Numbers that Mattered: Michigan State Spartans

Written by: Nate Comp (@NathanComp1)

Numbers drive so much in today’s world and the sports world is no different. Now more than ever teams are hiring and building analytics teams to get every edge possible over their opponents. Over the course of the season, we’ll look into many of those numbers following the Hoosiers’ matchups each week. 

Today, we examine the numbers behind Indiana’s 47-10 road victory against Michigan State.

10

For the first time this season, Indiana gave up points, 10 of them, in the first quarter to their opponent. Because of this, they also trailed for the first time this season – snapping the streak and leaving Army to be the lone team in the country to not yet trail. Per Sportradar on X, Indiana was the first team since at least 2003 to never trail at any point in the first eight games of a season; Army matched that streak today and has the chance to extend it to nine next week at Army.

“I didn’t talk so much about wanting to see it [a deficit],” said Cignetti in his postgame presser. “You guys (media) did. I knew at some point we’d be behind, and I knew we’d be fine. Now we can’t say we’re a team that never trailed before, because we got 10-0. Now we all know how we’re going to respond when we’re down.”

47

Of course, as the final score in the introduction suggests, Indiana quickly turned this around. By halftime, the Hoosiers had taken a 21-10 lead, blanking the Spartans in the second quarter. And by the game’s end, the Hoosiers scored 47 unanswered points. The 47 points are the most that Indiana has ever scored in East Lansing and surpassed the Hoosiers’ biggest winning margin in matchup history against the Spartans, previously a 31-0 victory in 1991.

57

Indiana has scored a lot of touchdowns this season, and because of that, Nicolas Radicic has kicked a lot of extra points. In fact, today Radicic officially surpassed the all-time program record for extra points in one season with 57 – a feat that he has accomplished in just nine games. The 57 surpassed Mitch Ewald’s previous mark of 56 back in 2013. 

-36

This article has been centered around the Indiana offense thus far, but the Hoosier defense deserves its moment. After the first quarter, the Hoosier defense completely took over the game. The Michigan State offense became entirely one dimensional, forcing Aidan Chiles to throw in uncomfortable pockets. He threw two picks and had no escape in the run game; the Spartans finished the game having rushed 32 times for -36 yards. The Hoosiers tallied seven sacks and 15 tackles for loss; they spent much of the day in the Spartan backfield. Mikail Kamara led the bunch with 2.5 sacks; he is now just 0.5 sacks away from becoming Indiana’s first 10-sack player since Jammie Kirlew in 2008.

“For some reason people still don’t believe in us, so we’ve just got to keep going,” said Kamara after the game.

89.8

The big question coming into the game for Indiana was whether or not they would have star quarterback Kurtis Rourke back behind center after missing last week’s game due to his thumb injury sustained in the Nebraska game. He returned – in a big way. After a bit of a shaky start, he eventually settled in after the week off and got adjusted to the new wrapping around his thumb. Rourke completed 19-of-29 passes for 263 yards and 4 touchdowns, an 89.8 QBR. Per Justin Albers, Rourke now has the best passer rating of any quarterback in college football (min. 100 attempts). He has completed 74.6% of his passes this season, 3rd nationally behind Florida’s Mertz and Oregon’s Gabriel.

9

For just the third time in program history – a program that has been around since the 1800s – Indiana has won nine games. That’s right, #9windiana is no longer just an internet joke. It’s a reality, and the floor for this season’s final tally. This game marked the first time that the Hoosiers have ever won nine straight games to begin a season.

Saturday, November 9th, 2024, at 3:30PM EST

CBS has made it official, so this number represents the Hoosiers next game coming up this week against the Michigan Wolverines in Bloomington.