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Indiana Ends 59-Year Big House Drought, Stuns Michigan 13-6 in Overtime

The defending national champion Hoosiers survived a sloppy offensive day and a missed late Michigan field goal to win in Ann Arbor for the first time since 1967, keeping their playoff case alive.

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BY OBSERVER SPORTS DESK

The Weekly Observer

OCT 24, 2026 · 4 MIN READ
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Indiana Ends 59-Year Big House Drought, Stuns Michigan 13-6 in Overtime
Michigan Stadium, "The Big House," in Ann Arbor — Indiana won there for the first time since 1967 on Saturday. (File photo, not from Saturday's game.) Photo: Lectrician2/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

No. 6 Indiana needed overtime, two missed Michigan field goals and a fourth-quarter stop to pull it off, but the Hoosiers finally got the win that had eluded the program for 59 years: a 13-6 victory over Michigan at Michigan Stadium on Saturday, Indiana's first in Ann Arbor since 1967.

The game was ugly for long stretches. Indiana led 6-0 at halftime on a pair of field goals, and neither offense found the end zone until overtime. Michigan's Trey Butkowski made a 29-yard field goal in the third quarter to cut the deficit, then drilled a 26-yarder as time expired in regulation to tie it at 6-6 and force the extra period, according to Yahoo Sports.

Indiana finally broke through on the first possession of overtime. Quarterback Josh Hoover, who transferred in from TCU, hit tight end Brock Schott for a 21-yard gain on the opening snap, then punched it in himself on a 4-yard touchdown run. Indiana's defense closed it out, stopping Michigan's final possession to seal the win, per Fox News/OutKick.

A rough day for Michigan's offense

Michigan started freshman Tommy Carr at quarterback with Bryce Underwood held out, and the inexperience showed. Carr lost a fumble on a mishandled pitch in the first quarter and threw an interception that Indiana's Zeke Berry returned 37 yards, setting up a Michigan field goal on the short field. Carr was sacked repeatedly — including on a drive that pushed a 41-yard field-goal attempt back to 53 yards, which sailed wide left — and finished 20-for-32 for 167 yards with the pick and the fumble. In the final minute of regulation, Michigan drove inside the Indiana 3-yard line before a fourth sack forced the game-tying field goal instead of a potential winning touchdown. Hoover, for his part, was far from sharp either: 8-for-18 for just 81 yards with an interception, saved by his legs and his defense. Indiana's Rolijah Hardy had two sacks to anchor that defense.

Indiana had lost 27 of its previous 28 meetings with Michigan before finally breaking through in Bloomington in 2024 — Saturday's result was the Hoosiers' first win inside the Big House in 59 years.

The result drops Michigan to 4-3 overall and 1-3 in Big Ten play in Kyle Whittingham's first season as head coach, a difficult stretch for a program trying to rebuild after parting ways with Sherrone Moore. For Indiana, it's another data point in an improbable turnaround: the Hoosiers won the program's first-ever national title last season under Curt Cignetti, going 16-0 and beating Miami 27-21 in the College Football Playoff championship, after decades as a Big Ten also-ran. Saturday's win kept Indiana's playoff positioning intact and prevented what would have been the program's first two-game losing streak in three years under Cignetti, according to ClickOnDetroit.

Michigan's offensive struggles — six points through four quarters of regulation against a defense that had allowed plenty of points elsewhere this season — will dominate the conversation in Ann Arbor heading into next week. Carr is expected to again start at quarterback as Michigan travels to Rutgers on Oct. 31. Indiana, still very much in the national championship conversation after knocking off one of the sport's flagship programs on the road, returns home to host Minnesota.

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