It’s notoriously difficult to prove things. British mathematician Bertrand Russell used over 360 pages in his “Principia Mathematica” to prove that 1 + 1 does in fact equal 2. Indiana football had a similarly challenging dilemma entering its 2025 season — proving it belonged in last year’s College Football Playoff.
Fortunately for the Hoosiers, it didn’t take 360 pages to do so. No, for Indiana, it took three hours and six minutes on a rainy Saturday night in Bloomington.
The Hoosiers’ 63-10 win over No. 9 Illinois at Memorial Stadium proved last season’s success wasn’t a fluke. The small but vocal minority of college football fans who pushed an “Indiana played nobody” narrative will surely throw in the towel after a 53-point beatdown of a top-10 team to open conference play in 2025. Surely.
If only it were that simple.
The unfortunate truth for Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers is that there will always be a constituency of college football fans holding firm to the notion that Indiana took the place of “more deserving” teams from the Southeastern Conference in last year’s postseason.
“They’re probably still saying the same thing,” junior cornerback D’Angelo Ponds said postgame, in an honest response to criticism about Indiana’s scheduling.
Ponds is right. I’m not positive those critics would’ve conceded that the Hoosiers belonged if Cignetti took them to the national championship last season. It’s the same type of person who says The Beatles are overrated. They’re objectively wrong, but passionate nonetheless. It’s the type of person who won’t change their opinion.
So, if Indiana’s domination of the Fighting Illini on Saturday night wasn’t enough to convince, well, the SEC, what did it do?
For one, it showed the Hoosiers are among the best coached teams in the conference. From start to finish, Indiana played to its strengths and exploited Illinois’ weaknesses.
Offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan put redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza in positions to make quick throws and pick apart a primarily man-coverage defense with a talented receiving core. Mendoza finished with 17 straight completions and looked more comfortable than Shaquille O’Neal in his Icy Hot commercials.
On the other side, defensive coordinator Bryant Haines dialed up a variety of blitz packages to attack Illinois’ weak offensive line. The Hoosiers recorded seven sacks as a result. The Fighting Illini’s redshirt senior quarterback Luke Altmyer lived in agony and anguish as Indiana’s defensive front collapsed pocket after pocket.
“I thought our defensive line could whip their offensive line, and we did,” Cignetti said during his postgame press conference. “They couldn't stop us. They couldn't match up on the perimeter. And then we broke their will and just pounded them.”
While the graphic description used by Cignetti seems rather extreme, I’m not sure I could’ve possibly found better words to depict his team’s utter dominance in the trenches.
Another thing that Indiana proved: it's once again a CFP contender.
Beating an Associated Press Top 10 team is rare — it’s the Hoosiers’ sixth time doing so in program history. Scoring 63 points on one is practically unheard of. It’s the most points ever scored by a Big Ten team against an AP Top 10 opponent.
This was supposed to be Indiana’s first real test. This was supposed to be a wake-up call, leaping from a weak nonconference slate to a premier conference opponent. It wasn’t.
I’ll be the first to admit that I was proven wrong. I genuinely believed the Hoosiers would pay the price for their underwhelming trio of nonconference opponents and lose. I wasn’t alone. Kirk Herbstreit and Nick Saban were among the four ESPN College GameDay presenters who picked the Illini to win on the road.
“I don’t think Indiana’s anything that special,” Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, said on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff. “I think Illinois can beat them straight up.”
We were all wrong.
Instead, Cignetti once again showcased the same quality he boasted about when he was first hired: that he wins. Even so, the Hoosiers’ head coach isn’t particularly concerned about pushing an agenda in his second year at the helm.
“I mean, you guys (the media) control all that stuff,” Cignetti said when asked what Indiana’s ceiling is. “We all play our games and see where it shakes out at the end of the year.”
His approach differs from last season. Cignetti had to be vocal in his first year to bring the national spotlight to Bloomington. There’s no need for that now. Cignetti has a team with playoff potential and all he wants to do is prove it on the field.
There is still plenty of work to do. The Hoosiers still face daunting matchups against Oregon and Penn State on the road later in the season. Taking down one of the Big Ten’s top dogs on the road is a hurdle Cignetti has yet to clear. Last season’s only opportunity to do so resulted in a 38-15 loss to Ohio State in Columbus.
I firmly believe that Indiana’s smackdown of Illinois warrants national respect. Realistically, that won’t happen until the Cream and Crimson prove they can take down one of the conference’s giants.
Senior wide receiver Elijah Sarratt and redshirt junior receiver Omar Cooper Jr. talked about hearing outside noise from the national media. Both shared a similar sentiment — they hear it but try to let the results speak for themselves.
The result this week? It spoke for itself. Indiana is this year’s Indiana.
Follow reporters Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
