INDIANAPOLIS — Hoosier pride is filling airports and highways as Indiana fans and students head south for what many are calling a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the Peach Bowl.
WRTV was at the Indianapolis International Airport as travelers caught flights to Georgia, many already confident the Hoosiers are not done making history this season.
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“They are going to represent well,” one fan said.
Among those flying out were Jeff Taylor and Mike Nelson, who believe Indiana has all the pieces in place for a Peach Bowl win.
“We got a great coach, great defense, great offense,” Taylor said.
If the Hoosiers keep winning, they hope the journey continues all the way to Miami for the national championship.
“What they’ve done this year is nothing but miraculously amazing,” Nelson said.
While some Hoosiers are traveling as fans, others are in Atlanta for work and career-building experience.
Indiana University journalism graduate students Colby Shannon and Matt St. Charles are credentialed media members covering the Peach Bowl on Friday night.
“Matt and I are both first-year students in the graduate program at IU Indianapolis,” Shannon said. “We haven’t really gotten to be around the football team this year, up until this moment being in Atlanta, but being able to follow this team and now travel to cover them in the Peach Bowl is such a really cool experience.”
St. Charles said the opportunity is unlike anything they have covered before.
“We’ve never covered anything remotely close to this,” he said. “This is stuff we’ve watched on TV since we were kids, and to come out here and be a part of it as a credentialed media is really, really cool.”
Both students say covering a game of this magnitude will help set them apart as they prepare to apply for jobs.
“The ability to say that you covered a college football playoff semifinal game is huge,” St. Charles said. “Outside of the connections we’re making here, just the fact that we’ve covered an event this big is a really big plus.”
Even before kickoff, the moment already feels special.
“There have been multiple occasions where Colby and I have looked at each other and said, 'This is so cool,'” St. Charles said. “We haven’t even had any media availability or the game yet, and it’s already been a really, really great experience.”
