#4 Excel H Sports Ranked Spank the Spartans to Keep the Spittoon 

By Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports, Senior Writer

Photos by: Eric Thieszen/Thieszen Photo Creations/Excel H Sports

    #4 Excel H Sports Ranked Indiana Hoosiersretained the Old Brass Spittoon with a 38-13 win over the Michigan State Spartans Saturday afternoon on Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium before a sold-out crowd for Homecoming on the Bloomington Campus. The Hoosiers have won four of the last six meetings as Michigan State leads the all-time series 50-20-2. It’s the first time since a 24-21 overtime win on October 1, 2016, that Hoosiers beat the Spartans at home.

    Indiana is 7-0 and 4-0 in the Big Ten and will host UCLA Next Saturday with a time and network to be announced tomorrow. The Hoosiers could move up to #2 in the Excel H Sports Rankings with Miami Florida losing at home Louisville 24-21 Friday Night. The Hoosiers have their highest ranking in program history and are looking for more history as the season continues as Indiana looks to make the Big Ten Championship game and the College Football Playoff. Michigan State is 3-4 on the season and 0-4 in the Big Ten and will host their in-state rivals the Michigan Wolverines next Saturday in East Lansing.

   Michigan State got the ball first and marched down the field with an 11-play 55-yard drive in six minutes and fifty-six seconds which was capped off by 38-yard Martin Connington Field Goal to lead 3-0 with 8:07 left in the first quarter.

 

The Hoosiers marched down the field and scored on a Fernando Mendoza 13-yard touchdown pass to E.J. Williams Jr. for a 7-3 Indiana lead with 2:40 left in the first quarter. Indiana had an 11 play 75-yard drive and used five minutes and twenty- seven seconds of clock as both teams used the clock to their advantage on their opening possession of the game.

   The Hoosiers scored with 59 seconds left in the first half when Kaelon Black ran up the middle for 29 yards to put the Hoosiers up 21-10 after 8 play 80-yard drive that used up a minute and forty seconds of clock as the Hoosiers scored on all three of the drives in the first half. Michigan State had one last drive running 6 plays for 13 yards as Stephen Daley sacked Adian Chiles for a 10-yard loss to end the first half as the Hoosiers went to the locker room up 21-10. Indiana outgained the Spartans 230-193.

    Fernando Mendoza threw 181 yards, and two touchdown passes completing 13 of his 16 passes to six different receivers. Indiana ran the ball 8 times for 49 yards. Adian Chiles completed 20 of his 22 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown. The Spartans ran the ball 14 times for 15 yards. Both teams had 15 first downs as Michigan State ran 36 plays and Indiana 24 plays. Michigan State controlled the clock using up 20 minutes and 11 seconds and Indiana used nine minutes and forty-nine seconds. The Game was delayed 22 minutes when severe weather hit Bloomington just after the teams went into the locker room.

    Indiana opened the second half with Mendoza throwing his third touchdown pass of the game on a 48-yard strike to Omar Cooper Jr that capped off a four play 75-yard drive that took one minute and fifty-one seconds as the Hoosiers increased the lead to 28-10 with 13:09 left in the third quarter. Michigan State could not answer as Martin Connington missed a 50-yard field goal with 7:56 left in the third quarter after the Spartans went 43 yards on 10 plays and used five minutes and 13 seconds of clock but came up empty on their third consecutive drive.

   The Hoosiers kept scoring as Mendoza found Elijah Sarratt for the second time on a perfect 27-yard throw to the southeast corner of the end zone for a 35-10 Indiana lead with 3:55 left in the third quarter. The Hoosiers had 68 yards on 8 plays and used four minutes and 1 second as they continued to slice up the Spartans Defense.

    Michigan State ran three plays for (-8) yards and had to punt it away deep in their own territory. Indiana had 377 yards of total offense at the end of third quarter as Mendoza had 298 yards passing and Hoosiers had 79 yards of rushing with 20 first downs on 39 plays and 17:31 time of possession. Michigan State had 248 yards with 227 of those yards passing and just 21 yards rushing. The Spartans had 14 first downs, running 48 plays and controlling time of possession for 27 minutes and 29 seconds as Indiana led 35-10.

   In the fourth quarter the Hoosiers went for it on fourth down and four at the Michigan State seven-yard line as Mendoza found E.J. Williams Jr. in the corner of the endzone, but it was ruled incomplete as Williams Jr. did not get his foot in bounds and Indiana turned it over on downs for the first time after scoring on their first five possessions. Indiana brought the pressure, and Stephen Daley recorded his second sack of the game bringing down Chiles for a loss of nine yards on a fourth down and 13 at the Indiana 23-yard line. The Hoosiers scored a 31-yard field goal by Nico Radicic with 1:51 left to make 38-10. Michigan State responded with 34-yard field goal with 33 seconds left to make it 38-13. As the Hoosiers did not have a letdown after a win at Oregon a week ago.

    Fernando Mendoza completed 24 of his 28 passes for 332 yards with 4 touchdown passes, no interceptions and no sacks. Kaleon Black led the Indiana rushing attack with 64 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown. The Hoosiers had 4 different ball carriers carry the ball 28 times for 132 yards. Omar Cooper Jr. led the Indiana receivers with 8 catches for 115 yards and a touchdown.

   E.J. Williams Jr. caught 5 passes for 59 yards and a touchdown and Elijah Sarratt had 4 catches for 70 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Hoosiers had 24 first downs, running 56 plays, 2-3 in the redzone, 5-8 on third downs, 1-2 on fourth downs along with one penalty for five yards. Indiana had 464 yards of total offense and controlled the clock for 28 Minutes and 46 Seconds.

   Michigan State Quarterback Adian Chiles completed 27 of his 33 passes for 243 yards and a touchdown pass and did not throw an interception. Chiles ran the ball 8 times for 50 yards as Michigan State was held to 74 yards on 24 carries. Allesio Mllivojevic came in and completed 3 of his 5 passes for 50 yards. The Hoosiers got to the Spartans Quarterbacks four times with Stephen Daley and Rolijah Hardy each recording 2 sacks.

   Nick Marsh had 7 catches for 64 yards as the Spartans had 30 catches for 293 yards by 10 different receivers. The Spartans had 367 yards of total offense, 19 first downs, 5-14 on third downs, 3-4 on fourth downs, 3-4 in the redzone and 6 penalties for 46 yards. Michigan State ran 62 plays and controlled the ball for 31 minutes and 14 seconds.

    Indiana is now 18-2 under Curt Cignetti with back-to-back 7-0 starts which has never been done before at IU and just the third time ever the Hoosiers have started 7-0 with the first time in 1967. Indiana has won 16 of its 18 games under Cignetti by double digits and has not lost a game at home since Cignetti has been at Indiana which is now 14 games along with a 12-1 Big Ten record.

    Cignetti just signed an eight-year $93 million dollar extension on Thursday which will keep him here until 2033 and he plans to retire as Hoosier. Cignetti has been the hot name in college football with the success he has had turning this Hoosier Program around and Indiana made sure that he was not going anywhere. Indiana now turns its focus to the next game which is UCLA which started it season 0-4 and fired head coach Deshaun Foster and now under Interim Head Coach Tim Skipper beat Penn State at Home and Michigan State on the road and playing Maryland later this evening hopes to come into Bloomington next week on a three-game winning streak.