IU football survives Kinnick crowd, beats Iowa 20-15 for second straight 5-0 start
- Josh Pos
- 3h ago
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa students swarmed the aisles in the student section in the south end zone.
The Hawkeye offense had possession deep into Indiana’s territory as the clock ticked under three minutes. Well within kicker Drew Stevens’ range for a field goal, Iowa was bound to take a three-point lead late.
Stevens sailed a 44-yard field goal wide left, keeping the game tied at 13 with 2:01 left. Indiana hadn’t scored a touchdown since the fourth play of the game.
The Hawkeye student section wouldn’t make it back to their seats before Mendoza connected with Elijah Sarratt for a 49-yard third-down slant touchdown.
The Hoosiers escaped with a 20-15 victory against a gritty Iowa team for their first road victory.
“I was ready to yell while I was running, man,” Sarratt said. “Fernando put in a perfect spot and I was able to break a tackle and score for my guys, man… It was a great moment.”
Until its final possession, the Indiana offense was discombobulated. Mendoza had only completed 11 passes for 163 yards and couldn’t generate any form of rhythm for his offense.
Failing to convert on multiple fourth-down opportunities and all-around poor play calling, Indiana was on its way to giving Iowa the game.
Curt Cignetti knew his team was in for a tough test. Kinnick Stadium is relentless, and year after year, Iowa forces opponents to play its physical, disciplined and punishing brand of football.
Win or lose, Indiana was bound to learn a lesson about itself in Iowa City.
The game was going exactly as Kirk Ferentz had hoped.
Iowa dominated time of possession, keeping Indiana’s possessions to a minimum, hence the low-scoring affair.
Frustration continued to mount on the Indiana sideline. The offense wasn’t moving the ball effectively and the defense was spending what felt like a lifetime on the field.
It reached a boiling point late in the third when Mendoza took a big hit on the Indiana sideline.
The big, but legal hit, saw tempers flare and a kerfuffle break out. After the sides were separated, veteran center Pat Coogan gathered the team at midfield for a conversation.
“There was so much going on at that point and everyone was kind of huddled up,” Coogan explained. “I thought it was my job and my responsibility as a leader of this team to rally the troops a little bit and get everyone refocused.”
The speech didn’t yield immediate results, but in that moment, Indiana became a team.
Winning on the road in the Big Ten is tricky.
But stealing a game in Iowa City — especially when the team wasn’t at its best — shows just how far the Indiana program has come over the past two years.
Saturday afternoon’s victory marked the first time since 2007 that Indiana left Kinnick Stadium with a win.
“[Kinnick] is a hard place to play,” Cignetti said. “To go into a hostile environment and come out with a win when maybe you didn’t play your best — and a lot of that’s because of [Iowa] — it’s huge.”
An elated Coogan summed it up with exactly the kind of message the marketing department loves — minus one colorful word.
“It shows… shit, never daunted,” he said.
Indiana’s growth over its first five games hasn’t always been steady, but the progress is evident. The Hoosiers are in a far better place now than they were five Saturdays ago.
Indiana heads into its first bye week undefeated for the second season in a row. The 5-0 Hoosiers are all but sure to climb into the top 10 before they retake the field.
The break comes at the right time, giving Indiana a chance to regroup before a five-game stretch that includes marquee matchups at Oregon and Penn State.
Cignetti told Peacock’s Caroline Pineda postgame that he won’t remember every play from Indiana’s first road win of the 2025 season.
But he’ll never forget watching Sarratt break away toward the south end zone, sending Iowa students streaming toward the aisles — this time, toward the exits.
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
See More: Football