BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Curt Cignetti era of Indiana football is off to a strong start, but the difficulty level will continue to rise with Big Ten play the rest of the season.

The Hoosiers are 4-0 with wins over Florida International, Western Illinois, UCLA and Charlotte by an average of over 40 points. Next up, they host a 3-1 Maryland team, which has won three straight games against Indiana and has won at least seven games in each of the last three seasons.

“They got a lot of talent,” Cignetti said. “They’re a good football team. They’re very well coached. Will be a tremendous challenge.”

The Hoosiers and Terrapins both rank top-20 nationally in total passing yards this season, but there may be an additional obstacle as rain is currently forecasted for Saturday afternoon in Bloomington. With a win, Indiana would have its first 5-0 start since the 1967 season, when it made the Rose Bowl.

*** LIVE BLOG: And once the game starts, follow all the action on our live blog written by Todd Golden. To check that out, CLICK HERE.

The Indiana Pacers officially signed two players to training camp contracts on Thursday.

Tyler Polley, who agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with the Pacers about a week ago, and Keisei Tominaga, who agreed to the same type of contract back in July, both put pen to paper with the Pacers on Thursday. Neither player has their G League rights owned by any team, so Indiana will acquire them in this transaction.

The release from the Pacers announcing the agreements says that both contracts are Exhibit 10 deals. That means both players are currently on one-year, non-guaranteed minimum contracts that can be converted to two-way deals at any time. The significantly more likely reason for the Exhibit 10 language is to give Tominaga and Polley a bonus if they report to the Pacers G League affiliate, the Indiana Mad Ants, for at least 60 days in the coming season. They could be waived early in the training camp process to get that process started.

Tominaga played his college basketball at Nebraska while Polley played at UConn. Polley has two years of professional experience in Europe — this is Tominaga’s first year as a pro.

The Pacers now have 21 players under contract, the maximum allowed for the offseason. If they want to sign another player, such as their reported agreement with Josiah-Jordan James, they will need to waive someone or trade someone away.

Media day for Indiana is on Monday, then they start training camp the following Tuesday.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Perhaps more than any other position in football, wide receiver is one that is fueled by ego.

The stereotypical wide receiver wants the ball. He demands the ball. He lets his quarterback know, he lets his coordinator know, he lets his head coach know he’s the guy to move the sticks.

If a team has a talented receiver, he can take them far. One need only look at Maryland, Indiana’s  opponent on Saturday.

Terrapin wide receiver Tai Felton gets the ball in ways most receivers would dream of. He has 41 catches for 604 yards and 5 touchdown catches. Per game, that works out to 10.25 catches, 151 yards and 1.25 touchdowns per game. That makes Felton one of the most productive receivers in all of college football.

Accepting that we don’t know about Felton’s ego or how much he demands the ball, his level of production would be the envy of any receiver motivated by such things.

Meanwhile, Indiana does things differently.

In contrast to Maryland, where Felton accounts for 37.2% of the Terrapins’ total receptions, Indiana spreads the wealth.

Elijah Sarratt leads the Hoosiers with 15 receptions, but three other receivers – Myles Price (14), Omar Cooper Jr. (12), Miles Cross (12) – are right behind Sarratt. Two more – Ke’Shawn Williams (8) and tight end Zach Horton (7) have also been frequent targets.

No one Indiana receiver accounts for more than 19.4% of the Hoosiers’ reception total. It’s receiver-by-committee, just as the running backs operate under the same principle of sharing the ball.

It only works if you have buy-in from a position group where the individual players often demand the ball. So far, Indiana has been able to achieve that goal.

“It’s not as difficult when you’re about the team and you want the team to be successful,” Williams said. “We have a group of guys in our room who are extremely talented. Anybody that’s on that field can go out there and start and make plays.”

Price, who came to Indiana after four seasons at Texas Tech, said putting his ego aside isn’t a problem.

“It’s about winning. Everyone wants to win. When you win, everyone gets looked at,” said Price, who peaked at 51 receptions while he was with the Red Raiders.

So suppression of ego for the good of the team can also be good for the individual? Price thinks so.

“You look at those teams that go on to win championships. They have 15-20 players that may get drafted and that’s just because they’re winning,” Price explained. “So it’s bringing more attention, it’s bringing more eyes. That’s how we look at it.”

Williams said he’s used to the dynamic of sharing the ball. He played regularly at Wake Forest from 2021-23. Williams never had less than 27 catches in any of those seasons, but he never ranked higher than third on the Demon Deacons in receptions.

“If you’ve watched over my career, I’ve been in crowded receiving rooms since I’ve been in college. I’ve been surrounded by great receivers,” Williams said.

For Williams, who is a fifth-year receiver getting his last chance to prove himself, he admitted it can be tough to be in sharing mode.

“Being a fifth-year guy, it’s definitely challenging,” Williams admitted. “You know, if I don’t go about it the right way, I only do nothing but hurt myself and hurt the team. Me doing the right thing while waiting for my turn allowed me to be successful and help the team win games once I got out there.”

Price, who led Texas Tech with 43 catches in 2023, believes the high tide of team success raises all boats in the end.

“We just continue to win. If it’s in God’s plan (for individual success), it’s in his plan. So I just kind of let that work itself out,” Price said.