EVANSTON, Ill. — Indiana football defensive end Mikail Kamara knows how much Curt Cignetti loathes handing out praise.

Kamara has been with Cignetti going back to 2020 as the first verbal commitment for James Madison’s coaching staff during that recruiting cycle.

There’s a small window when Cignetti lets down his guard after games — just a tiny bit — and that happened Saturday in the wake of IU’s 41-24 win over Northwestern. It was the type of gritty victory that was missing from IU’s resume, and after the game he had to admit something he doesn’t like to put out in the public.

“We are 6-0 as a football team, proud of the team up this point,” Cignetti said. “Which I’m not supposed to say.”

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Kamara said that sentiment will be a distant memory once the team gets back to Bloomington as everyone turns their focus to Nebraska, but that small bit of praise from Cignetti was still a meaningful moment given the high bar of success he sets.

“It’s like we are playing so well he has no choice but to tell everybody,” Kamara said with a chuckle.

The final 12 minutes of the game is what Cignetti will remember the most from Saturday.

Indiana’s offense kept on putting points on the board, but the defense struggled to come up with a stop for much of the second half. Northwestern quarterback Jack Lausch orchestrated a six-play, 61-yard scoring drive early in the fourth quarter and got the crowd on their feet with a 47-yard completion to Bryce Kirtz that was the team’s longest play of the day.

The Wildcats’ upset hopes evaporated after that.

Indiana starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke connected with the team’s leading receiver Elijah Sarratt three times on the ensuing drive to get right back into the red zone where Ty Son Lawton rushed his seventh touchdown of the season.

Rourke and Sarratt connected again to convert on a 4th-and-5 late in the quarter to set up another score.

The Hoosiers defense swarmed Lausch on Northwestern’s final two drives — they had four quarterback hurries from four defenders — and the secondary locked things down. Lausch was 6-of-15 during that stretch and barely avoided turning the ball over on a near-sack from Kamara.

“I really liked the way we finished the game on defense with the last two drives,” Cignetti said. “I really liked that a lot, that was awesome.”

Indiana is the first team in the FBS that is bowl eligible. That wasn’t mentioned at the podium by Cignetti and it wasn’t uttered in the locker room either.

The Hoosiers have national title aspirations — not a typo — and Cignetti loves that there will be people doubting his program every step of the way. He would much rather players lean into that than read any positive coverage about the team’s historic start.

Indiana is 6-0 for only the second time in program history (1967) and haven’t trailed for a single second.

“I’m not concerned with them reading about their accolades on social media and the paper cause they have been around the block a little bit,” Cignetti said of his veteran team. “They’ll be reading a lot about how we aren’t good enough to do this and that. I want the chip on their shoulder to keep growing, is what I want.”

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.