Wins are wins.
No matter the weather, location or plays in the game that lead up to the final score.
Not all wins come in the same shape or size, and despite expectations of outcomes, the only outcome that is important, is a win. Indiana picked up that win, in less-than-convincing fashion, 29-23 over Northwestern.
Indiana entered Friday night’s matchup with the Wildcats ranked No. 5 in the country, and a 21-point favorite. The Hoosiers notably did not win by the expected total and for the majority of the game, did not look like the fifth-best team in the country.
Josh Hoover missed throws throughout the night, Aidan Chiles picked apart the Indiana defense in the second half, and something felt off, like a sense of concern flowing within Memorial Stadium.
Over the past two seasons, Indiana’s fanbase has now become one that expects a certain standard to every game. Fans want to see the team look dominant against “non-major names” that are on the schedule. Fans expect to see Indiana playing top-level football night in and night out under Curt Cignetti.
However, that’s not how football works. Certain teams and schemes provide issues for their opposition, and Northwestern, provided some of those issues for Indiana.
The Wildcats, under fourth-year head coach David Braun, started the year 2-0, beat Colorado 41-7, and have looked like a high-level team throughout their 2026 campaign, led by Michigan State transfer Chiles.
Cignetti started the week by telling the media that Northwestern was a good football team, and one that could give Indiana troubles. He quickly reminded the media postgame about his prior statements.
“I tried telling people Northwestern is a good football team, but people weren’t buying that,” Cignetti said.
While Northwestern is a good football team, and showed flashes of being a dangerous team in the Big Ten, this was a matchup that Indiana, on paper, should have had minimal issues with.
That wasn’t the case, and surely some fans have started to draw further questions on if this Indiana team is capable of winning back-to-back National Championships after watching Friday night’s game.
Cignetti is aware of that.
“I’m sure everyone is disappointed because they still have a national title hangover,” Cignetti said. “But I can’t do anything about that.”
He’s exactly right.
Anything other than blowout wins early in the year feel like a disappointment to Indiana fans now.
However, I turn to last season as an argument of why wins such as these are important for any championship level team.
Indiana was tied with Iowa at Kinnick Stadium last season with 2:50 to go, with the Hawkeyes set up deep in Indiana territory. I’m almost positive that this was the first real moment for Indiana fans thinking, “we may lose this game, what happens next?”
Indiana escaped the drive thanks to a missed field goal, which was then followed up by a Fernando Mendoza passing touchdown to Elijah Sarratt to win the game on the road.
A gritty win, a win that showed Indiana could battle through adversity and show up when the moment’s mattered most.
Later in the year, Indiana was tied with Oregon late in the fourth quarter on the road, and won. Indiana trailed Penn State late with under two minutes to go, and won.
Now, while I can’t necessarily say that a close Iowa win correlates to the two wins later in the year. If Indiana doesn’t step up and play a gritty game that has its back against the wall early in the year, does it win those other two games?
Being tested early, no matter how scary it may be at the moment, does nothing but build positive things to learn and grow from in that week. Now, Indiana knows it can step up late in games, knows it has the ability to close games out on the offensive side of the ball, and knows that in clutch moments, it has been there, and done that.
Championship-level teams have to win close games, and Nick Marsh put this game into words perfectly.
“It’s adversity,” Marsh said. “I think this makes us that championship team, I’m glad we got it out of the way early to see and identify ourselves.”
The Big Ten is not an easy conference to win games in, no matter the opponent. Having that close, tight, down-to-the-wire game early in the year, can do nothing but benefit Indiana moving forward when it all but likely has more close games remaining. on the schedule.
Josh Hoover put the win on Friday night into simple terms.
“It’s the Big Ten, and sometimes it’s not easy,” Hoover said postgame. “Good teams find a way to win.”
Blowouts make statements. Close wins build experience and confidence in similar moments later in the year.
Indiana already knows it can beat teams when everything goes according to plan. Friday showed something different: It can win when it doesn't.
As the calendar moves toward the thick of conference play, that might be the most important lesson.
