Indiana football beat USC 27-13 on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, moving to 9-1 in 2026 and earning its first ranked win of the season.
It wasn’t always pretty, as it usually isn’t for these Hoosiers, but it was a win, as it usually is for these Hoosiers. Indiana’s defense remained as stout as ever while the offense turned things around in the second half to go up multiple scores in the fourth quarter.
Here’s a few key stats that jumped off the box score:
Khobie Martin, 6.8 yards per carry
Martin saw his first
truly significant action of the 2026 season here and made the most of it, leading the Hoosiers with 82 yards on the ground with multiple explosive plays to show for it. He wasn’t without help, Lee Beebe Jr. added 71 yards of his own.
But Martin found a dimension that the running game just hasn’t had in weeks with his ability to plow through any gaps for bigger gains rather than a chipping away on early downs. His 37-yard run late in the third quarter to set up the go-ahead touchdown and put pressure on USC proved critical when the Trojans turned that pressure into a missed field goal to open the fourth.
Martin was always going to have a role in this backfield if he was healthy. If he’s running like this? It could be a featured one.
USC, 409 total yards
USC was able to pick up pretty substantial chunks throughout the night, getting all the way into scoring position deep in Indiana territory before fizzling out as the Hoosier defense refused to break.
Still, it’s notable that the Trojans were able to get those gains. Indiana has always been more of a bend-don’t-break defense under Bryant Haines and Curt Cignetti, and break it most certainly did not, but its forced more stalled drives than that in the past.
It’s very much worth noting that the Hoosiers aren’t at full strength. This was A.J. Harris’ first game back from injury after he bolstered the secondary earlier this season and the unit was without stalwart linebacker Rolijah Hardy entirely.
Indiana’s defense played more than well enough, but 400+ yards is a considerable number.
Indiana, 7-13 on third down
How about this? Indiana played some of its best ball when it mattered most, going over 50% on its third down attempts on the game, including 3/4 in crunch time to help seal the game in the fourth quarter.
The name of the game here was sustained drives, something the Hoosiers haven’t really had for a minute that’s forced so much more game pressure on the defense. Indiana keeping things moving allowed the offense to get into position for those deep endzone shots to Charlie Becker while the defense was able to catch some much-deserved breath.
Indiana’s going to have to keep that up and improve to get where the Hoosiers want to go this season.
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