Why Indiana football can't look past spiraling Penn State, where it has never won
BLOOMINGTON — The arrival this week of the College Football Playoff committee’s first rankings served as a reminder that the end of the regular season will soon be in sight.
For the favorites, contenders and hopefuls, the stakes rise with each passing Saturday from here. Indiana, which debuted at No. 2, certainly fits into that top group, with firm control over its own destiny in both the playoff discussions and the Big Ten race.
Hoosiers will know how the other half lives this weekend in State College — what Curt Cignetti once called “old Indiana” was all too familiar with seasons like the one currently besetting Penn State. But Cignetti will still see NFL draft picks and one of America’s most imposing road environments, even if he probably won’t be as passionate, and serve as a reminder that even as his new Indiana makes history, his own frustrating past is never that far away.
Any team pursuing what Indiana is pursuing should know by now that the path to 12-0 is fraught with challenges.
“The same guys they started the year with, for the most part, who were ranked No. 1 to No. 3 in the country,” Cignetti said Monday, “so a lot of good football players at all positions, playing really hard.”
If the last two years couldn’t have gone better for Indiana, then the last two months couldn’t have gone worse for Penn State.
The Nittany Lions began this season almost doomed, in some quarters, to finally break through that frustrating barrier and achieve high-end success that had eluded James Franklin. Penn State invested money in one of the richest coaching staffs in college football, and a roster it paid handsomely, to keep most of last year’s core together.
Pressure can be a weapon, but it can also be a poison. Indiana fans will remember how quickly the Hoosiers’ 2021 season deflated, when it became clear that the story IU had spent its offseason using as motivation wouldn’t be possible. The same phenomenon is currently happening in State College.
Admission prices for this weekend’s game at Beaver Stadium — normally among the nation’s most imposing road venues — were down to $20 by Thursday afternoon. Fees included.
At its best, Penn State offers a game-changing atmosphere. But State College is remote, even for most Nittany Lions fans. Attendance on game day means driving about three hours from Pittsburgh, Baltimore, or Philadelphia (or perhaps slightly closer places like Harrisburg, York, or Wilkes-Barre).
Fans must want the game to achieve this, and at the moment, that base is understandably preoccupied with other matters.
The biggest threat to Indiana might be the one Cignetti identified Monday: talent on the field.
Quarterback Drew Allar is out for the season, but Penn State’s NFL-caliber running backs Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton remain. There are future pros at both lines of scrimmage. The players Penn State paid to stay in State College for 2025 haven’t forgotten how to play Big Ten football, any more than coaches like coordinator Jim Knowles have forgotten how to plan for it.
Even though Cignetti has flattened the competitive curve so impressively in Bloomington the last two years, there remains an athletic level at which a select few programs can recruit beyond what Indiana has historically offered. Penn State is one of them.
Cignetti won’t say, but we can: Wisconsin is currently on a sinking ship, and even if Purdue is better than it was a year ago, the Hoosiers should be comfortably favored in the Bucket game in late November.
Penn State is the last serious obstacle between IU and Indianapolis, where Cignetti’s team is scheduled to finally meet Ohio State in four weeks.
Wounded as they are, the Nittany Lions still pose a threat that Indiana cannot take lightly. And given that no IU team has ever won at State College, this weekend is a reminder that even though the Hoosiers upend so many historical conventions around their program, the long arm of their past still taps them on the shoulder from time to time.
Indiana is expected to win on Saturday. All available evidence suggests Indiana will win. But Hoosiers can’t expect — and don’t want — an easy ride. The price of perfection is high.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Football at Penn State Preview, Curt Cignetti Warns of NFL Talent
