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The Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.
B.J. Wuest, Elijah Owens shine for Sycamores in victory at EIU
- Story byThe Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.
- B.J. Wuest, Elijah Owens shine for Sycamores in victory at EIU
In the 42-35 victory for Indiana State's football team at Eastern Illinois, wide receiver B.J. Wuest and quarterback Elijah Owens had themselves a great night.
Owens, a redshirt junior quarterback from Jacksonville, Ill., produced five touchdowns with three passing and two rushing along with 284 yards passing and 98 yards rushing. Wuest hauled in a career-high six catches for 142 yards and a TD.
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This season, Wuest has 11 receptions for 226 yards and a touchdown. Owens had 288 passing yards in the season-opening 23-21 loss at home to Southeast Missouri State on Aug. 29.
He has 53 pass completions on 82 attempts for 673 yards passing with five TDs while rushing for 169 yards and two TDs.
Owens will be going up against a Valparaiso defense that so far this season has allowed an average of 160.0 passing yards per game, which ranks 130th nationally in the 2026 college football season.
Wuest, a redshirt junior wide receiver from Danville (Ind.) High School, said the Sycamores knew what the Panthers were going to come out with and showed that.
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"A bunch of Cover 2, 3 and 4," Wuest told the Tribune-Star. "We just attacked what they were giving. Just any open space we had, we took it."
Cover 2 is a zone defense where two safeties split the deep field in half and five other defenders cover the short areas underneath. Cover 3 is a defensive scheme where three defensive players cover the deep third of the field and four players protect the underneath zones. Cover 4 is a defensive scheme where four defensive players split the deep part of the field into four equal quarters to stop long passes.
Wuest said he loves that he can actually show what he can do.
"That's just the standard for myself every game," he said. "Now I just keep stacking games and keep on pushing myself."
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Wuest said postgame Saturday that once the ball came to him, he could get it done and felt great. By it, he meant getting big plays accomplished.
"Really happy I got to do it," he pointed out.
ISU coach Curt Mallory said Wuest has had a great year and is just getting better.
"It was great to see him have a breakout game," Mallory said.
Wuest said the offense has speed and a great quarterback in Owens.
"We have a great O-Line," Wuest mentioned. "That summer access has given us a lot of time to work on ourselves, work on kinks getting fixed and it's really given us an advantage."
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Owens said everybody on offense can stretch the field and make plays. He echoed Wuest in talking about the summer access, saying the confidence level is super important for a quarterback with his receivers and running backs knowing they're going to be where they're supposed to and when they're supposed to be there. He said he can trust them and put the ball out there and let them go get it.
"I feel like I just did my job, I didn't do anything special, I just went out there and caught the ball, ran the ball and we came away with the win," Owens explained.
Saturday was a big game for Owens because he and the Sycamores had lost two years ago at EIU after he suffered a broken hand in the prior game at Purdue. To get the win this season meant a lot, Owens said.
"Always nice to get an away win when everybody's against you," Owens said. "We came in here just us, the guys on the trip. We came in here, got it done. I'm really proud of how we bounced back."
