In a season full of history, Indiana football will add another accomplishment to its resume Saturday: hosting ESPN’s College GameDay, the sport’s premier pregame television show.
It’s the first time College GameDay has held a traditional show at Indiana; the crew hosted a Thursday night show before the Hoosiers’ season opener in 2017, but it took place in Memorial Stadium rather than outside with fans gathered around the stage.
“Big asterisk inside that visit,” College GameDay host Rece Davis said in a press conference Friday. “It was fun, it was great, but it wasn’t this. I’m looking forward to actually being among the Indiana fans. There’s a little something different about having our full footprint on the show for three hours and starting the day of football. It’s just a different vibe and a different energy.”
Indiana (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten) faces Washington (4-3, 2-2 Big Ten) at noon Saturday inside Memorial Stadium. With a victory, Indiana would improve to 8-0 for the first time since 1967 while securing only the ninth eight-win season in program history.
From GameDay to the Huskies and Indiana’s quarterback question, here’s everything to know before Saturday’s kickoff.
Meet the Huskies
In its first year in the Big Ten, Washington has a pair of home victories over Michigan and Northwestern but has lost its two road games to Rutgers and Iowa. The Huskies, who lost to Michigan in the College Football Playoff National Championship last season, are led by first-year head coach Jedd Fisch.
After leading the University of Arizona to a 10-win season in 2023, Fisch departed for Washington — and while his debut season in Seattle already has as many losses as his final year in Tuscon, Fisch has full respect from Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti.
“A very well-coached team,” Cignetti said in a press conference Monday. “Really was very impressed with his team last season, Arizona, where he turned that program around, the way they finished.”
Washington’s offense is led by fifth-year senior quarterback Will Rogers, who ranks fourth in the Big Ten in completion percentage (72.2%) and fifth in passing yards (1,820).
Rogers has two of the Big Ten’s best wideouts, as sixth-year senior Giles Jackson and redshirt sophomore Denzel Boston rank fourth and fifth in receiving yards with 542 and 540 yards, respectively. Boston leads the conference with nine touchdown catches, two more than the next closest competitor, while Jackson’s 47 receptions are the third-most in the Big Ten.
Junior running back Jonah Coleman is fourth in the conference with 681 rushing yards while averaging 6.9 yards per carry. The Huskies’ ground game is 10th in the Big Ten, accumulating 158.1 rushing yards per game.
Cignetti said Washington’s offense has a plethora of playmakers and will be a challenge for Indiana’s defense.
“They're going to be a big challenge,” Cignetti said. “They got a really good scheme. We're going to have to fly around, swarm the ball, win up front, put pressure on the quarterback, stop the run, cover, create some turnovers.”
Defensively, the Huskies allow only 266.3 yards per game, fifth-best in the conference. Washington has the Big Ten’s top aerial defense, as its opponents are averaging only 123 passing yards per game.
Indiana’s advantage may come in the running game. Washington is 15th out of 18 schools in the conference in run defense, giving up 143.3 rushing yards per game. In their last three Big Ten games, the Huskies have allowed 578 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. Opposing offenses have finished with more yards rushing than passing in five of Washington’s seven games.
The Hoosiers’ rushing attack ranks third in the Big Ten, averaging 202.4 yards per game. However, to win Saturday, Cignetti thinks Indiana’s offense can’t become one-dimensional against Washington’s stingy, pressure-heavy defense.
“Offensively, win the line of scrimmage, be balanced,” Cignetti said. “Lot of man-to-man coverage from Washington. Handle the blitzes, be good in critical situations. The keys of the game really never change.”
A new, but old, face under center
Indiana will be without sixth-year senior quarterback Kurtis Rourke due to a thumb injury, thrusting redshirt sophomore Tayven Jackson into the starting role.
Jackson started five games and appeared in one other last season, completing 60.9% of his passes for 914 yards, two touchdowns and five interceptions. He’s played in four games this season, largely in mop-up duty, going 12 for 18 for 225 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
The Greenwood, Indiana, native played the entire second half of the Hoosiers’ 56-7 win over Nebraska on Oct. 19, going 7 for 8 for 91 yards while tossing two touchdowns. He added two rushes for 21 yards.
Cignetti believes Jackson is much improved from where he was a season ago, praising quarterbacks coach/co-offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri’s work with the 6-foot-4, 212-pound passer. Redshirt sophomore receiver Omar Cooper Jr., who played with Jackson last year, agreed with Cignetti’s assessment.
“I feel like Tayven has gotten way more confident the past year,” Cooper said in a press conference Tuesday. “Coach Tino has helped him out a lot. He developed a lot more since last year. So, I feel like him playing now, it'll be a big opportunity for him, and a great way for him to step up and showcase what his abilities are.”
GameDay visits
College GameDay, with a crew headlined by Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee and Lee Corso, first began considering Bloomington as a destination after four or five games, Davis said Friday. Former Indiana baseball standout Kyle Schwarber will join the show as a guest picker when the crew chooses its Saturday winners.
Davis has ties to the staff — he’s friends with Sunseri — and emphasized watching the Hoosiers’ 42-13 toppling of UCLA on Sept. 14. College GameDay’s staff is already well-versed with Cignetti, as it did a show at James Madison University last season. Davis said he saw similarities from last year’s 11-1 Dukes squad to this year's Hoosiers during the UCLA game, citing the crisp nature of execution.
Still, Davis noted he was skeptical. After all, he said, it’s Indiana, a program which hasn’t won more than eight games in 57 years. But the GameDay crew believes the Cignetti-led bunch is different — and their presence in Bloomington alone supports Davis's words.
“I think they’re really, really impressive,” Davis said. “They’re building a new program here, and I think what they’ve done is remarkable up to this point. Curt said he thinks they have staying power — nothing they’ve shown on the field would indicate otherwise.”
GameDay’s visit to Bloomington marks a return for the 89-year-old Corso, who served as Indiana’s head coach from 1973-82. Mayor Kerry Thomson has declared Saturday as “Lee Corso Day” in Bloomington.
And according to GameDay betting expert “Stanford Steve” Coughlin, Corso has turned heads in the crew’s hotel — a nod to his everlasting Hoosier legacy.
“I can’t imagine being his age and having that many memories (being) at a place for 10 years,” Coughlin said in a press conference Friday. “Now, I don’t know when’s the last time he saw half these people, but there’s a resonation. Like, he gave them a lot of the best times of their life.”
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and columnist Jhett Garrett (@jhettgarrett) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
