Connections

Former IU quarterback Trent Green on keeping the ball: ‘Know the down and distance.’

Former IU quarterback Trent Green returned to Bloomington Friday to unveil Dr Pepper’s “Fan Wall of Fame” mural on Kirkwood Avenue. Green also answered a question from The B Square about Fernando Mendoza’s championship-game run and his own two rushing TDs in the 1991 Copper Bowl.

Former IU quarterback Trent Green laughs it up with fans at the unveiling of the Dr Pepper ”Fan Wall of Fame” on Kirkwood Avenue. (Dave Askins, Sept. 4, 2026)

Former IU quarterback Trent Green was back in Bloomington on Friday, one day before the defending national champion Hoosiers open their 2026 season against North Texas at Memorial Stadium.

Saturday’s game kicks off at noon. FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff is in town for the season opener.

Green’s assignment on Friday was a way less strenuous than anything he faced under center as QB for the Hoosiers. He was helping Dr Pepper unveil a “Fan Wall of Fame,” a new mural at the corner of Kirkwood Avenue and Washington Street.

The mural, painted on the Alumni Hall building at 124 E. Kirkwood Ave., was created by artist Nate Baranowski, according to a news release. The news release calls it “interactive” because it features a blank space that lets visitors step into the artwork and be crowned the teams “#1 fan.” Dr Pepper commissioned the mural as a tribute to IU fans after the Hoosiers won the national championship last year.

The visit also offered a chance to connect the championship Hoosiers won with an earlier bright chapter of IU football history.

In the 1991 Copper Bowl, Green scored both the first and last touchdowns in IU’s 24-0 win over Baylor. He put the ball in the end zone on a 1-yard run in the first quarter and a 4-yard run in the fourth.

That was the backdrop for the one question The B Square had for Green. Here’s how that interview unfolded:

B Square: Trent, taking you back to the Copper Bowl in 1991, you bookended the scoring for the team that game. You started with a one-yard quarterback sneak into the end zone, and then the last score of the game was a faked handoff that you then took four yards into the end zone. When you saw Fernando Mendoza take off with fourth and short in the national championship game, what thoughts or instincts or memories did that activate for you as a quarterback, when you make that decision in a moment in time during a game that you’ve got to go ahead and get this one yourself?

Trent Green: There’s a few things that have to go into it. One is you have to know the down and distance. Like, is it last play of the game? Like, do you have to get in the end zone? Those are different set of circumstances. When Fernando took off and ran, he only needed like three, four yards to get the first down. So I was like everybody else in the stands yelling, once he got the first down, I was like, "Get down, get down, get down!” Because I was worried about him getting hit and fumbling. … And so I'm going: “Get down, get down!” and then he spins, dives, and gets in the end zone, and I'm like everybody else: “Oh, great job! Way to go! Way to go!” So, yeah, it's one of those things when you go to take off and run, and as quarterbacks that don't necessarily that’s not their thing, you have to understand the down and distance. And … when is the time to lower your shoulder and try and get it, and when is the time where you need to get down. But I love the fact that he went for it!