BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana coach Curt Cignetti sent his players a message this week.
He expected them to play their style from start to finish, and they delivered in record-breaking fashion.
Kurtis Rourke threw two touchdown passes and scored another touchdown – all in the first half Friday night – and the Hoosiers broke the school record for most points in a game with their unplanned 77-3 victory over Western Illinois.
“I tried to get a lot of guys in the game. We tried to run there, and I wanted to give the third quarterback a chance to throw once. So we did what we could to keep the score down,” Cignetti said. “But I didn’t want them to play below their level, and I think we responded (to the message) really well.”
How unbalanced was it?
The Hoosiers (2-0) surpassed the previous record of 76 points set in a 1901 shutout against Franklin College with the extra point after Charlie Becker’s 3-yard touchdown run with 9:10 left. They also set a school record with 701 total yards and the margin was second only to the Franklin game.
Cignetti also became the fourth Indiana coach since 1948 to win his first two games at the school.
Western Illinois (0-2) extended the longest losing streak in Division I to 26 in a row. The Leathernecks’ last win came on October 30, 2021.
This game was never close. Indiana scored a touchdown on each of its first six possessions, rushed for 415 yards on 38 plays in the first half and led 42-3 at halftime.
Rourke, the 2022 Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Year, was sensational in his second game with Indiana, completing 15 of 17 passes for 268 yards and running three times for 13 yards. Justice Ellison ran nine times for 117 yards and two touchdowns. Elijah Sarratt caught six passes for 137 yards, including a 71-yard touchdown.
“He was pretty sharp and the receivers made good plays,” Cignetti said.
Andison Coby opened the scoring with a 38-yard touchdown catch on the fifth play of the game. Ellison’s 2-yard touchdown run made the game 14-0 before Sarratt finished with a long touchdown play. And Ty Son Lawton’s 19-yard touchdown run gave Indiana a 28-0 lead late in the first quarter.
Western Illinois’ only point was a 31-yard field goal in the final minute of the first half.
“It’s unfortunate to start this slow two weeks in a row here and not build momentum on both sides of the ball,” Western Illinois coach Joe Davis said. “It puts us in such a big hole early on that it’s hard to get out of.”
Ellison capped it off with a 47-yard touchdown run to open the second half, and kicker Nicolas Radicic scored the highest score for Indiana with his record-breaking 11th extra point of the game.
“I thought we played physically and with a nasty attitude and were never satisfied,” Cignetti said.
THE RESULT
Western Illinois: This season certainly hasn’t started well for the only active FBS or FCS team with two straight winless seasons. Both losses this season have been debacles, and the Leathernecks have lost eight of their last nine games by 39 points or more.
Indiana: The Hoosiers are off to a solid start, helped by a loose early-season schedule, but things will get a lot tougher next week in their Big Ten opener at UCLA.
Power outage
Western Illinois wasn’t the only team without power on Friday night. During halftime warmups, both scoreboards in the stadium went black. After a brief delay, the referees announced that they would keep the official game time. A few minutes later, the scoreboards restarted, showing about 10 1/2 minutes left until the end of the third quarter.
Next
Western Illinois: Visit former conference opponent Illinois State next Saturday.
Indiana: Face UCLA in the Rose Bowl next Saturday for the first time since 1968.
