BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Here’s everything Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti had to say during his postgame press conference after the Hoosiers defeated Maryland 42-28 on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Indiana is 5-0 for the first time since 1967 and the Hoosiers are 2-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since 2020.

Opening statement …

Cignetti: Okay, good win. Far from perfect, trust me. 4-0 in the turnover ratio against us, had not turned it over going into the game one time and still won by two scores. But defense really responded to every one of those turnovers.

There’s a lot of corrections to make, but it was a good effort, a gutty effort.

You could feel the fans out there. I’m glad that they keep improving in the attendance area. I thought that was a good turnout, and good is the enemy of great, so let’s have a great turnout. Let’s sell it out next week or next time we’re at home and figure out how to make it even louder because that’s what we want to do; we want to be the best in everything we do.

Even when we’re good, even when we perform good, we’re not satisfied. But it was a good turnout.

We’re 5-0. But this isn’t the end for us. I’m proud of the team and everything they’ve accomplished.

I felt like we’ve made good progress in the off-season, in the winter, spring, summer, but we had to put it on film. We can play better than we played today.

On responding to adversity …

Cignetti: Yeah, there were a lot of good responses in that game. The defense responded to offensive turnovers. The offense responded to touchdowns given up by the defense. We responded more than they did.

So there was really a lot that went on in that game. There’s no doubt about it. Winning is good because it deepens belief in confidence and success, which leads to confidence and belief, which leads to success. You’ve still got to put the work in, but strengthens that confidence and belief.

On Indiana’s energy throughout the game …

Cignetti: Well, that’s us. We want to play every play like it’s 0-0. Never too high, never too low. Something bad happens, okay, we’re going to play this play. You get 11 guys playing that way consistently, then you’ve got a chance.

On the defensive line and the pressure it applied …

Cignetti: Yeah, I don’t know how many sacks we had total. Five? Okay. He seemed like he was on the ground on awful lot early in the game, which is what we wanted to do.

We just have to – when we have a chance to kind of go for the jugular, we’ve got to get a little better at that. But they’ve got some playmakers. They’ve got some guys that get on top of you. They got us in a defense we didn’t want to be in on the long run.

But that’s where it all starts, up front. We’re experienced up front. We think it’s one of our strengths, and it was definitely one of the areas that they weren’t feeling too great about coming into the game, and we needed a big win there, and I think we got it.

On getting a late-game blocked punt …

Cignetti: Yeah, that was awesome. I have no idea what happened. I was taking my headset off and giving it to somebody behind me and I completely missed it. I just wish we would have picked it up and scored.

On limiting the effectiveness of receiver Tai Felton …

Cignetti: Well, I think he went out, didn’t he? And didn’t return, right? It’s hard for him to have a big day when he’s not on the field.

Follow-up question noting that Felton went out in the third quarter …

Cignetti: What did he have? He had five for 38, yeah. But Hemby made some.

We did a pretty good job, and it started up front with the pressure. They got on top of us a couple times, though.

On how Kurtis Rourke responded to his own adversity …

Cignetti: Yeah, I mean, he responded like I kind of felt like he would. I didn’t think he’d be flustered by the two interceptions, and he wasn’t.

When we had our one-on-one opportunities, we were winning, and we played well when we played with tempo, the two-minute drive and some of the other times. He’s a grizzly old vet. He’s got to hold on to that ball a little better in the pocket when he runs it.

On wide receivers Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt …

Cignetti: Yeah. They were winning their one-on-ones when it was press coverage, and we were getting them the ball, and I was glad to see Donaven won his one-on-one in the red area. That was a play we were hoping to be able to get called against zero blitz coverage.

We felt like that was a match-up that was in our favor going into the game, and it turned out to be that way.

On the impact of the fans …

Cignetti: Oh, it’s extremely valuable. Players feed off of that energy. Look, it’s all about energy, right? You’ve got to have energy to do anything, and the fans are supplying the energy and the players are feeding off of that energy.

I don’t know how many points it’s worth, but it’s really important, and I think we got everything moving in the right direction here.

On what the Hoosiers learned about themselves …

Cignetti: Well, I think you learn about your team every week. You play 12 regular season games, you learn about them in the off week, too. I thought this was a good challenge for us, and we outlasted them. We did a lot of good things. But there’s a lot of things we can do better.

