BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – After a season-opening victory over Ball State in an intrastate struggle at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana returns to Bloomington for its home opener with a chance to start 2-0 on Saturday against an FCS opponent. Eastern Illinois, picked in preseason to finish eighth in the nine-team Ohio Valley Conference, comes into its first matchup against the Hoosiers with a few extra days to prepare after falling 24-10 to Tennessee-Chattanooga on Aug. 29.
TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network. LINE: No Line
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The big story to come out of Indiana's 34-24 victory over Ball State was the performance of quarterback Michael Penix Jr. in his first career start. Penix, the first freshman to start a season opener at quarterback for the Hoosiers since Antwaan Randle El in 1998, connected on 24-of-40 passes for 326 yards and one touchdown while also rushing for a team-leading 67 yards to give him 393 yards of total offense. Penix also made freshman mistakes that he'll try to eliminate this week against Eastern Illinois, throwing two interceptions and missing some reads that ultimately kept the game close. Five Indiana receivers finished with three or more catches as the passing attack outpaced the run game (148 yards) so Indiana will be looking for more production from its backs against Eastern Illinois.
ABOUT INDIANA (1-0)
In addition to offensive threats Penix, running back Stevie Scott III and a gaggle of quality receivers, Indiana has a scoring weapon with kicker Logan Justus, who went 4-for-4 on field goal attempts against Ball State, including 48-, 49- and 50-yarders, one of which gave the Hoosiers a 10-point cushion late in the game. Scott, a 1,000-yard rusher as a freshman, will set his sights on a bounce-back week after running for 48 yards on 19 attempts against Ball State in his sophomore debut. Indiana's defense held Ball State to 100 yards on the ground (2.5 yards per carry), linebacker Reakwon Jones led the team with 11 tackles and the Hoosiers came up with a turnover in their 19th consecutive game, the longest current streak in the country.
ABOUT EASTERN ILLINOIS (0-1)
First-year coach Adam Cushing lost his debut last week when the Panthers committed three turnovers despite racking up more yards (354-350) and also having a distinct advantage in time of possession (34:19-25:41) and number of offensive plays (83-60), even with three freshmen starting on the offensive line. But they were shut out in the second half when starting quarterback and former Tulane transfer Johnathan Brantley (13-of-25 passing for 119 yards and a touchdown) left the game with an injury and was replaced by Harry Woodbery (13-of-22, 121 yards, interception). Linebacker Joe Caputo, who anchored Eastern Illinois' defense with eight tackles, has started 34 consecutive games and played under four defensive coordinators during his five years in the program.
EXTRA POINTS
1. Penix's passing yards and total yards against Ball State were second in Indiana history by a freshman quarterback making his debut, behind only Randle El's 385 passing and 467 total yards against Western Michigan in 1998, and this week he'll face an Eastern Illinois defense that gave up 256 yards through the air in its opening-week loss.
2. Indiana claimed two of the Big Ten's weekly honors after the opening weekend with Penix named freshman of the week for his all-around play and Justus the special teams player of the week after nailing a career-best four field goals.
3. The Panthers are 0-8 all time against Big Ten opponents, but when Cushing was an assistant at Northwestern before taking the coaching job this season at Eastern Illinois, the Wildcats were 7-1 against Indiana.
PREDICTION: Indiana 52, Eastern Illinois 10