celebrate being in a final,” Scaloni said. “This group of players is difficult to describe in words. They are so special. I’m getting emotional. They fight for everything.
“We’re going to try to win the final. But what else does this team need to do? There isn’t much else to say. I’m eternally grateful to this group of players.”
Sports editor Iliana Limón Romero contributed to this report.
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After five years out of the Octagon, Conor McGregor’s return barely lasted one minute.
McGregor opened his Saturday fight against Max Holloway aggressively, attempting a running kick before throwing a head kick moments later. However, he slipped both times because it was apparent he had suffered a knee injury.
He tried to power through it, but nearly two minutes into the fight, he grabbed at his right leg again, and referee Mike Beltran called the fight after just 69 seconds.
Conor McGregor reacts after losing to Max Holloway in a welterweight fight at UFC 329 on Saturday, July 11, 2026, in Las Vegas. (John Locher/AP)
In his first post on Instagram since the bout, McGregor vowed to return from the injury.
“We’ll be back,” McGregor said after showing off his new energy drink.
Prior to that, McGregor showed off the “Mac” drink, enjoying it alongside his wife. McGregor then shared his faith.
Conor McGregor of Ireland reacts after an injury stoppage in a welterweight fight during UFC 329 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., on July 11, 2026. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
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“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We’ll be back. Let’s go.”
McGregor made an emotional post the day after the fight, saying his “head gasket is gone.”
“Destroyed. I had no injury / injuries going into the fight. I was throwing kicks, planted and jumping, all throughout camp as well as backstage before the fight. This came out of nowhere. I am beyond dark here. I can only describe it as hell,” he said on X.
UFC president Dana White said he assumed McGregor suffered a “blown ACL.”
Conor McGregor kicks Max Holloway in a welterweight fight at UFC 329 on Saturday in Las Vegas. (John Locher/AP)
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McGregor was participating in his first bout since July 2021 when he lost to Dustin Poirier due to a devastating leg injury. He’s only won one fight since 2020.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos, Chantz Martin, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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