Indiana’s first real test in Big Ten play arrives Friday night, and it comes with no shortage of offensive firepower on the other side.
The No. 5 Hoosiers are 3-0 for the third straight year under Curt Cignetti, and they’ve done it by blowing past their nonconference schedule.
Indiana beat North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky by an average of 43 points, while also stringing together back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 1993. Through three games, the Hoosiers are averaging nearly 50 points a night and looking every bit like a team that can score in bunches on the ground or through the air.
Redshirt senior quarterback Josh Hoover has been at the center of that start. He’s completing 72.5% of his passes with 10 touchdowns and no interceptions, even with some uneven moments in the Week 3 win over the Hilltoppers. Cignetti made his stance plain Monday.
“I think there is too much scrutiny on Josh Hoover right now,” Cignetti said at a press conference Monday. “I'm glad he's our quarterback.”
Indiana’s backfield has its own breakout name in junior Turbo Richard. He ranks among the Big Ten’s top five in both rushing yards, with 315, and rushing touchdowns, with four, even while sharing work with redshirt senior Lee Beebe Jr. Beebe has gotten six more carries, but Richard has been the more explosive runner by a wide margin, averaging more than three yards per rush better and producing 12 runs of 10 yards or more to Beebe’s five.
The bigger shift for Indiana, though, has come on defense. The Hoosiers gave up some chunk plays to North Texas and allowed 16 points in that opener, but since then they have not given up a point. That matters because the Big Ten is a different animal, even for a unit that allowed the second-fewest points per game in the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2025.
“We're very critical of ourselves on defense,” redshirt senior linebacker Isaiah Jones said Tuesday. “We want to see what our weaknesses are so we can perform better, so we can fix those as the season goes on. The team you're playing with in Week 12 isn't the team you're playing with in Week 1 and Week 5.”
Jones now leads the Hoosiers in tackles in his first season wearing the green dot, a responsibility Aiden Fisher handled during the first two years of the Cignetti era. Up front, redshirt senior defensive lineman Tobi Osunsanmi has been disruptive with a team-best 4.5 tackles for loss, and he shares the sack lead with redshirt freshman Keishaun Calhoun at two apiece.
Northwestern, though, brings a very different kind of challenge to Bloomington. The Wildcats are 2-0 and averaging 37.5 points per game after a 41-7 demolition of Colorado. David Braun, who won Big Ten Coach of the Year before Cignetti collected back-to-back honors, rebuilt Northwestern from one win to 8-5 in a single season, and the Wildcats have not matched that 2023 total since.
At the center of their attack is senior quarterback Aidan Chiles, a familiar name for Indiana. He transferred to Northwestern from Michigan State, where he saw the Hoosiers in each of the last two seasons. Chiles was the first quarterback ever to help a team take the lead on a Cignetti-coached Indiana squad, connecting with future Hoosier wide receiver Nick Marsh for an 18-yard touchdown and a 10-0 edge in 2024 before Indiana ripped off the final 47 points.
He caused more problems in October 2025 in Bloomington, slipping out of the pocket repeatedly and even breaking off a 64-yard designed quarterback run.
Now at Northwestern, Chiles has kept doing damage as both a passer and a runner. In two games, he has 514 passing yards, four passing touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns.
“He'll drop back, play-action, out-of-pocket, multiple formations, personnel groupings, spread the ball in the pass game,” Cignetti said. “Hasn't thrown an interception yet all season long and can extend plays, tuck it and run, which we saw.
I think he broke one for about 60 on us last year. He's a really good player.”
His top target is senior wide receiver Griffin Wilde, with the two connecting eight times for 189 yards. Graduate running back Joseph Himon II has been especially dangerous near the goal line, catching touchdowns on three of his four receptions. On the ground, graduate running back Gavin Sawchuk and redshirt junior Caleb Komolafe have handled most of the workload, combining for 212 yards on 41 carries, though they have only one touchdown between them.
Indiana’s defense has cruised through the opening month, but Northwestern will ask far more of it. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. Friday at Memorial Stadium.
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