Indiana University Football moves up to No. 5 in Week 2 of AP poll Indiana football moved up one spot to No. 5 in the AP poll following their 52-16 victory over North Texas last Saturday. The Hoosiers are also ranked No. 5 in the Coaches Poll, as Oregon fell four spots to No. 6 following a close win vs. Boise State. The four teams ranked ahead of Indiana in the AP poll, in order, are: Ohio State, Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas. IU, once again, received eight first place-votes in the latest AP poll, as they did in the preseason poll. Other Big Ten teams ranked in the AP Top 25 include: No. 6 Oregon, No. 14 USC, No. 16 Penn State, No. 19 Washington and No. 21 Iowa. In addition, these Big Ten schools received votes, but did not crack the AP poll this week: Michigan (69), UCLA (7), Illinois (6) and Minnesota (4). Indiana will be back home on Saturday to face Howard. Kickoff is scheduled for noon Eastern on Big Ten Network.
Isiah Thomas sees “a lot of similarities” in Bob Knight and Curt Cignetti Isiah Thomas won a basketball national title at IU playing for legendary coach Bob Knight. He’s now witnessing the remarkable turnaround of IU football under the direction Curt Cignetti, who will eventually require the same “legendary” modifier in front of his name. Before Thomas arrived at IU, Knight orchestrated the sport’s last perfect season, a 32-0 run to a championship in 1976. And 50 years later, Cignetti led his sport’s most recent perfect season, and the first 16-win campaign since the 1890s. Thomas isn’t immersed in Cignetti’s football program like he was with the basketball program at IU under Knight for two seasons from 1979-81. But Thomas says football is his favorite sport, and he sees a lot of similarities between the two iconic coaches. “A lot of similarities,” Thomas said during appearance on FOX Big Noon Kickoff on Saturday. “Here’s what I see in terms of style. They stress not turning the ball over, so they don’t turn the ball over. “They stress the fundamentals in terms of blocking and tackling. Coach (Knight) was like, make sure we set good screens, OK? Make sure we pass, don’t turn it over, and make the other team beat themselves, right? “And when I look at Indiana right now from a football perspective, they don’t turn it over. They block, they tackle, they do all the things you’re supposed to do fundamentally, and the other team makes mistakes and they capitalize on it.”
Week One once again no cause for concern for Indiana University Football If you’ve learned nothing else in two-plus seasons watching the Curt Cignetti-led Indiana Hoosiers, you know this: Don’t sweat the first game. Indiana wasn’t impressive in its 27-14 win over Old Dominion a year ago, and the same went for the 31-7 win over Florida International to start the 2024 campaign. Perhaps that’s part of Cignetti’s calculus when it comes to the nonconference schedule in the age of the transfer portal. Give yourself some runway with a manageable start to work out the kinks. Now that we know what finely tuned IU football looks like by midseason, we can quickly recognize what’s not quite right. In this year’s opener, a game Indiana led just 31-16 at the start of the fourth quarter, it was a defense that couldn’t get off the field at times, and an offensive run game that had its share of struggles.
MISSED ASSIGNEMENTS AND MISSED TACKLES KEEP HEAT ON THE DEFENSE-Did North Texas (and former Indiana) quarterback Tayven Jackson know all the secrets to beating a Bryant Haines defense? North Texas certainly seemed to have answers to IU’s vertical pass rush with quick passes, roll outs, and throws to the perimeter, often to the running backs. But in week one against a new head coach with an entirely new roster, Haines didn’t have a lot to work with from a preparation standpoint. The result was several North Texas drives that methodically kept the chains moving and ate time off the clock. Everything about the Mean Green approach appeared to be a carbon copy of how Wisconsin tried to play the Hoosiers in 2025. “The opponent had the ball 37 minutes, a combination of some critical missed assignments, poor tackling,” Cignetti said Monday. “So gotta get better there. “We weren’t real disruptive up front, but it was a little bit of a space game, too. So, you go out in the first game, you’re not exactly sure what the opponent’s going to do. They gave us a lot of different looks, to their credit, but we overcame it.”
