Ohio State football: Columbus next stop for Cignetti’s show

The 63-year-old Pittsburgh native covered why he took the Indiana job, why he believed he could be successful at a school that last won a Big Ten football championship in 1967, and why he wasn’t worried about his team being picked to be the first team finish 17th in the Big Ten.

“Now I can tell you normally at these things I stand up here and we’re picked to win the league. It’s just usually how it’s been,” said Cignetti, who rose through the ranks from head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Elon and James Madison. “I have been picked next-to-last twice, which we’re picked 17th out of an 18-team league, and I get it. The two times we were picked next to last, in 2022 (at JMU), we won the conference championship, and in 2017 we inherited an 8-45 team (at Elon) and won eight in a row and played JMU the last game of the year for the conference championship. Now, I’m not into making predictions, that’s just a historical fact.”

He was also not bashful about bragging that he felt good about what his first Hoosiers squad — bolstered by 27 transfers, including 13 from his Jame Madison team that went 11-1 last season — might look like when the games began.

“I like our team. We have a lot of experience on our team,” Cignetti said. “We have a lot of guys that have played winning football, that have good career production numbers for multiple years, and we’ve got a good core group of guys that are accustomed to winning and are used to winning.”

He also hired six assistants from JMU and implied he believed the Hoosiers could get up to speed quickly — with fans soon to be chasing the bandwagon and hoping to jump on.

“When I say I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress, I understand we’ve got to put it on the field,” he said. “We’ve got to put it on the field, but nothing gets people excited like winning. You string together a couple of wins, all of a sudden, you’re on national TV every week. You can’t get in that stadium. You become the talk of the country.”

Cignetti might not have converted many new Indiana football followers that day, but he looks more like a prophet each week as the wins piled up.

The biggest challenge yet comes Saturday for a fifth-ranked Hoosiers squad that is 10-0 for the first time in school history.

Here are five things to know about the game against No. 2 Ohio State that could determine who plays Oregon in the Big Ten Championship Game in two weeks:

1. Don’t forget the players

Ohio State coach Ryan Day sought to change the narrative a little Tuesday when he met with reporters in Columbus.

“I think the coaches have done a great job, but the players are the ones who play, and they have good players,” Day said. “And they’ve done a nice job of changing their roster or upgrading their roster in certain areas. I think they play very hard.”

2. The Ohio State secondary will be tested

Indiana sports a balanced spread offense, but the biggest key has been quarterback Kurtis O’Rourke’s ability to execute an efficient, ball-control passing game that relies heavily on run-pass option plays.

Ohio State is No. 1 in the Big Ten and sixth in the nation in passing yards allowed per game, but Oregon torched the Buckeyes for 341 yards through the air in their only loss of the season.

The Ducks were more of a dink-and-dunk unit until they went deep early and often against Ohio State, so this is a major litmus test for that unit.

3. The Ohio State offensive line will have its hands full, too

This was expected to be the case even before the Buckeyes suddenly lost their standout senior center Seth McLaughlin to an Achilles injury Tuesday afternoon during practice.

Indiana leads the nation in sacks and tackles for loss as Mikail Kamara has made an immediate impact since arriving from JMU.

The 6-foot-1, 265-pound junior leads the Big Ten with 9.5 sacks and is second in tackles for loss with 14.5.

“I think they do some good things, so we’re going to have to scheme them up,” Ohio State quarterback Will Howard said. “We’re going to have to be ready for anything and make sure that whatever kind of movement they try to throw at us, we’ve got to be able to weather the storm and work with that because they like to move around and try and change things up for you, try to make things look a little cloudy.

“So we’ve just got to be ready for whatever and go out there and rock them off the ball.”

4. Howard is looking forward to having a big crowd on his side in a top-five matchup

Ohio State’s quarterback has already endured two of the most deafening stadiums in college football this season as the Buckeyes played at Oregon and Penn State, but one could say he is looking forward to the “shoe” being on the other foot at Ohio Stadium.

“I’m excited to use that advantage,” Howard said. “I really haven’t felt like we’ve needed it yet at home, but this Saturday we’re definitely going to need it. Top five matchup, we want to overwhelm them with noise and be the loudest, hardest place to play in the country.”

5. Ohio State might need one of its gamebreakers to break the game

Indiana has productive players at receiver and running back, but the Hoosiers don’t have the plethora of five-star prospects on the perimeter and in the backfield Ohio State has amassed over the last four years.

Emeka Egbuka, Jeremiah Smith, TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins all have the ability to go the distance at any time, a skill that could really come in handy in a game expected to be close from start to finish.

SATURDAY’S GAME

Indiana at Ohio State, Noon, FOX, 1410