The Indiana State Sycamores are off to their best start since 1986, sitting at 2-0 on the season. Indiana State believes they can carry that momentum into Bloomington when they face Indiana on Friday night at Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium. ESPN gives a 1% chance of victoryentering Friday night’s game against Indiana, while FanDuel and other betting sites have Indiana winning this game by 45.5 points on Friday night.
Both teams enter this contest undefeated, each eager to maintain their perfect start to the season, but Indiana has clear-cut edge as a Power Five (Big Ten) program against a Missouri Valley Football Conference (FCS) opponent.
Linebacker Braxton Sampson thinks otherwise and expects his team to win this weekend.
“There’s a lot of talk outside like, ‘Man, you guys went 2-0, but it stinks you’re playing an FBS team.’ That’s not the mindset in the room,” linebacker Braxton Sampson said Monday. “We plan on going to IU to win. That’s just how it is.”
“This is the dream,” Sampson said. “You go to college and you want to play in these games and big arenas, and that’s exactly what we get to do. I’m excited.”
Indiana State's Braxton Sampson is a 6-foot-1, 225 pound redshirt junior linebacker who recorded 16 tackles, 3 TFL, 1 Forced Fumble and 1 Sack in two games against McKendree and Eastern Illinois.
Indiana State defeated McKendree (DII) in the opening week of the season 41-24, the following week they beat Eastern Illinois, 38-14 both games at home making this their first road game of the season.
To make this any sort of upset or at least a close game ISU must move the ball on offense controlling the clock and converting on third downs. That will be the defense's best friend and help them as they try to come up with a few takeaways early. ISU will need to win in the trenches and attack the IU offensive line and the efficient play of Fernando Mendoza, who hasn't turned the ball over all season.
Indiana State gets a chance to shock the college football world when the Hoosiers host the Sycamores at 6:30 p.m. Friday on Merchants Bank Field inside Memorial Stadium in Bloomington on the Big Ten Network.
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