BLOOMINGTON — Each and every day, in Todd Yeagley’s world, No. 1 leans ever heavier on No. 99.

When Yeagley’s Indiana men’s soccer team ascended to the top of the United Soccer coaches rankings this week, they did so on the back of three straight clean sheets, including ranked wins over Oregon State and Saint Louis, and a 1-0 victory at Notre Dame.

Those results brought into stark relief the impact of the Hoosiers’ new No. 1 keeper, who wears a number as far from what is convention for his position as is possible.

Holden Brown, whose 6-foot-4 frame fills all of the purple adidas shirt IU’s keepers wear, transferred from Virginia last year. He did so knowing he’d have to fight for his place — in fact, that was part of the Hoosiers’ appeal — and he unexpectedly missed last season through an injury he hardly even knew he’d suffered.

But now, handed the proverbial No. 1 shirt, Indiana’s No. 99 (Brown’s actual number) anchors a back five that hasn’t conceded in a goal in its last 358 minutes of soccer. Brown found what he wanted in Bloomington. Handed his chance, after waiting so long, he’s seizing it with both hands.

“Whenever you become a consistent starter for so long,” Brown told IndyStar, “the game just kind of becomes a little bit of a job. That pressure becomes a privilege, but you get used to it.

“Sitting on the sideline makes you just appreciate the moment more.”

A Zionsville native, Brown began his career with another college soccer powerhouse. He spent four years seasons (2020-23) with the Cavaliers, starting between the sticks for two-plus seasons.

In 2021, Brown led the ACC in saves, and in 2022 he was third-team all-conference, and made the All-ACC tournament team.

Then, midseason in 2023, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Brown lost the rest of that campaign, before transferring into a two-year graduate program at IU.

He knew the Hoosiers better than most — Brown was close friends with Grant Yeagley, one of Todd Yeagley’s three sons, growing up, even spending time at the Yeagleys’ house when he was young.

But family ties didn’t bring Brown to Bloomington.

“Going to a place ready to compete was really important to me,” he said. “I didn’t just want to step in somewhere and be that annoying fifth-year senior that steps in and (takes the job by default).”

Indiana had an established keeper, JT Harms, and with his ACL tear mended, Brown was ready to push Harms for playing time.

But through the course of the summer in 2024, he started to notice a new pain, this time in his right knee. It was never sharp or unbearable. Brown can’t even pinpoint exactly when it started. It wasn’t extreme to the point that he stopped working out, or coaching other goalies. Just persistent enough for him to eventually get it examined.

“I finally pulled the trigger on the MRI, thinking maybe I’d sprained my MCL or something,” Brown said.

Tests confirmed what Brown never realized — he’d torn the ACL in his right knee.

“It was definitely a blow,” he said.

That planted Brown on the sideline for another year. He passed a lot of training sitting on Jerry Yeagley’s golf cart, getting a crash course in IU soccer history and culture from the former coach still affectionately referred to within the program as The Godfather.

Brown also spent that time studying his new team, and his new teammates. The goalkeeper is the only player on the pitch who plays with the entire game in front of him, and his role as a communicator and organizer is crucial to not just defensive success, but team success.

Once he was cleared a second time, Brown spent the summer directing what he calls “a makeshift goalies union,” working out with Louisville transfer AJ Piela and Dani Jacobson, the starting goalie for IU’s women’s team. When the rest of his teammates gathered for preseason, Brown might have been new to some of them on the pitch, but he needed no time bedding in.

“Hanging out with the guys for the whole year, them seeing me as a human being off the field, and then being able to prove myself on the field, I think that combination of both has been really helpful,” Brown said. “Even though I am a transfer, it doesn’t feel like it.”

That alone didn’t hand Brown the starting job, out of a keeper group Todd Yeagley has suggested is the deepest he’s coached at Indiana.

“This group,” Christian Lomeli, a former IU keeper now on staff, said, “it’s crazy to say, and I’ve never felt this way, in my time here: I could have picked the name out of a hat and every one would have been capable of starting in that (season-opening) Clemson match, and the season moving forward.”

In particular, Brown split time in the preseason with freshman Judewellin Michel, who came to IU from the CF Montreal academy setup.