Indiana Football is 3-0. The Hoosiers have back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 1993. They just extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 19 games with a 38-0 win over Western Kentucky on Saturday. The Hoosiers end the three-game non-conference slate unscathed and undefeated, while Big Ten heavyweights Ohio State and Oregon now each carry a loss. By most measures, this is the best three-game start that Curt Cignetti has had in his three years at Indiana.
Yet I still get a nagging feeling that this isn’t the version of Hoover Indiana needs him to be to go back-to-back. Hoover didn’t play poorly against Western Kentucky; he finished 18-of-24 for 273 yards, two touchdowns, and still no turnovers, which was the biggest cause for concern entering this season. Stats aside, the incompletions show a different story. If these inconsistencies don’t improve by the time Indiana faces that three-game gauntlet in the middle of the season against Nebraska, Ohio State, and Michigan, it might end up costing Indiana their crown.
Hoover’s imperfect start has added an uneasy feeling for Indiana fans, who are still learning how to become a fanbase at the top of college football. A fanbase that now comes into a season with expectations of success.
What does success look like? Well, to some Indiana fans, success is now perfection. It's a fanbase that hasn’t experienced a loss since 2024 and has basked in the glory of 19 straight wins, a national championship, a conference championship, and the program’s first-ever Heisman Trophy winner. The Indiana football program has never faced more pressure to succeed than it does now. And no individual feels that pressure more than Josh Hoover; his start in Bloomington might say 3-0, but his performances have looked far from perfect.
Against Western Kentucky, Hoover sailed a ball over Nick Marsh’s head that was a walk-in Indiana touchdown. He threw a pass that was high and behind Charlie Becker on a third down. He missed an open Shazz Preston on a third down, and followed it up with a worse incompletion on fourth down intended for Marsh. Hoover missed three different receivers in three different ways: overthrown balls, underthrown passes, and passes behind his receivers.
“There were a couple I would like to have back,” Hoover said. “There was the fourth down to Nick where I just threw behind him, there was the vertical where I threw it off his fingertips, and there was the one to T Mo (Tyler Morris) down here that I thought I could’ve put a foot farther and maybe had a chance to score.”
Even on Hoover's 79-yard touchdown pass to Becker, he underthrew the deep ball and forced Becker to slow down and make a read on it, instead of hitting him in stride. Hoover looks like he hasn’t found the confidence to step up in the pocket and find consistent timing with his wideouts.
Hoover was honest about the development that needs to happen before Friday’s conference-opener against Northwestern and knows he’s capable: “I know I can make those plays, and I’ve made those plays over the last couple of years, and I will make those plays.” Hoover said
Hoover wasn’t just critical of his own missed throws. When asked about what is separating good performances from great ones through the non-conference schedule, Hoover kept his high standards:
“I think the first two weeks we were really explosive. We made a lot of big plays with very few amounts of plays, right?” Hoover said. “But today, we kind of fell short, in my opinion. And like I've said, two or three of those, I know that I can improve and convert on those plays. I expect myself to. I hold myself to a higher standard than anyone. And I'm gonna make those plays.”
Indiana outscored Western Kentucky 31-0 after the break, and Cignetti credited the defense as the main reason for the momentum. That’s been Indiana’s early-season blueprint: let Bryant Haines’ defense set the tone, and have Hoover and the offense put the game away. It worked through three nonconference games, albeit against North Texas, Howard, and Western Kentucky; we will find out in less than a week how that game plan works against a Big Ten foe.
Northwestern on Friday night is the first of nine conference games, but finally the stakes are real for Hoover. Northwestern will travel to Bloomington as an undefeated opponent, and while they aren’t as scary as Nebraska, Ohio State, and Michigan, they pose more of a threat to Hoover than he’s experienced through three games. If Hoover sends a ball sailing over a receiver's head on Friday, he could get burnt, and for the first time this season, he might face some real adversity.
We are still a couple of weeks away from Indiana’s big three-game test. In those matchups, it will matter whether he can drive the ball accurately to all three levels under pressure. Especially if he can do it without leaning on the same defense that's carried Indiana through three shutout-or-near-shutout performances to start the year.
Josh Hoover has to be precise on Friday; he has to be the version of himself this fanbase is waiting on, whether it's fair to ask for or not. Indiana controls the nation’s longest winning streak and the crown of college football for a reason. Curt Cignetti didn’t set a winning standard by accident, and he’s not going to lower his expectations for a singular player, especially his starting quarterback, who is still finding his footing in his first season in Bloomington. Hoover knows what Indiana as a team is capable of, and he knows what he is capable of as a quarterback: Perfection. At its best, Indiana can be the best team in the country; whether Hoover can get this team back to where they were last year remains up in the air and may start to get answered on Friday night as Indiana kicks off Big Ten play.
