Curt Cignetti doesn’t sound interested in getting pulled into the swirling buildup around Indiana’s matchup with Ohio State. For him, it all comes down to execution, and he made that point clear Monday ahead of Saturday’s home showdown with the No. 4 Buckeyes.
“Noise and clutter.”
That was Cignetti’s description of the many storylines circling the game, even with plenty on the line for an Indiana team that remains unbeaten. The Hoosiers are one of nine unbeaten teams left in the FBS, and they need one more win to match Ohio State’s College Football Playoff era record for consecutive victories at 23, a streak set under Urban Meyer and finished in 2015.
“This is all about giving our team the best chance to be successful and doing a great job as coaches,” Cignetti said Monday. “You know, both teams are going in, in my mind 0-0, and I'm sure that's how they're approaching it, too.”
The setting figures to be a major part of the story at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, where Indiana has beaten Ohio State only twice in 32 meetings. The last Hoosiers win in the series came in 1988, and Cignetti made it clear he expects the crowd to matter.
“Ohio State [is] a great football team with a lot of great players. Extremely well coached,” Cignetti said.
“Ryan Day does a good job. Both coordinators, all the position coaches, I mean, they're really, really good.
And not only do they have a lot of excellent players, they have a wow player.
“That's the only really word to describe (Jeremiah Smith) that I can think of. We're going to need our fans. Ought to be a great environment.”
Smith is exactly the kind of player Indiana will have to keep in front of them. The Heisman frontrunner has 48 catches for 916 yards and 11 touchdowns, and he’s found the end zone eight times over three lopsided wins against Big Ten opponents. He also had eight receptions for 144 yards against Indiana last season in the Big Ten Championship, when the Buckeyes fell 13-10 to the eventual national champions.
Cignetti said Smith presents a problem because of everything Ohio State asks him to do.
“They move Jeremiah around quite a bit. He's taken it up a notch without question,” Cignetti said.
“I think he has nine touchdown catches in the last three, four games. You know, there is no one like him right now playing at this level.
We got two really good ones. He's a freak.
We're going to have to do a great job on him.”
Indiana’s own standing has drawn attention as well. The Hoosiers are one of three Big Ten teams included in this week’s updated playoff projections, but narrow wins over Northwestern and Nebraska in the last three games have led to questions about how this version of Indiana stacks up against the group that rolled through the conference last fall.
Ohio State enters after a 45-16 win over Maryland, though Ryan Day was not pleased with the performance. The Buckeyes were flagged for a rash of penalties and committed two turnovers, and Day’s frustration showed during the game.
“We've got to get this stuff fixed, and some of these penalties don't also come up in practice,” Day said Sunday. “The late hits on quarterbacks. They have to be addressed, and they have to understand how important those are.”
There’s also a health angle to watch on both sides. Indiana got A.J.
Harris back last week against Nebraska after the defensive back had been out since Week 1, leaving the Hoosiers as healthy as they have been this season. Ohio State, meanwhile, held out five starters against Maryland.
Day said over the weekend that he expects “a good portion of them back” for Indiana, with Brandon Inniss, Devin McCuin, Austin Siereveld, Jay Timmons and Christian Alliegro among the regulars who sat out.
In Other News...
Alabama Faces Ugly Fallout After Tense Georgia Finish
Alabama spent the postgame answering for much more than a hard-fought loss to Georgia, as the athletic department moved quickly to address what happened in the stands after the final whistle. Following the close finish and a night already defined by disputed officiating calls, fans threw garbage, including water bottles and beer cans, onto the field, creating an ugly scene that forced a public address announcement and had Georgia players keeping their helmets on as they made their way out.
The schools statement condemned the conduct as unacceptable, said it was gathering information and made clear it will not tolerate that kind of behavior. For Alabama, the fallout from a tense SEC showdown now stretches beyond the scoreboard, with the focus shifting to what comes next for a program that has long prided itself on home-field standards as much as results. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Fans Are Livid Over One Bigger SEC Question
Saturdays Alabama-Georgia game delivered the kind of heavyweight SEC finish that gets replayed and dissected long after the final whistle, but much of the attention afterward drifted away from the scoreboard and toward the officiating. Several moments drew scrutiny across social media, with players and commentators voicing frustration and confusion over how the game was called, a familiar kind of postgame noise in a rivalry game that already carries plenty of emotional weight.
For Alabama fans, the bigger concern now is what the conference does next, or whether it says anything at all. The late-game sequence under the microscope has only sharpened the debate, especially because the SEC has not issued a statement yet, and there is recent precedent for the league taking action after a controversial call in another game. Until the conference addresses it, the frustration around this one is likely to keep simmering. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Just Got Another Painful Reminder Of Where This Program Stands
The Coaches Poll got a fresh shakeup after a wild weekend, and the ripple effects reached well beyond the top of the board. Texas, which had been sitting at No. 1, was one of the biggest losers after falling to Oklahoma, while UCLA climbed after its upset win and teams like LSU and Oregon slid in the other direction as voters reworked the order heading into the next round of games.
Wake Forest also moved into the rankings, a reminder of how quickly the poll can turn when a few key results land the wrong way. For programs like Florida, the bigger takeaway is less about who rose and fell in one chaotic week and more about the gap the rankings still reflect, with the nations elite separating themselves fast and leaving everyone else trying to keep pace. [Read more 🡒]