On a “new” Indiana this season …

Cignetti: Well, I don’t know what the old Indiana was other than what I watched on tape or maybe looked in a record book.

We are what we are, and we have a blueprint and a plan and a philosophy how to play the game. It’s all about people and processes. I think we’ve got a chance to be a good football team. Todd Blackledge said at the end of the UCLA game that this is a good football team, Indiana. You’ve got to prove it every day, every play.

On tight end Zach Horton and his impact …

Cignetti: Yeah, well, I’m glad other coaches point that out, too, when they watch us on tape or scout us, how valuable he is. It’s not all about his touches. He does a lot of great things for us offensively. He’s really a blood-and-guts hard-nosed tough guy with talent.

He’s a tremendous football player.

On the versatility of the running game …

Cignetti: We play those three backs every game, and they’ve been really consistent. If we didn’t turn it over four times, maybe we would have had 200.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Welcome to rainy Memorial Stadium. We’re about 60 minutes from kickoff as the Hoosiers host Maryland in their first Big Ten Conference home game of the season.

Pregame – Indiana injuries today submitted to the Big Ten for the availability report, all players listed as out: K Derek McCormick, K Alejandro Quintero and DB Te’Derius Collins are all out. That means TE James Bomba could return which is good news for Indiana’s depth.

Maryland lists LB Neero Avery, DB Mykel Morman, K Gavin Marshall and WR Jahmari Powell-Wonson as out.

• Indiana is trying to be 5-0 for the first time since 1967. Hard to believe that the Hoosiers haven’t done it since then, but then again, some of the better Indiana teams in the period since then played tougher schedules than these Hoosiers have.

The strength of schedule question that looms over the Hoosiers won’t really go away until they play Nebraska … at the earliest. It will likely loom into November before Indiana plays Michigan and Ohio State.

• The rain is steady, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been. A level about misty is how I’d describe it. Winds are mild, but not insignificant. Not a great day to throw the ball, but not a complete washout either. I’ve witnessed games in this stadium that were worse.

• My Memorial Stadium rain day memory is from 1999. Northwestern was the opposition and it was played in a downpour. At the time, Memorial Stadium’s then-grass field was relatively new and it took a beating. That’s also the game that Adewale Ogunleye got hurt in. After a difficult recovery process, Ogunleye was able to have a long career in the NFL. I remember talking to him about that when I covered him as a member of the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XXXXI.

• What will the crowd be like today? I think it will be late-arriving … why sit out in the rain if you don’t have to? The grass lots are open – there was some fear they might have to be closed – so that helps with the logistics. I think the way I look at it is that it will be a good turnout for a rainy day, but it won’t be a sellout and it probably won’t be to Curt Cignetti’s satisfaction.

It’s a probable column topic, but Cignetti is being confronted by the fact that the state of Indiana does not live and die with college football. It’s going to take some time, and some proven success, to get the level of support he’s seeking. It will not happen overnight and it definitely won’t happen with inclement weather.

• Don’t want to stray too far off-topic, but one thing that will influence turnout today just a bit is the fact that so many high school football games were postponed on Friday night across the state, especially the southern half of the state. Many of them are being played concurrent with the Indiana game. (And Purdue’s game too.)

Why? It rained, it was windy for a bit, but it was not hazardous conditions. When I covered high school football, I covered games in worse conditions. It just seems that these kind of decisions are made ahead of time and well-intended ideas of safety-first can lead to being too cautious.

• Fashion report: Indiana never deviates from its red jersey, white pants, red helmet combo. Maryland, which has a lot of potential uniform combinations, went with a traditional look. Red helmet, white jersey, red pants. Boomer Esiason and Frank Reich approve.

• If you missed it late last night, Rutgers held off Washington 21-18 to remain unbeaten. Are you ready for the Indiana-Rutgers Big Ten championship game?

Other games in the Big Ten today include: Minnesota is at Michigan in the Little Brown Jug game. Nebraska is at Purdue in the noon windown. Wisconsin plays at Southern California in the 3:30 p.m. timeslot. Ohio State at Michigan State and Illinois at Penn State are in the 7:30 p.m. window. And we got our first true taste of Big Ten After Dark as UCLA hosts Oregon at 11 p.m.