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...
Ohio State Just Turned Up The Heat On Two Committed 2027 Targets
A Maryland weekend at Ohio State turned into more than just another recruiting stop, as the Buckeyes used the visit to push harder with a pair of committed 2027 prospects. Linebacker James Conrad and running back Kingston Allen both left Columbus with scholarship offers from Ohio State, adding two more names to a class that has already started to draw national attention well before the cycle gets serious.
Conrad, who is committed to Buffalo, picked up his first Power 4 offer from the Buckeyes, while Allen, a Wisconsin pledge, added Ohio State to a growing list of programs chasing him. Both are highly regarded players with strong high school rsums, and the Buckeyes are now firmly in the mix even before either one has reached the point where most recruiting battles really take shape. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Suddenly Faces A Tougher Indiana Test Than Expected
Indiana has quietly put itself in a better position than many expected heading into its Big Ten meeting with Ohio State. The Hoosiers are mostly healthy, with tight end Andrew Barker the only long-term injured starter, and theyve also gotten a lift from the returns of defensive end Daniel Ndukwe and A.J. Harris. Those reinforcements have helped stabilize a defense that looks a lot sturdier than it did earlier in the season.
Ohio State, meanwhile, is carrying a longer injury list into the matchup, with issues along the offensive line and among several receivers and defenders. For a Buckeyes team that usually expects to dictate terms, that matters because it can complicate both protection and depth in a game where every healthy body counts. Indiana may still be the underdog, but it suddenly has the kind of availability edge that can make a November road test far less comfortable than projected. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Has A Sloppy Problem Ahead Of Indiana
Ohio State left College Park with a 45-16 win over Maryland, but the box score did not tell the whole story. The Buckeyes were sharp enough to pull away, yet the game still featured two turnovers and eight penalties for 65 yards, the kind of sloppiness that can linger even after a comfortable final margin.
Pressure on Julian Sayin helped force the giveaways, and several of the flags came at bad moments, extending Maryland drives and slowing Ohio States momentum. For a team headed into Indiana, the concern is less about whether it can win and more about whether those self-inflicted mistakes start to matter when the competition gets tighter. [Read more 🡒]