For the first time in school history, Ohio State will play three top-five games in a regular season.
#5 Indiana
Hoosiers
The third top-five foe of the bunch is easily the most surprising, at least if you told someone it'd be a top-five opponent before the season. Indiana heads to the Horseshoe unbeaten at 10-0 for the first time in its school history. The bout between the No. 2 Buckeyes and No. 5 Hoosiers will likely determine who plays No. 1 Oregon for the Big Ten Championship two weeks later.
A win would also all but secure a berth in the College Football Playoff for Ohio State, which Indiana is already in good shape for, especially given that it plays arguably the worst team in the Big Ten, Purdue, to close its regular season.
The Hoosiers haven't played a ranked team but have dominated most of the unranked opponents they've faced. The only one-score game they've played is a 20-15 win over Michigan on Nov. 9. Indiana has been prolific on both offense and defense, all led by a program savior from James Madison.
Coach Cig Smoking Everyone
Curt Cignetti is a late bloomer in the head coaching ranks, becoming a head coach for the first time at age 50 with D-II Indiana University at Pennsylvania in 2011. But oh my, he's blossomed.
After going 53-17 in six years at IUP, he went to FCS Elon in 2017 and captured the team's first winning season in seven years, going 8-4. Then in 2019, he landed the James Madison job that truly drew some eyeballs to his acumen.
Cignetti reached the semifinals of the FCS playoffs each of his first three years with the Dukes, then James Madison moved up to compete with the big boys in the FBS, joining the Sun Belt Conference. Cignetti and his crew went 8-3 their first year in the Sun Belt before an 11-2 campaign last year, though the head coach wasn't there for the second loss in the Armed Forces Bowl. Instead, he was already filling Indiana's head coaching vacancy following the firing of Tom Allen.
A Pittsburgh native, Cignetti wasted no time showcasing his confident personality to Indiana fans, delivering a rousing speech to a packed crowd at Assembly Hall, the school's basketball arena, in December.
"I've never taken a backseat to anybody and don't plan on starting now," Cignetti said. "Purdue sucks. But so do Michigan and Ohio State."
Cignetti's brash talk continued at Big Ten Media Days in July, but more than talking that talk, the Hoosiers have walked the walk in 2024. Above it was stated that Indiana hasn't gone 10-0 in its school history, but that's not the entire truth. Indiana hasn't won 10 games in a season in school history. But the hype started building when the Crimson and Cream went on the road and trounced UCLA 42-13 in Week 3.
It wasn't the last blowout distributed by Indiana to a mid-tier conference foe. The Hoosiers hosed Nebraska 56-7 and Michigan State 47-10 on the road. They picked up a 42-28 victory against Maryland and a 41-24 win at Northwestern.
With the Sahara-hot start to his Indiana tenure, Cignetti's career coaching record is up to 129-35, a winning percentage of .787.
Duke of Rourke
Quarterback Kurtis Rourke is the centerpiece of Indiana's team. (Credit: Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Veteran quarterback transfers have been a staple of surging college football teams in recent years. Washington snagged Michael Penix from Indiana ahead of 2022 and made a run all the way to the CFP National Championship Game in 2023. Penix threw for 4,903 yards and finished second in Heisman Trophy voting in his sixth-year senior season.
In 2024, it's Indiana that has a sixth-year senior transfer quarterback leading it to new heights, Kurtis Rourke. Rourke emerged as a star in the MAC with Ohio in 2022, completing 69.1% of his passes for 3,257 yards and 25 touchdowns with just four interceptions.
Rourke's numbers dipped a little in 2023, but he's resurged since landing in Bloomington for his final collegiate campaign. His completion percentage, 71.8%, is sixth across the FBS. He's not achieving that number with dink-and-dunk passes either, as his 10.1 yards per attempt ranks second nationally.
On the whole, Rourke has 2,410 yards, 21 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He's had three 300-yard performances this year, including a 380-yard, three-touchdown day at Northwestern. He had four touchdown outings against both UCLA and Michigan State, and he didn't throw a pick in either of those games.
