#5 Excel H Sports Ranked Ohio State handles Indiana 23-3 in Season Opener 

#5 Excel H Sports Ranked Ohio State handles Indiana 23-3 in Season Opener 
By: Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports
Photos: Tony Harper/Indiana Sports Network/Excel H Sports
The Indiana Hoosiers Football team fell to the #5 Excel H Sports Ranked Ohio State Buckeyes 23-3 on Saturday afternoon in the 2023 season opener at Memorial Stadium. The Hoosiers opened their 139th season of football with a tough task ahead with Ohio State has beaten Indiana 29 straight times dating back to 1991 and lead the all-time series 80-12-5 dating back to 1901. The Buckeyes are 29-2-1 all time in Bloomington and IU has not beaten Ohio State since 1988 and the teams played to a 27-27 tie in 1990. Ohio State has won all six season opening meetings with the Hoosiers and IU is 13-2 in home openers since 2002 with the only other loss coming to Ohio State in 2017. Tom Allen begins his 7th season and is now 1-3 in Big Ten Season Openers. The Hoosiers lost to Iowa in 2021 and beat Illinois at home to open the 2022 season. IU has faced a ranked opponent three of the last four season to open the season.

Tom Allen did not reveal a starting quarterback until the Hoosiers took the field for their opening possession of the game and Redshirt Freshman Brendan Sorsby came out and led the Hoosiers on the first two drives of the game and the Hoosiers had two 3 and outs and had to punt. Tayven Jackson came in on the third series and got the Hoosiers moving in the right direction, but Indiana only came away with 42-yard field goal by Chris Freeman with 6:15 left in the second quarter in which Allen said earlier in the week he was not going to reveal a starting kicker either. Sorsby who returned in the third quarter was 8-16 passing for 58 yards and 6 carries for negative 2 yards. Tayven Jackson was 1-5 passing for 24 yards and 11 yards rushing on 3 carries. The Hoosiers Christian Turner had 7 carries for 29 yards and Jaylin Lucas had 11 carries for 24 yards. Cam Camper who returned after missing most of last season with a Torn ACL had 3 catches for 35 yards.  The Hoosiers had 153 yards of total offense. IU had 10 first downs, 5-15 on third downs, 1-3 on fourth downs and had 7 penalties for 70 yards.  Combined the Hoosier Quarterback were 9-21 passing for 82 yards.

 

 

 

Ohio State was led by Running Back Mayan Williams who scored both touchdowns on just seven carries for 25 yards. Williams scored on the Buckeyes first drive of the game with a 7-yard run with 7:16 left in the first quarter. Williams punched it in from 3 yards out with 1:16 left in the third quarter. Jayden Felding added three field goals as he hit a 40 yarder with three seconds left before halftime and 22 yards with 6:42 left in the third quarter along with another 22-yard field goal with 4:26 left in the game. Starting Quarterback Kyle McCord went 20-33 passing for 239 yards and an interception.  The Buckeyes top two receivers were held in check as Emeka Egbuka had 3 catches for 16 yards and Marvin Harrison Jr had 2 catches for 18 yards. Egubka and Harrison Jr finished last season with over 1,000 yards receiving.

 

Cade Stover had 5 catches for 98 yards receiving and Deamonte Trayanum had 8 rushes for 57 yards. Leading rusher from last season Treveon Henderson finished with 12 carries and 47 yards. Ohio State racked up 380 yards of total offense. Devin Brown the backup quarterback for the Buckeyes was 1-3 passing for minus three yards. The Buckeyes had 23 first downs, 2-12 on third down conversions and 2-3 on fourth down conversions along with 5 penalties for 41 yards.

Indiana showed progress on the defensive side of the ball as Western Michigan Transfer Andre Carter had 2 tackles for loss and pass breakup, Aaron Casey led the Hoosiers on defense with 9 solo tackles and a tackle for loss. Phillip Dunnam had the interception for the Hoosiers as this team brought in 24 transfers in the off season and look to improve from a 4-8 season a year ago.  The Hoosiers are 0-1 and 0-1 in the Big Ten and will Host Indiana State on Friday Night at 7 pm on the Big Ten Network. The Sycamores lost to Eastern Illinois at home 27-0 on Thursday Night.

 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply