Indiana Football Game Preview: Indiana State – key storylines, injury report, how to watch

Indiana football returns to action for week two of the college football season looking to bounce back from the 23-3 loss to No. 3 Ohio State the week prior. They will be looking to do so while having a short turnaround as the Hoosiers welcome in the Indiana State Sycamores this Friday.

Indiana State, a FCS school, comes into this week’s game having also lost to in their week one falling to Eastern Illinois 27-0. Since the FCS (former Division I-AA) was formed in 1978, Indiana football is 16-1 against opponents from the division.

Friday’s game will mark the sixth time in program history that IU has played under Friday night lights. The Hoosiers have played just two prior Friday contests at Memorial Stadium, the last a thrilling 23-20 victory over Illinois to open the 2022 campaign.

Below is the full game preview of everything you need to know about Friday’s matchup.

Key Storylines

Will we finally see a clear gap between Brendan Sorsby and Tayven Jackson? 

As it was confirmed from Indiana football head coach Tom Allen postgame in the loss vs Ohio, the evaluation process for Indiana quarterbacks will continue heading into week two. The only difference we will see from week one to week two is that Tayven Jackson will start this time around however both him and Brendan Sorsby are expect to play somewhat equal snaps.

“Our decision was to play ’em both in the first two games. So Sorsby started this week. Tayven starts next week. The guys know that. They knew that ahead of time,” Indiana football head coach Tom Allen said postgame. ” … We just said whoever starts week one, the other is going to start week two. That’s how we set it up. So it gives us a chance to be able to, after the first two games, be able to evaluate where we’re at, where they’re at and what we need to be able to do moving forward.”

In Indiana’s loss to Ohio State in week one, there was no clear gap between both Jackson and Sorsby. From a statistical standout, you could technically say that Sorsby was the better of the two with him going 8-of-16 for 58 yards while Jackson was just 1-of-5 for 24 yards and had three carries for 11 yards.

With Indiana getting a chance at a lesser opponent than Ohio State was, there should be more opportunity for one of the two to standout among the other. As of right now, it looks as though Sorsby has the slight lead, but a big time performance from Jackson could easily change that.

Based on whoever performs the best, we should know who Indiana’s starter for the rest of the season is starting in week three vs Louisville.

“Yes, I would like to be able to have that, yes,” Allen said. “But I think it’s really just fair to have them both play against the same opponent. You just play one against one team, one against another team, it really doesn’t give you a pretty clear picture at all. Because obviously they’re two different opponents. Our first two opponents are very different.”

Will the offense still be ‘conservative’ against a much-lesser opponent?

While defense came to play vs Ohio State, on the offensive side of the ball for the Hoosiers, it was very lackluster to say the least. It was pretty much the same type of offense you have seen from the Indiana football program from the past few seasons.

There was no explosiveness and no want to get it to the playmakers….it was too conservative as both Tom Allen and offensive coordinator Walt Bell admitted over the week.

“We wanted to make it a 60-minute game and especially with kind of the history of this rivalry and how this transpired and we accomplish that,” Indiana football offensive coordinator Walt Bell said on Monday. “But we played pitter-patter too long. I played pitter-patter too long.”

Playing ‘pitter-patter’ as Walt Bell said is not going to help this Indiana team in the long term of the season. In today’s college football, you have to have a willingness to make the explosive plays and let your playmakers cook. Indiana has the playmakers this year to do with Cam Camper, Jaylin Lucas and others surrounding the QB.

Indiana for the most part never really wanted to open up the passing game, instead they stuck to a run-first style of Indiana led to just 71 rushing yards with a 2.2 average.

Can the Hoosiers clean up the silly penalties? 

While the offensive play calling was not up to par as fans would have liked to have seen, the amount of penalties that the offense and special teams earned did not do the Hoosiers any favors.

In total, Indiana had 8 penalties for 75 yards. The most crucial blows came from the specials teams on returns. While Jaylin Lucas would do his thing and get Indiana to great field position to start drives, silly petalites made it much more of a challenge for the offense to get going.

“The one frustrating thing that kind of stuck out to me that really put our offense in a bad spot, we had four crucial penalties that caused us to — we started four drives inside the 20, three inside the 10, which is tough,” Indiana head coach Tom Allen said on Monday. “It affects play calling. It affects psyche.”

When you play too undisciplined against a great program like Ohio States, your chances of competing for the win are slim-to-none. While penalties may not cost Indiana a win over Indiana State, they have to clean them up sooner than later or it is going to be a long season for the Hoosiers.

More: Indiana Football in Review: What went right? What went wrong? And more takeaways

Last Matchup

The Hoosiers are 6-0 all-time against the Sycamores, with the last meeting coming in 2014, a 28-10 victory for Indiana. That game capped a string of three straight seasons the teams played.

Indiana will host Indiana State for the seventh time in program history on Friday night at 7 p.m. on Big Ten Network. All seven meetings between the two programs have come inside Memorial Stadium

A special twist of the this game is Indiana State head coach Curt Mallory is the son of Indiana’s all-time winningest head coach Bill Mallory, who coached the Hoosiers from 1984-96. The elder Mallory piled up 69 victories and coached the Hoosiers to six of the program’s 13 bowl appearances.

Read: Indiana Football: Tom Allen sounds off about upcoming Friday night game

Injury Updates

Indiana

QB Dexter Williams II: Williams remains out and will not be available this game and for the foreseeable future. He is still in the recovery process of his significant knee injury from Indiana football’s season finale last year. While he has not be a part of Indiana’s quarterback battle, he has been able to contribute on the field a little as well as be a leader for both Jackson and Sorsby.

Indiana State

DB: Rylan Cole: is questionable for Friday’s game.

QB Cade Chambers: Week-to-week with shoulder injury. Not expected to play in Friday’s game.

Related: Early breakdown and initial thoughts on Indiana State

Quick Hitters

Who?: Indiana State (0-1) at Indiana (0-1)

When?: Friday, Sept. 8 | 7:00 p.m. ET

Where?: Memorial Stadium

TV: BTN

Radio: Indiana Hoosiers Sports Network

Spread: Indiana -31.5, per FanDuel Sports

SEE ALSO: Indiana football QBs Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby: ‘It would not surprise me down the line if both had a chance to play in the NFL someday.’

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