As expected, Brownsburg jumped a spot to No. 1 after its win over previously top-ranked Westfield on Saturday in the latest USA TODAY Network Indiana state high school football poll.

Brownsburg (6-0) is No. 1 for the first time this season, followed by No. 2 Warren Central (6-0). Westfield (5-1) is now tied for third with Crown Point (6-0) in Class 6A.

There is also a new No. 1 in Class 5A — actually two new No. 1s. Concord (6-0) and Merrillville (5-1) are tied for first in 5A after previous No. 1 Plainfield dropped a 42-21 game to Decatur Central on Saturday. The Quakers dropped to No. 4. New Palestine (4A), Evansville Memorial (3A), Lafayette Central Catholic (2A) and North Judson (A) remained in the top spot in the other four classes.

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Here is the full USA TODAY Network Indiana poll going into Week 7 (First place votes in parenthesis, followed by total points and last week’s ranking):

Class 6A

                                           W-L       Pts.       Prev.

1. Brownsburg (16)             6-0         168        2

2. Warren Central               6-0         138        3

3. (tie) Crown Point (1)       6-0         129        4

3. (tie) Westfield                 5-1         129        1

5. Center Grove                   5-1         101        5

6. Lawrence North              6-0         90          6

7. Cathedral                         3-2         59          7

8. Hamilton SE 4-2         47          8

9. Columbus North              5-1         33          9

10. Elkhart                             5-1         21          10

Dropped out: None.

Others receiving votes: Fishers 13. Carroll (Fort Wayne) 5. Penn 4. Avon 1.

Class 5A

                                            W-L       Pts.       Prev.

1. (tie) Concord (9)              6-0         157        4

1. (tie) Merrillville (7)         5-1         157        3

3. Lafayette Jeff                   6-0         126        5

4. Plainfield (1)                     5-1         98          1

5. Decatur Central               3-2         94          8

6. Bloomington North        5-1         78          7

7. Valparaiso                        4-2         75          2

8. East Central                      4-2         56          10

9. Castle                                5-1         44          NR

10. Whiteland                         3-2         37          6

Dropped out: Warsaw (9).

Others receiving votes: Bloomington South 7. Chesterton 6. Warsaw 2.

Class 4A

                                                W-L       Pts.       Prev.

1. New Palestine (17)         5-0         170        1
2. Martinsville                      6-0         149        3
3. Bishop Chatard                5-1         137        4
4. Mishawaka                       5-1         110        6
5. Evansville Reitz                5-1         84          2
6. Columbia City                  6-0         76          8
7. East Noble                        5-1         56          9
8. Greenfield-Central         5-1         43          5
9. Leo                                     5-1         32          10
10. Northview                        6-0         25          NR

Dropped out: Brebeuf Jesuit (7)

Others receiving votes: Roncalli 22. Brebeuf Jesuit 21. New Prairie 3. Logansport 1. Plymouth 1.

Class 3A

                                                W-L       Pts.        Prev.

1. Ev. Memorial (16)           6-0         169        1
2. Heritage Hills (1)             5-1         148        2
3. Mississinewa                   6-0         134        4
4. Lawrenceburg                 5-1         103        7
5. Garrett                              6-0         79          10
6. Gibson Southern             4-2         77          3
7. Evansville Mater Dei       5-1         57          9
8. FW Bishop Luers             5-1         47          NR
9. Guerin Catholic               3-3         23          8
10. Maconaquah                   6-0         21          NR

Dropped out: West Noble (5), Batesville (6).

Others receiving votes: West Noble 20. Batesville 18. West Lafayette 14. Cascade 5. Jimtown 4. Northwestern 4. Griffith 2. Knox 2. Heritage 1.

Class 2A

                                              W-L       Pts.       Prev.

1. Laf. Central Cath. (11)    5-0         160        1

2. Brownstown Central (6) 6-0         153        2

3. Lutheran                           5-1         127        3

4. Western Boone                6-0         112        4

5. North Posey                     5-1         91          5

6. Bluffton                            6-0         68          6

7. Triton Central                  4-2         48          7

8. Heritage Christian           5-1         43          8

9. Linton-Stockton               4-2         27          9

10. (tie) Adams Central          5-1         25          NR

10. (tie) Monrovia                  5-1         25          NR

Dropped out: North Putnam (10).

Others receiving votes: Paoli 20. Northeastern 17. South Vermillion 7. Andrean 3. Rochester 3. North Putnam 2.

