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Purdue, Barry Odom brace for Bucket battle vs. No. 2 Indiana

On3 imageby: Tom Dienhart11/24/25TomDienhart1

There is an old saying: Compare and despair.

Anyone wearing a black and gold toque on Friday night in Ross-Ade when Indiana and Purdue meet will understand that adage. To wit: Indiana has won 11 in a row and Purdue has lost nine in a row.

Never before has the chasm–for either team–been so wide between Indiana and Purdue. Neither Jack Mollenkopf, Jim Young nor Joe Tiller built teams like the current incarnation at Indiana, where Hoosier boss Curt Cignetti looks poised to dominate for years.

Purdue boss Barry Odom knows. He’s watched the film. And he probably dropped the clicker while scouting a Hoosier team that is No. 1 in scoring (43.3 ppg) and No. 2 in scoring defense (11.6 ppg) in the Big Ten.

“I know what they’ve done, win-loss record, but I don’t know any details other than that,” said Odom. “I know Cignetti has done a heck of a job.”

This isn’t Tom Allen’s Hoosiers … or Kevin Wilson’s … or Bill Lynch’s … or Bill Mallory’s. There are Cingentti’s Hoosiers, ranking No. 2 in the nation and poised to make a deep College Football Playoff run.

It wasn’t always like this.

History shows this Old Oaken Bucket series has been dominated by Purdue, which holds a 77-43-6 all-time lead. But Indiana is starting to make up for lost time in dominating fashion–and it’s doing so in a hurry under a coach making $11.6 million per season. (Odom makes $6 mil per annum.)

Purdue Pete already has felt Cignetti’s pain, getting his face shoved in it last year when the Boilermakers suffered their worst loss in school history: 66-0 at Indiana. And, honestly: The game wasn’t even that close.

That defeat ushered out Ryan Walters and birthed the Odom era. It’s now his task to solve a Hoosier program that is soaring among the elite in college football. And the first-year Boiler boss gets his first crack at the new Indiana deity this week.

“I do believe in my soul in the foundation of the core of who we’re going to be and what we’re becoming and what we’re building and what we’ve changed in 10 or 11 months,” said Odom. “If we change that much more in the next few months, then we’ll be playing really meaningful games in the month of November.”

The resume of Cignetti’s second IU team glistens: 11-0 record; 8-0 Big Ten.

This all comes on the heels of an 11-2 record (8-1 Big Ten) and college football playoff appearance. Add it all up and Indiana will roll into West Lafayette for Friday night’s 7:30 p.m. kickoff om NBC having gone 22-2 overall and 16-1 in the Big Ten the last two seasons.

These are high times in Bloomington. The story on Purdue’s red brick campus? It’s a 180, a stark contrast and trip to the bizarro world.

The sobering reality of a 10th consecutive loss and 2-10 finish looms over a fan base that was tortured with a 1-11 finish in 2024 that saw Purdue lose its last 11 games. Add it all up, and Purdue will roll into Friday’s game having gone 3-20 overall and 0-17 in the Big Ten the past two years.

Can you replicate what Indiana is doing at Purdue?

“Absolutely, I think you look at the opportunities that exist in college football today, in recruiting and expanded playoffs and now retention and rev share and all the things that go along with it,” said Odom. “Purdue’s got every single thing that is needed to have a really, really successful football program.”

MORE: First look: Indiana | First and 10: Indiana

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