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Indiana football enters Week 2 of the 2026 season with much to clean up but also plenty to feel optimistic about. Following IU's Week 1 rout of North Texas, an even softer opponent comes to town this Saturday in FCS foe Howard. On Thursday night, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti joined Voice of the Hoosiers Don Fischer for their weekly radio show 'Inside IU Football'. Cignetti detailed the Hoosiers' win over the Mean Green, what went right, what still needs to improve, and his biggest takeaways from the season-opener. In the final segment, senior safety Amare Ferrell joins the show. All notes and quotes are per Cignetti unless otherwise noted. The full show notes can be found below. ON INDIANA'S WIN OVER NORTH TEXAS: — "Displeased with a five-touchdown win, because you guys have had your share of five-touchdown losses in the past, right? So now we're displeased when we win by five touchdowns." — "Yeah, it was hot. When you're 65, you're wondering if you can make it out of the tunnel to the sideline." Cignetti jokes that "probably the entire defense was sick at the end of the game" due to the heat; "I was sick. I'm sure Coach Haines was sick, too." — Cignetti said North Texas had IU's defense off balance. "Obviously they put a whole lot of time into this game, schematically. I think we anticipated seeing more of the West Virginia-type stuff from Neal Brown, and it looked quite a bit different." — "We had a tough time getting them (North Texas' offense) off the field. I think you compound not getting them off the field with the heat, then it sort of spirals a little bit." — "We didn't play real well. We had too many missed assignments. I don't think you could say a single guy on defense played his A-game. We had some guys play poorly." Cignetti emphasized that it was "a space game" and North Texas' "change-up pitch" was to run the ball up the middle. — "Were we reading our press clippings — best D-Line in the last 20 years? I mean, wow, that rat poison was strong when the Big Ten Network came in here... So what it created was a great opportunity to send a message." — Cignetti said the season-opener gave him the opportunity to "send strong messages" to the team afterward. "We got to get better." — "Last year's team was at the point where I could just let them run, and every once in a while I'd step in and put a charge in them. This team, no. This team, you got to be hands-on with this team right now. And we have to develop. I think we took a step in practice this week, I really did. But we have to take steps every single day." — Cignetti gave Indiana a C- grade for its performance. "We couldn't got a greater gift than we got on Saturday. But believe me, we've got to use it the right way."