Curt Cignetti heads to Chicago this week with Indiana fans carrying a short list of questions that go well beyond the usual preseason chatter. The 2026 Big Ten Football Media Days are underway, and with the Hoosiers coming off a National Championship-winning season, there’s plenty for Cignetti to unpack when he meets the media on Thursday afternoon.
The biggest thing on the minds of Hoosier fans is the health of the roster after a spring that never quite featured Indiana at full strength. Because the Hoosiers played 16 games last season during their extended CFP run to a national title, spring practice got a later start than usual. That was the tradeoff for a dream season, but it also meant a lot of unavailable bodies throughout April.
Indiana’s spring game came on April 23, and Cignetti said before it that 17 players were out that week because of injury. Among the notable absences were left tackle Carter Smith and star wide receiver Charlie Becker, both of whom missed the spring game.
Afterward, Cignetti made it clear the team fans saw that day was not the same group that will line up in the season opener on September 5 against North Texas. That makes a full injury update one of the key things fans want to hear in Chicago.
There’s also the bigger-picture question of what changes when a program goes from chasing a breakthrough to trying to protect one. Cignetti and Indiana have gone from surprise story to national champion in two seasons, finishing with a perfect 16-0 run that capped one of the most remarkable turnarounds in sports history.
Now the Hoosiers aren’t the team sneaking up on people anymore. They’re the target.
That shift matters. Indiana is no longer an afterthought, and every opponent will be treating the Hoosiers like its biggest game of the year. The question for Cignetti is whether that changes the way his program operates now that it’s already reached the top.
And then there’s the offense, which is going to look very different even if the overall approach stays familiar. Mike Shanahan’s RPO-heavy system is expected to be back, but the personnel around it has taken a major hit. Indiana has to replace Heisman Trophy-winning QB Fernando Mendoza, WR Omar Cooper Jr, WR Elijah Sarratt, RB Roman Hemby, RB Kaelon Black, TE Riley Nowakowski, and C Pat Coogan.
That’s a lot of production walking out the door. So the real question is simple: how confident is Cignetti that Indiana’s offense can keep its identity intact with so many new faces stepping in?
In Other News...
Big Ten Commissioner Just Said What Indiana Fans Have Waited To Hear
Tony Petitti spent Big Ten Media Days making sure Indiana heard the praise it has earned. The commissioner pointed to the Hoosiers 2025 national championship season as proof of how far the program has come under Curt Cignetti, and he framed the turnaround as one of the leagues better success stories after Indiana started flashing real momentum in 2024.
For Hoosier fans, the bigger takeaway is that the conference office is openly embracing what has happened in Bloomington. Petitti said the Big Ten is pleased with the way Indianas rise has played out and with the response it has created on Saturdays, a notable shift for a program that spent so long trying to break into the sports upper tier. [Read more 🡒]
Dan Lanning Just Raised The Stakes On Oregons Title Chase
Dan Lanning used the stage at Big Ten Media Days to frame Oregons title pursuit as less of a leap than a continuation, saying the Ducks are close after building a program that has already stacked up major wins and reached the College Football Playoff in back-to-back seasons. He pointed to the grind of assembling a championship roster and made clear that the Ducks recent run has created the kind of foundation coaches spend years trying to establish.
For Indiana, the larger takeaway is the company Lanning put himself in while talking about the sports current elite. He cited the small group of active coaches who have already won national championships and used Curt Cignetti as the outlier in that conversation, a reminder of how narrow the path still is even for a program with Oregons momentum. Lanning stopped short of promising a trophy, but he did make the stakes plain: the Ducks believe they are in the window now, and the next step has to be more than just getting close again. [Read more 🡒]