A pair of undefeated teams will meet when No. 22 Indiana hosts FCS opponent Indiana State in Bloomington on Friday evening.
The two teams faced off most recently in 2023, when the host Hoosiers routed their intrastate neighbors 41-7.
The Sycamores have opened their season with two straight wins for the first time since 1986. After beating McKendree 41-24 in the opener, they downed Eastern Illinois 38-14 last weekend.
“It’s great to be 2-0,” Indiana State coach Curt Mallory said. “That’s something to really be proud of. I thought the team came out, made a lot of improvement from Week 1 to Week 2. It was a very physical game.”
“They’re doing a nice job on offense, scoring 40 points a game,” said Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, who led the Hoosiers to a school-record 11 wins and a College Football Playoff berth in 2024, his first season in Bloomington. “They’re fairly balanced. They’re doing a nice job throwing the ball.
“Defensively, they’re doing a nice job, as well. I’m sure they’re going to come in excited to play, and I want to see us play a clean game.”
Indiana (2-0) enters the game off a 56-9 victory over Kennesaw State last weekend after topping Old Dominion 27-14 in the season opener. Cignetti said there’s still work to be done, however.
“Saturday, we definitely took a step forward, but it was far from clean,” he said. “Still a lot of areas (we) must improve. You always have to improve. The players want to look at the score and feel like, ‘Yeah, OK, we’re there.’ But we’re not.”
Cignetti pointed out that the Indiana defense allowed nine plays of 15 yards or more and consecutive drives of 63, 64, 44 and 50 yards to a Kennesaw State team playing up-tempo.
“We had a number of missed assignments, poor alignments,” said Cignetti, “particularly in the middle of the field, where they’re going fast and we’re not aligned correctly. But I do think the last two teams we’ve played in terms of getting aligned were some of the bigger challenges we’ll face this year because of their tempo.”
The Hoosiers have rushed for more than 300 yards in their initial two games for the first time since 2014. They also racked up 500-plus yards of total offense in both contests. Brothers Fernando Mendoza and Alberto Mendoza combined for five touchdown passes against Kennesaw State.
“Offensively, we still had six or seven missed opportunities that we need to convert on,” Cignetti said. “You don’t want to leave plays out on the field. You want to cash in on those opportunities because, as we move forward, the windows will get tighter.”
Mallory said Indiana State starting quarterback Elijah Owens suffered a collarbone injury and won’t be back until later in the season. That will only make the matchup with Indiana — where his father, Bill Mallory, is the all-time winningest coach — more challenging.
“They’re going to have their plays,” Mallory said of the Hoosiers. “There’s no doubt. They’re a very, very explosive football team. They’ve got a lot of weapons. They’re physical up front. I don’t know if anyone’s going to slow them down.
“We’ve got a big test this week. To play against a ranked FBS opponent, what a great opportunity.”
