Ohio State Coach Ryan Day Previews Big Ten Championship Game Against Indiana, Praises Hoosiers Coach Curt Cignetti 

With No. 1 Ohio State’s 27-9 victory over rival No. 15 Michigan Saturday and No. 2 Indiana’s 56-3 stomping over Purdue Friday, the 12-0 Buckeyes and Hoosiers will now officially face off in the Big Ten Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium at 8 p.m. this Saturday.

Ahead of the grudge match between the two undefeated juggernauts, Ohio State and Indiana head coaches Ryan Day and Curt Cignetti spoke on their respective seasons, and what lies ahead for the two programs. 

Day first credited the work Ohio State put in throughout the season to reach its first of three yearly goals, which the Buckeyes completed beating Michigan. 

Then Day focused his attention on Ohio State’s second goal, the Big Ten Championship against Indiana, before lauding Cignetti and how he’s rebuilt the Hoosiers football program. 

 “The first thing is, he’s adapted to modern times, he certainly has taken a roster and turned it over quickly and brought in some really talented players,” Day said. “It’s about talent acquisition and the way that we used to do that was just recruit and develop and that takes time. He’s been aggressive, and he’s been able to turn over his roster and bring in a lot of talent in a short period of time, which was really well done. 

“You can tell they’re good evaluators of talent, and then when you watch them play, they’re well coached. They have a plan on how they want to attack you in all three phases and they’re not going to be themselves. So you combine all those things together, and you’re looking at a program that has really made a lot of a lot of noise here in the last couple years, and certainly have a lot of respect for what coaching that he’s done.” 

Day’s high praise for the Hoosiers head coach comes with reason. In two seasons under Cignetti, Indiana is a whopping 23-2, coaching the Hoosiers two its two best seasons in program history. Cignetti led Indiana to its first ever 10-win season in 2024-25, finishing with a 11-2 record and a College Football Playoff berth before topping that mark this year with the school’s first-ever unbeaten regular season and Big Ten Championship game appearance. 

Day also identified the challenges of facing Indiana’s passing attack, particularly Hoosiers quarterback and Heisman hopeful Fernando Mendoza.

“I’ve watched Mendoza play in a lot of the crossover games, I’ve seen a little bit on TV when maybe it’s a Saturday game where we’re playing a night game, they’re playing a noon game,” Day said.” One, he looks very intelligent in terms of his ability to identify pre and post snap schemes and makes those decisions as well. He’s accurate, sneaky athletic where maybe you don’t look at him as a dual threat, but he makes a lot of plays with his feet and can extend plays. He looks like a great leader to me when I’ve listened to him speak. So it’ll be a really good challenge for our defense and for our team.”

Mendoza (+125) is currently the only player with higher odds to win the Heisman Trophy than Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin (+130), according to BetMGM. The junior transfer quarterback has thrown for 2,758 and a 32-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio, while completing 72 percent of his passes for Indiana. 

The Maxwell Award finalist, Mendoza, has helped lead an Indiana offense that’s scoring 44.3 points per game, the second-highest average in the FBS. Though the Hoosiers defense is elite as well, Indiana is allowing just 10.9 points per game, a mark that ranks second to only Ohio State (7.8).

Day expressed the importance of getting Ohio State ready to battle for the conference title, as he knows Cignetti will have Indiana firing on all cylinders. 

“(Indiana) is a team now that has been winning at a high level for two years,” Day said. “So, there’ll be no moment too big for them. They’ll be ready to go.”