Indiana Football Expects 'Much Improved' Purdue's Best Shot in 100th Old Oaken Bucket Game

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana football is one game from perfection, one win from a trip to the inconceivable. Curt Cignetti doesn't want to hear any of it.

The No. 2 Hoosiers (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten) face Purdue (2-9, 0-8 Big Ten) at 7:30 p.m. Friday inside Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette. If Indiana wins, it will secure its first unblemished regular season — no ties or losses — in program history and a berth in the Big Ten Championship game Dec. 6.

But Cignetti, ever focused on the present moment, isn't thinking about any implications beyond Friday night. He's solely fixated on getting the Old Oaken Bucket back to Bloomington for another year.

"Look, we are 100% focused on Purdue and nothing else," Cignetti said. "We have respect for Purdue. If you don't respect your opponent, then you're starting in a bad spot. I respect what I see on tape. They're playing hard. They're making plays. They're in games. They're doing a good job coaching.

"We have to go up there prepared, and we got to play well. I mean, we're going on the road to play a Big Ten football team, in-state rival. That's all we're thinking about."

Indiana took a 66-0 victory over Purdue last season, the most lopsided outcome in the rivalry's first 126 matchups. Cignetti expects a tougher challenge Friday night.

As he does with most opponents during his weekly Monday press conference, Cignetti outlined the Boilermakers' season and portrayed their 2-9 start in a more positive light.

Purdue narrowly fell to No. 15 Michigan, 21-16, on Nov. 1. The Boilermakers led Rutgers with four minutes left before losing 27-24 on Oct. 25. They led Minnesota at the end of each of the first three quarters before falling 27-20 on Oct. 11.

Purdue led Ohio State, 3-0, after the first quarter before allowing 24 unanswered points in the second quarter. Cignetti called it a "competitive game for most of the first half." Much of the Boilermakers' season, to Cignetti, has been competitive, though he acknowledged their 49-13 loss at Washington on Nov. 15 slipped away from them.

Collectively, Cignetti sees a much-improved team in coach Barry Odom's first season — even if Purdue's record, a one-win jump from last year, may not suggest it.

"First of all, they're competing really hard," Cignetti said. "That's what I see. There's no give-up in that team. They're wide open on offense. Spread you out, put you in conflict, balance run and pass. Defensively, really mix it up. Every play is something different. They attack.

"They've got an aggressive style on offense and defense and special teams, and I'm sure that's the personality of the head coach, who played linebacker in college, been a defensive guy. They attack. They're a physical football team."

Indiana junior cornerback D'Angelo Ponds, who made two tackles as a starter against Purdue in 2024, reiterated Cignetti's belief in the Boilermakers' progress over the past year.

"They're much improved from last year," Ponds said Tuesday. "I feel like they're more physical this year. They're a very competitive team, even though the record probably doesn't show it. But they're a good team. We don't take them lightly. And yeah, they're better than last year."

Friday marks the 100th meeting since the inception of the Old Oaken Bucket. Overall, it's the 127th game between Indiana and Purdue. The Boilermakers have dominated the series, owning a 77-43-6 record dating back to 1891.

It's one of the NCAA's most storied rivalries, but Indiana — with a wealth of newcomers on both its roster and coaching staff since hiring Cignetti on Nov. 30, 2023 — isn't as traditionally immersed within the history and tension.

Cignetti doesn't think he's been a Hoosier long enough to fully embody the rivalry quite yet. Maybe in five or six years, he said, but with only one matchup — against a struggling Purdue squad at that — thus far, he hasn't received the full experience.

Ponds is in a similar boat. A Miami native who spent his freshman year with Cignetti at James Madison University, Ponds brushed up on the rivalry last year with senior safety Josh Sanguinetti. But Ponds acknowledged he doesn't know too much about the matchup's history.

And while Ponds doesn't hear much noise about it in the Hoosiers' locker room, either, he understands the significance of the Old Oaken Bucket in Bloomington.

"We just take it as another game," Ponds said. "I know it's important to people around the community, so it's important to us."

Sixth-year senior tight end Riley Nowakowski has caught on to the tension quicker than others. Nowakowski spent the first five years of his career at Wisconsin, which has regional rivalries with Minnesota and Iowa. Both matchups ranked inside the top 25 of The Athletic's best rivalries.

Subsequently, though he's a first-year Hoosier, Nowakowski understands the edge, intensity and passion surrounding Indiana's looming trip to West Lafayette.

"It might not be the team that I was raised on, but it's the team that somebody else was raised on," Nowakowski said. "So I understand that feeling just as much as everybody else in that locker room. So, I'm definitely going to be bringing the intensity on game day."

Fifth-year senior tight end James Bomba helped enhance Nowakowski's knowledge of the Indiana-Purdue rivalry. Bomba is a Bloomington native and third-generation Indiana football player who's served as a valuable resource to Nowakowski.

"He's a guy where it really means a lot to him," Nowakowski said. "He's been born and raised on this rivalry. I'm a little bit new to it, but I hate Purdue just as much as him. We're one team."

The Hoosiers have taken the same approach to rivalry week as each of their previous 11 game weeks. They don't go 100% all the time in practice, Nowakowski said, because no team can. There are times they need to dial back, and others where they need to be all-out.

Indiana, with a veteran roster, understands that, and the urgency and intensity of a rivalry game hasn't altered the team's normal routine or practice habits. Neither has the Boilermakers' record or the potential Big Ten title game waiting on the other side of a Hoosier victory.

Indiana hasn't yet slipped up this season. Cignetti's team is steadfast on keeping it that way.

"It's the next game up mentality," Nowakowski said. "Can't play tomorrow's game until we play today's game. So, that's really been the message. Every day, we got to come in, focus, intensity has got to be high every single time. Because in college football, you get beat on any given Saturday.

"You see it all throughout the season, that a team thinks they got an easy game and it doesn't end up well for them."

The Hoosiers face no shortage of potential distractions. Purdue has lost nine straight games. Suspecting victory and penciling Indiana into the Big Ten Championship game is human nature.

Indiana has defied human nature several times this season. It needs to do so again Friday — because the Boilermakers, like the Hoosiers, are fresh off a bye week. And unlike Indiana, Purdue has nothing to lose.

"We're certainly expecting their best shot," Cignetti said, "and we've got 100% focus, all eyes on Purdue."