CHICAGO — Ohio State has a history of turning Indiana’s Memorial Stadium into a friendly environment, but coach Ryan Day doesn’t anticipate that will be the case when the Buckeyes travel to Bloomington on Oct. 17 for a rematch of last year’s Big Ten title game.
Day even listed that road game against Indiana football in the same breath as OSU’s road trips in 2026 to Texas and Iowa.
“That game two at Texas is going to be a monster, that Iowa game on the road, at Indiana, these environments are going to be really loud,” Day said at Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday, July 29. “What a great way to challenge our guys, to get calloused and get tough and become road warriors early in the season.”
The atmosphere will be a lot less hospitable for Ohio State than it was in 2023. The Buckeyes won 23-3 with their fanbase making up a healthy percentage of the 50,050 fans in attendance.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has since transformed the game day environment in Bloomington — he inspired the team’s rally towels, while making sure fans got to the stadium early and stayed the entire game — and made it a challenging place to play. Last year, opposing teams even had to go to a silent count at Memorial Stadium.
Cignetti is 15-0 at home during his tenure.
“It’s going to be a great environment,” Day said. “We haven’t played (in Bloomington) since Coach Cignetti has been at Indiana. The atmosphere there has changed. It’s really ramped up there.”
Why Ohio State fell short in Big Ten title game against Indiana football
During the offseason, Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin took notes while rewatching last year’s Big Ten title game. While his teammate Jeremiah Smith hasn’t revisited the 13-10 loss, he didn’t have a hard time pinpointing what the Buckeyes need to do better in the rematch against the Hoosiers.
“Got to score in the red zone,” Smith said. “That’s all.”
Ohio State came up one just one touchdown in four trips inside Indiana’s 20-yard line and twice came up empty-handed in the red zone during the decisive second half.
“We look back on the game that we played in the Big Ten championship, look at some of those key situational things that we should have done a much better job with,” Day said. “We take ownership of that. We had to get that better. They won in those situations. If we win those situations, the outcome’s different. But that’s football. That’s where we’ve got to be better and make sure we’re ready next time when those opportunities come up that we make the plays.”
Day also went out of his way to praise Fernando Mendoza’s performance and a Hoosiers defense that he felt was overlooked during IU’s title run.
“I don’t think enough people give enough credit to that defense and how well they played,” Day said.
Sayin, who was a Heisman finalist alongside Fernando Mendoza, agreed. While Sayin completed 72.4% of his passes against IU, he was sacked five times and threw an interception on OSU’s first drive that allowed the Hoosiers to take an early lead.
“They are really well coached, they are bringing their zone drops, they get to the right spot,” Sayin said. “They make it very tough on quarterbacks and offenses to pick them apart. There aren’t many big plays you are going to see against them.”
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.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Ohio State knows atmosphere has changed at Indiana football this year
Reporting by Michael Niziolek, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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By Michael Niziolek, The Herald-Times | USA TODAY Network
