It is no exaggeration to say Saturday’s game between No. 19 Indiana and No. 9 Illinois is one of the biggest to ever be played at Memorial Stadium.
The Hoosiers’ 65-year old arena has only hosted five matchups of top-20 teams in its history and none since 1987. The sixth such clash will come when the pair of Big Ten upstarts duel for the right to remain unbeaten. The winner will make a significant early statement that it belongs on the list of true College Football Playoff contenders.
“The focus has been there since we woke up Saturday morning,” Hoosiers linebacker Isaiah Jones said. “We enjoyed our win Friday (against Indiana State), but by Saturday morning, everyone had kind of shifted to Illinois. We got No. 9 coming in, coming to our place.
“It’s everything we want, a packed house. We’ve all been waiting for this, champing at the bit since Saturday morning.”
Indiana has announced a “Red Out” for the game, hoping to fill the stands with the Hoosiers’ primary color and make the white towels that have become an IU staple during coach Curt Cignetti’s tenure pop even more than usual. Television executives have done their part to charge up the atmosphere by scheduling the game for a 7:30 p.m. kick and a national broadcast on NBC.
“That’s fun, that’s something you dream about as a kid, playing on Saturday night, the lights are on, the weather is beautiful, especially at home too,” Hoosiers defensive end Mikail Kamara said. “It’s a dream, for sure. We just have to go out there and dominate so we can enjoy it Sunday.”
Indiana (3-0) and Illinois (3-0) have been playing one another since 1899, meeting 73 times in the century and a quarter since, but they have not faced off as ranked opponents since 1950, despite 49 matchups since then.
For both teams, the game is their first opportunity to show that last season was no fluke. The Hoosiers and Illini each turned in one of the best seasons in program history in 2024, with IU’s shocking run to the CFP overshadowing Illinois under coach Bret Bielema going 10-3 for its first double-digit win season since 2001.
This year, the roles have been reversed, with the Illini and their 16 returning starters overtaking the Hoosiers as the trendy preseason pick for the Big Ten’s fourth CFP entrant after expected locks Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon.
Through three games, however, computer rankings have been more impressed with Indiana’s three breezy wins (against Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and FCS Indiana State) than Illinois’ (FCS Western Illinois, Duke and Western Michigan), consistently ranking the Hoosiers slightly ahead of the Illini heading into the first big test for both teams.
From Cignetti’s perspective, Indiana has done what it has needed to do through three weeks to prepare for what will be an enormous step up in competition.
“I think the three games, that was the recipe,” Cignetti said. “We had to bring this team along as far as we could. We were playing teams we were pretty heavily favored against.
“And so now we’re ready for Big Ten football and I like the progress we’ve made. We have stacked meetings, practices and days in preparation to put ourselves in position for success Saturday night.”
For his part, Bielema has spent the week singing the praises of his Hoosiers counterpart and the program Cignetti has built in less than two years on the job.
“This football team offensively, defensively and special teams are as well coached as anybody we’ll see,” Bielema said. “They definitely have complementary football written all over it.
“There’s very few plays that you can tell there’s a mental breakdown. … You just meet an Indiana coach and they love the game.”
Bielema’s team will not be playing at full strength Saturday as cornerback Xavier Scott, a first-team All-Big Ten pick last year, is likely to miss the game with an injury suffered while making a spectacular pass breakup against Western Michigan.
That should give the Hoosiers a chance to make some noise in the passing game and Illinois is expecting IU to air it out with quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
“He makes some throws, you’re like ‘Oh my goodness,’” Illini defensive coordinator Aaron Henry said. “I think this dude is an NFL quarterback for a bunch of different reasons, but his ability to throw the ball is absolutely incredible.”
Ultimately, though, the game could come down to the trenches, where Illinois has five returning starters on the offensive line. The Illini will try to stymie a front seven that has racked up 30 tackles for loss over the last two games.
“It’s just fun just to go out there and show what we can do,” said Kamara, who had two of those TFLs. “I know a lot of people have whatever thoughts about us, but we just want to continue to improve individually, continue to improve as a team, continue to improve mentally and just show what we’re capable of Saturday.”