Saturday might be the biggest home game in the history of Indiana football, and coach Curt Cignetti hopes to take advantage of the situation when the No. 5 Hoosiers face No. 4 Ohio State in a Big Ten Conference battle in Bloomington, Ind.
“I’m glad we are playing at home; we need our crowd to be loud and very involved,” Cignetti said on Monday. “We’ve got to give them reasons to be. It’s just a football game, but I’m glad it’s at home. It’s two good teams, two really good teams.”
The noon ET game will be the first top-five matchup ever at Memorial Stadium, which opened in 1960.
The Hoosiers (6-0, 3-0) will put a 22-game winning streak and 19 consecutive home victories on the line in the first meeting against the Buckeyes (5-1, 3-0) since defeating them 13-10 in the 2025 Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis.
Indiana went on to win the national title, just as the Buckeyes did in the 2024 season.
“Going on the road against the defending national champs is a great challenge for us, something that we’ve been looking at since the schedule came out,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said.
“The good news is some of these guys that have played against Indiana before know how good these guys are and what comes with it. So you know they’re going to have all of our attention, for sure.”
Gone are the days when Ohio State fans would travel across the border by the thousands to take over the Hoosiers’ home field.
“You’ve got an opponent coming in here that’s used to winning and winning championships — and as strong a brand as there is in America, Ohio State football for years and years and years,” Cignetti said.
The Buckeyes have played in hostile surroundings against ranked opponents twice this season and have mixed results — losing 24-23 vs. then-No. 4 Texas on Sept. 12 after blowing a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter, but defeating then-No. 14 Iowa 31-14 on Oct. 3.
The Hoosiers are coming off their biggest scare of the season. Josh Hoover rallied them from a 17-6 fourth-quarter deficit with touchdown passes of 75 and 44 yards to wide receiver Nick Marsh for a 20-17 win over Nebraska last week, continuing the team’s penchant for winning close games in Cignetti’s two-plus seasons in charge.
Just don’t ask the coach how his team has done it.
“If I had a big secret, I wouldn’t tell everyone, but at the end of the day the players make the plays and you just try (to) put them in position to make the plays,” Cignetti said.
The Buckeyes hope to be healthier than having five starters out, as they did in a 45-16 victory against Maryland last Saturday.
Buckeyes quarterback Julian Sayin was without two offensive linemen and his second and third receivers in Brandon Inniss and Devin McCuin, respectively.
Day said many of the ailing players will be available on Saturday, but he didn’t go into detail other than saying right tackle Phillip Daniels is expected back after missing the past four games due to a lower body injury.
Sayin was sacked twice and lost one of his two fumbles against Maryland but still had superstar wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who had TD catches of 40 and 33 yards to give him 11 touchdown receptions this season and 38 for his career, two shy of breaking the Big Ten record of 39 held by Braylon Edwards of Michigan (2001-04).
“He (Smith) has taken it up a notch, without question,” Cignetti said. “There’s no one like him right now, playing at this level. … But he’s a freak. And we’re going to have to do a great job on him.”