LAST MINUTE CHANGE ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE-Before fall camp Cignetti said the plan was to bump Wisconsin transfer offensive lineman Joe Brunner out to right tackle and keep Adedamola Ajani inside at right guard. Brunner had never played tackle in college, while Ajani had limited experience in both roles. Throughout fall camp during the practice sessions that were open to the media, IU appeared to be sticking with that plan. So, it came as a surprise on Saturday to see Ajani as the starting right tackle and Brunner as the starting right guard. After studying the pair throughout August, the late switch was made. “(Offensive line coach) Bob Bostad thought about eight, nine days before the opener that we’d be better off going in that direction, so we did,” Cignetti said, adding that it continues to be the plan going forward.
NO WORRIES WITH THE RUN GAME-Before backup quarterback Grant Wilson darted 43 yards for a score in the closing minutes, IU had just 91 rushing yards. The Hoosiers were held below 100 just once in 2025, in that game against Wisconsin, and they went over 300 yards on the ground six times. North Texas sold out to stop the run, going with the five defensive linemen fronts. That was a look that surprised the IU staff. But Indiana’s offense worked how it’s supposed to. The defense took something away, and the Hoosiers took advantage of what that left open — one-on-one matchups for the wide receivers. “I think based on the way we were being played, I mean, it (the running game) was fine,” Cignetti said. “I mean, there were some little things up front that have got to be improved.” There were other factors that kept Indiana’s rushing yards lower than you’d expect. Good kickoff and punt returns shortened the field. And a 43-yard touchdown run by Lee Beebe, Jr. was called back for holding on center Bray Lynch. That was a call the head coach disagreed with. “The call on Bray on the long touchdown run, you know, they called it. I thought the guy kind of tripped,” Cignetti said. “So, it is what it is. And we’ll be fine.” In the end, the IU offense was efficient. The Hoosiers scored on eight out of nine possessions. They had seven touchdowns and were 4-for-4 scoring touchdowns in the red area, an improvement over their 2-for-7 effort in last year’s opener. Indiana had more points (52) than plays (46).
Trayce Jackson-Davis says he ignored Mike Woodson’s request to stop bringing the ball up Trayce Jackson-Davis could have used a fifth year in college to push his name higher up NBA Draft boards. And the door to return to Indiana was of course wide open. He could have tried to show he could knock down the occasional three-pointer or display other skills that complemented the dominant aspects of his game. But already the program’s all-time leader in rebounds and blocks, it just didn’t feel right to Jackson-Davis to utilize the extra year created by the COVID-19. “It was fake almost. If I would have beat the scoring record and pushed out records, that extra year, it didn’t feel real,” Jackson-Davis said on the Ride with JMV last week. “And that’s just the competition I have within myself. That’s one of the main reasons why I left. I had a phenomenal senior year, I don’t have anything left to prove here, it’s time to go.”
What TJD didn’t know at the time was just a few years later, all players would have the option to play a fifth season. And as a result, his records are likely to be broken by the next dominant big man who stays at Indiana for five years. Jackson-Davis is with the Toronto Raptors, set to enter his fourth year in the NBA in 2026-27. He knows his long-term viability in the league hinges on continued improvement, and he’s seen players like Al Horford and Brooke Lopez extend their careers by becoming three-point shooters while in the league. If he does have a regret about his time at Indiana, Jackson-Davis says he wishes he would have worked more on developing his three-point shot and looked for more attempts from long range in games while in Bloomington. He took three 3-point shots in 126 games with IU.
“I wish that I would have taken it more seriously,” Jackson-Davis told JMV. “Going all the way back to my freshman year, I was a four and Joey Brunk was the five. I felt like I was more of a slasher and a cutter, but I wasn’t really a post-up player. That development didn’t really happen until my second year, my sophomore year, when Joey got hurt. “If I had stayed in that four role and started drifting towards the corner, it would have been good for my growth. But Joey got hurt, and then all of a sudden, I was averaging 20 points my sophomore year. I thought, ‘Okay, well, it’s pretty easy to score inside.’ “Then my junior year came and Woody (IU coach Mike Woodson) was kind of iffy (on shooting threes). He didn’t really say not to shoot, but he didn’t really force me to either, so I kind of didn’t.”
But Jackson-Davis did make tweaks to his game while at IU with an eye towards the NBA. Fans will recall his assist numbers doubled his senior year as he learned to take advantage of all the attention coming his way. And Jackson-Davis also became more of a ball handler during his final season at Indiana. He decided to start grabbing rebounds and pushing the ball up the court himself. He was pretty effective at it, but his head coach wasn’t so sure initially. “By my senior year, I decided, ‘All right, well, I’m not shooting the ball, but I’m going to at least throw something into my game to make me a different player,’” Jackson-Davis said. “I had always just been rim-running and passing to the guard. My senior year, I just said screw it. My teammates told me, ‘You’re not going to do it.’ But more than just taking on the dares of his teammates, the always humble and respectful Jackson-Davis felt he had to disregard his head coach this time. “I remember during the first or second practice, I was taking the ball up the floor and Woody told me, ‘Pass it to a guard.’ Then, during the next practice I said no and I just kept doing it.
