Minnesota searching for Big Ten win No. 1 under Brewster

Lost in the Gophers’ 4-0 start to their season is the fact that the team hasn’t won a single Big Ten game under coach Tim Brewster .

Saturday they’ll have their best chance, playing Indiana at home.

Even sophomore quarterback Adam Weber , a strict disciple of the “one game at a time” line, called it perhaps the team’s biggest of the year.

“It’s going to be huge, maybe the most important game for us,” he said. “We’re halfway through the season, and a win is going to help us get through the rest of the season here.”

A win would put the Gophers (4-1, 0-1 Big Ten) just one shy of bowl eligibility with seven games left . It would also show that they can compete in the Big Ten after playing Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, Montana State and Florida Atlantic to begin the year, and losing big to Ohio State last week .

“We’re putting an emphasis on the conference aspect,” Brewster said. “It’s our chance to get our first Big Ten win as a team. There’s some significance there.”

The Gophers are seven point favorites over Indiana , which lost 42-20 to unranked Ball State in Week 3 and 42-29 to Michigan State last week .

Of course, many thought they should’ve beat the Hoosiers (2-2, 0-1 Big Ten) last year, but the young Gophers defense gave up 249 rushing yards and 40 points.

Quarterback Kellen Lewis had 75 of those rushing yards [88 excluding yards considered “lost” on sacks] and also threw for 235 yards . In their unique version of the spread offense, the Hoosiers will also put backup quarterback Ben Chappell in and move Lewis to a running back or wide receiver position .

Brewster called Lewis “a smaller version” of Ohio State true freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor , who averaged more than 12 yards-per-carry against the Gophers on Saturday . Lewis leads the Hoosiers in rushing and is on pace for more yards than any Minnesota rusher .

“We know Indiana beat us last year because we didn’t do a good job against Kellen Lewis,” Brewster said. “For us to have a chance, we’re going to have to do a good job defending him, and not just when he’s at quarterback.”

Both teams were in the bottom three of the Big Ten in scoring defense last year . Las Vegas odds makers put the “over-under” for the game, or the combination of both team’s scores, between 58 and 60 -- the highest in the Big Ten this week .

On top of that, Weber will be throwing against one of the most banged up secondaries in the conference, which could be missing up to three starters.

Cornerback Chris Phillips suffered a season-ending knee injury against Ball State, while junior safeties Nick Polk and Austin Thomas are both questionable for the game .

Polk and Thomas both missed Saturday’s game, and Hoosiers coach Bill Lynch said Tuesday he wouldn’t know the status of either until “later in the week,” and has not announced a status on either. Polk was not listed on the Indiana depth chart released Tuesday, while Thomas was listed as a starter .