Indiana football continues to rise in rankings ahead of significant Homecoming tilt

The Indiana football program continues to rise in the rankings, this time following a bye week.

Indiana, who entered this past week 18th in the country, moved up two spots to No. 16 in the Ap Top 25.

Now, the Hoosiers turn their attention to a massive matchup against Nebraska next weekend. It’s Homecoming for Indiana which was announced as a sellout crowd last week, the first time since 2021.

Nebraska is 5-1 and received the second-most votes. Saturday’s matchup will be part of Big Noon Kickoff on FOX. National announcers Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt are expected to be on the call.

Indiana is off to its best start since 1967 in Curt Cignetti’s first season in Bloomington after being picked to finish 17th in the preseason Big Ten rankings.

“Right now this is not the goal, being 6-0 isn’t necessarily the goal. The goal is to go and try to win a natty,” Indiana football defensive lineman Mikail Kamara said. “So right now it’s great to be 6-0, especially going into the bye week. We’ll definitely enjoy it for sure, but once you come back we got to go and start over with Nebraska and keep the ball rolling. This is fantastic, but this is not the end.”

“Just staying consistent. Coach Cignetti talked about keeping that chip on the shoulder, I think that’s very important. We’ve had a great first half of the season, but we got a big second half as well,” IU quarterback Kurtis Rourke said. “So we gotta keep that chip on and know that there’s gonna be doubters no matter what and continue to come out ready to work and not get complacent.”

As they’re ranked now, Indiana is the fourth-highest ranked Big Ten team behind Oregon at No. 2, Penn State at No. 3 and Ohio State at No. 4.

“They’ll be reading a lot about how we aren’t good enough to do this and that,” Cignetti said of his players during the bye week “I want the chip on their shoulder to keep growing.”

SEE ALSO: Curt Cignetti and Indiana football ‘want the chip on their shoulder to keep growing’ during the bye week

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