‘We’ve got our hands full’: Western Illinois sees great challenge when facing IU football in week two

IU football heads to week two with another home matchup — this time welcoming in the Western Illinois Leathernecks.

Indiana is coming off of a 31-7 win over FIU to begin Curt Cignetti’s era in Bloomington while Western Illinois lost 54-15 to Northern Illinois. Joe Davis is in his debut season with the Leathernecks and spoke to the media earlier this week.

Below are some of the key quotes he had related to the IU football program.

On Indiana: “This is a really, really good football team that has done an excellent job of adding value through the transfer portal. Certainly, the head coach bringing a good number of players with him from an extremely successful group of 5 program has been a big positive for them thus far. I’ve known Coach Cignetti for a long time … He’s a detail coach, he’s built winners everywhere he’s been. The guys they’ve added certainly stand out on film, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The players he’s brought from James Madison, they look like Big Ten guys. They’re big. They’re strong. They’re fast. On the offensive side of the ball having a veteran quarterback that was a First Team All-MAC kid at Ohio is going to pay big dividends for them throughout the year. We’ve got our hands full on Saturday”

On watching JMU film: “A good amount. Regardless of opponent, we’re going to turn over every single rock that we can to try and find an advantage. That’s not necessarily specific to Indiana — I think that is everyone that we watch when there’s a coaching change or for early season games … Coach Cignetti brought both his coordinators from JMU, so there’s obviously a lot of carry over schematically with what they’re doing and you can see that, even in their first game against FIU. The players, the coaches, they’re all pretty well versed on that system and I think it has probably helped them acclimate with a new head football coach a little bit quicker.”

On Kurtis Rourke: “Making that quarterback hold on to that football, regardless of player, is going to be a positive for your defense. It just is. A veteran quarterback that you allow to get the ball out in rhythm or one-hitch throws — they have the potential to be very deadly. They know where to go with the football, there’s fluidity and rhythm in their delivery, and that certainly helps them become a lot more accurate. Forcing him to hold onto the football – we do have a couple disruptive edge rushers here that we weren’t able to get loose on Saturday … if we can keep Rourke in the pocket and make him hold onto that football will be a big priority for us and will certainly help us as we try to get pressure on him.”

SEE ALSO: 3 storylines to watch for when IU football hosts Western Illinois

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