With college football season starting to creep up, we’re running down Indiana’s schedule to preview all 12 opponents for 2025.
Indiana welcomes Kennesaw State to Bloomington in week two. The Owls are entering their second year at the FBS level and struggled to a 2-10 finish. But KSU ranks near the top of the country in overall returning production, so that experience — along with a new head coach in Jerry Mack — could serve the team well.
- Opponent: Kennesaw State
- Date/Time/TV: Saturday, September 6, noon ET
- Location: Memorial Stadium, Bloomington, Ind.
- 2024 record/postseason result: 2-10, 2-6 C-USA
Returning production, offense: 67 percent (per Bill Connelly/ESPN) (29th in the country)
Offensive outlook: Kennesaw State’s offense was one of the worst in the nation in 2024. The Owls finished second-to-last in FBS with 250.9 total yards per game last season. The passing offense ranked 128th (out of 134), while they finished 112th in rushing offense.
KSU will have some new faces around the offense, including one who will be very familiar to Indiana fans: quarterback Dexter Williams II transferred to Kennesaw State this year after one year with Georgia Southern. Williams played in four games with two starts for IU in 2022, and displayed some potential as a runner. But he missed all of 2023 while recovering from a knee injury, and then he transferred out after the Hoosiers replaced Tom Allen with Curt Cignetti. Williams played in five games at Georgia Southern last season in limited snaps. He appears the most likely candidate to start for KSU this year.
The Owls brought in two running back transfers during the offseason. Senior Chase Belcher rushed for 240 yards on 52 attempts with three touchdowns, and added 14 catches for 182 yards and a receiving touchdown, last season at West Georgia. And redshirt senior Coleman Bennett saw very limited action last season at Rice.
No Kennesaw receiver topped 300 yards last season, and the team’s three leading receivers all left. KSU will be leaning on returning players at wideout, but Christian Moss was the lone returnee who finished above 200 yards last year. If the Owls lean in to Williams’ rushing ability at quarterback, the receivers may play a less important role in the offense — but they still need that group to be more productive this year.
The Owls have one starting offensive lineman back from 2024, and they could potentially have transfers at the other four spots.
Returning production, defense: 82 percent (per Bill Connelly/ESPN) (1st in the country)
Defensive outlook: The Owls finished 105th in the country last season in total defense, allowing 412.7 yards per game. They ranked 101st in both passing defense and rushing defense. They have nine returning starters, and continuity is always a plus in college football. But that group will need to improve for the experience to matter.
Linebacker Donelius Johnson led Kennesaw State with 88 tackles, which tied him for 10th in C-USA. He also led the team with 3.5 sacks and nine tackles for loss. Cornerback JeRico Washington Jr. was productive last season with two interceptions and three forced fumbles, with the latter ranking second in the conference. Cornerback Tyler Hallum recorded 11 passes defended last season, which ranked third in C-USA.
Special teams outlook: KSU saw both its starting kicker and starting punter transfer to Oklahoma during the offseason. The Owls led C-USA and finished 13th in the country by averaging 45.4 yards per punt last year, but they’ll turn to a new face this season. Britton Williams is set to handle kicking duties. Kennesaw also excelled at kickoff returns last year, but its returner, Qua Ashley, transferred to Ball State.
Overall Outlook: If Williams is healthy and running the ball like he did at the end of the 2022 season for Indiana, he could give the 2025 Hoosiers some interesting looks. But even so, barring drastic improvement, his lack of passing threat could make things easy on Indiana’s coaching staff. Regardless, IU will be a very heavy favorite over Kennesaw State, and it should be a lopsided game. The Owls have a lot of question marks to address if they’re going to make positive strides in C-USA this season.
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