Stephen Daley and the Defense Shine as Hoosiers Shut Out Indiana State 73-0

Kent State transfer Stephen Daley needed just two plays in the first half to make his impact felt on the game. The stout defensive lineman made two tackles, both for loss, during key moments in the game, helping to preserve an impressive shutout victory.

Daley’s first big play came with 3:12 left in the first quarter. Indiana was leading 14-0 and had all but dominated the game to that point. Then came an uncharacteristic mistake. An offsides penalty turned a 4th and 8 into a 4th and 3 and gave the Sycamores some life. As Indiana State trotted out their punter, it looked as though this mistake would not cost IU anything more than a few yards of field position.

That is, until Indiana State rolled the dice on a fake punt. Immediately, Daley sniffed out the fake and flew to the ball, flattening ISU punter Harry Traum for a loss of one and a turnover on downs. This play effectively sucked the wind out of the sails of the Sycamores, who were doing anything they could to try and get their offense in gear. Instead, Indiana got the ball on the ISU 31-yard line and quickly went up 21-0.

Daley again made his presence felt on a key play during the very next drive. On a 3rd and 6, Daley came flying around the edge and grabbed ISU quarterback Keegan Patterson, showing off his strength by throwing the QB to the ground with one arm. This sack was Daley’s second tackle for loss of the game and helped spark the onslaught of TFLs by the Hoosier defense that would follow, as the strong IU defense ended the game with 16 total TFLs.  

When asked about Daley’s play, head coach Curt Cignetti said, “He’s been improving and getting better every week; feel good about that. Him and [Kellan] Wyatt were big post-spring additions. They faked the punt because we jumped offsides the play before… and he made a nice play on it… [and] we got the ball back in plus territory.” 

Kellan Wyatt, who himself had a tackle for loss on Friday night, attributes the TFLs to the talent all along the IU defense and a defensive scheme that allows them to shine. “I think it’s the way we run our defense, I think it’s the players we have, I think it’s a mixture of both things. When you have personnel like we do, you can do a lot of different things, and a lot of teams won’t really know how to gameplan us.”

Another Hoosier who had a TFL tonight, Tyrique Tucker, echoed this, saying, “When everybody plays their role, it works out for everybody. Like I said, I don’t think there were too many tackles for everybody on the team, but we all had some. I don’t know how many TFLs [we had], but I know Coach Haines will be happy with that.”

While Tucker emphasized that this was a team effort, he was sure to give a shout-out to Stephen Daley. “He’s hoopin’. I love Daley. You know he’s quiet; he doesn’t say too much, but he goes out there and works every day. So that’s my dawg, and we’ve all been working and trying to get better every week.”  

The Hoosiers certainly got better here in Week 3; their 73-0 shutout is their highest-scoring shutout victory since they beat Franklin 78-0 in 1901. Perhaps the most exciting part of this victory was just how many Hoosiers made plays. As Kellan Wyatt said, with this many playmakers on defense, Indiana is a game plan nightmare for opposing offenses.