Elijah Sarratt came to Indiana to show he could excel against the nation's top secondaries. Omar Cooper Jr. stuck around his home state, hoping to get the same opportunity.
Now, under the brightest spotlight, both are outperforming expectations.
Seven games into their second season together, the Hoosiers top two receivers find themselves ranked among the Football Bowl Subdivision's statistical leaders, increasingly becoming the targets of defensive
game plans and leading an emerging group of playmakers as No. 2 Indiana chases a second straight playoff bid.
Sarratt saw the possibilities early on.
"There's a lot of talent in that (receivers) room," he said in September. "We work to make each other better. We all want to catch every single pass, but we understand that the ball has to be spread around, so none of us are selfish. All of us just want to go out there and perform in the game.”
So far, they've fulfilled that mission.
Indiana (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten) heads into Saturday's game against UCLA hoping to extend a school record home winning streak to 14 games and maintain at least a share of the conference lead with defending national champion Ohio State. The Hoosiers are averaging 271.3 yards passing per game and have the most TD passes (24) in the FBS.
Sarratt is the steady, experienced leader of this versatile receiving group.
He's been an all-conference selection each of his first three college seasons despite stair-stepping his way from St. Francis (Pennsylvania) in the FCS' Northeast Conference to Sun Belt member James Madison and finally following coach Curt Cignetti to the Big Ten.
Along the way, he's amassed 220 catches, 3,450 yards and 38 TDs, ranking in the top five nationally among active players in all three categories. It's about more than numbers with Sarratt though.
His ideal size, 6-foot-2, 213 pounds, and rare combination of strong hands, incredible body control and penchant for big plays almost certainly has NFL scouts watching. Two of Sarratt's FBS-leading nine TD catches — a 49-yarder with 88 seconds left at Iowa and an 8-yarder with 6:23 left at then-No. 3 Oregon — were the go-ahead scores.
Back in Indiana, meanwhile, Sarratt also has caught the attention of new quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who is firmly in the Heisman Trophy debate with 21 TD passes, only two interceptions and the nation's top efficiency rating at 191.01.
But Mendoza and Sarratt each acknowledged they couldn't do this by themselves.
“We've got a special core on our offense,” Mendoza said Saturday. “Surratt, Cooper, Williams, all of our tight ends, all of our offensive linemen, running backs, coupled with the game planning of coach Cignetti and (quarterbacks/co-offensive coordinator ) coach Chandler Whitmer, it really has been a perfect marriage and we're seeing the results.”
While Sarratt was the known quantity entering this season, Cooper has been the breakout star. After logging 46 catches, 861 yards and nine TDs in his first three seasons with the Hoosiers, he's logged 37 receptions, 581 yards and seven TD catches this year, emerging as a deep threat out of the slot after winning the job this spring.
His emergence has helped open the rest of the field for Sarratt, which is precisely what Indiana wanted.
“We gave everybody an opportunity in spring ball. We stuck E.J. (Williams Jr.) in there, Sarratt, Cooper, there were new transfers we stuck in there,” Cignetti said. “Cooper just seemed the most comfortable (there). He still gets his reps outside when we’re playing with two receivers. I just think what you’re seeing from him, he’s older, more mature, he’s a veteran now. He sees what’s out there.”
Yet as Cooper has embraced a more prominent role on the nation's fourth-highest scoring offense (43.9 points), he's still willing to share credit rather than celebrate alone in the spotlight.
Williams attended high school in Alabama, started his career at Clemson and transferred to Indiana in 2023 before opting, like Cooper, to play for Cignetti instead of finding a new school. As a result, Williams went from playing six total games in 2023 and 2024 to becoming a key cog in this offense.
He's already surpassed his previous two-year totals with 19 receptions, 212 yards and three receptions in 2025 as this trio has become one of the nation's most potent receiving combinations.
Sarratt and Cooper didn't expect anything less when they opted to come back for one more season together.
“A lot of people sleep on E.J. because of (Elijah and me), but E.J. is a really good player, and he was able to show you that today,” Cooper said after Williams caught a key TD pass against Michigan State. “The fact that it’s three of us allows us to go out there and play more free, knowing you can’t just double team one person because we've got more weapons than you can hold."
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