Transfer Portal Tutelage
Rourke is the chief example of how Cignetti quickly found such success with the Hoosiers. This offseason, he taught a masterclass on how to build a roster through the transfer portal.
Indiana brought in 31 players from the portal, including 16 of its 22 current offensive and defensive starters. Indiana's leading passer, rusher, receiver, tackler, sack collector and pass-breakup gatherer are all transfers.
Thirteen of the 31 transfers followed Cignetti from James Madison to Indiana. That includes arguably the Hoosiers' three best portal pickups outside of Rourke; wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, linebacker Aiden Fisher and defensive end Mikail Kamara.
More info on Fisher and Kamara will follow in the upcoming section on Indiana's defense, but Sarratt's been a star for the Hoosiers out wide. He's racked up 38 receptions for 685 yards and six touchdowns, all team highs. Thanks in part to his efforts and Rourke's, Indiana is No. 3 in the country for passing yards per attempt at 9.9.
Indiana's running back tandem of Justice Ellison and Ty Son Lawton comes from Wake Forest and James Madison, respectively. Ellison has 120 carries for 686 yards (5.7 per carry) and nine touchdowns while Lawton has 106 carries for 508 yards (4.8 per carry) and nine scores.
Behind an offensive line that features former James Madison left guard Tyler Stephens and former Wisconsin right tackle Trey Wedig, Indiana holds the No. 2 scoring offense nationally (43.9 points per game) and the No. 15 total offense (453.2 yards per game).
Fished Up a Fine Defense
Aiden Fisher has emerged as one of the best linebackers in the Big Ten. (Credit: Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images)
Indiana's top-tier offensive production is matched with a stout defense. The Hoosiers rank No. 7 in scoring defense (13.8 points allowed per game) and No. 3 in total defense (255.5 yards allowed per game).
The most impressive of all Indiana's defensive numbers is its rushing yards allowed per game, though. The Hoosiers allow just 72.2 yards per contest to opposing ground games, No. 1 in the country by a margin of 7.7 yards. That doesn't happen without great linebacker play, and Fisher has played like one of the nation's best.
Fisher is tied for second in the Big Ten with 98 tackles, adding 3.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. He had 108 takedowns with the Dukes in 2023. The Hoosiers' defensive front is plenty disruptive too, spearheaded by Kamara, who leads the Big Ten with 9.5 sacks and is second with 14.5 tackles for loss.
Indiana's secondary isn't to be slept on, either. The Hoosiers are tied for seventh nationally with 5.8 yards allowed per pass attempt. Safety Amare Ferrell – one of the team's few stars who isn't a transfer – leads the way with four interceptions. Linebacker Jailin Walker is another player to watch for, second on the team in tackles with 59 and excellent in pass coverage with six PBUs.
For or Against History
Ohio State has competed atop the Big Ten since its founding, and with that comes a lot of winning streaks over the perennial members of the league. But there is no winning streak longer than the one the Buckeyes are currently on against the Hoosiers.
From 1991 through 2023, Ohio State won 28 consecutive games over Indiana. Its longest winning stretch otherwise came against Northwestern from 1972 through 2003, and that was only 24 games long. The Hoosiers haven't actually beaten the Buckeyes in the last 30 meetings between the two sides, as the two sides tied in 1990 after an OSU win in 1989.
Indiana's last win over Ohio State came in 1988, a 41-7 win by coach Bill Mallory against Jon Cooper. The last win for the Hoosiers in Ohio Stadium was in 1987, a 31-10 win for Mallory over Earle Bruce in his final season. Ryan Day is 5-0 against the Hoosiers, with wins of 54-7, 56-14 and 23-3 in the last three seasons.
Win 29 for Ohio State will have to come against an Indiana team that is better than any of the 28 that came before. Cignetti's already made history with the Hoosiers this season, but the Buckeyes must ensure that series history repeats itself on Saturday.
