3 observations from Indiana football’s 38-0 win over Western Kentucky

Nairavoice | Sep 19, 2026 22m ago 184 0 3 min read

3 observations from Indiana football’s 38-0 win over Western Kentucky

Indiana football moved to 3-0 on the 2026 season with a 38-0 win over Western Kentucky on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. A slow start kept the score at 14-0 at the half, with the Hoosiers fortunate to get that second touchdown thanks to a late interception.

Ultimately, Indiana‘s going to have to learn from the weirdness of this one pretty quickly with Big Ten play looming. Here’s three observations from the win:
‘s iffy day

Indiana’s new starting quarterback didn’t have much to worry about through two weeks, stuffing the stat sheet through the air with four touchdowns each against North Texas and Howard. Western Kentucky presented additional challenges.

Most of Hoover’s production in those first two weeks came on minimal attempts with averages of 14.4 and 13.2 yards per completion. Indiana asked significantly more of him against Western Kentucky, with Hoover finishing with 24 attempts through the air, completing 18 for 273 yards and two touchdowns.

Cignetti made a point of wanting to see Hoover play more within the offense, pulling him aside after a touchdown pass against Howard that forced Charlie Becker to adjust more than he should’ve. The results, at least against Western Kentucky, were a bit of a mixed bag.

A lot of Hoover’s completions were quick hitters that put a lot on his receivers to make something happen in space after the catch. If he attempted plays in the intermediate area of the field beyond those 10 or so yards, his passes looked off and didn’t set his receivers up well.

This was perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of the game. Tyler Morris muffed a few punts last week and was supplanted back deep by… Charlie Becker, Indiana’s No. 1 wide receiver. That’s… interesting.

The positive of Becker being back there is, well, he catches the ball. The negative is that you’d probably rather he not return any of these punts and accumulate wear and tear when Indiana needs him on offense. He returned just one against Western Kentucky for 17 yards.

You’d much rather Indiana find an answer at punt returner that isn’t its top wideout and it’ll be worth seeing what Cignetti has to say about that this week.

Turbo Richard is a very, very different running back from what Indiana was working with between Roman Hemby and Kaelon Black in 2025 and the Hoosiers are calling plays like it.

Getting Richard into space has seemed a point of emphasis through three weeks, obviously. He isn’t named Turbo for nothing, he’s at his best with room to work and the ball in his hands either as a runner or in the short passing game.

He averaged an incredible 9.9 yards per carry, but Indiana didn’t end up going to him as much as you’d think with that kind of performance and I believe that was by design. As mentioned with Hoover, Indiana seemed to want to set up those situations where Hoover had to make plays through the air to keep drives going.

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The staff knows Richard can do this under these conditions and you’ll be seeing that in Big Ten play. What it needs to know is if Hoover can make the big plays on third and even fourth down.