Like Indiana, their next opponent Oregon is off this week following a difficult road game.
The No. 2 Ducks (5-0) remained perfect on the season with an impressive 30-24 double overtime win at a white-out themed Penn State.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning met with the media on Wednesday and said his team his been focused inward this week, but he has taken an early look at film of IU.
“They’re obviously very well coached. They’ve got a team that plays really hard,” Lanning said. “They’re a tough team to go operate against. They’re doing some good things. We’re not too far ahead right now on Indiana. We’re more on us, but just from afar glancing at them some, you can see a lot of that.”
This won’t be IU quarterback Fernando Mendoza’s first game at Oregon. As a redshirt freshman in 2023 he made the second road start of his career and completed 18 of 34 passes for 177 yards, with no touchdowns and an interception in a blowout loss at Eugene. PFF says he was under pressure on 14 of his 36 drop backs.
“We had some success that day, but he also had some success as well,” Lanning said of facing Mendoza in 2023. “This is a guy who can play football at a high level.
“They’re getting great quarterback play. I think to have a great team, you’ve got to have good quarterback play. They have that.”
Lanning is off to a very impressive start as the head coach at Oregon. Like IU coach Curt Cignetti, Lanning comes from the Nick Saban tree. He spent a year at Alabama, and then eventually joined longtime Alabama assistant Kirby Smart at Georgia, where he became defensive coordinator.
Lanning is 40-6 since taking over at Oregon in 2022, with just one loss at home during the span. The Ducks have a nation’s best 18-game home winning streak that dates back to 2022.
With a capacity under 60,000, Autzen Stadium isn’t close to being one of college football’s biggest venues. But the enclosed bowl stadium with a sunken field has always been considered one of the loudest.
“We just experienced an unbelievable environment (at Penn State), and I’m excited to experience ours (at home),” Lanning said. “We prepared all week (last week) for a real challenge of what’s this gonna look like playing in a place where you don’t have that on your side, now at Autzen this is something that can be an advantage for us and something we will have on our side.
“I expect our fans to be what they always are, unbelievably enthused from beginning to end. There are a lot of really hard environments to play in our conference, I hope that Autzen is always the hardest. That’s what we want to create when we’re here.”
No. 8 Indiana and No. 2 Oregon kick at 3:30 p.m. ET a week from Saturday in Eugene (CBS).
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