Indiana reasserts 'will' with 50-point rout of UCLA

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- No team in college football had won a conference game by 50 or more points this season -- other than Indiana.

On Saturday, the second-ranked Hoosiers accomplished the feat for a second time.

One month after destroying Illinois by 53 points, Indiana hammered UCLA 56-6.

"We try to play every play like it's nothing-nothing, game on the line, regardless of the competitive circumstances," said coach Curt Cignetti. "That's kind of our mentality."

Indiana linebacker Aiden Fisher picked off Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava on the second snap of the game and returned it for a touchdown.

The Hoosiers led 35-3 at halftime, then opened the second half with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive before resting many of their starters.

Star quarterback Fernando Mendoza sat the rest of the half, as his younger brother, freshman Alberto Mendoza, replaced him at quarterback.

"UCLA is a very capable team," said Fernando Mendoza, who threw for 168 yards and totaled four touchdowns to remain atop the Heisman conversation. "Teams are always looking for ... 'Hey, do we have that spark? Are we going to be able to come back from this game?' And so right from the jump, we knew we needed to have an impressive drive ... to (douse) their flame and impose our will."

The Bruins arrived in Bloomington on a three-game winning streak, highlighted by an upset over then-seventh-ranked Penn State on Oct. 4.

But after Mendoza threw an interception off a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage on Indiana's first offensive possession, the Hoosiers scored touchdowns on seven of their next eight drives.

Cignetti said the combination of Indiana's running game, producing 262 rushing yards, and its defense, which allowed UCLA to muster only 201 yards total, ultimately broke the Bruins' will.

"You start to see a team wave the white flag," Cignetti said. "It usually happens sometime in the third quarter. It may have been what happened here."

Indiana is the first Power 4 school with two 50-point conference wins in a single season since Clemson in 2018, according to ESPN Research.

The Tigers finished that year 15-0 and won the national championship.