BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Fernando Mendoza scored on a 5-yard run in his debut as Indiana's quarterback, Jonathan Brady returned a punt 91 yards for a score, and the 20th-ranked Hoosiers wore down Old Dominion in a season-opening 27-14 victory on Saturday.
Mendoza, the starter at California last season, finished 18 of 31 for 193 yards and ran six times for 34 yards. His TD run late in the first half gave the Hoosiers a 17-7 lead.
Indiana's 309-yard rushing attack was led by Maryland transfer Roman Hemby, who had 23 carries for 110 yards. Kaelon Black added 92 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries.
Indiana won its ninth straight home game to improve to 9-0 at Memorial Stadium under second-year coach Curt Cignetti — but not without some stress.
“I think this is a great learning tool for us,” Cignetti said. “The mistakes, there was just a lot of stuff, a lot of things my teams in the past haven't done. But we've got some film ... so we'll see.”
Old Dominion started fast, with quarterback Colton Joseph faking out the Hoosiers' defense on the first offensive play of the game and sprinting 75 yards for a TD, and the Monarchs controlled most of the first quarter. Brady's punt return tied the game with 9 seconds left in the period.
Joseph added a 78-yard TD run midway through the fourth quarter that got ODU within 27-14. He finished with a career-high 179 yards rushing on 10 carries and went 11 of 22 through the air for 96 yards and three interceptions. But the Monarchs couldn't get the late stop they needed to make it a one-possession game.
“I thought (Joseph) played with conviction," Old Dominion coach Ricky Rahne said. “There certainly were some things we could clean up across the board on offense. We’ve just got to be better, and we've got to be better on defense as well.”
Indiana scored just 20 points — two touchdowns and two field goals — on six trips inside the Old Dominion 10-yard line. The Hoosiers turned it over on downs the other two times.
Old Dominion: The Monarchs kept it competitive. Cignetti said Monday he had warned his team about the Sun Belt Conference's track record against bigger opponents. Old Dominion lived up to that billing.
Indiana: Cignetti is never going to complain about winning. Yet this game exposed many areas where the Hoosiers must improve, starting with red-zone offense. And while a double-digit margin isn't likely to hurt the Hoosiers with poll voters, they're not likely to move up, either.
Safety Louis Moore had an interception and a team-leading seven tackles in his first game with Indiana. But the Mississippi transfer's future with the program remains unclear. Moore is eligible for the first two games after a Texas judge granted him a two-week extension on a temporary restraining order in an eligibility case involving the NCAA. The next hearing is expected Sept. 10. The NCAA claims Moore is ineligible because he spent 2019-21 playing in junior college and the last two years at Mississippi.
The game marked the debut of Hoosier the Bison. School officials announced this summer they were bringing back the mascot that last appeared in 1969.
Old Dominion: Faces North Carolina Central next Saturday in its home opener.
Indiana: Hosts Kennesaw State next Saturday.
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Indiana running back Roman Hemby (1) is tackled by Old Dominion cornerback Brandon Crutchfield (5) during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in Bloomington, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
MADRID (AP) — Venezuelans living in Spain are watching the events unfold back home with a mix of awe, joy and fear.
Some 600,000 Venezuelans live in Spain, home to the largest population anywhere outside the Americas. Many fled political persecution and violence but also the country’s collapsing economy.
A majority live in the capital, Madrid, working in hospitals, restaurants, cafes, nursing homes and elsewhere. While some Venezuelan migrants have established deep roots and lives in the Iberian nation, others have just arrived.
Here is what three of them had to say about the future of Venezuela since U.S. forces deposed Nicolás Maduro.
David Vallenilla woke up to text messages from a cousin on Jan. 3 informing him “that they invaded Venezuela.” The 65-year-old from Caracas lives alone in a tidy apartment in the south of Madrid with two Daschunds and a handful of birds. He was in disbelief.
“In that moment, I wanted certainty,” Vallenilla said, “certainty about what they were telling me.”
