Include Charlie Becker in All of Your Jeremiah Smith and Malachi Toney Conversations

The Indiana receiver reminded the world in Week 1 that he's still playing at an All-American level.

Sep 5, 2026; Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Indiana Hoosiers wide receiver Davion Chandler (4) celebrates with wide receiver Charlie Becker (80) after scoring a touchdown against the North Texas Mean Green during the fourth quarter at Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Goddin-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

I don't know who needs to hear this, but it needs to be said. Yes, it needs to be said even after one game in which North Texas had a better chance of teleporting than it had of getting out of Bloomington with a win.

Charlie Becker is still that dude.

Like, the dude who belongs in the same breath as Jeremiah Smith and Malachi Toney. He's that good, and everything that he's done in the last 10 months has told is that he's that good.

There's an important reason I wanted to get ahead of this take

On Saturday night, Smith and Ohio State will travel to Texas for a top-5 showdown. It'll be Smith and high-priced transfer Cam Coleman who will headline a star-studded battle. It'd be no surprise if the title of "best receiver in America" is brought up.

That's a week removed from Smith already hitting the Heisman Trophy pose after a Week 1 touchdown against Ball State. Perhaps he got the idea to do that after Malachi Toney did that all night against Stanford on Friday.

Both Smith and Toney should firmly be in the Heisman Trophy discussion. So, too, should Becker.

Do I think Becker is every bit the NFL prospect that those two are? Let's not get ahead of ourselves there, though his ability to high-point the football and control his body through the catch is as good as there is in the sport.

But in terms of a college receiver, Becker is a superstar who has done some of the same elite things that Toney and Smith have done. Like, all three were forces on a national championship stage.

(Don't forget that Becker initially fought his way into the end zone in that game but replay showed that he was out of bounds by an inch.)

Becker, like Smith and Toney, watched their teams have splashy offseason additions at the position, and yet all of them had multi-touchdown games to kick off the season. That was the first multi-touchdown game of Becker's career, but it'll hardly be the last.

While the best version of Indiana would have Becker and Nick Marsh forming a lethal 1-2 punch in a post-Elijah Sarratt/Omar Cooper Jr. world, let's not get it twisted. Becker is the go-to guy. You saw that on Saturday when Marsh had a highlight-reel touchdown grab for IU's first score of the season, but was otherwise held to one catch.

Speaking of highlight-reel grabs, don't tell me that what Becker did on his two touchdown grabs were just the byproduct of playing North Texas.

JOSH HOOVER ➡️ CHARLIE BECKER 😤@IndianaFootball pic.twitter.com/CyBd4jP7SD

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 5, 2026

JOSH HOOVER to CHARLIE B. 💥

This duo connects for another @IndianaFootball TD! pic.twitter.com/aNg66JoX21

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 5, 2026

Every time Gus Johnson says "CHARLIE B.," an angel gets its wings. Since last November, seemingly every time an IU quarterback targets Becker, he floats through the air and makes a play to move the chains.

There's a telling Charlie Becker stat that explains his dominance

In the last eight games, he's got 13 contested catches on 16 such targets and he hasn't dropped one of his 43 overall targets in that stretch.

Just for a little perspective, Jeremiah Smith has 11 contested catches in that same stretch while Toney only has four, though everyone knows he does his damage once he gets the ball in his hands.

Becker did that while averaging 18.9 yards/catch with at least 17 yards of average depth of target in all eight of those games. His 3.4 first downs per game aren't quite at the level of Toney (4.4) or Smith (4.9) over that span, but let's not forget that we saw all of these guys face off in that 8-game window.

It was Becker who made all the big catches for IU in those all-important showdowns. Without him, IU likely loses one (or both) of those one-score games.

That context is all worth remembering because while Toney and Smith have been at an elite level for a longer period of time — that's a wild sentence when you remember that Toney is still just 18 years old — it's Becker who has emerged as the next name in that conversation.

Becker doesn't make people miss in space like Toney, and he's not quite as physically dominant as Smith, but ask yourself this.

If Becker has indeed just picked up where he left off, why should he be left out of that conversation? Because he was a lightly-recruited player who was an afterthought at this time a year ago?

That's ancient history.

In the present, Becker should be treated like Toney and Smith as guys who are at the top of every scouting report for a national championship-contending team.

That includes when Ohio State comes to town next month as it attempts to get revenge on IU for what Becker and Co. did to the Buckeyes in the 2025 Big Ten Championship.

Perhaps Toney will get his chance at revenge on IU for what Becker and Co. did to the Hurricanes in the national championship. That's TBD.

All we know is that Charlie B. isn't going anywhere.