No. 11 Indiana football dominated its four-straight home games to start the 2025 season, outscoring opponents 219-33 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. Now, the Hoosiers are set to compete against Iowa in their first road test of the season.
The Cream and Crimson’s last road trip occurred on Dec. 20, 2024, when the team suffered a 27-17 loss to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, in last year’s College Football Playoff. Over the offseason, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti and his team focused on preparing for hostile crowds.
“We went to something different last year in the College Football Playoff,” Cignetti said Monday in his weekly media availability. “We didn't use a silent (count). 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 gets its first chance to put this preparation to the test at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. The game is slated to kick off at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and will be streamed on Peacock.
“This will be a challenge, a more difficult challenge than the last one (against Illinois), for sure,” Cignetti said.
Here’s what to know about the matchup with Iowa:
Coaching history
While the Hoosiers head into the matchup boasting a 4-0 record, the Hawkeyes own a 3-1 record, with their only loss coming against then-No. 16 Iowa State on Sept. 6. After a 47-7 win over the University of Massachusetts on Sept.13, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz secured his 206th career victory to become the winningest coach in Big Ten history.
Before Cignetti and Ferentz led Power Four programs, they both served as graduate assistants at the University of Pittsburgh.
“And he was a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1980,” Cignetti said. “I was a graduate assistant at Pitt in '83 and '84. He used to come by the offices now and then. Had a chance to — met him a couple of times out and around. Got to know him during the Big Ten meetings.”
Cignetti and Ferentz showered each other with praise in their weekly press conferences leading up to the matchup. The former expressed that he has “a lot of respect” for Ferentz, while the ladder emphasized the impressive nature of Cignetti’s work at Indiana so far.
The two will face off against each other for the first time in Big Ten competition Saturday.
Mark Gronowski
Iowa is led by graduate student quarterback Mark Gronowski, who is in his first campaign with the Hawkeyes after transferring from South Dakota State University in the offseason. While the signal-caller has collected just 492 passing yards on the year prior to the matchup against Indiana, Gronowski has proved himself as a rushing weapon in the redzone, racking up six touchdowns on the ground — tied for third most in the Big Ten.
Despite Gronowski's lack of success in the passing game through his first four starts, including a 44-yard passing performance against the University at Albany on Aug. 30, Ferentz has seen improvements.
“Especially with our offense, there's a lot of verbiage, a lot of things going on, so it takes time to get acclimatized a little bit, and with each week he's more and more comfortable running the ball, operating, leading the team out there,” Ferentz said Tuesday. “It's been good to watch him grow with confidence.”
Kaden Wetjen
In his weekly press conference, Cignetti described Iowa graduate student wide receiver Kaden Wetjen as a “great returner.” The second-year Indiana head coach's words ring true, as Wetjen leads the nation in combined return yards with 448 yards on punt and kick returns.
Wetjen earned Big Ten Co-Special Teams Player of the Week honors for the second consecutive week Monday after his performance in Iowa’s 38-28 victory over Rutgers on Sept. 19. The Williamsburg, Iowa, native took the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown — the second 100-yard kickoff return of Wetjen’s career and the sixth 100-yard kickoff return in school history.
While he has been a Hawkeye since 2023, Ferentz thinks Wetjen has improved since then.
“He was a good player two years ago,” Ferentz said. “I'm not knocking it. But just the experience and actually playing in Big Ten competition, really, good players grow from that, and that's what he's done, so it's been fun to watch him play and compete.”
The Hoosiers had key moments of their own on special teams last week, including a blocked punt by junior defensive back D’Angelo Ponds, who picked up the ball to score the first touchdown of the game for the Cream and Crimson.
Special teams are slated to play a key role Saturday considering the success of both teams in the department heading into the matchup.
Controlling the line of scrimmage
Through their first four games of the season, the Hawkeyes’ defense has surrendered just 60.8 rushing yards per game — the seventh fewest in the nation. Meanwhile, the Hoosiers rank third in the NCAA with 308.8 rushing yards per game.
On the other end, the Indiana defensive front has been one of the best units at generating quarterback pressure, owning 15 sacks on the season — tied for sixth most in the nation. This unit will be put to the test this week, going up against an Iowa offensive line that features multiple top-graded starters, per Pro Football Focus.
While Indiana has dominated the line of scrimmage so far this season, Iowa’s offensive line and defensive front are set to pose a challenge.
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.
