Your Indiana Hoosiers Men’s Soccer Program – the greatest men’s college soccer program in modern history, in my humble opinion – opens this season as the #11 ranked team in the country. They also project to finish 1st in the always competitive Big Ten Conference. This year, the Big Ten just has Ohio State (#3) and Indiana (#11) ranked in the national preseason rankings, but I expect that to change as the Big Ten regularly populates the top 25 each season.
Looking at the Indiana Hoosiers specifically, there is a lot to like about Coach Todd Yeagley’s squad. Let’s examine a few different categories and storylines facing the team this season:
Schedule Make Up and Record Attendance Goal:
Coach Yeagley loves playing tough opponents right off the bat. For the college soccer environment, he sees it as a net positive. If you win, it boosts your resume significantly. If you lose, it doesn’t hurt you and it’s a great test. This differs a bit from the hotly discussed college football environment as there are simply more games in the college soccer regular season.
This year specifically, Indiana opens up with a marquee matchup against the #9 ranked Clemson Tigers. They also play always-tough squads in Saint Louis and Notre Dame before Big Ten play opens up. When asked about the difficult non-conference slate, Coach Yeagley shared on the recent Crimson Cast podcast that he believes, “it will help this newer group.”
With these tough opponents on the calendar, Coach Yeagley also expressed that he’s hoping to break the Bill Armstrong Stadium attendance record. Indiana boasts an exciting squad and always has strong support from students and fans, so this record is certainly well within reach.
Biggest Strengths of the Squad:
Depth: As Coach Yeagley alluded to above, this Hoosiers team is a “newer group.” Indiana is replacing seven (7) starters and has ten (10) new players in total. This has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as Yeagley and his staff brought in a wealth of talent at all positions. Reviewing the squad, Yeagley said, “I always felt [depth] was a strength of our team year in and year out. It is, but potentially this year it could be one of the deeper teams we’ve ever fielded.”
Calling this team one of the deeper teams ever fielded is high praise from a coach who has the most wins among all Division 1 coaches since 2010, winning four Big Ten Coach of the Year awards in the process and going to five national championship games – winning one. Yeagley is a coach who knows what he’s talking about, and such comments bring a lot of excitement to this 2025 squad.
Attacking Talent: The Hoosiers regularly boast strong attackers and usually have among the best players in the country. However, I want to take this moment to highlight true freshman Colton Swan, who Coach Yeagley simply cannot stop talking about. Discussing Swan, Yeagley said, “we felt in the recruiting he’s been the best attacker in the air in 10 years [for the Hoosiers].” Again, incredibly high praise from a coach who knows what he’s talking about.
Swan will have his work cut out for him in a very competitive and strong Indiana attacking corps (forward Palmer Ault, for example, was just named the 27th best player in the country by Top Drawer Soccer). However, he is an exciting young talent to watch and may very well blossom into a star as early as this season
Biggest Weaknesses of the Squad:
This Hoosiers team does not have many weaknesses. However, we can continue to glean some insights from the Crimson Cast podcast with Coach Yeagley.
Players Aren’t “Pulling Away” in Position Battles: Referencing the above strength on Indiana’s depth, Coach Yeagley touched on the fact that while depth is necessary – and Indiana’s depth is elite at that – he and his staff “want a couple just to pull away and be like ‘okay, clearly no matter how good of a day we’re going to keep him on the field [at all times].’” Competition is a good thing, depth is a good thing, but if players aren’t clearly separating themselves from others, that could become a problem. However, this is still grasping at straws for a weakness of the squad. It’s more so a ‘good problem to have.’
New Squads Sometimes Take Time to Gel: Coach Yeagley did not say this, nor did he imply it. This is simply me speculating based on my experience watching and analyzing sports. When there’s immense turnover year to year, it can take time for those teams to gel and learn how to work together. Sometimes it works with flying colors – just look at Indiana’s football team this past year. Other times, it falters – just look at Indiana’s basketball team this past year. Coach Yeagley has been through battles like this before, however, and I have the utmost confidence that the team will be humming on all cylinders. I just wanted to call this out as a potential factor to the season.
Most Important Position Battle:
Goalkeeper: This has been discussed at length by both Coach Yeagley and other media alike. Replacing a player like JT Harms – a two time team captain with a significantly large number of games played over the past three seasons – is never easy. Harms is off to the professional ranks and Indiana now has to pick among four (4) viable candidates to take hold of the starting gig. Yeagley called this group of four candidates, “the most competitive four we’ve had top to bottom” while in the same breath calling that, “challenging.” It’s challenging to manage such a bevy of talent on a squad where there are only so many minutes to go around.
Yeagley will have to make a decision ahead of Thursday’s game against Clemson, but alluding to the fact that there may be rotations at play throughout the season. Nonetheless, I am sure Coach Yeagley is looking for a keeper to start “pulling away” in this position battle as well.
2025 Season Prediction:
The Indiana Hoosiers Men’s Soccer Program has made 10 consecutive Sweet 16’s, the longest active streak in the nation. On paper, this 2025 team looks better than others in years past that have extended the streak. As such, my prediction is two fold:
- The Hoosiers will extend their Sweet 16 streak, making it 11 consecutive Sweet 16’s.
- The Hoosiers will make the Final 4.
I want so badly to predict a ninth National Championship for the Hoosiers, but I know how random soccer can be. I’ve witnessed too many heart breaks in my soccer fandom life before. I believe this team can do it – the talent is there and the coaching of course is top notch – but I refuse to write a season preview article that predicts a National Championship until it actually happens.
Broadcast Information:
There will be six Men’s Soccer games broadcast on national networks. They are the following:
- 9/7 @ Notre Dame – ACC Network or Watch ESPN Digital Platform
- 9/23 @ Mich. State – Big Ten Network
- 9/26 vs. UCLA – Big Ten Network
- 10/3 @ Washington – Big Ten Network
- 10/21 vs. Wisconsin – Big Ten Network
- 10/24 @ Maryland – Big Ten Network
The remaining games will likely be broadcast on BTN+.
Closing:
The Hoosiers will face off against the #9 Clemson Tigers on Thursday, August 21 at 8:00 PM EST. This represents the home opener at Bill Armstrong Stadium, the first overall game of the season, and the start to a new campaign. Keep tabs with Hoosier Huddle all season long for all your Indiana Soccer news and Go Hoosiers!