BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana is one of 38 teams in the NCAA’s top division off to a 2-0 start.

Not bad for a team that was a consensus pick to finish last in the Big Ten in all of the preseason football publications.

But the question remains: Just how good are the Hoosiers?

The 2-0 start is nothing new. This is the sixth year in a row that IU has won its first two games. In three of the other five years, the Hoosiers won only two more.

Last year, the Hoosiers opened 2-0, then lost nine of the final 10.

This season, it’s difficult to get a feel for how many more games the Hoosiers will win.

Jeff Sagarin, whose Sagarin Ratings appear every day in USA Today, has IU ranked 35th among the 38 unbeaten Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) teams, and No. 81 overall.

“(Former IU coach) Bill Mallory once told me that when coaches talk about rating teams, most believe you really don’t know a lot about a team until they have played a good team on the road,‘’ Sagarin said. "Obviously Indiana hasn’t done that yet. In fact, most teams don’t do that until midway through the season.

“Florida hasn’t done it. Southern California has and they learned a lot with their game against Ohio State. But Indiana is in the same boat as a lot of teams. They just don’t have a lot of significant data at this point.’’

In a bottom-line business, IU coach Bill Lynch is happy to be 2-0.

More than that, though, Lynch said he really enjoys coaching this football team. He said there’s no doubt in his mind that this team can improve greatly.

“I’m happy with this football team, with where we are and where we’re going,’’ Lynch said.

“I do think there’s a lot better football in us than what we’ve played. For us, it comes down to doing things on a consistent basis, and we haven’t done that yet.’’

One of Indiana’s problems has been its play inside the opponents’ 20. In 12 trips this season, IU has four touchdowns, four field goals and four trips without points.

“That’s totally unacceptable,‘’ IU offensive coordinator Matt Canada said. "We simply have to score touchdowns. And we will. I’m very confident about that.’’

While IU is alphabetically perched above the other six unbeaten teams in the Big Ten standings through two weeks, there’s no question that it’s a precarious 2-0 record.

With a six-point victory over Eastern Kentucky, a Football Championship Subdivision team (formerly Division I-AA), and a four-point win over Mid-American Conference foe Western Michigan, IU is only a few plays from being 0-2.

Sagarin said with IU it’s still a wait-and-see proposition.

“This week they play at Akron and Akron is an OK team,‘’ Sagarin said. "The following week Indiana is at Michigan. Now, Michigan isn’t Michigan like we’ve seen before, but my guess is that when that game is over, we’ll know a lot more about just how good Indiana is this season.’’

Senior defensive end Greg Middleton believes the tight games IU has played will be helpful in the future.

“The tougher the games, the tougher that we’re going to be as a team,‘’ Middleton said. "I think all of these experiences that we’ve had will help us because we’re probably going to be in more games like these later in the season.’’