Week Seven Primer – No. 7 Indiana Hoosiers at No. 3 Oregon Ducks

Numbers That Matter: #7 Indiana vs. #3 Oregon

A crowd at a sports event, featuring a man and a woman celebrating. The woman is wearing a red crop top with 'IU' and a matching skirt, raising her arms in excitement. The man beside her is smiling and giving a thumbs up, both surrounded by fans in various team colors. — Sep 27, 2025; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Indiana Hoosiers fans react after the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

What: #7 Indiana Hoosiers (5-0) at #3 Oregon Ducks (5-0)

When: Saturday, October 11, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.

Where: Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon

How to Watch: The game will be broadcast on CBS and can be heard on the IU Radio Network.

Spread and Total: Oregon (-7.5) | Total of 55.5 (as of October 8, 2025)

Series History

The Hoosiers and Ducks have only met on the gridiron three times previousl with Oregon winning the first two in 1963 and 1964 and then the Hoosiers knocking off the Ducks in Eugene in 2004.

What’s at Stake

The Oregon Ducks are ranked third in the country and they are one of the favorites to win the national title. Indiana is 5-0 and has jumped to number seven in the polls. The winner will have two top ten wins on the season and would have the inside track to battle the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game while the loser would have one loss and would need some help in order to play in Indianapolis. Oregon is still perfect in regular season Big Ten play (11-0) and they bring the nation’s longest active regular season winning streak (23 games) and longest active home winning streak 18 games.

A Few Things to Look For

1. Scoring at Will (Stein)

Offensive coordinator Will Stein is one of the premier minds in college football and he has a fantastic offense in Eugene, once again. The Ducks are averaging 46.6 points per game and they have scored at least 30 points in all five of their games. Oregon offers a near balance on the attack with an average of 239.40 rushing yards per game and 264.4 passing yards per game.

They join Indiana as one of four schools to have surpassed 250 yards both passing and rushing three times this season. Things begin upfront with an offensive line that is as good as any in the country. The Ducks have only surrendered one sack through five games and they are allowing the second-fewest tackles for loss in the country with just 17 surrendered pressures in five games.

Will Stein has trusted a pair of freshmen to lead the rushing attack with Dierre Hill Jr. bringing the explosive runs and Jordon Davison relied on in short-yardage situations (7 rushing touchdowns). If, for some reason, those two are not getting it done, the Ducks have great depth with Noah Whittington and Jayden Limar.

The most impressive part of the offense is how well redshirt sophomore Dante Moore has played in his first season as a starter. Moore has been better than advertised and he is generating buzz as a top draft pick as early as the 2026 NFL Draft. His top target has been freshman Dakorien Moore, an immediate impact player that will be a huge challenge for IU’s secondary. Malik Benson and Gary Bryant Jr. are other options at receiver and tight end Kenyon Sadiq is an emerging weapon. There are no weaknesses for IU’s defense to target and Bryant Haines has his hands full with trying to find a plan of attack.

2. Dan Lanning’s Defense

Under Dan Lanning’s watch (and recruiting), the Oregon Ducks have turned into a consistently elite defensive team. That’s no different this season as Oregon has allowed only seven touchdowns through five games. Two of those scores came against Northwestern late in the game against Oregon’s backups and third-stringers. The defense has done a great job of setting the tone for Oregon and giving the Ducks a lead to grind opponents down.

The Ducks are allowing only 3.2 points per game during the first halves of games. The pass rush doesn’t really stand out, Matayo Uiagalelei leads them with four sacks and fellow linebacker Teitum Tuioti has 2.5 sacks but the Ducks don’t really blitz and they rely on pressure coming from the front four while dropping into coverage and daring quarterbacks and receivers to beat their secondary. That’s something no one has been able to do yet.

Through five games, Oregon has not allowed a team to throw for more than 200 yards and they are giving up only 123.4 yards per game through the air. Opponents are going three-and-out a remarkable 41.3 percent of drives. The only area of potential susceptibility is the rush defense which has allowed 3.44 yards per carry. The Hoosiers are one of the best rushing teams in the country thus far and they’ll need to lean on that to maintain possession and help keep Fernando Mendoza out of third and long situations.

3. Dealing with the Autzen Atmosphere

Autzen Stadium is a fortress and the Indiana Hoosiers, for all of the remarkable success thus far under Curt Cignetti, has not proven capable of handling really good teams on the road. That’s not a criticism unique to IU, very few teams find any kind of success against teams like Ohio State, Notre Dame or Oregon on the road.

That is IU’s reality so far though and it is the situation they face on Saturday afternoon in Eugene. The Hoosiers have struggled with keeping opposing defenses off-balance with a silent snap count and it was particularly glaring against Ohio State and Iowa as those defensive lines seemed to consistently get perfectly-timed pressure. IU absolutely has to have an adjustment and answer to that coming out of the bye week.