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Maryland coach Mike Locksley on Indiana football: ‘We got a big challenge on our hands’

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Maryland coach Mike Locksley on Indiana football: ‘We got a big challenge on our hands’


Indiana football’s disciplined approach under new coach Curt Cignetti has Mike Locksley’s attention. Locksley previewed Maryland’s showdown against the Hoosiers (4-0; 1-0 Big Ten) earlier this week. 

“The things that jumps out to me, they are not going to give us this game,” Locksley said. “They are going to make us beat them.”

The Terps 44-17 win in 2023 over IU was a cakewalk. 

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Former starting quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa threw a 62-yard completion on the first play of the game to set up an early touchdown. They led 27-3 at the half and Tagovailoa finished the game with six touchdowns (five passing). 

Locksley expects this game to be a bit more of a chess match. 

“They will figure out who to take away from us, and our complimentary players are going to have to step up,” Locksley said. 

More: Indiana football: Why Curt Cignetti is familiar with Maryland QB Billy Edwards Jr.

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Maryland football coach Mike Locksley has deep respect for Curt Cignetti

Locksley is one of the many coaches in the Big Ten conference with a deep respect for the Cignetti family name. Cignetti’s father, Frank, is in the College Football Hall of Fame and his brother, Frank Jr., is a well-traveled coach with experience in the pros and college. 

At the conference’s media days back in July, Greg Schiano, Kirk Ferentz and James Franklin all talked about how much the Cignetti name resonated in the midwest. Locksley reiterated the point on Monday. 

“I know his family, his dad was a legendary coach at the other Indiana University [IUP], at Towson we played them every year,” Locksley said. “He comes from a football family.”

Towson was 0-4 against IUP during Locksley’s playing career white Frank Cignetti Sr. was the head coach. 

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He crossed paths with Curt back in the early 00’s when the two were both assistants in the ACC. Locksley was Maryland’s then running backs coach while Cignetti coached quarterbacks at NC State. 

They both have experience coaching under Nick Sabana at Alabama as well. 

“I can just tell you, they are a well-coached team,” Locksley said, after mentioning that connection. 

More: Mind Your Banners: Priming the pump for IU’s crucial visit from Maryland

Maryland football coach Mike Locksley worried about IU’s offensive weapons 

One of the big questions Locksley has to answer this week is how to slow down an Indiana offense that’s one of just five teams currently averaging 50-plus points and 500-plus yards a game. 

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“We got a big challenge on our hands,” Locksley said. 

He was complimentary of quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who he described as someone with “moxie”, a “big arm” and “playing at a high level.” He also praised IU’s stable of running backs that have averaged a combined 5.8 yards per carry and leads the FBS with 18 touchdowns. 

The player that stood out the most for Locksley on IU’s offense is tight end Zach Horton. Horton has modest numbers in the receiving game this season — seven catches for 67 yards with a touchdown — but Locksley sees him as integral to the team’s overall success. 

“He is the glue for them on offense,” Locksley said. “This is a guy that’s really talented in the run game. You get enamored in catches and production there (at receiver), but as a coach when you look at things as I think of things on offense, he’s the heart and soul of it. His style of play is what you like. I respect the way he plays.”

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.

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NBA Finals: Tyrese Haliburton gives Indiana Pacers win over Oklahoma City Thunder in game one

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NBA Finals: Tyrese Haliburton gives Indiana Pacers win over Oklahoma City Thunder in game one


Tyrese Haliburton scored in the final second as the Indiana Pacers snatched victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in game one of the NBA Finals.

His 21-foot shot put the Pacers in front for the first time in the match, with 0.3 seconds remaining as they secured a 111-110 win.

The Thunder, with home court advantage for the first two games, had led by 15 points during the fourth quarter, and in the closing seconds the ball was in the hands of NBA most valuable player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

However, he missed a two-point attempt with 12 seconds remaining and the Pacers grabbed the rebound, passed the ball to Haliburton and he drove down the court before hitting the winning points.

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It’s the fourth time in the 2025 play-offs that the 25-year-old has recorded a big-time score – three times to win a match and once to force overtime.

Indiana won despite turning the ball over 25 times, with 20 of those coming in the first half.

“It’s not the recipe to win,” Haliburton said.

“We can’t turn the ball over that much. (But) come May and June, it doesn’t matter how you get them, just get them.”

Team-mate Myles Turner said of Haliburton: “Some players will say they have it, but there are other players that show it. He wants to be the one to hit that shot. He doesn’t shy away from that moment.”

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Gilgeous-Alexander was the game’s leading scorer with 38 points, while Pascal Siakam top scored for the Pacers with 19 points, followed by Obi Toppin with 17.

“We played like we were trying to keep the lead instead of trying to extend it or be aggressive,” said the Thunder’s Jalen Williams.

