Iowa football is used to hosting highly ranked teams at Kinnick Stadium.
The Hawkeyes were 5-1 against Associated Press top five teams from 2008-2021 — it’s where former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said top five teams “go to die,” as the Wolverines did twice under his leadership.
Although Indiana football isn’t a top-five team in the AP Poll, the Hoosiers proved they may be an elite team when they shellacked then-No. 9 Illinois on Sept. 20. Although he has no history with the famed stadium, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti is aware of what it presents.
“Iowa, it's a tough place to play, Kinnick Stadium,” Cignetti said in a press conference Monday. “They sell out almost every Saturday. It's loud.”
In Cignetti’s first season at the helm of the Hoosiers in 2024, Indiana went 11-2 and made the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history. He turned around a dormant program in no time.
But the Hoosiers’ two losses came on the road to college football’s best: eventual national champions Ohio State and runners-up University of Notre Dame.
Although the Cream and Crimson jumped out to an early lead against the Buckeyes, they largely struggled with handling the crowd noise that came with 105,751 fans at Ohio Stadium. Then, against the Fighting Irish, the Hoosiers altered their approach.
“We went to something different last year in the College Football Playoff,” Cignetti said. “We didn't use a silent. We didn't have a problem hearing. In the offseason you spend time on it, and obviously it will be a big point of emphasis this week in practice.”
Indiana has pumped crowd noise into Memorial Stadium during practice this week in preparation for Kinnick Stadium, which has a capacity of 69,250. Redshirt senior center Pat Coogan said it’s “loud and obnoxious,” but it’s “good preparation.”
Coogan said everyone must be tuned into the cadences, which typically isn’t a problem when the Hoosiers are playing at home with the crowd quiet during their offensive possessions.
But being on the same page on the road is different. It’s a “bigger challenge,” Coogan said, that comes down to preparation. He said being in that mental state in practice helps come kickoff.
The Hoosiers’ defense doesn’t face quite the same challenge. When the Hawkeyes’ offense is on the field, the home fans will be far quieter to let graduate student quarterback Mark Gronowski operate the unit without crowd noise playing a factor.
Still, defense coordinator Bryant Haines’ unit will be tested.
“Just kind of going into a new environment, it's hostile, it's loud,” senior linebacker Aiden Fisher said during player media availability Tuesday. “All those things that play into it, you just got to kind of stay level-minded and kind of block out all that noise and just focus on ourselves and make sure our communication is key.”
Cignetti singled out the Hoosiers’ safeties Monday. He said the Hoosiers need them to “do what they're supposed to do consistently,” including quicker communication. Fisher, who has the coach-to-player communication in his helmet, said he needs to do a better job to make sure the unit is in sync.
While the Cignetti-led Hoosiers have yet to play Iowa, the Hawkeyes are 14-2 since the start of 2023. Kinnick Stadium has earned its reputation as a historic venue that’s difficult for road teams to leave with a victory.
That doesn’t matter to Fisher.
“It's a historic stadium, a really good venue,” Fisher said. “But at the end of the day, business trip. We're going there to win a football game, so you can't be consumed by the history and tradition there.”
And the Hawkeyes won’t just hand the game to the Hoosiers. Iowa won’t beat itself, Cignetti said. Getting out to an early lead certainly would give Indiana an advantage, but it isn’t everything. The Hoosiers led Ohio State early and still lost by 22 points.
Fisher said the game will come down to which team can break the other’s will first. The Hoosiers did that to the Fighting Illini, Cignetti said. Now, they’ll have to do it on the road for the first time this season.
“So we're going to have to play well. This will be a challenge, a more difficult challenge than the last one, for sure.”
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
