BLOOMINGTON, IN. — On the heels of college football’s biggest game of the week between the Indiana Hoosiers and Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday, the two teams have no love lost between them. The Big Ten standings and the College Football Playoff (CFP) picture are on the line, and neither team pretends their history is friendly.
Last season, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti and then-quarterback Fernando Mendoza led the Hoosiers past the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game. A year later, the rematch arrives with different faces at quarterback for Indiana and the same pressure on both sidelines.
Both teams are unbeaten against Big Ten opponents, and only one will leave Saturday with that record intact. The result could shape the Big Ten title race and the College Football Playoff seeding.
Ohio State is trying to run the table in the Big Ten. Indiana, now led by transfer quarterback Josh Hoover, is trying to stop the Buckeyes again.
No conversation about Ohio State this week gets far without Jeremiah Smith. The Buckeyes’ star receiver has been the country’s most dominant pass-catcher, breaking school and collegiate records on a path that points toward a Heisman Trophy appearance in New York City later this year.
Cignetti didn’t dodge the subject at his weekly press conference. He called Smith’s recent production the product of a player who has raised his own standard.
“He’s taken it up a notch, without question,” Cignetti told reporters. “I think he has nine touchdown catches in the last three P4 games.“
He emphasized that no receiver in college football is playing at Smith’s level right now.
“There’s no one like him right now playing at this level,” Cignetti said. “I mean, we’ve got two really good ones. He’s a freak, and we’re going to have to do a great job on him.“
Cignetti’s approach rarely centers on one opposing player, and he kept the focus broader than Smith. But he also can’t ignore what Smith can do to a defense, especially in a game where one explosive play can swing the outcome and a loss would cost the Hoosiers their spot atop the Big Ten.
Indiana will lean on Hoover and its offense to keep pace. The defense will have to find a way to contain a receiver who has made a habit of beating good coverage, while the stakes rise with every possession.
What to Watch Saturday
Smith’s incredible talent against the Hoosiers’ secondary. Indiana’s plan for him will shape the whole afternoon—Hoover’s first big test. The transfer quarterback faces the Big Ten’s marquee matchup of the season. Big Ten and Playoff stakes. The winner takes a major step toward the conference title game and a better CFP seed.
With last year’s title-game rematch still fresh and Smith’s Heisman case growing each week, the matchup has the kind of tension that usually belongs in December.
