Indiana (2-0) defeated Kennesaw State (0-2), 56-9 on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.
Junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza threw for four touchdowns to lead No. 23 Indiana to a 47 point blowout over former Indiana signal-caller Dexter Williams II and Kennesaw State.
Mendoza completed 18 of 25 passes for 245 yards. He threw touchdown passes of 3, 9 and 20 yards to Elijah Sarratt and an 8-yard TD strike to E.J. Williams early in the fourth quarter.
Indiana ran for over 300 yards again and got rushing scores from Riley Nowakowski, Omar Cooper and Lee Beebe Jr. IU had eight players carry the ball. Beebe led the pack with 11 carries for 90 yards. Roman Hemby added 89 total yards.
“Good day. I think we made the improvement we needed to make, but it’s far from perfect,” Cignetti said after the game. “We’ll see areas of improvement tomorrow when we watch the tape. But we took a step forward, with the step we needed to take.”
Cignetti said the Hoosiers (2-0) took a step forward.
“I liked the way our guys kept playing one play at a time,” he said. “I was a little bit of tyrant in the fourth quarter, but my job is to make the team better, so that’s the way it is.”
On the defensive side the Indiana Hoosiers had 14 tackles for loss; they posted double-digit TFLs only once in 2024. Fisher and Kellan Wyatt each had 2.5 to lead the way, and 10 total players at least assisted on a TFL.
Defensive lineman Mikail Kamara recorded a sack, Kellan Wyatt had seven tackles, Sharpe had the a forced fumble and senior safety Louis Moore had an interception for a second straight week (one versus ODU).
“We have a lot of stuff that we need to clean up,” linebacker Aiden Fisher said. “But (we) just took advantage of more opportunities when we had them. I think that was really what ended up with the result that we got.”
In total, Kennesaw State amassed 271 yards of offense off 182 passing yards and 89 yards of rushing.
The Hoosiers will find out Louis Moore’s eligibility ruiling on Wednesday afternoon. They need the ruling to go in their favor as Indiana lost Bryson Bonds for the season and Byron Baldwin has yet to play because of an injury.
Indiana hosts Indiana State (2-0) on Friday September 12th at 6:30pm at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.