Indiana Football Built Maturity, Confidence in Non-Conference Slate. Now Comes the Test.

During every Indiana football practice, coach Curt Cignetti drills the same message into the mind of his players: Finish, and don't let your foot off the gas.

Indiana's 73-0 victory over Indiana State on Friday night showed, if nothing else, Cignetti's message has gotten through.

"It's engrained in us," Indiana redshirt junior outside linebacker Kellan Wyatt said. "I think we showed the purpose of not letting off the gas."

The Hoosiers led 45-0 at halftime, scored 21 points in the third quarter and reached the endzone for the final time with just over two minutes remaining against the Sycamores. Indiana outgained Indiana State 680-77 in total yards. The Hoosiers collected 16 tackles for loss and five sacks. Indiana gained 33 first downs to Indiana State's five.

Friday's outcome was never in doubt. Indiana had a 99% chance of victory entering the game, according to ESPN Analytics.

But Cignetti didn't care about that math. His mind was on another equation.

"Mental intensity and urgency equals energy," Cignetti told his players and coaches pre-game. "We wanted to play one play at a time like it was a game on the line, regardless of the competitive circumstances. But urgency and mental intensity. And that it would come from the coaches.

"If it came from the coaches at all times, the players would feed off it."

Evidently, the coaches brought it. The players certainly fed off it. And Indiana capped its non-conference slate undefeated — with a wealth of lessons in its back pocket.

Cignetti said on the Inside Indiana radio show Sept. 10 that his team's maturity would be tested against Indiana State. He's stressed throughout the first three weeks of the season how much his staff has been required to reinforce the program's standard to a roster littered with new faces in key places.

And the Hoosiers' second-year coach didn't want to see those faces smiling, at least not before the clock hit zero and before the team entered the locker room. Wyatt, a senior transfer from Maryland, described it as not seeing a bunch of teeth in a wide grin.

Cignetti saw positive habits in a Week 2 victory over Kennesaw State. He saw them again in Week 3 versus Indiana State. And, collectively, as the No. 19 Hoosiers enter Big Ten play with a Saturday night showdown against No. 9 Illinois, he's seen noticeable strides in maturity from a roster with more career starts than any team in the Big Ten.

"I think we've taken the steps we need to take," Cignetti said Sept. 12. "We've got a lot of guys that played a lot of football. All the teams in the past, kind of like the new quarterbacks, have been able to build on their success and develop more confidence and cohesiveness and unity and develop positive intangibles, which are important moving forward."

Cignetti's new quarterback, Cal transfer Fernando Mendoza, is a quality case study on the Hoosiers' progress.

Mendoza self-admittedly struggled in his Indiana debut. He went 18-for-31 passing for 193 yards, no touchdowns and no turnovers. His per-game numbers have steadily improved — his completion percentage from 58.1% to 72% to 95%, his yards from 193 to 245 to 270, and his touchdowns from zero to four to five.

Yet to Mendoza, progress comes in more forms than statistics.

Facing a third-and-11 late in the first quarter against Indiana State, Mendoza hit redshirt junior receiver Omar Cooper Jr. for a 13-yard touchdown. It gave the Hoosiers their third touchdown in as many drives.

It also served as a differentiator between previous games. Mendoza said Indiana suffered hiccups in its first two games after scores, struggling to continually string together touchdown drives in the first half.

With his throw to Cooper, Mendoza felt the Hoosiers cured any case of the hiccups against Indiana State.

"It was good to get over that hump and to keep the ball rolling," Mendoza said, "rather than getting started running, stopping a little bit, and then having to start over again."

Indiana's defense has steadily improved, too. The Hoosiers didn't allow a first down until just over four minutes left in the second quarter, and Indiana State didn't cross midfield until the first play of the fourth quarter. The missed assignments that hurt Indiana twice in Week 1 against Old Dominion have been fewer and further between.

The Hoosiers' non-conference slate offered a chance to iron out miscues and build confidence entering their highly anticipated Week 4 matchup with Illinois, which sold out in late July and features a red-out theme inside Memorial Stadium.

Older players cleaned up details, Wyatt said, while younger pieces received valuable snaps in live-game settings. All the while, Indiana built momentum.

And the Hoosiers, despite facing widespread criticism for not scheduling a Power Four opponent, grew up in the season's first three weeks. Their mindset against inferior foes supports it.

"We attacked it the same way we attack every other week, trying to get better," defensive tackle Tyrique Tucker said Sept. 12. "And I feel like that alone has allowed us to keep the mentality the main thing, which is get better. No matter who we play, you want to get better and you don't want to take no steps back, because if you do, you're playing down to the level.

"So, that's not what you want to do as a team, especially getting ready for this type of run we got in our schedule now. I feel like we attacked it right and had a good mentality — head on shoulders this week heading into it. I think it showed."

Tucker, a redshirt junior, sees maturity along the Hoosiers' defensive line, where he joins four seniors — Wyatt, Mikail Kamara, Hosea Wheeler and Dominique Ratcliff — as handling business like professionals. Tucker said they show up each day, get their work done and "then we can play after that." But the work always comes first.

"I think we got a lot of good maturity," Tucker said.

Now, Indiana gets a chance to prove it on a sizable early-season stage against Illinois. Cooper said the Hoosiers will learn what they're capable of accomplishing this season in what he dubbed their "first real big test."

The lights will be bright. The stands will be full. The crowd will be loud.

As for Indiana's poise and maturity? The Hoosiers think they'll be fine. Their proof? Steady growth in non-conference play. No laughs or smiles on the sidelines. No celebration until reaching the locker room. Complete focus on, and respect for, their opponent — regardless of the competition level.

It all spells Cignetti's message has, at last, gotten through. Now, the rubber meets the road.

"We got to get ready for Illinois next week, and really keep that momentum going that we've been building week-by-week," Tucker said. "Take that step forward that we need to take and keep doing that every week, and we should be good."