Ohio State has won 15 straight games over Indiana, including a 33-14 shellacking in Bloomington, Ind., one year ago.

With this year’s OSU squad ranked No. 2 in the country, it would appear as though Saturday’s match-up should produce yet another IU beatdown.

However, as former Indiana head coach Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast, my friend!”

With fifth-year quarterback Ben Chappell as its signal-caller and wide receiver Tandon Doss’ big-play ability, this year’s Indiana team could present more of a challenge than those from years past.

“On film, you watch them, they are very, very talented,” senior linebacker Ross Homan said. “They had a lot of guys come back from last year. They have great experience, a great quarterback, one of the best quarterbacks we’re going to see this year in Ben, overall just great coaching and a great team.”

Despite suffering its first loss of the season, 42-35 against Michigan last week, Indiana’s offense put on a show. Chappell set a school record with 45 completions and 480 passing yards. Doss caught 15 of those balls, another Indiana record.

The Hoosiers’ offensive firepower certainly caught the Buckeyes’ attention.

“I think the biggest thing that jumps out on you — you don’t even have to watch any films — is to see the numbers they’ve been putting up offensively, and they’re very capable of outscoring you,” OSU coach Jim Tressel said at his weekly press conference. “They’ve got good leadership. They’ve got good older guys, especially over on that offensive side.”

Even with his explosive offense, Indiana coach Bill Lynch shared the same sort of respect for the Buckeye defense that his guys will battle Saturday.

“They are very sound, well-coached, good players, and you have to beat them honestly,” Lynch said. “You can’t trick them. That’s one thing you know when you play Ohio State’s defense. We have to go out and execute very well.”

Homan said he expects to see an especially motivated Hoosier squad, one week removed from a last-minute defeat.

“They had a hard loss last week against Michigan, so we know they are going to come out fighting for this week,” he said.

And as the Indiana team heads to the field at the Horseshoe, OSU defensive end Cameron Heyward said he and his teammates will be expecting a tough contest and an OSU victory will require a solid performance from all sides of the ball.

“Indiana returns a very experienced team that is coming to shock the world,” Heyward said. “We know we’re going to get their best shot and we’re preparing like heck for it.

“They have a really good core on both sides of the ball and it’s just going to take a team effort on both sides for us as well.”