Indiana pulls Josh Hoover at halftime and needs a 60-yard kick to survive Minnesota

No. 4 Indiana is 8-1, and nobody in Bloomington should feel comfortable about it. The Hoosiers beat Minnesota 23-16 in overtime on Saturday, a week after needing overtime to beat Michigan 13-6, and this time they benched their starting quarterback at halftime and needed a 60-yard field goal at the gun just to get to overtime.

Josh Hoover went 8 of 19 for 119 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Indiana pulled him at halftime after he took a big hit on that interception, according to the AP recap on ESPN. Grant Wilson came in and was 9 of 17 for 156 yards, and he made the two throws that won the game: the 33-yarder to Charlie Becker that set up the tying kick, and the 25-yard touchdown to Becker on the first play of overtime.

The kick belonged to Paddy McAteer, whose 60-yarder as time expired is a new Indiana record, according to the program. It answered Luke Drzewiecki's career-long 60-yarder for Minnesota with 19 seconds left.

Indiana's offense went into the fourth quarter tied 10-10 against a 5-2 Minnesota team. The Hoosiers outgained the Gophers 419 to 215 and still scored 16 points in regulation, with two turnovers and three field goals where touchdowns should have been. AP's takeaway called it the fourth straight week Curt Cignetti's team did not look good offensively.

Becker is the bright spot. He had eight catches for 149 yards and the winner. But a title defense built on a backup quarterback, a receiver who keeps bailing everyone out and a kicker hitting from 60 is not a plan.

Indiana has a bye next, and Cignetti has two weeks to decide whether Hoover's first half or Wilson's second half is the team he wants against USC on Nov. 14. Based on Saturday, Wilson earned the first look. Minnesota, meanwhile, fell to 0-13 all time against defending national champions and hosts No. 7 UCLA next Saturday.