Curt Cignetti Called Omar Cooper Jr. Indiana's Best Breakout Bet. Cooper Proved Him Right.

His eyes shifting down the box score in front of him, Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti eventually found redshirt junior receiver Omar Cooper Jr.'s final line.

Cooper set career highs with 10 catches for 207 yards and four touchdowns in the No. 22 Hoosiers' 73-0 victory over Indiana State on Friday night at Merchants Bank Field inside Memorial Stadium.

"That's a pretty good day's work," Cignetti said postgame. "I think they had a hard time out with him on the perimeter obviously and we got him the ball. There was some space and he took advantage of it."

Entering Friday, Cooper's career-high in receiving yards was 131, achieved in last season's 77-3 win over Western Illinois. He surpassed that in yards-after-catch alone.

The ingredients to Cooper's career day were present from the Hoosiers' first snap.

Indiana redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza whipped a bubble screen pass to Cooper in the left flat, and the Indianapolis native juked around one defender and carried another on his back before finally going down for a 14-yard gain.

On his second catch, Cooper broke one tackle and ran away from a pursuing linebacker to pick up nine yards. Two grabs later, he stopped and cut inside, leaving an Indiana State defensive back grasping at air before running 13 yards to the endzone.

It was the theme of Cooper's night. The average depth of Cooper's 10 targets was only 8.3 yards, but he averaged 13.4 yards after the catch across his 10 receptions. He finished with 136 yards after the catch — nearly 65% of his entire 2024 yard-after-catch total.

Pro Football Focus credited the 6-foot, 201-pound Cooper with forcing three missed tackles. This offseason, Cooper emphasized making would-be tacklers miss in space. He wanted to prove he could transfer moves in practice to gamedays. He left no doubt Friday night.

"I mean, that's a quarterback's dream when every throw's a bubble and it turns into a 60-yard or 40-yard gain," Mendoza said postgame. "That's fantastic to have playmakers like that."

Cooper has turned into Indiana's most explosive wideout. He caught a 46-yard pass against Old Dominion in Week 1, made a 40-yard catch and scored a 75-yard touchdown on a reverse handoff during a Week 2 victory over Kennesaw State and gained 30 or more yards on three receptions Friday night.

On his lengthy touchdown run against Kennesaw State, Cooper said he hit 21.1 miles per hour, and he thinks he topped that mark on his 58-yard touchdown Friday. His top speed during summer workouts was 21.9 miles per hour.

When Mendoza heard the number, his face bore a mixture of surprise and excitement. Internally, it may have added further confirmation to one of Mendoza's most pressing postgame thoughts: Indiana's receivers are fast, and he needs to capitalize on it.

"It's great," Mendoza said. "Omar and I have connected on a couple deep shots. We connected on one in the back of the endzone. We connected on one to ODU. There's a couple I've actually missed. Being able to stretch the ball downfield, have that vertical stretch of the defense, helps the run game a lot, helps the RPO game a lot, helps the quick game a lot.

"So, to have those threats on the outside, it's fantastic. I'm going to get those guys the ball more downfield — I got to be better at that. But it's fantastic to see those guys at speed."

Mendoza said he thinks each of Indiana's starting receivers — Cooper, senior Elijah Sarratt and redshirt senior E.J. Williams Jr. — are all NFL players. Opposing defenses often decide to double-team Sarratt, a preseason second-team Associated Press All-American who caught three touchdowns in Week 2.

Between the attention Sarratt draws and the Hoosiers' potent rushing attack — Indiana has eclipsed 300 rushing yards in each of its first three games — defenses leave Cooper and Williams one-on-one. It's up to them to win.

On Friday night, Cooper did. Yet with his cross-depicting eye black still present nearly an hour after the game ended, he wanted none of the credit.

"First, I just want to give all the glory and praise to God. I wouldn't have been able to have that without him," Cooper said. "But also just want to thank our O-line. O-line did a great job today. Quarterback and receivers and running backs, we all did good this whole week.

"Short week, we've been consistent throughout practice. Stay focused and just continued to get ready for our opponent. So, I would say our preparation and just being ready."

Cooper matched Indiana's single-game program record with four touchdown catches. He's only the second Hoosier to do it, joining James Hardy III, who accomplished the feat in 2006 against Michigan State.

The 21-year-old Cooper logged the ninth 200-yard receiving game in program history, and his 207 yards places No. 7 on Indiana's all-time single-game list. It's also the most since Ty Fryfogle's 218-yard game against Ohio State in 2020. Cooper scored 24 points, tied for the most by a Hoosier since Anthony Thompson scored 32 points against Northwestern in 1989.

Cooper's performance was historic — but that alone isn't why Mendoza sees an NFL player and a quarterback's dream when glancing his way. It's the near-22-mile-per-hour explosiveness, the big-play potential, the mild-mannered demeanor after a record-tying day and a trajectory that's perhaps never pointed higher.

Cignetti told ESPN this summer that Cooper was Indiana's top breakout candidate. And as the Hoosiers flip the calendar to Big Ten play, Cooper has validated Cignetti's belief — perhaps never more than after a "pretty good day's work" against Indiana State.