LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — As media members mobbed many of Division I’s brightest stars at last week’s College Football Awards festivities, Indiana tailback Tevin Coleman sat alone at his table, hiding in plain sight amidst the chaos taking place around him.

His fellow Doak Walker Award finalists — Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon and Nebraska’s Ameer Abdullah — satisfied the needs of dozens of reporters and cameramen in answering for their stellar 2014 seasons. Coleman’s season was just as stellar, but it was also lost in the shuffle of Indiana’s disappointing 4-8 season.

His crowning moment wasn’t a 307-yard outburst at Rutgers or three touchdowns against Ohio State. Coleman’s best memory was a win over SEC East champion Missouri, one that leaves his teammates still talking about beating up on the mighty SEC despite Indiana’s dreadful stretch in the Big Ten.

“It was a great feeling because we did things that none of the Big Ten teams did,” Coleman told Saturday Down South in an exclusive interview. “It was a great feeling for us, for the program. Everybody was real excited to bring that win to Bloomington.”

For one September afternoon, Indiana football’s decade-long history of failures turned the opposite way. Coleman amassed 189 total yards and a touchdown as Indiana upset the two-time defending division champions, recording the program’s greatest victory in recent memory, its first over a ranked team since 2006.

Quiet by nature, Coleman flexes a wide smile when ‘the Missouri game’ is mentioned.

It gave him a sense of pride for his team and his league, an element familiar to the SEC.

“(Beating Mizzou) says a lot about the Big Ten,” Coleman said. “The SEC is a great program. They’re really good. Us beating them … it was a pretty good feeling.”

When asked if he and his Hoosier teammates rooted for Missouri to beat Alabama in the SEC championship game, allowing Indiana to claim a win over the SEC champions, Coleman was honest in admitting, “Yeah, kind of. A little bit.”

The Tigers lost by 29 points to Alabama, but that certainly doesn’t cheapen Indiana’s accomplishment.

What’s more impressive is that Indiana won the game on the road in front of a packed house filled with Black and Yellow-clad Tiger fans. However, Coleman seemed to think playing the game away from home is the reason his team was able to pull off the upset of the year.

According to the best tailback no one’s heard of, it’s easier to execute when the pressure’s off. Perhaps that’s why this story began with Coleman sitting alone, accepting the lack of a reward for a 2,000-yard season. It’s because everything comes easier when the pressure’s off.

“I like away games better because it kind of keeps the pressure off you and things like that. It’s just a great feeling to be somewhere else and play well at that stadium,” Coleman said. “It was a great feeling for me.”