Indiana enters Saturday afternoon’s visit from Kennesaw State with a 9-0 record at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington under second-year Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti.
Nearly as common as Hoosier home victories over that span? Cignetti caveats that things might have gone differently.
The No. 23 Hoosiers (1-0) expect a challenge from the Owls (0-1), to be sure. Kennesaw State lost 10-9 at Wake Forest in its season opener on Aug. 29, missing an extra point and field goal but still hanging tough with a power conference foe.
Indiana handled Old Dominion 27-14 a day later, although Cignetti bemoaned missed opportunities to widen the gap, namely a dropped touchdown pass, overthrown TD pass and fumble in the red zone.
“Last year we led the country in red-area touchdown percentage,” Cignetti said of his team, which actually was No. 2 at 79.7 percent (Navy was first at 81). “But we’ve got to get better. Doesn’t matter what you did in the past. Gotta get better now. So that’s that.”
One more memorable trip inside the Old Dominion 20-yard line ended with Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza scoring on a 5-yard touchdown run and a 17-7 lead with 3:36 left in the second quarter.
A Cal transfer, Mendoza finished 18 of 31 for 193 yards while adding 33 yards on the ground in his Indiana debut.
Cignetti’s assessment of Mendoza sounded familiar — encouraged but far from satisfied.
“The emphasis with him has been on his processing and decision making,” Cignetti. “And you grade the quarterback based on his decision making and accuracy — has he gone through the right reads, throwing the ball to the right guy and accurately. He’s made progress since he’s been here, but he’s still got to get better.”
Indiana’s multi-pronged rushing attack kept rolling to an output of 309 yards vs. Old Dominion. Roman Hemby carried 23 times for 111 yards, Kaelon Black rushed 17 times for 92 yards and a score, and Lee Beebe Jr. added 73 yards on 11 carries.
Kennesaw State limited Wake Forest to 130 yards on the ground on 47 carries, an average of 2.8 yards per rush. The Owls produced four sacks and seven tackles for loss, with Baron Hopson pacing the unit with 11 tackles.
Coach Jerry Mack called the Owls’ passing game “very subpar.” Georgia Southern transfer Dexter Williams II, who began his collegiate career at Indiana, was just 12-for-33 for 149 yards in his program debut. He added 44 rushing yards to complement Coleman Bennett, who ran 17 times for 66 yards and a TD.
Mack is stressing composure and fundamentals as Kennesaw State prepares to visit a College Football Playoff participant from last season. The Owls channeled both for long stretches at Wake Forest but ultimately were unable to prevail.
“Just as easy as we could have won the game, just with a couple of small details, we didn’t win the game, just because of those small details,” Mack said. “So, those things got addressed, and I think that the team, they saw a little glimpse of what could be if we just go back to work and work a little bit harder and prepare a little bit better.”
Saturday will mark the first meeting between the Hoosiers and Owls.