Game two of the best-of-seven series is also in Oklahoma and will start at 19:00 local time on Sunday, 8 June (01:00 BST on Monday).



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Oklahoma City Thunder squares off with Indiana Pacers in 2025 NBA Finals

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Oklahoma City Thunder squares off with Indiana Pacers in 2025 NBA Finals


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More former Indiana basketball players allege sexual misconduct by ex-team doctor

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More former Indiana basketball players allege sexual misconduct by ex-team doctor


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More former men’s basketball players for Indiana University have come forward alleging sexual misconduct by a former team physician, while stating school officials, including the late head coach Bobby Knight, were aware of the situation. 

Last fall, former Hoosier players Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller filed a lawsuit against Bradford Bomba Sr., who died last month. The suit claimed the two were sexually abused by Bomba during their time playing for Indiana. 

That lawsuit, which was filed in October, now has five ex-athletes named in it, while 10 additional men are planning to pursue litigation against Indiana, per ESPN. 

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A general view of the Indiana Hoosiers shorts logo during the Empire Classic college basketball game against the Connecticut Huskies on Nov. 19, 2023, at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“I have two sons who are the same age that I was when that happened to me,” Mujezinovic, who played for the Hoosiers in the late 1990s, said in an email to ESPN. “At the time, I viewed myself as an adult, but now I realize, looking at my own kids, how young and powerless me and my teammates actually were.

“The adults within the basketball program who were entrusted with our care knew what was happening to us. They joked about it and let it continue.”

Bomba routinely gave male athletes rectal exams during their physicals despite no medical recommendations to do so, according to the lawsuit. Bomba worked as the men’s basketball physician for almost 30 years. 

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FORMER INDIANA BASKETBALL PLAYERS SAY TEAM DOCTOR SEXUALLY ABUSED THEM WITH UNNECESSARY PROSTATE EXAMS

Longtime trainer Tim Garl was listed as a defendant in January after another former player, John Flowers, joined the lawsuit. Flowers said Garl was aware of Bomba’s “invasive, harassing, and demeaning digital rectal examinations.”

“After his first physical, Flowers’s teammates told him he had ‘passed’ Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s ‘test,’ and that he would not have to undergo a digital rectal examination again,” the lawsuit states. “Garl laughed at Flowers and his freshman teammates and made jokes at their expense regarding the digital rectal examinations they endured.”

FILE - In this March 17, 2000, file photo, former Indiana head coach Bobby Knight screams at his players during the waning minutes of their team's 77-57 loss to Pepperdine in the first round of the East Regionals of the NCAA college men's basketball tournament at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, N.Y. Knight will be inducted into Indiana University's athletics Hall of Fame nearly a decade after he was fired for violating a zero-tolerance policy imposed by then-IU President Myles Brand.(AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

Bobby Knight was one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all-time. (AP)

Players allegedly complained about the exams, some of which said they wished to have a different physician look at them in the future. However, Knight and Garl continued to have players see Bomba. 

Another player, Butch Carter, who played for Indiana in the late 1970s, wrote in a letter that he told Knight he never wanted to see Bomba again. The letter is in the lawsuit, though Carter is not a part of the lawsuit. 

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An outside investigation was done to look further into the allegations, and it found that rectal exams are a normal part of a physical. Indiana also released a statement in September 2024 saying they would be conducting an independent review.

Indiana hired the law firm Jones Day to conduct the investigation, which involved speaking with “100 individuals,” going through “10,000 emails,” and reviewing “more than 100,000 pages of physical documents spanning six decades,” according to the report released on April 25. 

With Bomba’s death last month, and the outside investigation clearing him of sexual misconduct, the legal path for these players will be a difficult one. 

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A general view of the IU logo on the official Adidas basketballs as seen when the Indiana Hoosiers played against the Michigan State Spartans on Jan. 22, 2023, at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana.  (Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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But Michelle Simpson Tuegel, who is representing the 10 men prepared to file their lawsuit, states two of her clients have stories contradicting those findings, saying Bomba’s actions were not sexual, per ESPN. One of the men, who played in the late 1990s for the Hoosiers, claimed Bomba “fondled his genitalia” during a physical. 

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“My ten clients and numerous other players from the 1970s to the 1990s were subjected to completely unnecessary penetrative exams and other forms of sexual misconduct by team physician Brad Bomba Sr. for his own sexual gratification,” said Simpson Tuegel in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Since these men bravely began to come forward last fall, Indiana University has repeatedly tried to avoid responsibility, falsely asserting that what happened to them doesn’t constitute abuse. That should be decided by an Indiana jury rather than the University and its hand-picked private law firm. My team and I will do everything in our power to ensure these survivors have their day in court.”

Indiana University told Fox News Digital it does not comment on litigation. Additionally, the university pointed to the Jones Day investigation results as reference.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.





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