Tobi Osunsanmi transferred to Indiana with the goal of making winning plays. He has been a dominant force for Indiana off the edge, leading the team with nine sacks and recording a sack in seven games. In the Michigan game, Osunsanmi made the play that defined it.
Indiana’s offense was struggling all game heading into the third quarter. Indiana’s defense was what kept IU in front. Eventually, Indiana’s defense struggled as Michigan drove down the field, getting stuck at third-and-goal on the one-yard line. Indiana was clinging to its 6-0 lead.
On third-and-goal, Michigan went into its I-formation jumbo set. It looked like it was set up to be smashmouth Big Ten football, but Michigan tried to get fancy with their play call. Michigan offensive coordinator Jason Beck lost the chess match to Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines as Indiana had Osunsanmi matched up against quarterback Tommy Carr on that play.
“We all have our certain jobs to execute,” Osunsanmi said postgame. “On that particular play, I had to cover the QB no matter what, and it just happened to fold out like that”.
The second Carr held onto the ball for a fake handoff, Osunsanmi met him. It was lightning fast, giving Carr no chance to escape like he had been doing so well all game long.
If it had been any other edge rusher for Indiana, perhaps Carr would have gotten the throw off to his wide-open tight end for a touchdown, but it wasn’t. It was the speed rusher Osunsanmi. Osunsanmi has been lethal in pass rush all season, and on this play he gave the true freshman QB, Carr, no chance at getting the ball out.
After this sack, Michigan had to settle for a field goal. This field goal would then be missed, and Indiana would retain its 6-0 lead.
“Tobi (Osunsanmi) probably had the play of the day,” Cignetti said postgame. “Well, there are a lot of them, but that one he had down there on the goal line. We made it hard on the freshman quarterback”.
The execution that Indiana’s defense had all day was brilliant. Indiana had four sacks and 10 TFLs, just suffocating the Michigan offense up front. Every time the offense needed the defense to make a play, the defense came through.
“We found a way,” Cignetti said.
On this particular play, the way was through Osunsanmi. He had his role, and he executed that job to perfection.
“It’s just that’s one of those calls where everyone has to execute their single job, and I happened to have the quarterback on that job, and it was right there for me. So, I just had to execute,” Osunsanmi said.
His execution was perfect as the Hoosier defense forced Michigan into another uncomfortable situation. Then the special teams got the job done by getting a missed field goal, and Indiana retained their lead.
The game ended up going to overtime, so had Osunsanmi not blown up that third down, Michigan likely would have won this football game. The outlook of the entire Indiana football season would be bleak had the Kansas State transfer not come through in this moment.
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