By Melville Van Buren
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For the fifth time under head coach Tom Allen, the Indiana football team will open a season against a Big Ten opponent as No. 3/4 Ohio State across I-70 for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff on CBS. The Hoosiers will meet a ranked team to start the season for the third time in the last four seasons with two of those at Memorial Stadium.
INDIANA (0-0, 0-0 Big Ten) hosts No. 3/4 OHIO STATE (0-0, 0-0 B1G)
Memorial Stadium
Saturday, Sept. 2 | 3:30 p.m. ET
TV: CBS | RADIO: Indiana Hoosiers Sports Network
Setting the Scene
• Indiana kicks off its 139th season of football when it hosts No. 3/4 Ohio State to open the 2023 season on Saturday, Sept. 2. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. inside Memorial Stadium (55,250; Field Turf) and will air on CBS.
• The Hoosiers and Buckeyes will meet for the 97th time in program history and the 32nd time in Bloomington. The last meeting in Memorial Stadium came in 2021 in a driving rain under the lights in a Buckeyes victory.
• IU will open with a Big Ten foe for the fifth time in Tom Allen‘s seven campaigns and fourth straight season. Allen has faced Ohio State (2017 & 2023), Penn State (2020), Iowa (2021) and Illinois to open the season as the Hoosiers frontman.
• Since 2002, Indiana has opened the season at home in 14 of the previous 21 seasons. The Hoosiers own a 13-1 record in those games, with the lone loss to No. 2 Ohio State (2017).
• The 2023 season opener marks the sixth time that Indiana and Ohio State will meet in Week 1. The first season opening meeting game in 1938, a 6-0 setback for IU in Columbus, Ohio. IU then met OSU in the season opener three straight seasons from 1952-54 and again opened the season versus the Buckeyes in 2017. The first four games were all played in Columbus.
By The Numbers
2 – Number of returning everyday starters on the defensive side of the ball for Indiana. The Hoosiers have just 31 career IU starts total returning on defense in 2022.
.622 – Indiana finished 2022 with the seventh hardest opponents winning percentage nationally at .648.
24 – Indiana welcomes 24 scholarship transfer student-athletes into the mix for 2023, a group that was the second-highest-rated transfer group (No. 13; On3) in the Big Ten.
7 – Head Coach Tom Allen enters his seventh season at the helm of the Indiana program.
News & Notes
• Entering the 2023 season, Indiana returns just two everyday starters on defense (Aaron Casey & Noah Pierre). Of the 15 returning letterwinners on defense, IU returns just 31 career starts on that side of the ball in 2023 (not counting transfers).
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• Sophomore Jaylin Lucas enters the 2023 season at No. 2 on the career kickoff return touchdowns charts at Indiana. The only true freshman in the FBS with multiple kickoff return touchdowns in 2022, Lucas needs just 187 kickoff return yards to enter the top-15 all-time at Indiana.
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• The Hoosier roster features 24 transfer scholarship student-athletes for the 2023 season and a total of 36 scholarship newcomers, which is among the most in the FBS. The eight returning starters are among a handful of FBS programs with single-digit returning starters entering 2023.
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• Head coach Tom Allen joined a select group of coaches in IU history with his 30th career victory as the Hoosiers’ head coach. Of the 30 wins, 12 have come in one possession games, including a 4-1 mark in overtime contests.
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• The Indiana special teams units blocked multiple kicks in a year for the second straight season in 2022. Special teams coordinator Kasey Teegardin‘s crew blocked three field goals in 2022 to give his unit nine blocked kicks in the last five seasons.
MORE ON PAGE 13
• Five team captains were announced by head coach Tom Allen prior to the season opener with wide receiver Cam Camper, defensive lineman Andre Carter, linebacker Aaron Casey, offensive lineman Mike Katic and defensive back Noah Pierre each earning the distinction for the first time in their careers.
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