The national champs are coming to Piscataway, and Rutgers has to answer a whole lot of questions before they show up.
Bush’s Picks
IURUTG
IURUTG
OverUnder
Best BetIndiana
Indiana enters as the defending national champion with a battle-tested grad-transfer quarterback in Josh Hoover, while Rutgers still hasn't settled its own QB competition. That gap in certainty alone makes the Hoosiers the play here, even on the road against a Big Ten foe that's won the last 3 meetings in this series.
Indiana
+Defending national champion, elite coaching staff
+Grad-transfer QB Hoover brings 31 career starts
+Added 5-star WR and proven transfer RB
−Replacing Heisman winner and No. 1 NFL pick
−Unproven backup QB depth behind Hoover
−Rutgers has won last 3 meetings in series
Rutgers
+Boston College transfer Lonergan brings starting experience
+OC Ciarrocca entering 4th year, staff continuity
+Home crowd for a marquee non-conference-feel test
−Missed bowl eligibility, declined bid in 2025
−QB competition still unsettled this late in offseason
−Thin receiver depth after offseason losses
Indiana rolls into Week 5 as the reigning national champion, and Rutgers is staring down the kind of measuring-stick game programs dream about and dread at the same time. The Hoosiers went 16-0 last season and beat Miami for the title, a run nobody outside Bloomington saw coming a year earlier. Now they're the hunted, and Rutgers gets first crack on its own turf.
Indiana's whole operation looks different than the one that hoisted the trophy. Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman winner who went No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft, is gone, and TCU grad-transfer Josh Hoover is the new answer at quarterback. He's got 31 career starts and nearly 9,700 career passing yards, so this isn't a total leap of faith, but replacing a No. 1 pick is still replacing a No. 1 pick. Curt Cignetti stays on the sideline, and Indiana added Boston College running back Turbo Richard and 5-star receiver Monshun Sales to keep the machine humming.
Show fees
7:00 PM CT
Spread
ML
Total
IU Indiana
RUTG Rutgers
Rutgers, meanwhile, is trying to climb out of a 5-7 season that ended with the program turning down a bowl bid. Greg Schiano's quarterback room is wide open this offseason, with returning sophomore AJ Surace battling Boston College transfer Dylan Lonergan for the job, and OC Kirk Ciarrocca has said it'll be settled strictly by practice reps. Whoever wins that competition inherits a receiver room that lost pieces this offseason with little portal reinforcement to show for it.
Indiana Hoosiers
Sep 25?vs Northwestern—
Sep 19?vs Western Kentucky—
Sep 12?vs Howard—
Sep 5?vs North Texas—
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Sep 25?vs Howard—
Sep 19?vs USC—
Sep 11?@ Boston College—
Sep 3?vs Massachusetts—
Recent form.
History says this isn't automatic for Indiana. Rutgers has actually won the last 3 meetings in this series, including a 38-3 blowout in 2021, and the all-time series sits dead even at 5-5. That context matters for atmosphere and stakes, even if the two rosters are pointed in very different directions right now — Indiana carrying preseason No. 1 buzz nationally, Rutgers trying to prove 2025 was the outlier and not the new normal.
Indiana Hoosiers
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
The bigger story for Rutgers isn't who's hurt, it's who's throwing the ball. An unsettled QB race this deep into an offseason is never an ideal sign heading into a game against a defending champion with a proven grad transfer under center. For Indiana, the concern runs the other way: can a roster that turned over at quarterback and running back replicate the chemistry that carried it to 16-0, or does early-season rust show up against a Big Ten opponent playing at home with something to prove?
