‘Hard football’: IU football owns the line of scrimmage in domination of Rutgers

Turbo Richard runs the ball at Rutgers.

IU football dominated the line of scrimmage against a Big Ten opponent for the second consecutive game. The word “dominated” might not even do justice to what the Hoosiers did to Rutgers in a 47-15 win over the Scarlet Knights on Saturday night.

Indiana manhandled, bulldozed and overwhelmed Rutgers up front on both sides of the football.

“I thought our defense was tremendous in shutting them down until the end when the game was in hand and the offense made a lot of plays,” IU head coach Curt Cignetti said. “We had a lot of outstanding individual efforts. It’s a good win.”

Indiana’s 2026 identity is beginning to take shape.

In two conference games against Northwestern and Rutgers, Indiana has tallied 600 rushing yards and allowed only 91. The Hoosiers outgained the Wildcats 271-32 on the ground last week and outgained the Scarlet Knights 329-59 on Saturday. Indiana averaged 7.1 and 8.7 yards per carry in each game, respectively. Northwestern only managed 2.3 and Rutgers averaged 1.7.

Indiana running back Lee Beebe Jr. had a career performance against Northwestern, and Turbo Richard topped him on Saturday against Rutgers. Beebe Jr. rushed for a career-high 203 yards against the Wildcats. Richard followed Beebe’s career performance with 204 yards on Saturday. Beebe Jr. averaged 8.5 yards per carry and Richard averaged 15.7.

Indiana had not had a 200-plus-yard rusher in eight years. Stevie Scott III was the last Hoosier to do it in 2018. Indiana has had two different players accomplish the feat in back-to-back games.

“We just came in and just played our game – hard football,” Richard said. “We got the big boys up front. They’re doing their job really well. It’s just me and Lee just running off of that.”

Not to forget, Khobie Martin will return at some point this season and add an even deeper level of explosiveness to the running back room. With the success of Beebe Jr. and Richard, Martin’s proven worth is a fascinating puzzle piece to this offense. Its fit is a mystery.

Lots of attention is on Josh Hoover and Indiana’s passing game, for good reason. Hoover has settled in nicely as the signal caller. His latest performance against Rutgers was his best as a Hoosier, going 20-for-27 passing for 251 yards and four touchdowns with no turnovers. He started the game 10-for-10. Nick Marsh and Charlie Becker both had performances of at least seven receptions for 100 yards and a touchdown to help the cause.

Indiana is not a pass-first team. The Hoosiers ran the ball roughly two-thirds of the time in 2025 and that has held true in 2026. In both conference games combined, Indiana has run the ball 57 percent of the time. Indiana has run 39 times and passed 29 times in both games.

After rushing for 134 yards against North Texas in Week 1, Indiana has rushed for over 200 yards in each of its next four games, including three games with at least 250 yards. The 329-yard tally against Rutgers is the highest total so far this season.

When Indiana runs the ball effectively during the majority share of snaps and passes effectively in the minority share, this offense is ultra-explosive. That was the case against Rutgers on Saturday.

“I’m really really proud of Lee and Turbo and the way that they were able to play tonight,” Hoover said. “They did a great job, had some big runs and obviously it all starts with the offensive line and I couldn’t be more proud of our offensive line. The way they played tonight in the pass game and the run game. Tight ends did a great job blocking and receivers as well. Running the ball is a team effort and I’m really proud of the way we did that tonight. Backs did a great job. Gutsy performance by those guys.”

Beebe Jr., Richard, Becker and Marsh all had over 100 yards on the night. Indiana became the first Big Ten team since 1995 with two receivers and two running backs all having 100-plus yards in a conference game.

Defensively, Indiana had eight tackles for loss and four sacks, held Rutgers to a 2-for-14 mark on third downs and limited the Scarlet Knights to 59 rushing yards on 1.7 yards per carry.

Rutgers put up 35 points and 460 yards of offense against then-No.12 USC two weeks ago and 58 points and 534 yards against Howard last week. It ran for over 160 yards in both games and had at least 27 first downs in both. The Scarlet Knights had nine first downs against Indiana.

Stephen Daley and Tobi Osunsanmi led the way along the defensive line with two tackles for loss each. Daley had two sacks and Osunsanmi had one and was the team’s leading tackler on the night. Seven different players recorded at least a half tackle for loss for Indiana.

Football games are won in the trenches, especially in the Big Ten. Indiana has won, manhandled, bulldozed through and overwhelmed its opponents in both of its Big Ten games in the trenches.

The Hoosiers are 5-0 and have won 21 straight games. Skill-position players may get the attention and the stats, but the big guys on the lines deserve some love.

Indiana has owned the line of scrimmage in conference play. If that continues, the Hoosiers will keep growing their threat to the rest of the conference.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

See More: Football