It’s ring season around Ohio State.
#2 Indiana
Hoosiers
The No. 1 Buckeyes collected their first pair of Gold Pants since 2019 by beating Michigan in dominant 27-9 fashion in The Big House on Saturday. Now the objective is to capture the school’s first Big Ten championship since the 2020 season in this team’s toughest test yet, clashing with No. 2 Indiana in Indianapolis.
Ohio State and Indiana are the last two unbeaten teams remaining in college football. The Hoosiers earned their keep in the regular season, beating No. 6 Oregon on the road and surviving another tough test at Iowa. On paper, they’re the most complete team in the country outside of Ohio State, ranked in the top 15 nationally for yards per carry, yards per carry allowed, yards per pass attempt and yards per pass attempt allowed. Indiana has the No. 2 scoring and No. 5 total offense in the country, and the No. 2 scoring and No. 4 total defense in the nation as well.
It should make for an epic clash with the Big Ten championship, the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff and likely the Heisman Trophy all on the line.
“You can tell they're good evaluators of talent,” Ryan Day said on Sunday. “And then when you watch them play, they're well coached. They have a plan on how they want to attack you in all three phases and they're not going to beat themselves. So, you combine all those things together and you're looking at a program that has really made a lot of noise here in the last couple of years.”
The Sustained Success of Curt Cignetti
When Cignetti arrived in the Big Ten with talks of “Google me” and “Purdue sucks! So does Michigan and Ohio State,” folks thought it was all talk. When Indiana went 11-2 and made the CFP, only to get gobsmacked by the Buckeyes and Notre Dame, folks thought it was all a fluke. But his program’s taken another step and truly arrived among the elite of college football in 2025.
The Oregon win was proof. The continued ownership of all the Big Ten’s middling teams is proof. His new eight-year, $93 million contract extension is proof. The man is now 42-6 at the FBS level between James Madison and Indiana.
Day credits Cignetti’s success, in part, to growing up in a football family. As long as it has Cignetti, Indiana is a likely perennial Big Ten contender. And there’s a good chance he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
“I know people laugh about some of the comments he makes about ‘Google him’ and all that, but it's true,” Day said. “He's been around football his whole life, and it just makes sense to him. He's been around it, been around winning football. And certainly, you see the guys on his staff, they stay with him for a long time. And that says a lot about your culture, when your coaches wanna be with you and stick with you. So, I got a lot of respect for him as well. And certainly, now it's been great to see him as a competitor in the conference in such a short period of time.”
Heismendoza?
One reason for skepticism about how Cignetti could sustain his 2024 successes was the loss of some of his talent from that team. Namely, quarterback Kurtis Rourke. It turns out the Hoosiers got even better at that position in 2025.
Fernando Mendoza is setting skies ablaze this season. He’s third in the country in yards per pass attempt at 9.4. He’s fifth in the country in completion percentage at 72%. He leads the nation in touchdown passes at 32, with just five interceptions. And Day isn’t sleeping on Mendoza as a rushing threat, either, as the quarterback has a sack-adjusted 58 carries for 271 yards (4.7 yards per carry) and six touchdowns on the ground, making him responsible for 38 total scores this season.
“One, he looks very intelligent in terms of his ability to identify, pre- and post-snap, (the defensive) scheme, makes those decisions as well.” Day said. “He's accurate. Probably, I call it sneaky athletic, where maybe you don't look at him as a dual-threat, but he makes a lot of plays with his feet, can extend. And he looks like a great leader to me when I've listened to him speak. So, it'll be a really good challenge for our defense, for our team.”
There are weapons out wide for Mendoza to target, too, perhaps the top receiver tandem in the Big Ten outside of Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate. Omar Cooper Jr. has 58 receptions for 804 yards and 11 touchdowns, while Elijah Sarratt returned from a third-team All-Big Ten campaign in 2024 to post 48 receptions for 650 yards and 11 touchdowns in just 10 games so far this season.
