Indiana v. Oregon Preview

In the penultimate matchup for the 25/26 college football season, we get a Big 10 heavyweight matchup between #1 Indiana vs. #5 Oregon.

1 Indiana

Indiana comes into this matchup as the top-ranked, undefeated team with too many superlatives to count or mention here. Point blank, they are a juggernaut. If last season was a shot, this season was not the chaser but rather 14 more shots. Coach Cignetti is a stone-faced madman and everyone should love him but hate that their team didn't hire him (except for the Hoosier faithful).

Indiana no longer has to hope that they need to play a perfect game to beat these modern day powerhouses, they are the powerhouse, the pinnacle, the standard. Indiana will dictate how they want to play this game it is up to Dan Lanning and Oregon to counteract them.

Fernando Mendoza looks to continue a magical run that includes a Big 10 championship, a Heisman Trophy, and Rose Bowl all in the trophy case and he has potentially two more games to go! Seeing a kid that truly loves his teammates, the coaches, the school, and the game itself is a breath of fresh air. He is unapologetically himself and an uplifting voice in the locker room and on the field. I can't wait to see what he has in store tonight.

5 Oregon

Oregon now has what I assume is their first case of being an underdog against Indiana. Hand up, I love Dan Lanning as a coach, I would put him right up there with Cignetti, Day, and Kirby Smart. The only thing is he is going up against the best coach in college football this year. I think Lanning has the slight edge in game-planning and adjustments but he'll have to go up against a cohesive unit that beat them on their own field back in October.

Dante Moore, has had a good year, nothing groundbreaking but he wins games, isn't that the whole point? He will need to play much better than he did against Texas Tech. While being safe with the ball he will need to have points where he takes over the game. It is not enough to simply be a QB that can win, he needs to be the QB that will win and that you are confident enough to win these big games.

Prediction

IU can win and many more ways than Oregon can when I'm looking at these two teams. I think Oregon will try to pounce early and turn the first half into a shootout to disorient Indiana. Indiana will make some stops but I think Oregon makes more. In the second half I see Oregon switching up and trying their hardest to bleed every second off of the clock while maintaining their lead. Indiana will storm back and with all of the momentum in the world, the Heisman winner will lead the Hoosiers to the national championship on a game winning drive to go up late and win.

Indiana 32 v. Oregon 31

Thanks for reading,

TBB