‘This is what Indiana football is now’: Fresh off a bye, Hoosiers ready for top-10 clash with Oregon
- Josh Pos
- 4h ago
The IU football team didn’t spend its flight home from a nail-biting win at Iowa celebrating.
Instead of basking in the glow of a gritty road victory, the Hoosiers spent the 43-minute flight from Cedar Rapids to Bloomington locked in – watching their next opponent, the Oregon Ducks, battle Penn State on the road.
As fans of the game and students of their craft, it was Indiana’s first chance to see Oregon in a high-stakes, big-game atmosphere.
“We were kind of quiet. It’s not too much going on,” wide receiver Elijah Sarratt said. “We’re just watching and just seeing what they can do.”
The plane touched down just minutes before Oregon pulled out an overtime win, but for Indiana, the preparation for Saturday’s top-10 affair in Eugene had already begun.
A Saturday afternoon matchup with Oregon will be the fifth time in Aiden Fisher’s last 18 games facing a ranked opponent. It will be his fourth against a team ranked in the top 10. In those games, Indiana is 1-3, with its lone win coming three weeks ago against then-No. 9 Illinois.
“This is exactly why you come to Indiana,” Fisher said. “You want to play in games like this against really good football teams.”
Though personally unfazed by outside noise, Fisher knows many of his teammates still feel disrespected by last season.
In 2024, Indiana entered a top-10 matchup as heavy underdogs, just happy to be on the big stage.
This time, the Hoosiers head into another high-profile showdown with a chip on their shoulder – and an expectation to win.
“This is what Indiana football is now,” Fisher said. “We’re going to play in these big games and expect great outcomes.”
All but one of Indiana’s top 10 matchups under Curt Cignetti have been on the road. Each game has tested the Hoosiers against some of the loudest crowds in college football.
Having experience playing in challenging road environments last season and again two weeks ago at Iowa will benefit the Hoosiers.
Senior center Pat Coogan emphasized eliminating pre-snap penalties this week, noting their drive-killing impact is high on his priority list. The IU offensive line had only one false start penalty a couple of weeks ago at Iowa.
With artificial crowd noise blasting through Memorial Stadium during practice, Indiana is growing accustomed to chaos. The Hoosiers believe that constant exposure will help them handle the raucous atmosphere waiting at Autzen Stadium.
“It helps that you’ve been through it one time before,” Cignetti said. “To have that kind of preparation going into this game will help.”
As Saturday approaches, the hype is building with ESPN’s College GameDay set to broadcast from Eugene – Indiana’s fourth appearance on college football’s premier pregame show in just 11 games.
In big games under Cignetti, eliminating “clutter” like College GameDay is priority number one. Similar to the previous three times, Indiana will avoid any extracurricular activities and leave the pomp and circumstance out of the locker room.
“That’s all for the show and the fan experience,” Coogan said. “We got a job to do.”
Cignetti revealed this week that the team will leave “a little earlier” than it did for last year’s trip to UCLA.
The Hoosiers arrived in Los Angeles less than 24 hours before their 4:30 p.m. local kickoff. This time, they’ll depart mid-afternoon on Friday and arrive under 24 hours before Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. local start in Eugene.
The flight to Oregon is more than three hours longer than the return from Iowa City.
Now, with two weeks of preparation, Indiana faces its biggest test yet – one that could become a turning point for the program on the rise.
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