Hoosiers Now

LIVE BLOG: Follow Indiana's Football Game Against Western Illinois

Welcome to our live blog for Indiana versus Western Illinois, where we'll keep you updated with all the news and views in real time, with opinion and highlights thrown in as well, live from Memorial Stadium.

Todd Golden

Indiana Hoosiers wide receiver Andison Coby (0) runs the ball after a catch for a touchdown while Western Illinois Leathernecks defensive back Braylen Brooks (7) defends in the first quarter at Memorial Stadium.
Indiana Hoosiers wide receiver Andison Coby (0) runs the ball after a catch for a touchdown while Western Illinois Leathernecks defensive back Braylen Brooks (7) defends in the first quarter at Memorial Stadium. / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Welcome to the live blog for Indiana's opening game of the season against Florida International. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. ET.

Game two of the Curt Cignetti features a dreaded FBS vs. FCS contest. Fans of the FBS schools really don't like these games and I don't blame them. The only skin in the game is getting a win towards bowl eligibility.

We'll see what we see from Indiana tonight. I expect a relatively vanilla approach. Cignetti won't want to put too much on film for UCLA to see for the Big Ten opener next Saturday.

FINAL: Indiana 77, Western Illinois 3. Domination from start to finish. The Hoosiers just miss the all-time victory margin of 76, but didn't miss much else. It's good that Indiana man-handled an inferior opponent. Indiana did set the single-game total yardage record at 701 on its last series.

We'll see whether that level of domination carries over to any of the other opponents on the schedule. The rubber hits the road in a much more meaningful way in eight days when Indiana travels to UCLA for its Big Ten opener.

Indiana 77-3, 546 4Q. Khobie Martin with a 31-yard run. See the domination, capitulation line below.

Indiana 77-3, 910 4Q. Nicolas Radicic has 11 extra points, also a single-game record for the Hoosiers. Indiana has 636 yards of total offense. The all-time record is 692 against Purdue in 2013.

Indiana 77-3, 910 4Q. The previous single-game scoring record was 76 points scored against Franklin College in 1901. Those 1901 Hoosiers can share a glass of bubbly in the great beyond. It took 123 years for their record to be bested.

Touchdown Indiana. Charlie Becker scores via a 3-yard jet sweep. The touchdown tied the all-time scoring record in a game for the Hoosiers. The extra point broke it.

Indiana 70-3, 1033 4Q. Rolijah Hardy strikes again. He strips backup quarterback Chris Irvin deep in Western Illinois territory. Robby Harrison recovered the fumble at the 10-yard-line and the Hoosiers have yet another short field to take advantage of ... if the play survives review.

Indiana 70-3, 1129 4Q. Hoosiers haven't let up in their domination. Leathernecks haven't let up in their capitulation.

Touchdown Indiana. Linebacker Rolijah Hardy gets a pick-six. Leathernecks were pinned against their own end zone. Hardy jumped on Nathan Lamb's pass, spun out of tackle, and scored from 12 yards out.

Indiana 63-3, 1308 4Q. Interception by Ta'Derrius Collins sets the Hoosiers up at the Western Illinois 10-yard line. Alberto Mendoza in at quarterback for Indiana.

Indiana 63-3, 1334 4Q. Memorial Stadium record for points is 73, scored by Indiana against Indiana State in 2013. The largest margin of victory at Memorial Stadium is 55 ... and the Hoosiers are well-clear of that.

All-time? Indiana once beat Franklin 76-0 in 1901.

Touchdown Indiana. Omar Cooper Jr.'s turn. He catches a 69-yard pass from Tayven Jackson as the Hoosiers have topped the 60-mark.

End 3rd quarter - Indiana 56, Western Illinois 3. Hoosiers are up to 547 yards of total offense. Indiana is 6-for-6 on third down conversions. The first down edge is 27-7.

Indiana 56-3, 102 3Q. Tayven Jackson completed both of his passes for 35 yards and rushed for 19 yards on two carries on the Hoosiers' scoring drive.

Touchdown Indiana. Tayven Jackson takes it to the house with a 13-yard TD run.

Indiana 49-3, 448 3Q. Tayven Jackson is playing quaterback for Indiana as the second unit offense is on the field.

Indiana 49-3, 858 3Q. Justice Ellison goes over the century mark with the long TD run. He has 117 rushing yards on nine carries.

Touchdown Indiana. Justice Ellison breaks free for a 47-yard touchdown run. Hoosiers needed just four plays to go 69 yards.

Indiana 42-3, 1033 3Q. Clock back on in the stadium. Western Illinois punts it away on their first second-half series. Starters back out for the offense too. Not a big fan of that.

• Clock in the second half is being kept on the field. Indiana has its starters out there defensively.

• Fans have noticeably departed Memorial Stadium once again. I mean ... I can't blame one single soul for not wanting to watch 30 more minutes of what has been a dreadfully non-competitive football game. As I've said a lot this week, I hope Curt Cignetti and the players understand this.

