Indiana has made it through a punishing run of football without letting the injury report spiral, and that may be the most impressive part of this stretch.
After seven straight games leading into last Saturday’s matchup with Michigan, the Hoosiers showed up with a clean availability report. No one was out.
No one was doubtful. No one was questionable.
That kind of health is even more striking when you look back to Week 1. In the first quarter against North Texas, Indiana lost both starting corners, Jamari Sharpe and AJ Harris, and breakout running back Khobie Martin fractured his wrist. Since then, though, the damage has stayed limited, especially for the starters.
“You try to control what you can control,” IU head coach Curt Cignetti said Monday, knocking on his wood podium. “And there are some things outside of your control, like losing those two corners in the first quarter of the opener, and Khobie Martin.
But we try to keep them healthy in practice and still prepare them, which I think we do a good job of. We’ve just had some good fortune.”
That good fortune is paired with a practice model built to keep players fresh. Indiana’s sessions are short and efficient, and Cignetti said the team uses only six of the 20 practice hours the NCAA allows each week.
“I’ve always been a short practice guy,” Cignetti said in 2025. “My practices have probably gotten even shorter through the years, as we do everything we can to prepare the team fully but keep them fresh and healthy.”
The timing of the schedule matters too. This is a nine-game grind for Indiana, and the Hoosiers’ only bye week doesn’t arrive until after that stretch. They’ll have just three regular-season games left after the break.
“Look, this is our ninth game in a row, isn’t it?” Cignetti said. “So everybody that has played significant snaps is hurting somewhere, but they’re all able to play.”
The body blows have come with the kind of games Indiana has played lately. In the first 32 games of the Cignetti era, only three ended with a margin inside a touchdown.
Over the last five, four have fit that description. The last three have been decided by a combined 14 points.
That has meant three straight weeks of hard, physical football, including road trips to Michigan and Nebraska. Games like that add up. So does the resolve required to survive them.
“It’s really just the mindset, the endless will that this group has,” Indiana center Bray Lynch said. “You’re going to tough it out.
You’re gonna fight to the very last moment no matter what the score says. It’s always 0-0 every single play.
And that’s something that I didn’t necessarily see with the old staff. Sometimes guys would quit, but you just don’t see that with guys on this team.
The mindset of doing anything it takes to win is true within every single guy in that locker room.”
Now comes Minnesota, the final opponent in that nine-game run and another team that promises a physical fight. The Golden Gophers have beaten three ranked teams this season and just handled Iowa in a gritty, defense-first game.
Minnesota coach PJ Fleck said his team had to “Out-Iowa Iowa” last week, a line that fits the style of a team built on discipline, toughness and eliminating mistakes. Cignetti put it simply when asked about the matchup.
“You’ve got to earn every yard and you’ve got to earn every score,” Cignetti said of the Gophers.
So the Hoosiers head into Saturday’s homecoming game in Bloomington with another bruising test in front of them and one more week to survive before the bye. They’ve been hit, they’ve been worn down, and they’ve still stayed intact.
It’s one final push until the bye.
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