SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The historic Indiana football season came to an end Friday to the University of Notre Dame after falling 27-17. A season filled with new highs, broken records and a wave of magic that Bloomington hasn’t seen in the football program before may have ended sooner than most hoped for but was a solid building block for year one.
Despite figures like Kirk Herbstreit and Nick Saban saying on College GameDay that other teams belonged in the College Football Playoff instead, the Hoosiers exceeded expectations in a way no one could imagine just four months ago.
A road playoff game in the first season under Curt Cignetti after winning a combined nine games in the last three seasons is not the ceiling for this Indiana program.
“11-2. Tied for second in the Big Ten. Made the College Football Playoff,” Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti said postgame. “We made a lot of people proud and had a historic season. We set the foundation for hopefully what’s to come.”
Heading into the 2024 season, Indiana was a consensus bottom two team in the Big Ten according to projections from major outlets. A new head coach filling a team with players that hadn’t ever graced Power Four football won 11 games in dominant fashion in one of the top conferences in the nation.
Earlier in the week, Cignetti made a comment that the Hoosiers weren’t satisfied with just an appearance in the playoffs. They were not interested in a “participation trophy,” and the proof is in the pudding as Indiana preps for the transfer portal.
“You can change a lot of things in a year,” Cignetti said, “We have seven recruits on campus tomorrow morning on official visits and Saturday and Sunday, we can have them on.”
There will be plenty of positions to fill with the newfound prominence of the transfer portal as well as players that will be out of eligibility. One of those includes the quarterback position, as sixth-year senior Kurtis Rourke officially played his final college game. Even though the Oakville, Canada, native spent just one season with the Hoosiers, Rourke left an impact that will last long after his departure from Bloomington.
“Although it wasn’t the way we wanted to end it, I’m glad we were able to do it together and kind of start the dynasty of Indiana as it moves forward,” Rourke said.
While Rourke wasn’t able to settle in the way he wanted against the Fighting Irish, the season he was able to put together, including two first-place votes for the Heisman Trophy, is one Indiana fans will remember for years to come.
Rourke’s message was echoed by offensive lineman Mike Katic. Most of the players on the roster hadn’t been through the ups and downs of the last five years, however Katic has seen it all.
When Katic joined the Indiana football program in 2019, the Hoosiers were coming off back-to-back losing seasons under a new coaching regime in Tom Allen. Since then, the sixth-year senior was a part of a season that saw the Hoosiers ranked as high as 7th in the AP Poll, followed by three seasons that saw them win just nine games in total.
However, Katic decided to come back to the program for his final season, a decision that he certainly does not regret.
“I’m going to remember this team as the closest team that I’ve ever been a part of,” Katic said. “I’m so happy that I made the decision to come back.”
Even though he won’t be back on the Indiana roster when it takes the field again Aug. 30 against Old Dominion University, Katic embraced that he was able to leave the program in a better place than he found it.
“I think fans, and everyone should see what we did this year,” Katic said. “We changed the trajectory of Indiana football. We changed the way people think about Indiana football.”
One player the Hoosiers aren’t expecting to lose is junior linebacker Aiden Fisher. After transferring to Indiana with Cignetti from James Madison University, Fisher quickly became the quarterback of the defense. While he was a prominent part of one of the top defenses in college football, Fisher doesn’t plan on hanging his hat there.
“Moving forward, I would just say we’ve got to stay disciplined,” Fisher said. “You look at the two losses we had last year, we’re just getting out averaged in angles.”
The two biggest games the Hoosiers played this season saw them outscored by a total of 34 points. With road trips to Oregon on Oct. 11 and Penn State on Nov. 8, the big games are only going to keep stacking up.
“We got to this point just being ourselves and playing the way that we play,” Fisher said. “In these big games you can’t defer from that; you’ve got to just play your game and just be disciplined in the way you play.”
The bar has risen quicker than almost any program has seen before. From going 3-9 a season ago to playing in Notre Dame Stadium in the first ever 12-team playoff game, things are only going to keep changing. Indiana is officially an attractive destination for future recruits, whether that be out of high school or the transfer portal.
That is what Curt Cignetti and company now turn their attention to. The program has not yet been built up to all that it can be and is going to continue to trend in the right direction. While this game stings for the players and Hoosier faithful, there are much brighter days ahead for this program and its supporters.
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and columnist Jhett Garrett (@jhettgarrett) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