In June 2017, Vallenilla’s son, a 22-year-old nursing student in Caracas named David José, was shot point-blank by a Venezuelan soldier after taking part in a protest near a military air base in the capital. He later died from his injuries. Video footage of the incident was widely publicized, turning his son’s death into an emblematic case of the Maduro government’s repression against protesters that year.
After demanding answers for his son’s death, Vallenilla, too, started receiving threats and decided two years later to move to Spain with the help of a nongovernmental organization.
On the day of Maduro’s capture, Vallenilla said his phone was flooded with messages about his son.
“Many told me, ‘Now David will be resting in peace. David must be happy in heaven,’” he said. “But don't think it was easy: I spent the whole day crying.”
Vallenilla is watching the events in Venezuela unfold with skepticism but also hope. He fears more violence, but says he has hope the Trump administration can effect the change that Venezuelans like his son tried to obtain through elections, popular protests and international institutions.
“Nothing will bring back my son. But the fact that some justice has begun to be served for those responsible helps me see a light at the end of the tunnel. Besides, I also hope for a free Venezuela.”
Journalist Carleth Morales first came to Madrid a quarter-century ago when Hugo Chávez was reelected as Venezuela's president in 2000 under a new constitution.
The 54-year-old wanted to study and return home, taking a break of sorts in Madrid as she sensed a political and economic environment that was growing more and more challenging.
“I left with the intention of getting more qualified, of studying, and of returning because I understood that the country was going through a process of adaptation between what we had known before and, well, Chávez and his new policies," Morales said. "But I had no idea that we were going to reach the point we did.”
In 2015, Morales founded an organization of Venezuelan journalists in Spain, which today has hundreds of members.
The morning U.S. forces captured Maduro, Morales said she woke up to a barrage of missed calls from friends and family in Venezuela.
“Of course, we hope to recover a democratic country, a free country, a country where human rights are respected,” Morales said. “But it’s difficult to think that as a Venezuelan when we’ve lived through so many things and suffered so much.”
Morales sees it as unlikely that she would return home, having spent more than two decades in Spain, but she said she hopes her daughters can one day view Venezuela as a viable option.
“I once heard a colleague say, ‘I work for Venezuela so that my children will see it as a life opportunity.’ And I adopted that phrase as my own. So perhaps in a few years it won’t be me who enjoys a democratic Venezuela, but my daughters.”
For two weeks, Verónica Noya has waited for her phone to ring with the news that her husband and brother have been freed.
Noya’s husband, Venezuelan army Capt. Antonio Sequea, was imprisoned in 2020 after having taken part in a military incursion to oust Maduro. She said he remains in solitary confinement in the El Rodeo prison in Caracas. For 20 months, Noya has been unable to communicate with him or her brother, who was also arrested for taking part in the same plot.
“That’s when my nightmare began,” Noya said.
Venezuelan authorities have said hundreds of political prisoners have been released since Maduro's capture, while rights groups have said the real number is a fraction of that. Noya has waited in agony to hear anything about her four relatives, including her husband's mother, who remain imprisoned.
Meanwhile, she has struggled with what to tell her children when they ask about their father's whereabouts. They left Venezuela scrambling and decided to come to Spain because family roots in the country meant that Noya already had a Spanish passport.
Still, she hopes to return to her country.
“I’m Venezuelan above all else,” Noya said. “And I dream of seeing a newly democratic country."
Venezuelan journalist Caleth Morales works in her apartment's kitchen in Madrid, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
David Vallenilla, father of the late David José Vallenilla Luis, sits in his apartment's kitchen in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Veronica Noya holds a picture of her husband Antonio Sequea in Madrid, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
David Vallenilla holds a picture of deposed President Nicolas Maduro, blindfolded and handcuffed, during an interview with The Associated Press at his home in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Pictures of the late David José Vallenilla Luis are placed in the living room of his father, David José Vallenilla, in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
