The spotlight is about to get a lot hotter in Bloomington.
Ohio State heads to Memorial Stadium on Saturday at noon for a top-five showdown with Indiana, and the Buckeyes walk in knowing this is anything but a soft landing after a 45-16 win over Maryland. The No.
4 Buckeyes are 3.5-point favorites, but the challenge is obvious: the second half of the regular season opens with a 2025 Big Ten Championship Game rematch against the No. 5 Hoosiers, who are 6-0 and riding a 22-game win streak.
It’s also a meeting between the last two national champions, with Indiana coming off an undefeated run to the title a year ago. And for Ohio State, there’s still a fresh sting attached to this matchup.
The last time these teams met with hardware on the line, Indiana got the upper hand. Ohio State had a shot at the Big Ten crown in 2025, but fell 13-10 after being held scoreless in the second half.
Fernando Mendoza hit Elijah Sarratt on a 17-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, and Jayden Fielding’s 27-yard field goal try with 2:48 left sailed left of the uprights. The Buckeyes left that game demoralized, and Indiana’s march to the national championship only added to it.
Now Ohio State gets a crack at payback, and Indiana has its own streak to protect.
One of the main reasons the Hoosiers have stayed elite is the receiver duo on the outside. Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh give Indiana a pair of threats that can tilt a game quickly.
Becker has become a major force this season, posting 30 catches for 529 yards and eight touchdowns, after putting up 34 receptions for 679 yards and four scores a year ago. In the Big Ten Championship Game, he had six catches for 126 yards.
He’s firmly one of the nation’s top wideouts.
Marsh brings his own resume. After two seasons at Michigan State, where he finished with 100 catches, 1,311 yards and nine touchdowns, he transferred to Indiana and has already delivered 29 receptions for 528 yards and six touchdowns. He was quiet against Ohio State in 2024, but this year he’s been a steady weapon alongside Becker.
Indiana’s quarterback situation also tells you a lot about how the program is built now. After Fernando Mendoza arrived through the portal and helped launch last year’s title run before going on to win the Heisman Trophy and become the Las Vegas Raiders’ No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, the Hoosiers went back to the same formula and brought in Josh Hoover from TCU.
Hoover’s production at TCU was already established. From 2022-25, he threw for 9,629 yards and 71 touchdowns, both fourth in program history.
Through six games at Indiana, he has completed 88 of 129 passes for 1,364 yards, 17 touchdowns and no interceptions. He’s had stretches where he looks exactly like the kind of transfer quarterback Indiana wanted, and other moments where the inconsistency shows up.
Even so, he’s one of the more proven passers in the country, and Ohio State has to account for him.
Curt Cignetti’s time at Indiana has already produced a couple of heavyweight matchups with the Buckeyes. Ohio State handed him his first loss with the Hoosiers in 2024, rolling to a 38-15 win in Columbus when both teams were 10-0.
That day, TreVeyon Henderson and Will Howard scored on the ground, Emeka Egbuka and Jelani Thurman caught touchdowns, and Caleb Downs returned a punt for a score. After the game, Howard was clipped pretending to put out a cigarette in mockery of (Cig)netti.
This time, the meeting comes in Bloomington for the first time in Cignetti’s tenure.
And Indiana has still given Ohio State enough to worry about even beyond the headline names. The Hoosiers have paired those playmakers with a top-20 rushing offense and a defense that ranks among the nation’s best, allowing only 11.8 points per game.
But the last few weeks have also shown some vulnerability. Indiana opened the season by outscoring North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky by a combined 142-16, then had to survive Northwestern 29-23 and Nebraska 20-17, with a 47-15 win over Rutgers in between.
Northwestern is 25th in the AP Poll and Nebraska picked up 65 votes, with both losses coming against Indiana. Still, Ohio State will be the toughest opponent the Hoosiers have seen, while the Buckeyes have already faced ranked teams in Texas and Iowa. Saturday should tell us plenty about just how high Indiana’s ceiling really is.
In Other News...
Ohio State Just Turned Up The Heat On Two Committed 2027 Targets
A Maryland weekend at Ohio State turned into more than just another recruiting stop, as the Buckeyes used the visit to push harder with a pair of committed 2027 prospects. Linebacker James Conrad and running back Kingston Allen both left Columbus with scholarship offers from Ohio State, adding two more names to a class that has already started to draw national attention well before the cycle gets serious.
Conrad, who is committed to Buffalo, picked up his first Power 4 offer from the Buckeyes, while Allen, a Wisconsin pledge, added Ohio State to a growing list of programs chasing him. Both are highly regarded players with strong high school rsums, and the Buckeyes are now firmly in the mix even before either one has reached the point where most recruiting battles really take shape. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Suddenly Faces A Tougher Indiana Test Than Expected
Indiana has quietly put itself in a better position than many expected heading into its Big Ten meeting with Ohio State. The Hoosiers are mostly healthy, with tight end Andrew Barker the only long-term injured starter, and theyve also gotten a lift from the returns of defensive end Daniel Ndukwe and A.J. Harris. Those reinforcements have helped stabilize a defense that looks a lot sturdier than it did earlier in the season.
Ohio State, meanwhile, is carrying a longer injury list into the matchup, with issues along the offensive line and among several receivers and defenders. For a Buckeyes team that usually expects to dictate terms, that matters because it can complicate both protection and depth in a game where every healthy body counts. Indiana may still be the underdog, but it suddenly has the kind of availability edge that can make a November road test far less comfortable than projected. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Faces A Bigger Test Than Fans Might Think
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti knows exactly what is waiting for his team when it lines up against No. 4 Ohio State, and he spent part of the buildup acknowledging just how difficult the assignment is. With Ryan Day on the sideline and Jeremiah Smith driving the offense, the Buckeyes bring the kind of firepower and consistency that has made them one of the most reliable powers in the College Football Playoff era, and Indiana is treating the matchup like the kind of test that can expose almost any weakness.
Ohio State also appears to be getting healthier at the right time, with several starters expected back after sitting out the previous game, while Indiana recently regained defensive back A.J. Harris. That sets up a game with more than enough talent on both sides to make things interesting, but the larger question is whether Indiana can withstand the Buckeyes long enough to turn it into the kind of contest Cignetti believes it needs to be. [Read more 🡒]