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6-Banner Sunday: IU football rolls to win against Howard

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Photos from IU football's 55-0 win against Howard at Memorial Stadium.

Welcome to another edition of 6-Banner Sunday, a joint production between The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall, where we highlight the five most essential IU sports stories of the past week. 6-Banner Sunday is written by Ari Shifron.

Once again, the major news story in Bloomington happened on the gridiron this week as Indiana football continued its defense of its national title against Howard.

We also have a rundown of conference football scores, a potential basketball Hoosier featured on a magazine cover and a Big Ten basketball roster preview. As usual, we will conclude with a look at the weekly shows and the rest of the IU sports scene, which was led by men’s soccer opening conference play with a victory.

Here is what is in this week’s edition:

• IU football shuts out Howard
• Big Ten football week in review
• Sam Alexis on Lindy’s regional cover
• Big Ten basketball roster preview
• Back Home Network shows
• Hoosier Roundup

Banner #1 – IU football shuts out Howard

IU football’s defense of its national title continued on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. After their victory against North Texas, Howard came calling to Bloomington, as the Hoosiers are once again expected to be near the top of the conference and amongst the best teams in college football.

The question wasn’t whether Indiana would win, but how they would do it. While the competition level must be taken into account, Rolijah Hardy and the defense looked much improved this week, allowing just four first downs all day in a 55-0 victory. The only slight question mark was QB Josh Hoover, who was solid, but less sharp and accurate than in week one. Nonetheless, Charlie Becker bailed out Hoover with three touchdown catches on less-than-perfect throws, with a couple of them and continued to show he is arguably the best WR in the country.

Afterward, IU Coach Curt Cignetti spoke, and Inside the Hall had a photo gallery. Also, Ian Plaskoff wrote a column about the improvements the team made this week.

Earlier in the week, the program held media availability before the contest. Cignetti gave his weekly update at a press conference and had his weekly radio show. Hardy and Becker were the players who spoke.

Banner #2 – Big Ten football week in review

While the Big Ten was expected to have a solid week as a whole on the gridiron, it didn’t go completely as planned in high-profile matchups outside of a few exceptions. While Michigan as well as Iowa scored massive power-four victories for the league and UCLA got a solid performance against San Diego State, others were less lucky.

In other big-time games for the league, Oregon suffered an embarrassing loss to Oklahoma State, who were on a long losing streak, while Ohio State blew a 20-point lead late against Texas. Other games against high-level competition also were a problem as Illinois was edged by Duke, Minnesota was blown out by Mississippi State, Purdue lost a heartbreaker to Wake Forest, and Rutgers was edged by Boston College.

Banner #3 – Sam Alexis on Lindy’s regional cover

In a sign of the times, IU still isn’t sure whether Sam Alexis will get a fifth year of eligibility as his case plays out in the courts. However, Lindy’s Sports still put him as a featured athlete on their regional cover that will be sold in Indiana.

Banner #4: Big Ten Basketball Roster Preview

The Big Ten saw massive roster turnover across multiple programs, including IU. As a result, Inside the Hall looked at where each team’s personnel stands heading into this fall.

Banner #5 – Back Home Network shows

The Back Home Network has many shows. As a result, it was on air several times this week with programming.

Banner #6 – Hoosier Roundup

• Men’s Soccer opened up Big Ten play with a victory over Michigan after a dominant performance against Denver earlier in the week.

• Women’s soccer beat Ohio on the road and opened their conference year with a dramatic late win at Nebraska.

• Field hockey beat Central Michigan as well as Cornell.

• Volleyball beat Southern Indiana, Cal Poly, and Eastern Illinois, but fell to Tennessee.

• Baseball’s fall exhibition practices are underway.

• Swimming and Diving had three Hoosiers named to the U.S. Junior National Team.

• Rowing made an addition to its coaching staff.

Thanks for your continued support of The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall. We’ll be back next weekend with a new roundup.

Now go enjoy yourself a 6-Banner Sunday.

Aaron (Ari) Shifron
Assembly Call Contributor

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