No. 7 Indiana remains unbeaten, but its toughest tests are not yet in the rearview mirror.
This Saturday, the Hoosiers will challenge the Nebraska Cornhuskers on the road at noon inside Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Indiana and Nebraska have experienced a very similar first five weeks of the season, given that both teams are 5-0 against relatively weak competition, but expect to achieve great amounts of success by the end of the year.
“Impressive. Impressive football team,” Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti said about Nebraska on Monday. “We’ll have to play really well.”
Big Ten championship game and College Football Playoff implications hinge on this matchup.
A few important positional matchups that could factor into the result:
Indiana’s defensive front vs. Nebraska quarterback Anthony Colandrea
Similar to Northwestern’s Aidan Chiles, Anthony Colandrea is a dual-threat quarterback, a player prototype that Indiana historically struggles with more than many others.
Chiles broke free for multiple first downs in week four, turning negative situations into positive plays. Colandrea is well-equipped to do the same, and represents a trio of Big Ten quarterbacks who rank inside the top five in the conference in rushing yards and host the Hoosiers this season.
Colandrea has tallied the second-most rushing yards amongst Big Ten quarterbacks this season, behind only Wisconsin’s Colton Joseph. Michigan’s Bryce Underwood and Washington’s Demond Williams Jr. are the other two quarterbacks on Indiana’s away schedule who are amongst the top five quarterbacks in the Big Ten in rushing yards.
If Nebraska upsets Indiana, Colandrea’s legs would likely be a major reason why. If Indiana can’t contain Colandrea, he may gash the Hoosiers on the ground, saving doomed drives and turning them into prime scoring opportunities in the process.
“He’s very talented,” Cignetti said about Colandrea. “He’s savvy, first of all, and I think he sees the field really well, and he’s very mobile and elusive too. So if there’s nothing there, he has the ability to create plays with his arm and his legs.”
If Indiana can’t corral dual-threat quarterbacks, finishing a second straight season undefeated will be an extremely tall task, especially with all of those matchups against elite running quarterbacks occurring on the road.
Colandrea is the best of the trio, and the first of the trio the Hoosiers are set to face.
Whether or not Indiana can contain him is the critical question the Hoosiers must answer in order to ensure their undefeated record remains intact.
Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover vs. pressure and noise away from home
Indiana hasn’t experienced a matchup quite so anticipated and important as this one yet this season, and subsequently, this is the grandest stage transfer quarterback Josh Hoover has competed on as a Hoosier.
As simple as it sounds, this game could go down to the wire. Last year, Indiana went on the road five times in the regular season, and the Hoosiers either trailed or were tied with the opposition in the fourth quarter of three of them. Indiana beat Iowa 20-15, Oregon 30-20 and Penn State 27-24.
In short, when away from home, last year’s team needed to execute in clutch time in order to win. That version of the Hoosiers did exactly that, and ended the regular season undefeated. This year’s team may need to do the same as soon as this week against Nebraska, and this year’s quarterback may need to deliver under pressure in a rowdy environment.
It’ll be loud in Lincoln, and Indiana is practicing with artificial crowd noise to prepare.
“I think it doesn't cut off communication,” offensive lineman Joe Brunner said about the preparatory artificial crowd noise, “but it allows us to get onto the silent count and get used to that. It's super helpful to have that here because we're not totally blind going into it.”
Indiana may need to lead a daring drive to claim victory in the fourth quarter, and it may need to do so silently, under pressure applied by of thousands of surrounding Cornhuskers.
Hoover can handle that, he just needs to prove it. Notably, when Indiana traveled to Rutgers last week, he was awesome. Against the Scarlet Knights, Hoover completed his first 10 pass attempts in a pass-heavy first few drives, and completed 21-of-27 passes for 251 yards and four touchdowns by the end of the night. Hoover didn't turn the ball over, and unlatched his proverbial trebuchet when he hit wide receiver Charlie Becker in stride for a 48-yard gain.
Hoover was in rhythm against Rutgers, and if he can carry that success into Nebraska, the Hoosiers could be in prime position to pick up a quality win away from home.
An arduous stretch of the schedule begins
Indiana’s survival of a scare against Northwestern was a noteworthy result, but the Hoosiers haven’t faced the majority of their most difficult opponents.
That changes this weekend, when the road trip to Nebraska begins a stretch of the schedule that is arguably Indiana’s toughest. Without a bye week in between, after the road trip to Nebraska, the Hoosiers host No. 5 Ohio State (4-1) before traveling to Michigan (3-2).
This is the sequence that determines whether or not Indiana is poised to return to the heights it reached a year ago, and it starts this Saturday.
Nebraska is certainly ready to accept the challenge.
