Indiana football: Five key Hoosiers from the win vs. Illinois

Many Indiana football players made a major impact in Friday night’s win against Illinois, though five Hoosiers stood out on both sides of the ball. In an attempt to restore faith for Hoosier Nation, Tom Allen and the Indiana football program hung in against a tough Illini squad for four quarters and took the lead with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game.

There were many key players for both programs making plays; from Indiana’s kicker, Charles Campbell, knocking in all three of his field goals in the first half to keep Indiana football afloat; to Chase Brown for the Illini rushing for nearly 200 yards; there was no absence of playmaking from the two football programs in Week 1.

Two Hoosiers that really stood out for me that did not make the list were Josh Sanguinetti and JH Tevis. Sanguinetti had an interception in the fourth quarter as the Illini were marching down the field to potentially take an eight-point lead over the Hoosiers. He finished the game with that interception and six tackles and the redshirt junior out of Florida had a big impact on a close game.

Tevis, the redshirt senior transfer from UC-Berkley, finished with just four total tackles, but two of those tackles were for loss, which was a game high. One of his biggest tackles for loss came on the fourth down rush from Chase Brown from the Indiana one-yard line, where Tevis and Aaron Casey combined to take the lead back down and give the ball back to the Hoosiers with 10 minutes remaining.

Here are my five key Hoosiers for Indiana football vs. Illinois

#5. Noah Pierre – DB

Week 1 stats vs. Illinois: 7 total tackles, 1.0 TFL, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery

Pierre was all over the field for the Hoosiers’ defense, and the redshirt senior showed up in a big way in the third quarter with a big and timely hit on Chase Brown and forcing a backwards pass fumble, then recovering it and running for extra yardage only helped the Hoosiers gain some momentum back. Despite the play not turning into anything offensively (one total yard gained on that next drive), the Indiana football defense put together consecutive stops with a turnover on downs and an interception on the next two drives for Illinois.

Without Pierre, the Hoosiers defense would have been missing a lot in the secondary and who knows if they could’ve pulled this game out.