Indiana kept the good times rolling today, securing the week one win as the new sign for the 2025 National Championship was unveiled in Memorial Stadium.
As with week one last year, today’s effort was far from perfect. The defense did not appear to be as dominant as man expected, especially up front. Tayven Jackson played well, but that was in part because he was only sacked once, mostly passing from a clean pocket today.
The Curt Cignetti experience (should have) taught us that these are not things
to panic about, though. So long as none of the injuries today were long term, there’s no reason to doubt that this staff can straighten things out before the schedule gets tough.
Here are 3 things we learned from today’s game:
Injuries (?)
Indiana was without three players who were all projected to be major contributors in the second half, as Khobie Martin, A.J. Harris, and Jamari Sharpe all missed the final 30 minutes. The extent of any of the three injuries is unknown at this point.
Missing your top two corners makes it hard to evaluate the defensive backfield, but it’s clear that Indiana will need Sharpe and Harris to reach its potential on that side of the ball. Martin’s injury was easier for the offense to sustain, but the running game also left something to be desired today.
Missing Sharpe and Harris long term would seriously hurt Indiana’s season outlook. That said, it was also over 100 degrees at the field level today, so the staff would have been justified in being overly cautious with a trio of three starters at key positions.
The health of Sharpe and Harris is probably the the biggest storyline to monitor coming out of week one. Injuries weren’t a huge factor for Indiana last year, but could be early in 2026 if those two miss time.
Josh Hoover
One week into the season, the already-overblown Fernando Mendoza/Josh Hoover comparison appears even more forced than it did coming into the year.
Hoover looked great today, completing 13 of his 16 passes for 231 yards and four touchdowns. Not every throw he made was perfect, but Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh bailed him out, combining for three touchdowns and a couple of highlight-reel catches that will keep Big Ten defensive coordinators up at night.
The level of competition makes it hard to make a conclusive judgment on Hoover, but he made a good impression with his willingness to play through what looked like a broken nose that he sustained on a face mask penalty in the first half.
Some of his decisions were a little questionable and could result in turnovers when the competition amps up, but today, he demonstrated that Indiana is more than okay with him taking shots downfield and giving his receivers a chance to make plays.
The Defense
The elephant in the room today, aside from potential injuries, is that the defense looked nothing close to what many expected coming into the season. The line failed to put pressure on Tayven Jackson, the backfield struggled in coverage, and North Texas kept everyone off-balance with the option play.
All of this might be cause for concern if not for how much it resembled last year’s defensive start, which saw Old Dominion’s Colton Joseph break off multiple explosive plays for touchdowns. Bryant Haines got his group in shape last year and will have every opportunity to do the same this year.
Cignetti is not one for excuses, but if he were, you might consider that the heat kept guys from playing their normal snap counts and the fact that this iteration of North Texas had put zero offense on film prior to today.
Add in the difficulty that comes with planning around the uncertain eligibility of Kellan Wyatt and Stephen Daley and there are plenty of reasons that this defense wouldn’t have looked like it should have today. Again, Cignetti is not an excuse guy, but there are enough potential excuses for me to feel comfortable with what I saw this week from the defense.
