Former Alabama coach Nick Saban believes Indiana is about to rediscover its national championship form, telling The Pat McAfee Show the Hoosiers will start dominating opponents as College GameDay brings him to Bloomington for Saturday’s game against Minnesota.

“I think Indiana is going to start showing their true colors here and really start dominating people,” Saban said Friday, one day before celebrating his 75th birthday on the GameDay set at Showalter Fountain.

Why does Saban trust Indiana’s defense?

Saban built his case around the unit that has carried No. 4 Indiana (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) through a rocky two weeks.

“They have a really, really good defensive team,” Saban said. “They’ve been able to get a lot of tackles for loss, lots of sacks, stopped the run pretty well. They’ve been able to get turnovers. So this is a really good Indiana defensive team.”

Indiana has 21 sacks and 39 tackles for loss in five Big Ten games, the most in the conference in both categories. The defense held Michigan without a touchdown last week, recorded four sacks and two takeaways, then stopped Tommy Carr’s fourth-down throw at the Indiana 13 to seal a 13-6 overtime win in Ann Arbor.

Saban also has history with the man running the program. Curt Cignetti served as Saban’s first receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Alabama, and Saban said Cignetti has always “made it easy for the quarterback.”

Josh Hoover and Indiana’s offense

Saban acknowledged the Hoosiers have “struggled a little bit on offense to score points,” and Indiana managed 28 points combined in the loss to Ohio State and the win at Michigan.

Josh Hoover, the TCU transfer who replaced Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, threw 15 touchdown passes without an interception over the first five games. He then went 20 of 40 for 296 yards with a lost fumble against Ohio State and 8 of 18 for 81 yards with an interception at Michigan while playing hurt. Cignetti said the offense “struggled, to say the least,” and the staff discussed turning to backup Grant Wilson in the second half.

Saban still believes the pieces around Hoover are good enough.

“I don’t think that you can replace Fernando,” Saban said. “I think you have to go do what you do and do it well. I think Nick Marsh has played well for them. Becker is a good receiver. Are they as explosive as they were a year ago? Probably not. But I think they have enough tools to be a really, really effective offensive team.”

Marsh, a Michigan State transfer, earned AP national player of the week honors after catching two touchdowns for 187 yards in the 20-17 win at Nebraska, and Charlie Becker gives Hoover a second big-play threat on the outside. Saban expects the group to “take off here toward the end of the year.”

How does the bye week factor in?

Saban also pointed to Indiana’s schedule, which has the Hoosiers playing nine straight weeks before their only open date Nov. 7.

“They’ve played how many games each week in a row? Like seven or eight games?” Saban said. “And without a bye week in there, without some time to give your players a little time to recover, sometimes that affects your performance a little bit. So coming out of a bye week, I look for them to really hit the next gear.”

Cignetti said Monday he expects Hoover to be “fine and better this week.”

Minnesota (5-2, 3-1) is the last test before that break. P.J. Fleck’s team forced four Iowa turnovers and won 13-10 on Luke Drzewiecki’s 46-yard field goal as time expired, and the Gophers sit seventh in the latest Big Ten power rankings, five spots behind Indiana.

After the bye, Indiana hosts USC, visits Washington and closes the regular season against Purdue in the Old Oaken Bucket game. Minnesota at Indiana kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday on CBS.