For Indiana, it's always been a struggle.

The Hoosiers are a perennial national powerhouse in basketball; they haven't even made a blip on the radar when it comes to football in the Big Ten.

It doesn't look like it's getting any easier either.

The 2003 Indiana squad has competed this season with only 65 scholarship players on its roster, 20 short of the NCAA maximum of 85.

The rest of the team is composed of non-scholarship walk-ons.

"From a year ago, one thing is different and that is we're going into the second year of our program and everything is running a lot smoother," Indiana football coach Gerry DiNardo said.

"From that standpoint, it's drastically different from a year ago. The thing that hasn't changed is that we're still fighting the numbers battle with scholarship players."

Getting players to sign with the Hoosiers has been DiNardo's most daunting task.

The exodus of players from the Indiana football program began two years ago when former coach Cam Cameron was fired in 2001.

DiNardo took over the reins of the Hoosiers, but faced the problem of re-recruiting many of the players who lost interest in the program when Cameron left.

It's a process that continues into today.

"I think any time you lose a player and your numbers are down, it's a problem," DiNardo said. "When you rebuild a program, you need to be a team guy. We're going to have some attrition. I'm looking for team guys and that's all I want."

DiNardo has had some success in recruiting players since his tenure began only a couple years ago in Indiana.

Quarterback Matt LoVecchio, a Notre Dame transfer, made the commitment to Indiana in the early days of the DiNardo era.

However, DiNardo said he feels his team is a couple of years away from truly being competitive for a title.

"It's not much improved with scholarship players because we're at the same number about a year ago," DiNardo said.

"Your depth will be ok at certain positions. The depth of our skill positions is ok, but the depth of our linemen has been hit.'

But it doesn't mean the Hoosiers can't win.

Last week, Indiana notched a win against fellow conference bottom feeder Illinois.

This also means the Hoosiers will enter Beaver Stadium at one game up on the Lions in the Big Ten conference standings.

Still, Penn State is a 19-point favorite for the game on Saturday.