Four Indiana football players have landed preseason AP All-America honors ahead of the 2026 season, with left tackle Carter Smith and linebacker Rolijah Hardy on the first team and wide receiver Charlie Becker and defensive tackle Tyrique Tucker on the second team.
Smith’s recognition comes after he earned second-team AP honors following the 2025 season. Tucker also showed up on last year’s postseason list, finishing on the third team.
Becker and Tucker picked up another bit of preseason attention Monday, when the Walter Camp Football Foundation placed both players on the watch list for the 2026 Walter Camp Player of the Year Award. The award is the nation’s fourth-oldest individual college football honor and goes annually to the player of the year. Fernando Mendoza won it in 2025.
Indiana’s backfield also got a nod, as Khobie Martin and Turbo Richard were both included on the 2026 Doak Walker Award watch list, which goes to the nation’s top running back.
Martin enters the season with a chance to move from a No. 4 role at the start of the 2025 campaign all the way to No. 1 in 2026. He closed out 2025 with 505 rushing yards on 78 carries and six touchdowns, the most rushing yards by an Indiana freshman since Stevie Scott III in 2018.
Richard arrives via the transfer portal from Boston College and figures to be a major piece as well. He was the Eagles’ lead back last season and ran for 749 yards on 145 carries with nine touchdowns.
In Other News...
Indiana Football Just Reached A Level Memorial Stadium Has Rarely Seen
Indiana football is on the verge of doing something Memorial Stadium has not seen in generations. Indiana University is expected to sell out all eight home games in 2026, and the schools official ticket site already shows no remaining tickets available. The significance goes beyond a hot ticket market, because this would be the programs first full season sellout since 1969, even with the stadium carrying more capacity than it did back then.
For a fan base that has spent years waiting for football at Indiana to feel different, the timing is hard to miss. The Hoosiers also enter that season with a 15-game home winning streak, the longest in the country, which has helped turn Bloomington into one of the more difficult places to visit in college football. The only real question now is how much further this surge can stretch once those stands are full from opening day through the final home date. [Read more 🡒]
Former Hoosiers Put Friendship On Hold For An NFL Showdown
Fernando Mendoza and Aiden Fisher spent their Indiana days as teammates and friends, and now they are walking into the same NFL exhibition season on opposite sidelines. Mendoza, a quarterback with the Raiders, and Fisher, a linebacker with the Texans, both made positive first impressions in Week 1, which only adds a little more intrigue to a matchup that will be watched closely by Hoosiers fans looking to track where those college relationships end up once the pads go on for real.
For Indiana followers, it is part of a broader run of updates worth noting. Kaelon Black has returned to 49ers practice, Kurtis Rourkes injury status remains a storyline to monitor, and Cam Jones has re-signed with the Chiefs. But the most immediate spotlight belongs to two former Hoosiers who know each other well, even if their usual conversation will have to wait until after the game. [Read more 🡒]
Paul Finebaum Just Gave Indiana Fans A New Reason To Push Back
Indianas perfect 2025 run ended with its first national championship under Curt Cignetti, but the Hoosiers are still finding out that winning the whole thing does not guarantee universal respect. Even after going 16-0, they opened the 2026 preseason AP Poll at No. 6, a placement that reflects both the challenge of replacing Fernando Mendoza and the reality that the rest of the country is not ready to hand them the benefit of the doubt just yet.
Paul Finebaum added to that debate by questioning Indianas nonconference slate while pointing to the grind that awaits in the Big Ten. For Hoosiers fans, it is another reminder that the defending champs will spend all season trying to prove last year was no fluke, and the ranking discussion may linger until they start stacking wins against the kind of opponents that shape the playoff picture. [Read more 🡒]