• Kurtis Rourke has completed 14 of 16 passes for 260 yards and two touchdown passes. He's also rushed for 13 yards and a touchdown. That ought to be enough for today. No need to risk injuring him in the second half.

Halftime - Indiana 42, Western Illinois 3. Indiana with a 415-98 edge in total yards. Indiana's yardage split is 260 pass, 155 run. Just a complete domination of the Leathernecks.

Elijah Sarratt
Indiana's Elijah Sarratt (13) runs for a touchdown during the Indiana versus Western Illinois football game at Memorial Stadium on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

Indiana 42-3, :30 2Q. The Leathernecks are on the board. Antonio Chadha with a 31-yard field goal. Honestly, it was a solid series for Western Illinois as the 'Necks went 69 yards in 12 plays.

Indiana 42-0, :55 2Q. Western Illinois has not one, but four first downs! Leathernecks to the Indiana 14-yard line. Defensive end Mikail Kamara came up a bit gimpy on a pressure on Western Illinois quarterback Nathan Lamb during the series. He stayed in the game, but something to keep an eye on.

Indiana 42-0, 227 2Q. This time, it took 10 plays to go 60 yards. Indiana has a 21-0 edge in first downs. Yes, you read that right.

Touchdown Indiana. Kurtis Rourke gets a TD for himself. A half-yard TD run behind a line surge by the Hoosiers.

Indiana 35-0, 320 2Q. Hoosiers on the goal line. Tight end James Bomba is injured and being tended to in the end zone.

Indiana 35-0, 741 2Q. Some defensive stats? Mikail Kamara has a sack. Lanell Carr Jr. and Tyrique Tucker shared a sack. Only two TFLs for the Hoosiers, but the Leathernecks don't have a first down, so it's hardly mattered.

Indiana 35-0, 747 2Q. Will the Hoosiers cover the morning line 42.5 spread by halftime? Signs point to yes? Need some drama to spice things up. In-game spread is currently at 58.5 on Fan Duel Sportsbook.

Indiana 35-0, 940 2Q. Indiana is paying Western Illinois $450,000 to endure this beatdown. Right now? Indiana has spent $12,857.14 per point. We'll see how low the ratio gets before all is said and done.

Touchdown Indiana. Elijah Green with an impressive 11-yard touchdown run. He was halted near the 4-yard line, but kept his legs chugging and his second effort got him to paydirt.

Indiana 28-0, 1009 2Q. Kurtis Rourke scrambles for a 10-yard gain and is tripped up as he goes out of bounds. Looked awkward. He's fine, but that's what you worry about with

Indiana 28-0, 1253 2Q. I'm old school, so I do like to keep play-by-play myself even though we have tools like StatBroadcast to do it. I will give up on my own play-by-play once the game gets out of hand. Not saying it's a record, I've seen my share of bad football in my time, but I stopped doing my own PBP at the end of the first quarter tonight.

Indiana 28-0, 1253 2Q. Hoosiers already starting to cycle in reserves. Running back Elijah Green is already getting carries. Can't imagine Kurtis Rourke will be on the field in the second half.

End first quarter - Indiana 28, Western Illinois 0. Indiana has a 279-22 edge in total yards. Hot knife through butter.

Indiana 28-0, 204 1Q. Sign of Western Illinois progress! The Leathernecks forced a third down play, a 3rd-and-8 from the Indiana 30. The Hoosiers predictably converted it. Indiana also converted, in one play, a 1st-and-25 after offensive pass interference. The plays that led up to the touchdown were a 16-yard pass, 10-yard pass, 14-yard pass, the penalty, a 26-yard run and a 17-yard run. It's like the defense isn't even there.

Stats for Indiana so far. Hoosiers have 279 yards of total offense in four series. Elijah Sarratt is already over the 100-yard receiving mark with 3 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. Justice Ellison has 56 rushing yards on 5 carries. Ty Son Lawton has 29 rushing yards on 3 carries. Kurtis Rourke has completed 8 of 9 passes for 197 yards and 2 TD passes.

Touchdown Indiana - Running back Ty Son Lawton gets into the act with a 17-yard touchdown run.

Indiana 21-0, 741 1Q. Ridiculously easy for the Hoosiers. Kurtis Rourke patiently waited for Elijah Sarratt to complete his pattern and simply lobbed it over the top to him. Western Illinois was over-committed behind Sarratt and he simply out-ran everyone. Indiana is playing College Football 25 on freshman level and WIU is playing on Heisman level right this minute.

Touchdown Indiana - On Indiana's first play from scrimmage on its third series, Kurtis Rourke lobs its over the middle to a wide-open Elijah Sarratt, who had no one between him and the end zone for a 71-yard touchdown catch.

Indiana 14-0, 930 1Q. - Hoosiers used plays of 2, 16, 23 and 10 yards to set up Justice Ellison's easy touchdown run from 2 yards out. Not much resistance to speak of from the Leathernecks.

Crowd update? Students have mostly filled in now. Rest of the stadium is no more than half-full to less than that elsewhere.

