Hoosiers getting some love?

This preseason was a typical preseason for Indiana football. Another terrible prediction with little or no hope in the program. We squeak by our first two opponents but we played pretty well against Akron to start out the year 3-0. Now we have some huge tests in front of us with Michigan and Ohio State back to back. A 3-0 start and all of a sudden I am starting to see people take notice. Granted, it will take some competitive games against the big boys before everyone else starts noticing. Here a few notes I found interesting.

1. Espn big ten blog by Adam Rittenberg has listed IU at #7 in the power rankings. Rittenberg has had IU listed at #11 for the whole year until this week. We have jumped ahead of Northwestern, Michigan State, Illinois and Purdue.

2. Albeit a bit premature Mark Schlabach from ESPN has IU playing against Texas Tech in the insight bowl. This probably doesn't have a ton of merit to it because it is still week 3 but it is nice to see the hoosiers getting some attention.

My outlook: This weekend will be a huge test for the hoosiers. The big house is a very tough place to play and this is a very improved Michigan Wolverines team. They will be a bit banged up at OL but have much more speed on defense and Tate Forcier doesn't look like a freshman at QB. It will be a good measuring stick to see how we compete with better big ten schools on the road. As of right now I think the hoosiers have 3 pretty winnable games and the possibility to pull an upset or two. I think we have a very good shot against Virginia, Northwestern and Purdue. Virginia is 0-3 and hasn't looked very good this year. We do play them on the road and will be a tough atmosphere but each week I feel better in how we matchup against them. Northwestern lost a ton at the skill positions this year. They have a very good secondary and a good QB in Mike Kafka but I see this as a winnable game as well. Purdue has been inconsistent. They played a tough Oregon team on the road only to lose to Northern Illinois the next week at home. Purdue has Notre Dame this week at home which should be a very difficult game.

Right now I am aiming at around 6 wins give or take one in either direction. The two teams I think have upset potential our our games against Illinois and Wisconsin. We get them both at home which is nice. We will have a little bit better gauge of Illinois after this weekend even though they play a tough OSU team. They got destroyed by Mizzou and beat a bad ISU team. Wisconsin hasn't impressed me a whole lot either. John Clay is a beast at RB that usually creates some problems.

What are some of your guy's predictions for the hoosiers this season?