The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana showed it's good enough to beat Indiana State. But is a victory over a Division I-AA opponent, even a lopsided victory, a true test of the Hoosiers' improvement?

Coach Gerry DiNardo isn't sure. All he knows is Indiana has gotten better each game so far this season.

"We didn't play very well against Connecticut," he said Tuesday. "We played a decent first half against Washington. ... Last week, we felt like we played well enough to win both halves, which we did. As we go into the fourth week, we want to continue to make the improvement."

Beaten by more than 20 points in each of their first two games, the Hoosiers pounded Indiana State 33-3 last week. Their final nonconference game will be Saturday against Kentucky, also 1-2 under new coach Rich Brooks.

Like Indiana, Kentucky's only victory has been against a Division I-AA school, Murray State, and DiNardo acknowledged the different talent levels make it difficult to assess true progress.

Still, he said, there are some "common threads" that can apply to all opponents.

DiNardo said the Hoosiers will continue to emphasize the running game.

Against the Sycamores, Indiana totaled a season-high 201 yards on the ground, including a career-high 107 yards and two touchdowns by freshman BenJarvus Green-Ellis and 90 yards and one TD by sophomore Chris Taylor.

Now DiNardo wants the yardage to come more efficiently, in bigger chunks.

"We still had too many minus plays, too many plays that put us behind schedule," he said, estimating that more than 40 percent of Indiana's first-and-10 carries resulted in gains of fewer than 4 yards. "That's way too low."

Kentucky has beaten Indiana eight of the past nine games, including 27-17 last year in Lexington, where the Wildcats erased a 17-14 Indiana lead by scoring 13 points in the fourth quarter.

Quarterback Jared Lorenzen has passed for 846 yards and seven TDs in his three previous games against the Hoosiers.

"He's a tremendous competitor, very difficult to bring down, if you can get close to him, because he's a big guy," DiNardo said. "He's bigger than the guys trying to bring him down."