“Eventually he just said all right, screw it. I feel like if I would have started shooting threes, he would have been the same way. I don’t think he would have told me not to shoot it. Maybe he would have preferred me to go dunk it if I was that open, but I feel like if I would have shot those shots, he wouldn’t have cared.” With the improvements he made to his game as a senior, Jackson-Davis was a consensus First Team All-American, averaging 20.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.9 blocks per game.
Decatur Central graduate recognized by Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference announced its football “Players of the Week” on Monday, and an Indianapolis, Ind. native was among the players honored. University of Minnesota wide receiver Javon Tracy was named Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week. The Decatur Central High School graduate scored two punt return touchdowns in the Golden Gophers’ 59-7 win over Eastern Illinois on Thursday night. In fact, he’s the first player in Minnesota football history to score two punt returns touchdowns in a single game. He scored on an 87-yard punt return in the first quarter of the game before scoring again on a 69-yard return in the third quarter. “The 87-yard return was the second longest in program history behind a 91-yarder for Fred Houde against Iowa in 1928,” according to the Golden Gophers’ news release. The last Minnesota football player to earn Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week honors prior to Tracy was Dragan Kesich, who received the honor in Nov. 2024. Minnesota is back in action Saturday afternoon against Mississippi St.
Indianapolis Colts waive cornerback Jaylon Jones and elevate tackle Luke Tenuta to active roster The Indianapolis Colts made some roster moves ahead of Sunday’s Week 1 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens at Lucas Oil Stadium. On Tuesday, the team waived cornerback Jaylon Jones and promoted offensive tackle Luke Tenuta from the practice squad to the 53-man roster. Jones, a seventh-round pick by the Colts in the 2023 NFL Draft, has appeared in 44 career games. The 6-foot-2, 203-pound cornerback has totaled 162 tackles, 5.0 tackles for loss, 21 passes defensed, two interceptions, and one forced fumble. Last season, he played in 10 games with two starts. In the 2024 season, Jones started all 17 games with Indianapolis. 27-year-old Tenuta entered the league as a sixth-round pick by the Buffalo Bills in 2022 and has spent time with the Bills, Arizona Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, and Colts. The 6-foot-8, 314-pound tackle signed a future/reserve deal with Indianapolis in January 2025 and appeared in four games for the Colts last season. He joined the practice squad on Aug. 31 and was elevated to the active roster on Tuesday. Tenuta will be on the Colts’ active roster for Sunday’s 1 p.m. kickoff against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, September 13th.
Taylor University’s Jedidiah Galvin and Reid Messer Recognized by MSFA The Mid-States Football Association honored Jedidiah Galvin and Reid Messer on Monday as its MSFA Mideast League’s Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week. The duo helped RV Taylor secure a 38-31 win over RV Saint Xavier two days prior. Galvin ripped off seven runs over 10 yards and broke loose for touchdown sprints of 95, 68, 53 and 15 yards to account for four of TU’s five touchdowns in the victory. Galvin’s 319 rushing yards were just 20 shy of matching Taylor’s single-game record. With the outing, Galvin ranks No. 1 in the NAIA with 383 yards rushing this season, No. 1 with 191.5 rushing yards per game and No. 6 with four rushing touchdowns.
Messer made his impact on the defensive side of the ball, hauling in two interceptions, including one in the TU endzone to take points off the board for Saint Xavier. Messer also added seven tackles and two additional pass breakups. Messer now ranks No. 2 in the NAIA with the two interceptions and No. 6 with a trio of pass breakups through the Purple and Gray’s first two outings. The MSFA Player-of-the-Week honor is the first for Galvin and Messer this season and is the third career honor for Messer. Galvin and Messer’s honors are the first for the Taylor football program this season and give Taylor Athletics a total of nine weekly league honors already in the 2026-2027 year. RV Taylor (1-1) will return to action on Saturday, September 12 with a 2:00 pm (ET) start at RV Saint Francis of Illinois (0-2).