Indiana football begins its first season under head coach Curt Cignetti at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, when it hosts Florida International University inside Memorial Stadium. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
The Hoosiers are coming off a 3-9 season that ended with the firing of head coach Tom Allen and subsequent hiring of Cignetti. Indiana’s roster has 54 new players, 30 of whom are transfers, with 13 following Cignetti from James Madison University.
Despite all the new, the Indiana Daily Student is returning to the old — and as has become tradition, the IDS gathered its two football beat reporters and columnist to discuss five topics ahead of the upcoming season.
Most valuable player
DANIEL FLICK: The December acquisition of Ohio University transfer sixth-year senior quarterback Kurtis Rourke instantly took the Hoosiers to a new level — and a much better spot than they were in last fall. Indiana entered 2023 with immense uncertainty under center, as a pair of redshirt freshmen in Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby competed for the job in the first two games. The Hoosiers alternated signal callers into late October, and several players noted the difficulties of finding rhythm as a result. Rourke, the presumptive starter, brings a strong resume to Bloomington. The 6-foot-5, 223-pound Rourke won the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Year award in 2022 and was a second-team all-conference selection in 2023. Whether that success translates will ultimately decide Indiana’s fate this fall.
DALTON JAMES: After coming to Indiana as a prized quarterback recruit, senior wideout Donaven McCulley officially introduced himself to the Big Ten a season ago. The Lawrence North High School product caught 11 passes for 137 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Illinois on Nov. 11, 2023 — his first 100-yard game. McCulley came on strong down the stretch, hauling in six of his seven touchdowns over the final five games. Now with a veteran signal caller in Rourke, McCulley should draw the opposition’s lockdown cornerback. No matter the matchup, the 6-foot-5, 203-pound McCulley should have a substantial height advantage, something he took advantage of in 2023 with 10 contested catches. While he may not produce the flashiest stats this season, I expect him to be Rourke’s primary target in the endzone.
JHETT GARRETT: Coming off a year where the Indiana defense was ranked towards the bottom in nearly every category, bringing in a pass disruptor was arguably the number one priority whenever Cignetti took over in November of last year. He looked no further than the place he was hired from, JMU, to bring in redshirt junior defensive lineman Mikail Kamara. The Indiana defensive line could be one of the best in the Big Ten, and it will largely be because of the 6’1”, 265-pound beast that Kamara is. He sacked the quarterback 7.5 times a season ago, while also finishing with 51 total tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles and two pass deflections. Seeing how the rest of the line is shaping up, there will be plenty of opportunities for Kamara to shine on the big stage.
Breakout player
FLICK: Omar Cooper Jr., a redshirt sophomore receiver from Indianapolis, had his initial breakthrough in Week 2 last season, catching seven passes for 101 yards against Indiana State University. The rest of Cooper’s season featured several highs, including a touchdown grab against Penn State and a circus catch versus Michigan. But a handful of lows, too — he had four games thereafter with one or fewer catches and missed the final three games with an undisclosed injury. Cooper worked extensively with Indiana’s first-team offense this summer, and with Rourke throwing passes, opportunity exists for Cooper to turn flashes of brilliance into consistent production.
JAMES: While I believe he has already broken out, he has yet to garner national attention. Something junior linebacker Aidan Fisher will surely do in his first season at Indiana. In his sophomore season at James Madison, Fisher racked up 108 tackles — six of those for a loss. In 2023, Aaron Casey led the Hoosiers’ defense but has since graduated. Now it’s Fisher’s turn to cement himself as one of Indiana’s star linebackers over the past decade alongside greats like Casey and Micah McFadden. With his advanced knowledge and experience of defensive coordinator Bryant Haines’ scheme, Fisher will surely command the Big Ten’s and the nation’s attention in Bloomington.
GARRETT: Senior wide receiver transfer Ke’Shawn Williams from Wake Forest University is one of, if not the most explosive player on offense for Indiana this season. A season ago with the Demon Deacons, Williams caught 38 passes for 384 yards and a touchdown. This season, Williams looks to show his speed and athleticism in a new offense with a player like Rourke throwing him the football. I expect Williams to have his best collegiate season and cement himself as one of Indiana's top three wideouts.
Newcomer of the year
FLICK: Indiana ranked last in the Big Ten in sacks with 20 a season ago. Meanwhile, Kamara had 6.5 on his own at JMU — the team’s third-best mark. Cignetti said during fall camp he believes Kamara has taken his game to another level. Two of Indiana’s starting offensive linemen, redshirt sophomore Carter Smith and sixth-year senior Mike Katic, have noted the challenges of blocking Kamara, who appears to have found his footing early with the Hoosiers — and his end-of-year numbers may reflect as much.
