Indiana is no longer only a basketball school.
The Hoosiers took away Oregon’s No. 3 ranking on Oct. 11 on the road at Autzen Stadium in Eugene by beating the Ducks, the highest-ranked opponent Indiana has ever beaten in the program’s largely pedestrian history. Not even last year’s national champion, Ohio State, won at Oregon in 2024 when the Buckeyes fell short in a 32–31 defeat.
Indiana (6–0) rose to a No. 3 ranking in the AP Poll for the first time in school history on Sunday; it also marked the first time the Hoosiers received first-place votes since 1967. That Hoosiers team went 9–2 and ranked as high as No. 4 that year and reached the Rose Bowl before a loss to an O.J. Simpson-led USC squad.
Indiana is better known for its storied basketball program, which has reached eight Final Fours and won five championships. The football program has been mired in mediocrity and irrelevancy on a national level almost all of its 127-year history.
Enter head coach Curt Cignetti, who came over from James Madison in 2024. Cignetti previously led JMU as an FCS powerhouse with a national championship game appearance and successful transition to the FBS.
Indiana didn’t have the pedigree of JMU before Cignetti’s arrival. JMU has two FCS titles and hosted College GameDay three times, while the Hoosiers had just one last year against Washington.
That occurred during the rise of the Hoosiers’ program under Cignetti when the team went a program-best 11–2 and made the College Football Playoff. Cignetti trumpeted his program along the way as the Hoosiers looked like just a possible feel-good story for 2024.
“I thought we established credibility last season. And I didn’t need to be that way, and I could focus on what I do best: coach this football team.”
Cignetti’s coaching has worked as the Hoosiers historically embarrassed former No. 9 Illinois 63–10 on Sept. 20 for one of the most lopsided top-25 matchups ever that involved a top-10 team. The Hoosiers avoided a letdown against Iowa, 20–15, the following week and came out of the bye week ranked No. 7 and ready for an Oregon team that boasted an 18-game home winning streak.
“The most important thing to me was our mindset going into this game,” Cignetti said.
“That we believed, expected, prepared to make it happen, and could handle the ups and downs of the game without flinching, showing frustration and anxiety.
“That was the only thing you don’t know until you play the game. We passed that test.”
Indiana stopped the Ducks on the first drive of the game and followed that up with a 42-yard field goal by kicker Nico Radicic for a 3–0 lead. The Ducks soon answered as quarterback Dante Moore hit wide receiver Malik Benson for a 44-yard touchdown pass to go ahead 7–3.
Mendoza then led the Hoosiers on a 9-play, 75-yard scoring drive, capped by running back Roman Hemby’s 3-yard touchdown run for a 10–7 lead. The Hoosiers kept a three-point lead going into halftime, 13–10, after the two Big Ten powers traded field goals in the second quarter.
Oregon tied the game 13–13 on a 33-yard field goal by kicker Atticus Sappington in the third quarter, but Mendoza answered with another nine-play, 75-yard scoring drive that Hemby finished with a short touchdown run again. Down 20–13, the Ducks got back into the game when defensive back Brandon Finney Jr. picked off Mendoza and returned it for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“After I threw the pick-six, (linebacker Aiden Fisher) came up to me and said, ‘Hey, brother, I have your back, I believe in you,’” Mendoza said. “And to have a team captain say that and come up to me and say that, it inspires confidence in not just me, but the entire offense.”
Mendoza showed that belief as he engineered a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive afterward, and he capped it with an 8-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Elijah Sarratt for a 27–20 lead. Hoosiers defensive back Louis Moore then picked off Dante Moore, and Indiana sealed the game on Radicic’s 22-yard field goal.
“If you want to always play like the best you can be, you got to always play never too high, never too low,” Cignetti said, “not affected by success, not affected by failure.”
Indiana did that on Oct. 11 in Eugene, and the Hoosiers will look to run the table and possibly meet the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes in the Big Ten championship game. The next order of business in Michigan State (3–3), and that’s the second-best record of remaining teams on the Hoosiers’ schedule, but Cignetti won’t yet call this season a sequel to the Hoosiers’ 2024 run, which ended against national runner-up Notre Dame in the playoffs.
“I really don’t want to compare teams—Ohio State won a national championship and Notre Dame was second in the country,” Cignetti said. “There’s a lot of football left to be played—a lot. How are we going to respond to this game, and how is Oregon gonna respond to this game?”
