No. 4 Indiana gets one final non-conference tune-up Saturday, and the matchup with Western Kentucky offers more than just another likely lopsided result. It gives the Hoosiers one more chance to poke at a few details before Big Ten play arrives.
Indiana, 2-0, hosts the 0-2 Hilltoppers at 4 p.m. inside Memorial Stadium in its third home game of the season. Western Kentucky has spent the whole year on the road so far, taking a 49-14 loss at Nevada and a 70-20 loss at No. 2 Georgia.
“They’ve struggled, obviously, in their first two games and the goal is to make them continue to struggle,” Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti said on Monday.
That’s the reality of Indiana’s non-conference slate: the games haven’t exactly been built to test the Hoosiers in every phase. So instead of hunting for heavyweight drama, this week is about smaller reveals - who can handle what, where the edges are, and which pieces might matter when the schedule tightens up.
One place to watch is Josh Hoover as a runner. The transfer quarterback has been steady enough through two games, but he never arrived with a reputation built on keeping an offense alive with his legs. That kind of mobility is a bonus, not a requirement, and Indiana’s offense already lost one special runner when Fernando Mendoza lifted it to higher levels.
Still, Hoover showed some movement against Howard, enough to suggest Indiana won’t be hurt if he’s not a true rushing threat. The question now is whether he can do more than escape trouble. So far, he’s been able to turn bad situations into neutral ones, but not into the kind of positive plays Mendoza produced, like the fourth-down touchdown run in the fourth quarter of the national championship game.
Western Kentucky may be the right opponent to find out. The Hilltoppers have already allowed 323 rushing yards to Nevada, including 50 from the opposing quarterback, and Georgia’s quarterbacks ran for 87 yards in that game. That opens the door not only for backs like Turbo Richard and Lee Beebe Jr., but also for Hoover to show he can create on the move.
Read-option looks could be especially useful. Grant Wilson ripped off a 43-yard touchdown run after recognizing a North Texas edge rusher crashing the mesh point too quickly, and if Western Kentucky’s edge defenders get impatient in similar situations, Hoover could cash in.
On the other side of the ball, Indiana’s linebackers should see plenty of action against a passing game that lives underneath. Rodney Tisdale Jr. doesn’t push the ball far downfield very often, not because he can’t, but because Western Kentucky’s scheme and protection issues steer the offense toward short gains.
The Hilltoppers run a version of air raid with plenty of RPO concepts, much like Indiana, and Tisdale Jr. has often been forced into check downs in the flats and along the boundary. He averages 4.3 yards per pass completion, which ranks No. 128 nationally. Brock Glenn, who came in against Georgia, averages 3.7 yards per completion.
That means linebackers Isaiah Jones, Rolijah Hardy and Jeff Utzinger may be closer to the ball than usual on Saturday. The three lead Indiana in tackles through two games, and they’ll be tasked not just with cleaning up plays, but with limiting yards after the catch and handling the space game that Western Kentucky prefers.
Jones and Hardy both said their Week 1 showing wasn’t good enough, and Indiana’s front took a clear step forward in Week 2, finishing with five sacks and 12 tackles for loss. Now comes another layer: tackling cleanly in space while still keeping the backfield wrecked.
It all leads to one last non-conference stretch before the schedule changes. Cignetti has never hidden the fact that he prefers a lighter setup before league play, and Indiana’s early results have reflected that approach. The Hoosiers beat North Texas by 36, Howard by 55, and are expected to post another comfortable margin here.
Then comes Northwestern in Bloomington on Friday, Sept. 25, and with it, the next real shift in the season. Until then, Indiana has one more chance to sharpen what works and expose what doesn’t.
In Other News...
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Through the first two weeks, Indianas route through the Big Ten has started to look a little less daunting than it did on paper. The schedule still carries the usual weight of a league race, but some of the conferences biggest names have already shown enough vulnerability to make the Hoosiers path feel more navigable than many expected in August.
Michigan and Ohio State are still Michigan and Ohio State, and nothing about a September snapshot changes their standing for long. Still, recent performances across the league have opened up the conversation around Indianas chances to stay in the hunt for Indianapolis and, by extension, the College Football Playoff, especially with the status of teams like USC and Washington adding more uncertainty to the broader picture. [Read more 🡒]
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A judge is expected to rule next week on the injunction that could settle their eligibility, possibly before Big Ten play begins. For Indiana, the uncertainty matters because both players have already given the defense meaningful snaps in the past, and their status now hangs on court decisions rather than anything happening on the field. [Read more 🡒]
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Preston got the start over Marsh in a recent game, and both receivers saw their playing time increase as Indiana works through the early stages of that evaluation. The message from the coaching staff has been about consistency and adaptability, not just talent, which means the competition in that room is far from settled. Second-year receiver Lebron Bond has also been sidelined by injury and missed the game against Howard, adding another layer to a position group that is still taking shape. [Read more 🡒]