Curt Cignetti envisioned big things for Indiana when he became the coach in late November. In a short span, he's orchestrated quite a turnaround.
No. 23 Indiana comes into Saturday's game at Northwestern unbeaten and ranked for the first time in more than three years.
“I pretty much told everybody when I got hired that this is what was possible,” Cignetti said.
Indiana made bowl games in 2019 and 2020 under Tom Allen. But with three straight losing seasons, he got fired.
Cignetti quickly went to work and added 31 players through the transfer portal, including 13 who followed him from James Madison. Now, the Hoosiers (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) are rolling.
Indiana entered the AP Top 25 this week after beating Maryland 42-28. The Hoosiers are ranked for the first time since they were 17th in the preseason poll in 2021. They lost the opener that year to Iowa and finished with a 2-10 record.
Indiana is 5-0 for just the third time in school history. The Hoosiers have a chance to join the 1967 Rose Bowl team as the only ones to win their first six games. It would also be the earliest the Hoosiers have been bowl-eligible since the NCAA established the six-win standard in 2010.
Northwestern (2-2, 0-1) got shut down at Washington two weeks ago, losing 24-5 in the Huskies' first ever Big Ten game.
The Wildcats are 0-2 against power-conference teams, having also lost to Duke in double overtime at home. Their wins were against Miami (Ohio) in their first game at their temporary lakefront stadium and Eastern Illinois, an FCS school.
Coach David Braun understands the challenge his team is facing this week.
“There's no doubt that they have our attention — the job that they're doing, the way that they're winning, the way that they're closing out games," he said. “This is a very talented football team that's playing at a really high level.”
Indiana had no turnovers through its first four games, then committed three in the first half of last week’s victory over Maryland. Quarterback Kurtis Rourke also lost a fumble in the second half, accounting for his third of the game and the Hoosiers’ fourth.
It marked the first time Indiana won a game with four turnovers since the final regular-season game in 2016 against rival Purdue. Cignetti was not surprised by that, either.
“He doesn’t really seem to get fazed by a whole lot of stuff and he’s on to the next play,” Cignetti said of his sixth-year quarterback who was the 2022 Mid-American Conference MVP at Ohio. “Those turnovers were avoidable. Sometimes you’ve got to cut your losses, but I never had -- nor did anybody on the staff -- have any kind of doubt that he wouldn’t bounce right back.”
Northwestern is 17th in the Big Ten in both yards per game (294.5) and scoring (15.8). Only UCLA is averaging fewer yards (262) and points (14.8). Northwestern had a particularly rough game against Washington, with just 112 yards total and 59 on the ground.
The Wildcats switched to quarterback Jack Lausch after Mississippi State transfer Mike Wright struggled through the first two games. Lausch has completed just 48% of his passes for 280 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Against Washington, he was 8 of 27 for 53 yards and got picked off twice.
Linebacker Aidan Fisher followed Cignetti from James Madison and is off to a terrific start with his new team. The third-year player leads the league with 50 tackles — nobody else has more than 36 — and he had 12 more with a half-sack last week.
Northwestern's run game could get a boost with Cam Porter likely returning from a lower-body injury after missing the Washington game. Porter averaged 78 yards and ran for three touchdowns through the first three games. He was Northwestern’s top rusher last season with 651 yards and tied for the team lead with four TD runs.
“Cam's definitely trending in the right direction,” Braun said. “Really, really hopeful that he'll be available on Saturday.”
Northwestern has never dropped back-to-back games in Braun's two seasons.
The Wildcats are 6-0 following losses, including a 5-0 mark last season on the way to a surprising 8-5 record. This year, the Wildcats bounced back from the Duke game by beating Eastern Illinois.
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