BLOOMINGTON — Does Indiana football have the best wide receiver tandem in the country?
Omar Cooper Jr., one half of the pairing in question, isn’t one to brag, but the soft-spoken receiver answered from the heart after the No. 3 Hoosiers (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten) beat Michigan State 38-13 on Saturday.
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“In my opinion, yeah,” Cooper said flashing a grin. “But we just keep going out there and showing what we are capable of and let other people say what they want to say.”
Indiana football receivers Omar Cooper Jr., Elijah Sarratt light up Michigan State
Cooper, a Lawrence North grad, had eight catches for 115 yards with a touchdown — the most catches and receiving yards he’s had in his career against a Big Ten opponent — while his partner in crime Elijah Sarratt had four catches for 70 yards with two scores.
Cooper delivered a knockout blow with 48-yard touchdown catch on IU’s opening possession of the third quarter by blowing past his man on a deep post route for his seventh catch of 25 or more yards this season.
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“Coop is just scratching the surface of what he can be,” Sarratt said. “I can see him playing at the next level.”
The play also highlighted why IU has become so difficult to defend with Cooper and Sarratt bunched up on the boundary. Michigan State doubled Sarratt on a short slant with one of its safeties dropping down leaving Cooper in man coverage.
“You can kind of focus in on one guy, but it’s hard to focus in on two because if you’re three by one, that guy might be number three, number two, number one on the field or into the bench,” coach Curt Cignetti said. “So you can focus in on one guy, but it’s really difficult to focus in on two.”
Sometimes it didn’t even matter when Michigan State had a defender in place to make play. Sarratt took a short crossing route 24-yards for a touchdown by nearly juking a defender to the ground near the goal line.
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“We just in that mode doing our thing, it’s kind of just like practice,” Sarratt said. “Just line up and play ball.”
Indiana football’s top receivers still have plenty left to prove
Sarratt and Cooper made sure to mention how integral quarterback Fernando Mendoza was to their success this season. Mendoza threw for 332 yards yards with as many touchdowns (four) as incompletions against the Spartans.
Cooper called Mendoza the “best quarterback in college football” — everyone on IU’s sideline heard the “HeisMendoza” chant from the fans — while Sarratt had a more modest way of summing up the Cal transfer’s success.
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“He’s pretty dang good, y’all seen it,” Sarratt said.
With Mendoza leading the offense, there’s a real chance Sarratt and Cooper could make a run at multiple IU single-season receiving records. If they just match their season averages through the final five games, they will become the third (and fourth) receivers in program history with 1,000 or more yards receiving and 10 receiving touchdowns in the same season.
Sarratt came close last year to joining the club alongside Ernie Jones (1987) and James Hardy (2007) with 957 yards and eight touchdowns.
After Saturday’s game against Michigan State, he has 43 catches for 603 yards and nine touchdowns while Cooper has 37 catches for 581 yards with seven touchdowns. They have accounted for 55.4% of the team’s targets (102 of 184) this season.
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“I feel like I really haven’t done nothing yet,” Sarratt said.
Indiana football single-season receiving records
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Receptions: 79, James Hardy (2007)
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Receiving yards: 1,265, Ernie Jones (1987)
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Receiving touchdowns: 16, James Hardy (2007)
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Elijah Sarratt, Omar Cooper Jr. near Indiana football records, stats
