Indiana opens the season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against Towson.
Here's a look at the Tigers.
Towson went 2-9 last season, including a 47-14 loss at Northwestern in the 2009 season opener.
The Tigers have eight returning starters on defense, led by cornerbacks Jeremy Gardner and Ollie Thomas. Gardner has appeared in 29 games, making 28 starts. He had 64 tackles and led the Tigers with four pass breakups. Thomas made 47 tackles and broke up three passes. He had one fumble recovery.
Romale Tucker, who transferred from Syracuse and started eight games at outside linebacker last season, has been moved to defensive end. Tucker made 54 tackles and had 2 ½ sacks last year.
"They've got corners that are seniors who've played for four years," IU coach Bill Lynch said. "They've got some very athletic linebackers. They've got a couple of guys it sounds like that moved from safety to linebacker and inside to outside. They have some transfer guys. I think the one guy that is a really good player is a transfer from Syracuse. They've got two big, thick guys inside defensively that have experience."
Offensively, wide receiver Hakeem Moore has accumulated more than 1,000 all-purpose yards each of the last two years. Moore had 28 receptions for 286 yards and one touchdown last year.
Running back Tremayne Dameron was named the team's offensive player of the year in 2009. He had 588 yards and eight touchdowns.
Towson has four options at quarterback, including Bart Blanchard, a transfer from The Citadel.
"Offensively, they have their best running back back, their best wide receiver. They've got three guys back on the offensive line," Lynch said. "At quarterback, it is interesting because they've got a transfer, and I don't know that they've declared who their starter is yet or not, but they've got a transfer from The Citadel, who graduated from The Citadel, one of those rules where you can graduate and transfer and play right away if you get into a graduate program. He had tremendous success at The Citadel, where he threw for (4,238) yards and 38 touchdowns (in his career) where he has played a lot of football. He is competing with some other guys. I think they played quite a few last year because of injuries."
This is the first meeting between the two schools. Lynch said the Hoosiers won't overlook a Football Championship Subdivision school.
"I know this. They play in a very, very good league (Colonial Athletic Association). I think out of that league last year, in the opening weekend, William and Mary beat Virginia, Villanova beat Temple - and Temple was a very good team out of the MAC - and then Richmond beat Duke," Lynch said. "That league has competed against BCS teams and done very well. We have to go no further than our opener last year (against Eastern Kentucky) where we had to recover a fumble (late in a 19-13 victory). We know what we're getting into. We're going to have a good football team coming in here, and they're coming in here with the opportunity to beat a BCS team, a Big Ten school in our stadium."
