First-year coach Curt Cignetti promised a new and improved Indiana, and he has delivered the undefeated Hoosiers to their best start since 1967.

The Hoosiers have already doubled their win total from last season, earning four of the 10 Associated Press Big Ten midseason awards to do so.

Nine AP writers covering the conference voted 16th-ranked Indiana as the most surprising Big Ten team of the first half of the season, and Cignetti as its top coach and quarterback Kurtis Rourke the best first-year transfer and most surprising player.

Since 1968, the season after its only Rose Bowl appearance, Indiana finished with just twelve winning records and never won more than eight games. The Hoosiers went 14-7 in 2019-20, but fell to 9-27 the next three seasons.

Enter Cignetti, who at age 63 is in his first head coaching job in a power conference. He arrived at James Madison after going 52-9 in five seasons and turned around Indiana’s roster with 54 newcomers, half of them transfers. Of the 27 transfers, 13 followed him from James Madison.

The one who made the biggest impact came from Ohio: Rourke, a sixth-year player who has made a better-than-expected transition from the Mid-American Conference to the Big Ten. His 292 yards passing per game ranks second in the league, he is tied with 14 touchdown passes and his 73.8% completion percentage ranks third in the nation. He is the first Indiana quarterback to throw three touchdowns in three Big Ten games since Harry Gonso in that magical ’67 season.

Rourke runs an offense that averages 516 yards and 48 points per game and leads the Big Ten with 32 pass plays of 20 yards or longer.

Top offensive player

Dillon Gabriel, Oregon. The quarterback, who transferred from Oklahoma for his senior season, has completed 76% of his passes for 298 yards per game. He has thrown at least two TDs in every game and has a total of 13. His 1.5% interception rate (3 on 201 attempts) ranks fifth among power conference quarterbacks with at least 200 attempts, according to Sportradar.

Last week he threw for 341 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score on second down Ducks’ 32-31 victory over Ohio State in a top-five matchup.

Best defensive player

Mason Graham, Mich. The defensive tackle has lived up to his AP All-America billing in the preseason and is building his own NFL draft stock. He has been double-teamed regularly and has played a whopping 46 snaps in five of the Wolverines’ six games, according to Pro Football Focus. Last season he played more than 46 games in just one game.

Graham, who forms one of the best defensive duos in the country with Kenneth Grant, has 3.5 sacks, four tackles for loss and 21 tackles. His PFF rating is the eighth highest among FBS interior linemen and the third highest in the Big Ten.

Top freshmen freshmen

Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State. The wide receiver is averaging 17.3 yards on his 32 catches and 92 yards per game, the second-best marks by a freshman behind Alabama star Ryan Williams. Physical and able to pick up yards after the catch, Smith caught nine balls for 100 yards and a touchdown last week while covered by top Oregon CB Jabbar Muhammad.

Most disappointing team

Southern California finds life in the Big Ten challenging, to say the least. The season started with a win over LSU on a neutral site, but now the Trojans are 3-3 overall, 1-3 in the Big Ten and out of contention for the College Football Playoff.

USC was ranked No. 11 in the AP Top 25 just two weeks ago after erasing a double-digit deficit to beat Wisconsin. But a tough loss at Minnesota was followed by last week’s home overtime loss to Penn State in a game where it led or tied for the final 49 minutes of regulation. This week the Trojans head to Maryland for their longest road trip of the season.

Hottest seat

USC is 5-8 since opening last season 6-0, and the Trojans’ start in Big Ten play has increased the pressure on Lincoln Riley.

The biggest problem is the defense. Stopping the run is crucial to success in the Big Ten, and that’s where the Trojans have struggled. They rank 16th out of 18 in the conference in rush defense. They have given up five runs of 30 yards or longer, including four that have gone for more than 40 yards.

Biggest injuries

There is a bond between them Wisconsin quarterback Tyler Van Dyke and USC linebacker Eric Gentry.

Van Dyke came over from Miami and beat out Braedyn Locke for the starting job. Van Dyke led the Badgers to wins in the first two games before going down with a season-ending knee injury against Alabama. The Badgers are 2-1 since then.

Gentry was coming off the best game of his career — 12 tackles, three tackles for loss, one sack against Michigan — when he left the next game against Wisconsin with an undisclosed injury. The Trojans have been without a defensive anchor for two games.

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AP sports writers Dave Campbell, Tom Canavan, Larry Lage, Steve Megargee, Eric Olson, Anne M. Peterson, Joe Reedy, Andrew Seligman and Mitch Stacy contributed.

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