Photo courtesy of Brad Gecina Brad Gecina, a Crestview High School All-Ohioan who was a starting linebacker at Indiana University, and his son, JJ, attend the Hoosiers’ win at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.

COLUMBIANA — There is a price to pay for success.

Just ask former Crestview High School All-Ohioan and Indiana University linebacker Brad Gecina.

He is flying to Miami and hoping to get inside Hard Rock Stadium as the top-ranked Indiana Hoosiers play for their first college football national championship against host Miami on Monday night.

“It’s expensive to follow a successful team,” Gecina said. “We’re finding it out as Indiana fans. You never had problems getting tickets before. It’s a good problem to have.”

He took his son, JJ, a member of Crestview’s football and basketball teams, to the Rose Bowl for Indiana’s playoff win over Alabama on New Year’s Day.

With Indiana’s strong fan base following a once-in-a-lifetime season, ticket prices are soaring.

“It’s a lot of money,” Gecina said. “One of my friends said, ‘I just spent one of my kid’s semesters in college.'”

But the draw of watching Indiana history is strong for longtime fans.

“I talked to some teammates and said, ‘We’ve got to do it,'” Gecina said. “But $3,800 for nosebleeds. My wife is telling me to do it. I can’t justify it. I’ve talked to plenty of Ohio State fans who went last year. They waited it out, but (tickets) never came down. I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

He said one of his friends won a lottery for two tickets at $900 face value for the pair.

“They let the alumni put in for a lottery, but I didn’t hit the lottery for the Rose Bowl or any of the others,” Gecina said.

Best of times

Gecina played at Indiana from 1995-1999 and has followed the Hoosiers since.

“I watch as many games as I can,” he said. “For people who are true fans and have been following them this long, there has been a lot of heartbreak. Times have changed.”

The Hoosiers have been 15-0 and 11-2 the last two seasons. But the only other winning seasons since Gecina’s first year in 1995 came in 2007 and 2019. There also were many lean years before.

There is the well-known story when Indiana coach Lee Corso called a timeout against Ohio State in 1976 to get a picture with the scoreboard showing Indiana leading 7-6. Ohio State went on to a 47-7 win, sending Indiana to another loss.

Things have changed the last two years under head coach Curt Cignetti.

“I think every athletic director and university wants to hire Curt Cignetti,” Gecina said. “I don’t think you can argue with what he’s done.”

The Hoosiers have won with experienced players and no five-star recruits.

“It’s a whole new game,’ Gecina said. “He doesn’t care about five-star kids. I think he is a master evaluator of talent. He just looks for football players.”

Indiana is favored to win the national championship and become the first major college football team to go 16-0 since Yale did it in 1894.

“I’m pretty confident,” Gecina said. “The only thing is Miami has a lot of athletes. An athlete can make the difference on any given play.”

Talking Bucks

Of course Indiana’s games against Ohio State meant more to Gecina.

“The first time I was on the field at Ohio State was my sophomore year and I made the tackle on the kickoff,” he said.

Gecina had been to a couple of Buckeye games as a youngster.

“When growing up with Ohio State fans, I know what the Horseshoe was about,” he said.

The year before in 1996, Ohio State needed to win at Indiana for the Rose Bowl berth.

“Matt Finkes ripped the ball out of the quarterback’s hands and ended up winning the game (scoring on a 45-yard return),” Gecina said.

The Buckeyes scored 20 points in the fourth quarter for a 27-17 victory. Ohio State fans stormed Indiana’s field and tore down one goalpost and were heading for the other.

“We were in the locker room and someone came in to tell us,” Gecina said. “We surrounded the one goal post. We weren’t going to let them tear down both goal posts.”

Ohio State beat Indiana 32 straight times before the Hoosiers’ 10-3 win in the Big Ten Championship game in December.

“There were many times we played Ohio State tough and we could never get over that hurdle,” Gecina said.

Indiana captured its first Big Ten title since 1967 and first outright title since 1945. That’s three Big Ten titles in all.

All-Stars

Former Pittsburgh Steelers standout Antwaan Randle El was the Indiana quarterback during Gecina’s time there.

Randle El is the assistant head coach for the Chicago Bears, who will host the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL playoffs Saturday.

Top offensive players Gecina played against were Wisconsin running back and Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne, Michigan State receiver Plaxico Burress and Michigan quarterback Tom Brady.

“The joke is we get a year older, we add a tackle to our career record,” Gecina said. “My buddy, who was a safety, said he picked Brady off, but I don’t think he did.”

Gecina had a team-high seven solo tackles in a 21-10 loss at Michigan in 1998. Brady completed 18 of 27 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns against the Indiana defense.

“None of that matters when you lose,” Gecina said.

Game notes

¯ Gecina has been proud to show his Hoosier colors.

“For the longest time, until this resurgence, I had all the stuff, I just didn’t wear it. I dusted it off.”

¯ The Indiana basketball team has won five national championships, the last three under coach Bobby Knight.

“The support was always there,” Gecina said. “I guess we just had to get a decent team to get anyone there.”

¯ Gecina was named Indiana’s most improved player during the 1998 spring practice and earned a starting spot as a strongside linebacker.

¯ Indiana’s head coach during Gecina’s first two seasons was Bill Mallory.

Mallory led East Palestine High School to the 1958 Tri-County League title before becoming the winningest coach in Indiana University history. He won 69 games in 13 seasons with the Hoosiers.

¯ In Gecina’s last three seasons, Jon Heacock was Indiana’s defensive coordinator. Heacock is a West Branch High School graduate and left Indiana to be the Youngstown State head coach.

¯ Gecina moved back into the Crestview district five years ago with his wife, Dr. Courtney Cuppett, and their five children. JJ is the oldest and there are four daughters in grades K-6.

¯ Gecina has spent the last three years as a Crestview junior high assistant football coach.

“It’s been fun,” he said. “I say I should have retired after we went 16-0 the first two years.”