Indiana hopes 63-10 rout over Illinois helps silence the doubters

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana has spent coach Curt Cignetti's entire two-year tenure defending its schedule strength to the doubters who didn't believe the Hoosiers belonged in last year's College Football Playoff because they hadn't beaten a ranked team.

The doubters were back after the Hoosiers opened this season with wins over Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State.

So on Saturday, when Indiana finally had a chance to prove the critics wrong, they did so emphatically — with a 63-10 rout over then-No. 9 Illinois.

The victory sent the Hoosiers up eight spots, to No. 11, in the Associated Press Top 25, but players welcome the chance to keep proving the so-called experts wrong.

"A lot of people were saying (Illinois) was a lot more physical than us, they were going to come in and run the ball and dominate us physically," linebacker Aiden Fisher said. "That puts an edge on a team that already has a lot of players with an edge. When it comes to games like this, the preparation and time we put in really shows, especially on the scoreboard in the dominating fashion we played with on defense."

Fisher heard the noise even though the Hoosiers are 14-2 under Cignetti, with their only losses coming on the road last season to eventual national champion Ohio State and runner-up Notre Dame. He made some of his own, too.

Otherwise, they've been perfect. So, naturally, the Hoosiers (4-0, 3-1 Big Ten) wanted to make Saturday's game, which was billed as a key early-season measuring stick for two ascending programs, about more than just winning. They made a statement by beating Illinois in every conceivable fashion.

New starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza threw five TD passes for the second straight week and completed his final 17 throws before departing in the fourth quarter. He has been nearly perfect over the past two weeks, going 40 of 43 with 437 yards, and he has 14 TD passes and no interceptions this season — numbers that could put him in the Heisman Trophy conversation.

Indiana rushed for 312 yards, led by freshman Khobie Martin's second straight 100-yard, two-TD game.

The defense relentlessly harassed Illini quarterback Luke Altmeyer from start to finish, sacking him seven times, and held Illinois to 2 yards rushing and 161 total yards including an early 59-yard TD pass.

The Hoosiers also returned a blocked punt for one score and set up another with a 27-yard punt return.

They extended their school-record home winning streak to 12, produced the program's most lopsided victory over a top-10 opponent and finished with the highest point total in a Big Ten game featuring a top-10 opponent, surpassing the previous mark of 62 that Ohio State did twice against Michigan.

And they were so dominant, Cignetti could only muster two words for what he wanted to see from his team in the second half: more points.

Illinois, meanwhile, suffered its worst loss since a 63-0 decision against Iowa in 2018, and there was no way to sugarcoat this debacle.

"It's sickening, it really is to go in full confidence expecting to win," Altmeyer said after going 14 of 22 with 146 yards and one TD. "I address the fans, the team in general: I didn't play well at all, I just didn't. Overall, our whole team, it's hard to face right now, but the sun's going to come up tomorrow, and we better make the most of it. But it is very sickening and very frustrating."

Certainly, there will be better days ahead for the Fighting Illini (3-1, 0-1) and more big tests for the Hoosiers, who visit Oregon and Penn State later this season.

But the blunt-talking Cignetti knows the questions will keep coming and restrained himself from explaining the message that Indiana sent Saturday night.

"I don't control that, I only control the development of our football team," he said. "I felt very confident about this game going in, based on what I saw on film and there's a lot of football still to be played."

The next test comes when the Hoosiers make their first road trip of the season — to Iowa — next weekend, and Cignetti's players want everyone to know that they still have something to prove.

"This just shows no matter who we're playing, we're always going to come out hard," receiver Omar Cooper Jr. said. "It shows we're still hungry from last year. We feel like we missed out on a chance, and we're trying to get back and do better than we did last year."