Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti talks to the defense during the Indiana versus Maryland football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024.
First-year coach Curt Cignetti promised he would change the Indiana Hoosiers football program.
Virtually nobody expected it to happen so quickly.
Kurtis Rourke threw for a season-high 359 yards and three touchdowns Saturday, and the Indiana defense came up with stop after stop over the final 22 minutes as Indiana defeated Maryland 42-28 for its first 5-0 start since 1967.
“We haven’t been 5-0, evidently, for 57 years. That’s a pretty long time isn’t it?” Cignetti said before leaving the field. “This is a step in the right direction, but we have to keep improving as a team.”
Clearly, these are not the same old Hoosiers (2-0 Big Ten).
Despite committing four turnovers — their first four all season — the defense allowed just one TD over the final 22 minutes and Rourke rebounded from two first-half interceptions to help Indiana top the 30-point for the fifth straight game, their longest streak since 2000.
They’ve opened the season with five consecutive wins for just the third time in school history, and now they’re chasing even bigger goals.
Sports
“We aren’t finished,” Cignetti said. “We can play better than we played today.”
Rourke finished 22 of 33, connecting with Elijah Sarratt seven times for 128 yards and one score. Ty Son Lawton had 19 carries for 93 yards and one TD.
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Maryland suffered its first loss to the Hoosiers since 2020 despite getting three TD passes from Billy Edwards Jr. and a season-best 75-yard TD run from Roman Hemby.
But the Terrapins (3-2, 0-2) never led on a soggy, windy day in Bloomington.
Edwards was 26 of 41 with 289 yards while Hemby ran 19 times for 117 yards and had five catches for 48 yards.
“Give them credit, they’re a good team,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said. “We knew they would be the best team we’ve faced and we knew they had a good team and we had to match it. Now we have a bye week, so we have to sit in it for a couple of weeks.”
The Hoosiers took control late in the third quarter after Justice Ellison scored on a nifty 19-yard inside run to give Indiana a brief 21-14 lead. Hemby broke free on the next offensive snap to tie the score at 21.
Then Rourke broke the tie with the 13-yard TD pass to Sarratt in the final minute of the third, and the Hoosiers sealed the victory with Rourke’s 12-yard TD pass to Donaven McCulley and Lawton’s 14-yard scoring run that made it 42-21.
All Maryland could muster was a late 12-yard TD pass from Edwards to Hemby.
The takeaway
Maryland: Edwards played well — when he wasn’t being harassed. He was sacked five times. But the bigger concern for the Terrapins may be injuries. The Terrapins’ top two receivers, Tai Felton and Kaden Prather, both left the game. Prather returned. Felton did not finish the game. If Maryland loses Felton or Prather for any substantial time it could be a long year.
Indiana: It’s been 57 years since they were last 5-0 and it was 57 years before that, 1910, that they were also 5-0. But this victory may do more than just get the Hoosiers within one victory of becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since 2020. It could get them back in The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2021.
Big block
Umpire James Shaw III took a big shot in the third quarter when he inadvertently blocked an Indiana defender trying to tackle Hemby in the hole on his long touchdown run. Shaw stayed down briefly, delaying the extra point. But after getting some water on the sideline during a commercial break, he returned to his normal position on the field and finished the game.
Up next
Maryland: Has a bye week before hosting Northwestern on Oct. 11.
Indiana: Puts its perfect record on the line next Saturday at Northwestern.
