Indiana optimistic

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No doubt what they did last year was impressive.....they capitalized on a really soft schedule and managed to parlay it into a playoff run. 11-1 is tough to do, especially at a place like Indiana so they absolutely deserve props for pulling it off no matter who they beat to get there.

If they can duplicate anything close to what they did last year in 2025 that would be something really amazing. They start their schedule with 3 cupcakes but their Big Ten schedule start is rough with a home game against Illinois followed by road games at Iowa and Oregon. They also have a trip to Happy Valley on the schedule later in the season. I don't see them repeating their 1 loss campaign of a year ago.
 


Cignetti is full of himself. 8-4 in 2025 would be a good record for them. A long way from the top 5 in the Big to Sixth
 

Silly to schedule 2 fcs teams. Can only count one of those wins for bowl eligibility.
 



btowngopher said:
Silly to schedule 2 fcs teams. Can only count one of those wins for bowl eligibility.
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The Hoosiers only FCS opponent is Indiana St.

Their other 2 Non-conference games are Old Dominion/Sun Belt & Kennesaw St/CUSA.

Quite a gauntlet.
 






btowngopher said:
Silly to schedule 2 fcs teams. Can only count one of those wins for bowl eligibility.
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Is that rule still true? I feel like the NCAA is gutting its rule book these days

That said, I don't think anyone thinks they'll have any trouble beating at least one of the FCS teams and then five more FBS games. So it's a bit of a moot point as once you're eligible you're in. It's not like the extra FCS game drops you down a rung in the bowl selections.

EDIT: only one FCS game anyway
 

Ope3 said:
The Hoosiers only FCS opponent is Indiana St.

Their other 2 Non-conference games are Old Dominion/Sun Belt & Kennesaw St/CUSA.

Quite a gauntlet.
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As an aside Kennesaw State started first as a 2-year Junior College in 1963 that expanded to 4-years in 1975. It was where a lot of North Atlanta HS grads went for 1-2 years to save some $$ living at home before heading off to Athens (UGA) or Hotlanta (GT) or of course anywhere else for land grant or other similar scale university educations. That school plus Georgia State have added a lot of local flare to the Atlanta FB scene in recent years.
 

GopherGrit said:
Is that rule still true? I feel like the NCAA is gutting its rule book these days

That said, I don't think anyone thinks they'll have any trouble beating at least one of the FCS teams and then five more FBS games. So it's a bit of a moot point as once you're eligible you're in. It's not like the extra FCS game drops you down a rung in the bowl selections.

EDIT: only one FCS game anyway
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It makes you have to beat an extra conference team though, which is never easy for marginal teams. I don’t see four sure wins on Indiana’s conference schedule.
 



Laker said:
Cignetti is full of himself. 8-4 in 2025 would be a good record for them. A long way from the top 5 in the Big to Sixth
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Indiana is a good team/program and has been on the steady incline for several years now. They also have legit NIL and a good recruiting area. Also, what's Cignetti going to say? "Let's temper expectations and pump the brakes folks"
 

MNVCGUY said:
No doubt what they did last year was impressive.....they capitalized on a really soft schedule and managed to parlay it into a playoff run. 11-1 is tough to do, especially at a place like Indiana so they absolutely deserve props for pulling it off no matter who they beat to get there.

If they can duplicate anything close to what they did last year in 2025 that would be something really amazing. They start their schedule with 3 cupcakes but their Big Ten schedule start is rough with a home game against Illinois followed by road games at Iowa and Oregon. They also have a trip to Happy Valley on the schedule later in the season. I don't see them repeating their 1 loss campaign of a year ago.
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I wonder what Gopher Recruiting would have been like if the Gophers had won one or two more games in the Tanner Morgan Era from 2019 to 2021. The Bowling Green loss in 2021 still stings.
 

GopherEnEspaña said:
Indiana is a good team/program and has been on the steady incline for several years now. They also have legit NIL and a good recruiting area. Also, what's Cignetti going to say? "Let's temper expectations and pump the brakes folks"
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They won 2, 4, and 3 games the 3 years before Cignetti. I wouldn't call that an incline.
 

Word said:
They won 2, 4, and 3 games the 3 years before Cignetti. I wouldn't call that an incline.
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Traveling underground makes it tough to know if you are on flat ground or on an incline, so maybe?
But, we do know they had to go on an incline to emerge above ground last year.
Interesting note: I rode on a roller coaster once.
 

Ope3 said:
The Hoosiers only FCS opponent is Indiana St.

Their other 2 Non-conference games are Old Dominion/Sun Belt & Kennesaw St/CUSA.

Quite a gauntlet.
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Ben Johnson and Glen Mason think that non-conference schedule stinks.
 

GopherEnEspaña said:
Indiana is a good team/program and has been on the steady incline for several years now. They also have legit NIL and a good recruiting area. Also, what's Cignetti going to say? "Let's temper expectations and pump the brakes folks"
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Indiana on a steady incline? They did well when the country was in the middle of a pandemic but otherwise they have been bad in football for a long time.

Last year was an extreme outlier for them. It will be on Cignetti now to prove it wasn't just a mirage built on some good transfers and a soft schedule. Sustaining any kind of success at Indiana in football would be truly impressive because nobody has been able to do it there since maybe the early 90s.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Indiana on a steady incline? They did well when the country was in the middle of a pandemic but otherwise they have been bad in football for a long time.

Last year was an extreme outlier for them. It will be on Cignetti now to prove it wasn't just a mirage built on some good transfers and a soft schedule. Sustaining any kind of success at Indiana in football would be truly impressive because nobody has been able to do it there since maybe the early 90s.
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Tom Allen had a disastrous end there but they had a few nice runs and he showed that there is plenty of juice around the program if they are winning. Add in a better coach, staff, NIL enthusiasm, fresh off a playoff birth...yes, I'd say they are steadily improving.
 

GopherEnEspaña said:
Tom Allen had a disastrous end there but they had a few nice runs and he showed that there is plenty of juice around the program if they are winning. Add in a better coach, staff, NIL enthusiasm, fresh off a playoff birth...yes, I'd say they are steadily improving.
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Yes...Tom Allen had 2 decent years (one of them was the garbage Covid year) and the other was an 8-5 season. But they followed up those two decent years with a 3-24 conference record over the next 3 seasons.

There is no steadily improving here, there was slight competence under Allen for a couple of years and a great first season for Cignetti.

If Cignetti can follow up last year with another strong year this year I will start to buy into some of the hype around him because winning consistently in football has proven next to impossible outside of a couple ok stretches with big gaps in between them at Indiana.

But right now he is just a flash in the pan until he proves otherwise by stringing together multiple good seasons in a row, not just one great season where everything broke right for them.
 

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