Friendly coaches ready to square off as No. 9 Illinois and No. 19 Indiana try to stay unbeaten

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Bret Bielema and Curt Cignetti don't have a long relationship but it is clear they admire each other's work.

They sat together at last year's Big Ten spring meetings, crisscross one another's recruiting paths and have built budding powers in the Big Ten, Bielema at No. 9 Illinois and Cignetti at No. 19 Indiana. Both have 3-0 marks this season and top 20 teams heading into one of Saturday's featured games.

“There's very few plays where they have mental breakdowns," Bielema said of Cignetti's teams. “We always say more games are lost that won because of penalties, mental errors, turnovers — and they just don't do those things. I think one of the tells is special teams. You can have a group that has a really good offensive unit, defensive unit, but when special teams fall in line with that, that's something that kind of goes ding, ding, ding.”

It hasn't been easy reaching this point for either team.

Last year, Cignetti broke the Hoosiers' losing legacy with the school's first College Football Playoff appearance. Illinois has followed a similar trek up the polls.

The Fighting Illini have their highest ranking since Dick Butkus' final college season in 1964 and heads into this weekend seeking its first road win as a top 10 team since 1990. Indiana is looking for a signature win to put them back in the mix for another playoff trip.

How long has it been since the Illini and Hoosiers met with so much at stake? Try October 1950, when No. 12 Illinois beat No. 19 Indiana 20-0 in Champaign, Illinois. The 75th matchup in this series between border state rivals marks just the second time they've squared off as ranked foes.

Cignetti, like Bielema, understands the challenge.

“I've always had a lot of respect for him as a coach," Cignetti said. "He was a head coach at a very young age and has really had some nice teams. He's done a great job at Illinois. They're very fundamental, and you can see the coaching show up on tape.”

If anyone inside the Hoosiers locker room has inside information on Bielema, it's run game coordinator Bob Bostad. He held the same title for six of the seven seasons Bielema was Wisconsin's head coach. He's also the lone holdover from the staff of former Indiana coach Tom Allen.

As Bielema watched the Indiana tape this week, he noted the Hoosiers ground game is efficient and effective even thought it's a different style than he and Bostad ran with the Badgers.

“Bob Bostad is one of the best assistant coaches I've ever had,” Bielema said. “When we were together, not only with the coaching and development of our team, but he did an incredible job in recruiting and building that offensive line. Bob had a knack for taking a player with a certain skill set, we got him in our program and the way we built them led to a lot of success, obviously.”

Under Cignetti, the Hoosiers have typically rotated three running backs during games. They may be short-handed this week after Lee Beebe Jr. suffered a season-ending knee injury last weekend. Cignetti said it was a non-contact injury.

Beebe was second on the team with 209 yards rushing and led the team with 7.7 yards per carry. Without Beebe, the Hoosiers may give Kaelon Black or Roman Hemby a heavier workload. Or they may move Khobie Martin into the rotation. Martin has 115 yards and two TD runs.

When Cignetti was introduced as Indiana's coach in December 2023, he declared “I win" and challenged anyone who dared to contest that comment to Google him. Not only did he make good on that promise in his first season in Bloomington he's still making good on it.

The Hoosiers are unbeaten entering conference play for the second straight year and are a perfect 11-0 at home under Cignetti as they play their first top 20 home game since 1987.

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