No. 23 Indiana football began its season with a far-from-impressive 13-point victory over Old Dominion University. And Curt Cignetti wasn’t pleased.
The second-year Hoosiers head coach was looking for improvement Saturday as his squad hosted Kennesaw State University inside Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
That’s just what the Hoosiers delivered in their 56-9 victory over the Owls.
“Good day,” Cignetti said postgame. “I think we made the improvement we needed to make, but it's far from perfect. We'll see areas of improvement tomorrow when we watch the tape. But we took a step forward with the step we needed to take.”
Offensively, Indiana earned more.
More total yards. More passing yards. More rushing yards. More yards per play. More points. Most importantly, more touchdowns.
The Hoosiers largely failed to convert trips to the red zone into touchdowns in their season opener. In six trips inside Old Dominion’s 20-yard line, Indiana scored just two touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Elijah Sarratt said postgame that the offense placed a “big emphasis” on red zone execution in practice.
It paid dividends against the Owls.
Across seven trips inside the red zone Saturday, the Hoosiers finished each of them with a touchdown.
“That had to happen,” Cignetti said, “and we answered the bell.”
Not only did Cignetti want red zone improvement, but he also wanted to see redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza build off his season-opening performance.
The Miami native did just that. He went 18 for 25 for 245 yards passing and four touchdowns.
Sarratt caught three of Mendoza’s touchdown passes, totaling 97 yards on nine receptions just a week after having three catches for 44 yards without a score. Mendoza completed a pass to seven other pass catchers against the Owls.
When other receivers, such as redshirt junior Omar Cooper Jr. and sixth-year senior E.J. Williams Jr., are spreading the defense, Sarratt gets one-on-one matchups, Mendoza said.
“And when he has those one-on-one matchups,” Mendoza said, “he’s like they call him, Waffle House.”
Defensively, Indiana mostly allowed fewer.
Fewer total yards. Fewer rushing yards. Fewer yards per play. And fewer points.
Defensive coordinator Bryant Haines said Thursday on the “Inside IU Football” radio show that his unit, and defensive line specifically, were too controlled, not dynamic and not aggressive enough against Old Dominion. It wasn’t the Hoosiers’ style, he said.
In practice throughout the week, the Hoosiers focused on creating more penetration and knock back vertically, senior defensive lineman Kellan Wyatt said.
Against the Owls, the Cream and Crimson racked up 14 tackles for loss and two sacks.
“I think we made a lot more plays in the backfield today compared to last week,” Wyatt said, “so I think we took a step forward.”
Sixth-year senior Louis Moore, who currently has a temporary restraining order against the NCAA that is slated to expire Wednesday, also notched his second interception of the season.
Although the Hoosiers largely dominated, it wasn’t smooth sailing all game. They got out to a fast start, scoring a pair of touchdowns after beginning the contest with a three-and-out. But over the final three drives of the first half, Indiana scored a touchdown, punted and turned the ball over on downs.
The second half was a different story.
Indiana stepped on the proverbial pedal in the third quarter, staying on it throughout the rest of the game. Except for the final drive of the game in which they ran the clock out, the Hoosiers scored touchdowns on each of their five possessions in the second half.
Cignetti said the second-half domination was “something he needed to see.” He said while there were new players on last season’s roster, he knew many of them from James Madison University. This season, however, all the transfers are also new to him.
And not all of them had the luxury of playing for championship programs like University of Notre Dame transfer redshirt senior offensive lineman Pat Coogan. So, continuing to attack the opponent is just another example of reinforcing the standard, culture and expectation.
“You're trying to really teach habits, right?” Cignetti said. “And how you do something is how you do everything, and you're either improving or you're getting worse. So if you're playing to the circumstances of the game, you're getting worse, right? You've got to be able to handle success and failure and then play the next play at your very best. Those are habits, and you're trying to create those habits.”
Cignetti wound up taking out the starters midway through the fourth quarter because they “need to play football.”
Although the Hoosiers still have one nonconference contest, which is slated for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12 against Indiana State University, remaining on their schedule, the Big Ten slate is just two weeks away.
No. 11 Illinois, which defeated Duke University by 26 points on the road Saturday, is first up. Indiana Athletics announced at the end of July that Memorial Stadium was already sold out for the matchup.
“We got some games coming up where we've got to be able to play that many plays,” Cignetti said. “We haven't executed over a long period of time as well as we need to, so we need reps, we need game reps.”
In the end, Cignetti’s expressions and tone — even smiling — after the game were a far cry from those he showed last week. His squad displayed tangible improvement. Continuing to do so is critical.
“Pleased we took a step forward,” Cignetti said, “and get ready for the next one.”
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.
