Week 1 of the college football season delivered the usual chaos — upsets, highlight plays, and plenty of fan drama — but for Indiana, Saturday’s opener against Old Dominion was more of a gut check than a celebration. Coach Curt Cignetti’s squad walked away with a win, but not without a laundry list of issues to fix.
“I mean, we won the time of possession, 41.5 to 18.5,” Cignetti said in his Monday press conference. “First downs, 30 to 10. Had 310 yards rush. Won the turnover battle 3-1. End of the half, beginning of the third, won 14-0. Good on third down, punt return for touchdown. Two bad plays on defense. Gotta make the plays on offense. Gotta get better, period all the way around. Gotta get better. And we should get much better this week.”
The Hoosiers’ ground game was dominant, and their defense made plays when it counted, but the team’s inability to capitalize in the red zone overshadowed those bright spots. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza showed flashes of poise yet never fully found his rhythm, and Indiana’s offense repeatedly stalled just a few yards shy of the end zone. For a team that led the nation in red-zone touchdown percentage a season ago, the contrast was glaring.
“Last year we led the country in red-area touchdown percentage,” Curt Cignetti stated. “But we’ve got to get better. Doesn’t matter what you did in the past, gotta get better now. So, that’s that.”
The way Saturday’s opener unfolded was jarring for some fans — though not entirely unexpected. Indiana’s Week 1 matchup against FIU last year featured similar offensive struggles, but the context was different. Against Old Dominion, the Hoosiers consistently marched downfield with ease, only to falter just steps from the end zone.
“First, when you get down there, you’ve got first and one at the 1,” Cignetti explained. “They jumped into a different front than they had shown the previous year, but still you’ve got to be able to gain a yard. We had a running back take the wrong footwork and the wrong course one time. We had a missed assignment up front one time. And two poor blocks. And then on the fourth-down pass, didn’t make the right read. And then got down there again and had two more missed assignments in the run game. Had to settle for a field goal. And we scored two touchdowns.”
Cignetti didn’t hide his frustration with the offense’s execution, but his tone following Monday’s film review was one of confidence rather than panic. The mistakes were glaring, yet correctable — blown assignments, missed reads, and sloppy footwork rather than systemic issues. With a full week to iron out those wrinkles before facing Kennesaw State, the Hoosiers have a chance to turn their red-zone woes into a brief footnote rather than a lingering storyline.
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