Class A

                                                 W-L       Pts.       Prev.

1. North Judson (17)           6-0         170        1
2. Providence                       5-0         149        2
3. Carroll (Flora)                   6-0         129        3
4. Madison-Grant                6-0         115        4
5. North Decatur                 5-1         107        5
6. Springs Valley                  5-1         75          7
7. South Putnam                  4-2         59          8
8. Monroe Central               5-1         41          9
9. Pioneer                             5-1         39          10
10. Triton                                4-2         19          6

Dropped out: None.

Others receiving votes: Milan 9. Knightstown 8. North Vermillion 3. Frontier 1. North Miami 1.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Before the season, Indiana’s wide receiver room was viewed as perhaps the best position group on the team. The main question was which receivers would become the top options in a deep room. 

James Madison transfer Elijah Sarratt leads the group with 22 receptions and 378 yards through five games, but returning Hoosier Omar Cooper Jr. is close behind. The redshirt sophomore’s loyalty to Indiana through the coaching change has paid off, and the potential that many saw out of high school is being fulfilled in the Big Ten.

Cooper has emerged as one of the nation’s top wide receivers this season through five games. He ranks fourth among all qualified wide receivers in the FBS with an 88.3 receiving grade, per Pro Football Focus (PFF). His offense grade of 86.0 is close behind at No. 6 in the nation.

Cooper played a key role in a momentum-shifting drive on Saturday against Maryland. Despite a sloppy first half, Indiana still had a chance to take the lead going into halftime. 

After a Mikail Kamara sack, the Hoosiers’ called a timeout and got the ball back on their own 37-yard line with 1:10 left in the second quarter. It faced little adversity throughout four dominant wins to begin this season, so this possession was perhaps the first glimpse at quarterback Kurtis Rourke and the Hoosiers in a pressure-packed situation with the game tied at 7-7.

A nine-yard completion to Ty Son Lawton started the drive, and Rourke found Cooper down the sideline on the next play. Cooper spun past the first Maryland defender, then smartly veered out of bounds to stop the clock after his 27-yard gain.

Facing press coverage on the next play, Cooper made a quick move near the line of scrimmage to get a step ahead of his defender. Rourke looked his way again down the right sideline, and Cooper turned around at the goal line to haul in the touchdown with a defender blanketed over him.

Rourke and Cooper have played just five games together, but the perfect timing looked like a quarterback-receiver duo that had been in sync for years. With back-to-back 27-yard completions to Cooper, Indiana needed just three plays and 32 seconds to score just before halftime and take a 14-7 lead.

“I know that Kurtis will always trust me,” Cooper said postgame. “So I just wanted to make sure that I did my best and made a play when the ball was in the air.”

Rourke threw two interceptions on Indiana’s first two drives, but he bounced back with a pair of touchdown drives in the second quarter.

“I think it was something that we wish would have happened sooner,” Rourke said of the touchdown drives. “But it was definitely really important to have some momentum going into half. Going into the second half, it brought a lot of confidence in me, and I know the rest of the offense, as well as the whole team. Our defense was playing great to that point, and so for us to capitalize finally was really important.” 

Indiana’s offense looked past early mistakes and took control of the game in the second half. In seven second-half drives, Indiana scored four touchdowns, punted twice and fumbled once. The 28 second-half points helped the Hoosiers secure a 42-28 win over Maryland and their first 5-0 start since 1967.

Rourke completed passes to 10 Hoosiers on Saturday. Spreading the wealth is a consistent theme this season, but Cooper and Sarratt were his most frequent targets. Sarratt led the team with seven catches for 128 yards and a touchdown, and Cooper was next with four receptions for 83 yards and one touchdown.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said both receivers did a good job of winning their one-on-one matchups against press coverage, like on Cooper’s touchdown. Sarratt is beginning to prove himself at the Big Ten level after ranking 11th nationally in receiving yards in 2023 at James Madison, and Cooper is well on his way to a breakout season.

“I like my odds whenever I throw the ball in their area,” Rourke said. “I just gotta make sure they can get their hands on it, because they can make plays like they did today.”

Through five games, Cooper has already surpassed last season’s totals across nine games played. He has 16 receptions for 328 yards and three touchdowns in 2024, compared to 18 catches for 267 yards and two touchdowns this season.

Cooper’s breakout season does not come as a major surprise. It was only a matter of time for the 6-foot, 201-pound receiver. 

At Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, Ind., Cooper finished his career with 132 receptions for 2,856 yards, and 22 touchdowns. He was a two-time IFCA Top 50 all-state selection, and he was named the IFCA position award winner for wide receivers as a senior.

Cooper committed to Indiana under coach Tom Allen in the class of 2022, the highest-ranked class in program history at No. 25 in the nation, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. As a four-star recruit ranked No. 299 in the nation and No. 43 among wide receivers, Cooper was the third-highest ranked recruit in that class and the 14th highest in program history.

As a true freshman, Cooper appeared in four games as a kick returner and maintained his redshirt eligibility. He showed flashes of potential in 2023, like his acrobatic catch against Michigan and his seven-catch, 101-yard performance against Indiana State.

But as Indiana’s offense sputtered for most of the season, Cooper would finish the year with just 11 more catches after the Indiana State game. His talent has always been there, and he feels offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Mike Shanahan has helped him make small but meaningful tweaks to his game.

A big difference this season is his mentality.

“I think my confidence. Last year, at first I wasn’t playing as much so my confidence got pretty low,” Cooper said during fall camp. “This spring, coming into the year, I was just focusing on that and just trying to get better with that each and every day. That’s something that will help me with my role, and then just playing as hard as I can.”

Cooper has significant competition for snaps on a roster that includes plenty of talented wide receivers like Sarratt, Myles Price, Miles Cross, Ke’Shawn Williams, Donaven McCulley, Andison Coby and E.J. Williams Jr.

Part of what’s made that group effective is a rotation that keeps them all fresh, depth that discourages defenses from double-teaming anyone, and versatility that can beat opponents in a variety of ways.

That rotation likely won’t end, and it shouldn’t. But Cooper’s play through five games is making it hard to take him off the field.

Three young Indiana brothers have all been diagnosed with the same rare crippling condition after the trio experienced frequent headaches, according to the boys’ parents who recently opened up about the health battle.  

Lincoln, Norrin and Remley Niece have matching scars on the back of their heads after undergoing surgeries for Chiari malformation, which affects slightly less than one in 1,000 people across the globe, according to experts.

The condition occurs when the brain at the back of the skull presses through a normal opening and extends to the spinal cord, according to John Hopkins Medicine.

The symptoms include neck pain, unsteady walking, poor hand-eye coordination and dizziness among other side effects, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The boys, who live in Greenfield, each suffered frequent headaches and vomiting before being diagnosed.

“It’s pretty scary,” the kids’ father, Ron Niece told WRTV on Friday. “There is no doubt about it.”

All three brothers underwent surgeries, leaving the family emotionally drained each time.

“You just kind of become numb and go into autopilot,” mother Whitney Niece explained to the station.

“But it doesn’t make it anymore emotionally easy. Sending your kid off into surgery.”

Remley was the first Niece boy diagnosed with the condition in June 2022, but at the time didn’t need surgery, according to the Greenfield Daily Reporter, which interviewed the family in March 2024 when Lincoln was 10, Norrin was 5 and Remley was 2.

Lincoln reportedly started having headaches at 5 but they were initially thought to be tied to a congenital heart defect. A CAT scan later revealed in Feb. 2023 that he also had Chiari malformation and underwent a procedure the following month.

Remley was still struggling, including randomly falling, and went under the knife in August 2023 – the same month Norrin began having headaches before he had surgery in January, the news outlet reported.

Dr. Laurie Ackerman, of the Riley Hospital for Children, performed each of the surgeries in what is called Chiari Malformation Decompression where a little piece of the back part of the skull and a three-by-three centimeter piece of bone were removed.

“The goal of all of these things is to sort of disimpact the area,” Ackerman told the Greenfield Daily Reporter. “To allow fluid to move around there normally.”

Norrin and Remley went through complications afterward, leading to a shunt being placed so extra brain fluid can be distributed to the belly.

She noted it’s unusual for all three kids from the same family to have the condition. Doctors and scientists have been conducting research to determine if Chiarai malformations are heredity.

The youngsters have vastly improved and can mostly be “typical kids,” but with some key exceptions, so they don’t bump their heads, Whitney said.

“Just like the other day when it was really nice outside, and everybody else could go outside and ride something, Norrin is standing in the garage in tears because he can’t,” she reportedly said.

Many people with the neurological issue never experience any symptoms and medical treatment is always not required, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

The parents are speaking out to raise awareness and have worked to help other families in their shoes.

“So if we can help one other kid that maybe is struggling with headaches and they’ve been passed off several times, that’s a win in my book,” Whitney told the newspaper.