The sixth-ranked Indiana football team is coming off a bye week and will play No. 18 Southern Cal on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
After playing nine straight weekends, wide receiver Charlie Becker said his team welcomed the week off.
“I think the bye week came at a perfect time. I know a lot of the guys after a lot of weeks of football are a little banged up, a little bruised,” Becker said. “Coach did a great job of settling us down and kind of giving our bodies time to rest over the bye week.”
The bye week comes on the heels of consecutive overtime wins over Michigan and Minnesota.
Indiana had not gone to overtime since coach Curt Cignetti arrived in 2024.
Defensive back Preston Zachman said those wins revealed something to him about the team.
“I think that the biggest lesson for me is just that as long as there's time left on the clock, we're still in it,” Zachman said. “We're going to keep swinging. We're going to keep fighting, and we're just going to keep fighting and swinging and see what happens at the end.”
CFP alters format
This week, the College Football Playoff announced an expansion to a 24-team format beginning next season and the elimination of conference championship games.
Indiana is the reigning Big Ten champion after defeating Ohio State in Indianapolis last season. The Hoosiers control their own destiny to make the final Big Ten Championship this December.
Becker said his team is not worried about hypotheticals.
“To be honest with you, we're not focused on the Big Ten Championship at all. We're really focused on USC,” Becker said. “We really got to focus on winning each game, and right now our opponent's USC. If the Big Ten Championship comes, then we'll focus on that.”
Last season’s Big Ten Championship was the first step in a storybook postseason for the Hoosiers.
This year, it may be their only path to the College Football Playoff.
Despite not playing last weekend, the College Football Playoff selection committee dropped Indiana five spots to No.9. That leaves Indiana with little margin for error in pursuit of another playoff run.
“I try not to get into what it means moving forward, or even what happened in the past,” Zachman said. “We're focused on this week, and we're trying to beat USC this week.”
Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on CBS.