PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Previously unencountered obstacles often aren’t particularly problematic for college football teams as unwaveringly process-driven as Indiana.
Remarkably, it took until week five for the Hoosiers to hit the road for the first time.
As such, travel was a previously unencountered obstacle for this team, one which consists of a healthy mix of national champions and newcomers. Still, they packed up their necessities, mounted their horses and marched to Piscataway, New Jersey on the east coast.
As it turns out, like most potential threats, travel wasn’t much of an obstacle for the Hoosiers at all. Indiana defeated Rutgers 47-15 on the road.
“Our whole motto is: ‘it’s just us, and that’s all we need,’” Indiana wide receiver Charlie Becker said after the game. “It’s just us. There was nothing new that we needed to do, just go out there and do our jobs to the best of our abilities.”
Standing on a nearby hill, overlooking the castle of the Scarlet Knights, plotting the opportune moment for attack, Indiana attempted to keep its process as intact as it could. It succeeded.
Indiana came, saw and conquered.
Clad in white and surrounded by an army of knights in black, the Hoosiers plundered every corner of SHI Stadium, the castle Rutgers valiantly vied to defend.
Upon their descent from the high ground, the Hoosiers began by disarming the Scarlet Knights, sending their swords spinning harmlessly out of reach. Indiana held Rutgers to just 59 yards on the ground, and although the home team benefited from a few explosive plays en route to two touchdowns, Indiana’s third-down defense stood strong and the Scarlet Knights couldn’t establish a significant sense of momentum in their own building.
“When the game is over,” Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti said after defeating Rutgers, “you’d like to kind of get it over as quickly as possible. Not get anybody hurt, get some other guys in, get them some experience, but it doesn’t always work out that way. I thought we had an outstanding defensive effort.”
Then came the cavalry.
Running backs Turbo Richard and Lee Beebe Jr. both captured 100-yard performances, with Richard eclipsing the 200-yard mark a week after Beebe Jr. did the same.
Originally, Richard and Beebe Jr. competed alongside Khobie Martin to create a sort of a three-headed monster in the backfield. When Martin went down with an injury in week one, the other two responded by elevating their involvement. Inarguably, they’ve risen to the occasion, and the cavalry as a whole will be all the better for it once Martin soon returns and adds his abilities back into a run game that has already learned to claim so much success without him.
“Me and Lee (Beebe Jr.), we’re holding it down,” Richard said on Saturday. “When Khobie (Martin) comes back, we can have our three-headed monster like we had in the preseason.”
Disarmed Scarlet Knights scattered in distress amidst Indiana’s invasion, and the cavalry trampled the few defenders who refused to flee in a thorough dismantlement of the opposition. In search of a decisive strike, Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover unlatched his trebuchet.
Indiana led 23-0 at halftime, and received the second-half kickoff. Promptly, the Hoosiers propelled themselves down the field and extended the lead to four possessions on a scoring drive sparked by a dazzling 48-yard pass to Becker.
Hoover dropped back alone in the backfield with plenty of time to operate. Becker beat his man on a deep post route, and Hoover stepped into his throw, launching the rock from his trebuchet.
Becker caught it, the boulder made contact, and when Hoover followed the explosive play up with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Nick Marsh, one of the castle’s last walls fell.
“It was a great opportunity,” Becker said after the game. “We saw the coverage that we wanted, I just beat my guy and Josh (Hoover) put the ball exactly where it needed to be and so that’s just exactly how we planned it.”
Indiana didn’t need that fourth score in order to win, but it certainly assisted the victorious effort and now serves as reason for encouragement in Indiana’s abilities to keep pace with the most potent offenses in the Big Ten and beyond.
Hoover has connected with receivers deep down the field prior to this point, but not quite with precise timing and execution as precise as what was on display in Piscataway.
First, Indiana disarmed the Scarlet Knights, nearly neutralizing the run game and preventing star receiver KJ Duff from breaking free for more than four catches for 78 yards. Then, the cavalry stomped across the moat and broke through the castle's barricades, looting what little treasure Rutgers stored inside. As soon as the second half began and Rutgers rallied as much hope as it could muster, Hoover extinguished almost all doubt by, at last, unlatching his trebuchet.
Marching, trampling and trebucheting, the Hoosiers disarmed, dismantled and then destroyed.
Indiana, in total, outgained Rutgers by 339 yards. Evidently, the Hoosiers can win on the road, and if they are to remain undefeated through a second consecutive season, they must do so three times in the month of October.
Indiana travels to Nebraska (5-0) next week, and later to Michigan (3-2), with a home date against No. 5 Ohio State (4-1) sandwiched in between.
Indiana plundered in Piscataway, decimating the castle inhabited by the Scarlet Knights, and now Cignetti and the Hoosiers simply shift their attention to the next unfortunate village in position to fall victim to Indiana’s relentless ransacking.
All of that disarmament, dismantlement and destruction didn’t occur for no reason. Indiana doesn’t plunder very much physical treasure, but instead, gleans lessons from its victims.
What’s working, what isn’t. Which aspects of the offense and defense are satisfactory or satisfactory-adjacent, and which require increased attention.
Indiana enters road environments, takes what it needs and leaves: a win, a better understanding of its own strengths and weaknesses and a map to the next village it seeks to pillage.
Rutgers is in ruins. Nebraska is next. Onward the plunderous process presses.