JAMES: After just four practices in fall camp, Cignetti raved about sophomore defensive back D’Angelo Ponds. He explained that he didn’t know if Ponds had been beaten on a pass route yet, also declaring him “a good guy for everybody else to watch in terms of how to do it.” Former Hoosier Taiwan Mullen became the first cornerback in Bloomington to achieve first-team All-America honors in 2020. Ponds very well may be the second. In his lone season at JMU, he was tabbed Freshman All-America by the Football Writers Association of America after finishing 11th in the FBS in passes defended with 15. Expect Haines to place Ponds on the opposition’s No. 1 wideout --- and the Miami, Florida, native may just shut him down.
GARRETT: With 30 incoming transfers, the Hoosiers have a wide variety of options as the top newcomer. However, Aiden Fisher is one of the biggest leaders on this team. In practice, Fisher is vocal when calling out plays and communicating with the defense pre-snap, which is going to put Hoosier fans on notice quick. He’s heading into his junior season, which is a massive developmental year. In two years, he’s amounted to 113 tackles, six tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks. Fisher has also broken up eight passes and came away with one interception over his 23 games played.
Game to watch
FLICK: Indiana gets its first taste of the expanded Big Ten in Week 3, when it heads to Los Angeles, California, for a matchup with UCLA. After a pair of externally perceived warmups against Florida International University and Western Illinois University, UCLA will be the Hoosiers’ first true test this fall. Looking past the on-field challenge of the Bruins, who went 8-5 last season, the game also marks Indiana’s first prime-time matchup of the Cignetti era. For as much as Cignetti has stressed each game being one chapter in a 13-page book, the trip to UCLA has a chance to net a statement win. And in college football, such victories can prove crucial for generating momentum that carries through the rest of the season.
JAMES: While the matchup with UCLA at the Rose Bowl will surely be a benchmark game at a historic stadium, I believe Indiana’s homecoming bout with Nebraska will be the one to watch. With Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule naming freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola the starter, their season essentially depends on the 5-star signal caller without any collegiate experience. Should Raiola live up to the hype, I believe a win over Nebraska, who went 5-7 in 2023, would display that these aren’t the same old Hoosiers.
GARRETT: UCLA has such a big game feel to it, not because it’s the Hoosier’s first Big Ten game in the Cignetti era, but the amount of momentum that can be gained from that game. Imagine a world where Indiana goes into Pasadena, knocks off UCLA, moves to 3-0, and gets to come home and play in front of a jam-packed crowd. The energy that will be inserted into this fan base with a win in a highly contested road game is what Indiana has been looking for since 2020.
Record prediction
FLICK: I’ll go with 6-6. Having covered this program last season and being aware of the team holding a 9-27 record over the past three years, there’s an element of “I need to see it to believe it.” Cignetti’s track record speaks for itself, but the roster has just 38 carryovers from last year and over 50 new faces. There’s no good way to predict how those faces mesh this fall. I do know, however, that Cignetti has won, and won a lot, at each of his prior stops, and many key figures — from assistant coaches to players — joined him in Bloomington. I think this Hoosier squad ends up playing in a bowl game in December, but it’s difficult to commit to much more than .500.
JAMES: While I’d love to be bullish and predict the Hoosiers to win nine or 10 games, I’ll go with a 7-5 record. Cignetti has certainly displayed his confidence in his squad over the offseason and I do think this year’s squad is the most talented in quite some time. As Daniel said, Cignetti has won at each head coaching stop, so he has a formula that’s proven successful. But we’ll see if that’ll continue at the Power Four level. Either way, he’s rejuvenated the fan base while doing what he can to change the brand and the way people think about Indiana football. All that’s left to do is prove it on Saturdays.
GARRETT: I don’t mind being a delusional optimist, so I’ll take the Hoosiers at 8-4. There are more than enough scenarios that live in the Indiana schedule, but Ohio State is the only game I look at that is a loss. There’s a world where Michigan has a down year and slips up on the road in Memorial Stadium. Indiana has a more talented roster than UCLA, Northwestern, and even Michigan State, which are three of Indiana’s four road games (Ohio State). Getting Maryland, Nebraska, Washington, Michigan and Purdue at home makes me want to strap a rocket to this team. The ceiling for this team is very high, and I’m not sure if people realize just how high it is.
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and columnist Jhett Garrett (@jhettgarrett) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
