It’s time to be for real here for a minute: The Indiana Hoosiers are a very good football team. Moreover, it’s time to say it — you are underrating the Hoosiers if you don’t have them as a top-10 football program.
Rank ‘Em Right: Indiana Is A Top 10 Team
No, this isn’t incredibly reactionary to them dismantling an overrated Nebraska team on Saturday. In fact, this piece is even a week or two too late, if we’re being honest.
The Hoosiers not only dispatched the Cornhuskers 56-7 (tying for the program’s biggest win against a Big Ten opponent in history), but they proved that this team is built for success as a unit, and are not just led any one individual player.
This came after QB Kurtis Rourke exited the game with a finger injury, and backup QB Tayven Jackson threw for two scores in relief. It came after two different backs needed just eight carries to reach 60 yards, and seven different players on offense scored touchdowns.
It’s after Aiden Fisher, D’Angelo Ponds, Jailin Walker, James Carpenter, Mikail Kamara, and a handful of other former JMU transfers proved that they aren’t just “Sun Belt Good” and that they themselves are worthy of the status of being “Big Ten Good.”
The Hoosiers have scored at least 41 points in all but one game this season and now in six straight contests. They’re actually averaging 45.3 points per Big Ten game this year, a far cry from last year’s 20.2 points per game against Big Ten foes.
Indiana is a team worthy of a top-10 ranking because of all of these offensive factors, but it’d be criminal, not to mention how stout their defense has been in 2024.
Led by the aforementioned Fisher, this Hoosiers defense had allowed just 14.8 points per game (89 total points) ahead of the Nebraska contest, improving that figure by game’s end. After allowing just seven against the Huskers, that figure is even more impressive at just 13.7 through seven games this season.
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The defense is led by Fisher and Walker, both of who transferred in with head coach Curt Cignetti from JMU after leading the Dukes to historic success a season ago. Ponds anchors a vastly improved secondary, also coming over from JMU.
That trio consists of three of the team’s top tacklers, while defensive back Shawn Asbury is the fourth. Asbury transferred in from ODU after starting his career at Boston College.
Fellow former Duke Mikail Kamara has proven his skills translate from Sun Belt to Big Ten as well, dominating off the edge against some of the top tackles in the conference.
Altogether, this team is comprised of a wealth of talent from across the country, though their large contingency from JMU has paid dividends. Cignetti’s ability to build this roster from scratch, starting over from the previous regime’s proverbial dumpster fire of a roster that was left, is impeccable.
As hard as it’s proven to build a team through the transfer portal, it’s clear that Cignetti has figured it out and embraced the carnage that is the new era of college football.
And yet, he’s getting it done with fundamentals similar to the old ways of football but with a twist of portal and NIL.
A raucous crowd, a team good in the trenches, and a roster that’s completely bought in to the philosophy and scheme of the head coach is how Indiana has built this program to sit at 7-0.
Cignetti famously asked his student body at IU to make sure they attend his team’s games with his hilarious swagger and unique approach toward ‘school can wait’ for the students. Hailing from JMU himself, Cignetti certainly knows a thing or two about the student body increasing the home team’s chances at a win, as Harrisonburg, Virginia, has proven to be one of the tougher places to go into and come away victorious.
He built the team around the pieces that were left over and attacked the offensive and defensive lines hard in the portal. To this date, Cignetti may actually be the most successful coach from the 2024 season to recruit and feel the immediate impact of the portal from both the offensive and defensive lines.
Cignetti’s scheme and philosophical approach have lived through his players. They’re not satisfied with 7-0,. They’re not satisfied with a drop on the field when up 49-7. They’re not satisfied with even allowing a total of seven points to Nebraska.
This team is the real deal and it’s because Cignetti built this team the right way.
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