Touchdown Indiana - Justice Ellison goes off right tackle for a 2-yard touchdown run. Western Illinois still hasn't forced the Hoosiers into a single third down play.

Indiana 7-0, 1152 1Q. Leathernecks only gain one yard on their opening series. Shawn Asbury II laid a wicked hit on an open WIU receiver over the middle to force the three-and-out. Myles Price was hit late out of bounds on the punt return, so the Hoosiers begin their next series at the WIU 47.

Starters for Indiana: Offense - QB Kurtis Rourke, RB Ty Son Lawton, WR Myles Price, WR Elijah Sarratt, WR Omar Cooper Jr., TE Zach Horton, C Mike Katic, RT Trey Wedig, LT Carter Smith, RG Bray Lynch, LG Drew Evans.
Defense - CB Jamier Johnson, CB D'Angelo Ponds, S Josh Sanguinetti, S Shawn Asbury II, S Amare Ferrell, LB Aiden Fisher, LB Jailin Walker, DE Mikail Kamara, DE Lanell Carr Jr., DT James Carpenter, DT Marcus Burris Jr.

Indiana 7-0, 1253 1Q. It took all 1 minute, 58 seconds, 5 plays and 68 yards to get into the end zone. Andison Coby was open on a post route and Kurtis Rourke didn't miss him. Indiana didn't have a third down to convert on the series. Easy peasy.

Touchdown Indiana - Andison Coby over the middle with a 38-yard touchdown catch. Perfect strike from Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke.

Pregame - Indiana injuries today submitted to the Big Ten for the availability report, all players listed as out: WR Donaven McCulley, CB Jah Jah Boyd, WR E.J. Williams Jr. and TE Brody Kosin. Nothing unexpected and it's good that RB Kaelon Black is absent from the list.

• Officially 73 degrees as kickoff nears. Beautiful weather. Justice Ellison, Mike Katic and James Carpenter are at midfield for the coin toss. Western Illinois won the toss and deferred to the second half. Indiana will get

• Students are starting to fill in a bit now as the pre-game clock hits the 15-minute mark. You can see a large throng of students walking down 17th Street from the press box. Kind of what you'd expect. We'll see how the rest of the stadium fills out.

• I've been to Western Illinois for football many times. Hanson Field is a very quaint stadium. Sort of inside a natural bowl of sorts. It has a good atmosphere. Difficult place to drive to from any direction other than due north, though. Macomb, Ill. is a nice town, but you bank a lot of two-lane highway time to get there.

• Security is very optimistically placed at the top of the student section on the east side of the stadium. With 23 minutes to kickoff? Still plenty of student seats available below the tunnels. The rest of the stadium? Wide open spaces. Not a surprise to me ... but I'm not the one who pointed out the habits of the crowd either.

• Fashion report. Indiana in its same default red jerseys, white paints with the regular IU helmet. Western Illinois appears to be in all white.

• It's overcast at Memorial Stadium with a steady breeze coming from the north. Temperatures have been dropping all day and it should be cool for the majority of the game.

• The two-hour acid test of driving into the parking lot to gauge the crowd? It's unscientific, but let's just say I parked about as close to the stadium as my Gate 11 pass allowed me to. Tailgaters were around, but thin on the ground. Now, it's a Friday game versus a Saturday game and that makes a huge difference, but I just hope Curt Cignetti has appropriately calibrated his expectations of what the crowd will be. It's just not going to happen in the span of a game or two to change habits that have been ingrained in Indiana football fans for generations.

• Other Big Ten games this weekend: Northwestern hosts Duke at 9 p.m. ET tonight. I happened to be in Chicago earlier this week, and while I was there, I checked out Northwestern's temporary stadium on Lake Michigan. Interesting joint.

On Saturday, the big game is No. 3 Texas at No. 10 Michigan and there is one Big Ten conference game as Maryland hosts Michigan State. Other games: Bowling Green at No. 8 Penn State; Rhode Island at Minnesota; Akron at Rutgers; Iowa State at No. 21 Iowa; South Dakota at Wisconsin; Eastern Michigan at Washington; No. 19 Kansas at Illinois; Colorado at Nebraska; Western Michigan at No. 2 Ohio State; Boise State at Oregon and Utah State at No. 13 USC.

Stories related to Indiana football

  • MEET THE OPPONENT: Struggling Western Illinois comes to Memorial Stadium to try to shake off a long losing streak. CLICK HERE.
  • WHY PLAY FCS TEAMS? Indiana plays Western Illinois on Friday. Why do the Hoosiers, and so many other Big Ten teams, play FCS teams? An explainer. CLICK HERE.
  • CIGNETTI COMMENTS FROM RADIO SHOW: Curt Cignetti's highlights from his weekly radio show. CLICK HERE.
  • PREDICTIONS AND 3 KEYS FOR WESTERN ILLINOIS GAME: Read about our predictions and three keys for Indiana to prevail against Western Illinois on Friday. CLICK HERE.
  • HOW TO WATCH: All of the details on how to watch Indiana's football game with Western Illinois. CLICK HERE.
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Todd Golden

TODD GOLDEN

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