Illinois Joins Unwanted Company in Blowout Loss to Indiana

Illinois entered Saturday’s game against Indiana as the No. 9 team in the country but didn’t look anything like it.

Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. (3) runs past Illinois defensive back Kaleb Patterson for a touchdown during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Bloomington, Ind., on Sept. 20, 2025. AP Photo/Darron Cummings

Illinois entered Saturday’s game as the No. 9 team in the country amid a 3–0 start but exited in infamy against the No. 19 Indiana Hoosiers.

The Fighting Illini fell 63–10 in Bloomington for one of the biggest blowout losses for a top-10 team ever. Indiana’s 53-point margin of victory over a top-10 team is the third-biggest since 1966.

That year, Notre Dame, ranked No. 1 in the country, defeated No. 10 USC by a score of 51–0. Then-ranked No. 2 Texas had the biggest victory of all in 2005 when the Longhorns bulldozed the No. 9 Colorado Buffaloes 70–0 in the 2005 Big 12 Championship Game. Alabama, as the No. 7 team in 2014, owns the second-biggest blowout with a 59–0 rout of No. 21 Texas A&M.

Indiana’s previous best win over a top-10 team came in 1987 with a 31–0 win over Ohio State. For Illinois, Saturday’s loss flirted with the worst in program history, both 63–0, in 1906 against the University of Chicago and 2018 against Iowa.

Illinois moved up to No. 9 in the poll after a 45–19 win over Duke on Sept. 6 for the program’s highest ranking since 2001. The Illini have been ranked regularly under head coach Bret Bielema’s tenure but Illinois looked nothing like a ranked team for four quarters on Saturday.

“Obviously extremely disappointed, but first to give credit to Indiana, not only their football team, their football coaches, their staff, but to that entire stadium, to their administration,” Bielema told reporters afterward. “Anything that they did, I think this is a very impressive venue.”

“Obviously, we didn’t start off good, which added fuel to the fire. But I’ve been around this league a long time and that was a very, very impressive atmosphere to be in, to give credit to them.”

It started when D’Angelo Ponds returned a blocked punt 11 yards for a 7–0 Hoosiers lead in the first quarter. While Illinois responded with a 59-yard touchdown pass by quarterback Luke Altmyer to wideout Collin Dixon, Indiana took control from there.

“Dominant performance. The punt block got us going,” Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti told reporters afterward. “Then we busted a coverage on their touchdown. And then we made a lot of explosive plays, pressured the quarterback.”

“I think we sacked him seven times, really tried to get out of the game and shorten the game at the end and broke their will, I think,” Cignetti added.

Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza led a seven-play, 75-yard drive, capped by an 11-yard touchdown pass to Omar Cooper Jr. for a 14–7 lead in the first quarter. Mendoza then piled on the touchdown passes in the second quarter with an 11-yard score to E.J. Williams, a 43-yard pass to Riley Nowakowski, and a 9-yard pass to Eljiah Sarratt.

Down, 35–7, Illinois tried to whittle at the deficit with a 46-yard field goal by David Olano right before the half, but that ended up being the Illini’s last score of the game.

Kaelon Black got things going for the Hoosiers in the second half on a 40-yard touchdown run, and Mendoza added to the lead on a 5-yard touchdown pass to Sarrat. Khobie Martin then scored on touchdown runs of 31 and eight yards to complete the blowout in the fourth quarter.

Overall, Indiana piled on 312 yards rushing and 267 yards through the air. Meanwhile, the Illini hobbled with just two yards rushing and 159 passing.

“Obviously, too much pressure on Luke (Altmyer). We can’t play a game like this. So, we got to really look at our protections and what we’re asking our guys to do,” Bielema said. “We can’t have him get hit the way he was and have any success. And obviously, we got to be able to run the football a little more consistently. However, that has to happen with the personnel groupings or the schemes or the plays, it’s definitely a recipe for failure when today happens.”

Illinois will be hard-pressed to turn things around next Saturday with No. 25 UCS. As for Indiana (4–0), the Hoosiers look to keep rolling at Iowa next Saturday.