Mendoza leads in Heisman Trophy odds on DraftKings at +125, but Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin – who just set the NCAA record for regular-season completion percentage at 78.9% – is right behind him at +135. With voters now required to wait until conference championship game weekend to submit their ballots, the Big Ten title game is likely to decide the Heisman Trophy, assuming both have comparable performances or the winner outperforms the loser.
Excellent Run Game
All the focus for Ohio State’s defense can’t go to Mendoza and his receiving weapons, because Indiana also runs the football fantastically.
The Hoosiers are No. 11 nationally in yards per carry at 5.6. They have a bona fide tandem at running back in Roman Hemby and Kaelon Black. Hemby has 163 carries for 866 yards (5.3 YPC) and six touchdowns; Black has 127 carries for 729 yards (5.7 YPC) and seven touchdowns. Khobie Martin supports them as a change-of-pace back with 69 rushes for 453 yards (6.6 YPC) and six scores.
It’s all anchored by an offensive line of five upperclassmen starters, including left tackle Carter Smith Jr., a player from Ohio State’s backyard in Lewis Center, Ohio. They’ve not only paved the way for that above-mentioned rushing efficiency, but also allowed just 15 sacks on the year, the 19th-fewest in the country.
The Hoosiers haven’t seen anything like the Buckeyes’ defensive front or defense in general, the No. 1 scoring and total defense in the country. But this will also be the best offense Ohio State has seen all year.
Ferocious Defensive Front
Indiana defensive end Stephen Daley (Photo: Grace Hollars/IndyStar/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
On the flipside, Indiana has a great front six of its own. Each starter in the front holds an impressive résumé.
Perhaps the most impressive is defensive end Stephen Daley, who’s managed to outshine 2024 first-team All-Big Ten performer Mikail Kamara at the position for Indiana this season. Daley has 35 tackles and 4.5 sacks this year, which is all well and good, but he adds 18 (!) tackles for loss, which leads the entire country. Kamara is still a threat but has had a quieter year with 25 tackles, 4.5 TFLs and one sack.
The Hoosiers’ sack leader is linebacker Rolijah Hardy, who adds a team-high 76 tackles to his seven quarterback takedowns with 11.5 total TFLs. 300-pound defensive tackle Tyrique Tucker is a menace with 30 tackles, 10 TFLs and 5.5 sacks this year. 2024 first-team All-American Aiden Fisher centers the charge at middle linebacker with 72 tackles, seven TFLs and 2.5 sacks. Even Indiana’s third linebacker, Isaiah Jones, has 12 TFLs and 5.5 sacks in 2025.
All told, Indiana is second in the Big Ten behind only Minnesota for sacks (34) and leads the conference in TFLs (103). It’s the No. 2 yard-per-carry defense in the conference as well (2.9), behind only Ohio State’s 2.8.
Pick-Hungry Secondary
Indiana’s secondary is great at limiting the damage of opposing passing attacks, ranked 11th nationally with 5.9 yards allowed per pass attempt, but it’s been especially good at being opportunistic. The Hoosiers have 16 interceptions this year, which is ninth in the country and second in the Big Ten behind Maryland’s 19.
With only six passing touchdowns allowed, Indiana’s pass defense leads the nation with a ratio of 2.7 interceptions per every touchdown.
Safety Louis Moore leads the charge with five picks, but also provides great run support with 68 tackles on the year. Fellow safety Amare Ferrell is right behind him with four interceptions, adding a team-high seven pass breakups. Fisher adds two picks, one he returned for a touchdown, while nickel Devan Boykin adds two too.
I know it’s strange for some to acknowledge about Indiana, but this is a true matchup game for Ohio State. The Buckeyes remain the best team in the country on paper, but the Hoosiers are the only squad nationally that’s comparable on those sheets of former tree. And paper isn’t where the games are played. It will all be settled in Lucas Oil Stadium in five days.
