Is Indiana Already Better Than Last Year’s National Champion?

Indiana lost a Heisman Trophy quarterback from a 16–0 national champion, replaced him through the transfer portal and somehow looks less fragile.

Is this team already better than the one that won everything?

The schedule says slow down. Charlotte, Howard and Western Kentucky are not a championship résumé. Indiana was supposed to control those games, and it did: 52–16, 55–0 and 38–0.

The way it happened is more interesting than the margins.

Indiana’s official cumulative statistics through September 19 show 1,383 yards of offense—720 passing and 663 rushing. That is nearly perfect balance. The Hoosiers have thrown 12 touchdown passes without an interception while averaging 461 yards per game.

The defense has allowed 610 total yards in three games, just 203.3 per outing. Opponents have not thrown a touchdown and have been intercepted three times. Indiana is not surviving the quarterback change; it is controlling both sides of the ball.

Josh Hoover is the reason the question can be asked without sounding ridiculous. The former TCU quarterback crossed 10,000 career passing yards in his second Indiana game and has given Curt Cignetti experience without forcing the offense to imitate Fernando Mendoza’s championship season. Charlie Becker already has 272 yards and six touchdowns on 12 catches. The run game has produced 663 yards without asking one back to carry the entire load.

The strongest counterargument remains the only responsible one: none of those opponents can punish Indiana for a weak tackle, a late safety rotation or an inaccurate third-down throw the way an elite team can. Dominance against overmatched competition is evidence of competence, not proof of superiority.

Still, AP voters have Indiana fifth—behind three SEC teams and Notre Dame—even though the Hoosiers are the unbeaten defending champion and own four first-place votes. That ranking is reasonable. The lingering assumption that last year was a one-off is becoming less reasonable by the week.

My verdict: Indiana has not proved it is better than the 2025 champion. It has proved the title infrastructure survived the personnel change. That may be the more important September answer.