Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers are scheduled to speak with the media on Thursday.
Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti will be joined by linebacker Aiden Fisher, wide receiver Elijah Sarratt and punter James Evans when the Hoosiers take the short trip to Indianapolis for Big Ten Media Days.
They’re all scheduled to address the assembled media on Thursday. Cignetti will speak from the coaches podium for a fifteen minute televised spot before relocating to a smaller one to speak with members of the media individually. The three players joining him will be made available in a similar capacity while also appearing on a Big Ten Network media spot.
Here are three questions we have for the program ahead of its scheduled appearance:
How will the offensive line look this year?
Cignetti completely retooled Indiana’s offense with almost entirely new players and coaches at every position except for one: the offensive line. Bob Bostad, a Tom Allen hire, was retained during the coaching transition.
Bostad’s group saw improvement in year one, but it takes time to build an offensive line and he’s had a full offseason now with a brand new strength and conditioning program under Derek Owings.
The group saw a few departures including center Zach Carpenter (now at Miami, FL), Kahlil Benson (Colorado) and Matthew Bedford (now at Oregon). They welcomed a few transfers, but much of the core group from last year’s room remains.
The Hoosiers’ wide receivers room could be among the deepest in the Big Ten, the staff added multiple upperclassmen to the entirely new running backs room and they have two quarterbacks with starting experience. Will the line be able to hold up and create some breathing room for all those additions?
How will Bryant Haines’ new-look defense operate?
Indiana is moving away from Tom Allen’s defensive system to that of Bryant Haines, Cignetti’s defensive coordinator at JMU.
Haines has followed Cignetti during all four of the latter’s head coaching stops, having spent five years as defensive coordinator or co-coordinator at JMU. His units ranked in the top-10 nationally in total defense for four of his five years in Harrisonburg.
And it’s not Haines’ first stop in Bloomington. He worked as a graduate assistant for the Hoosiers in 2012 following a four-year career as a linebacker at Ball State.
The good news for Haines? He’ll have a trusted leader at the same position in Bloomington with Aiden Fisher, an anchor of the Dukes’ defense last year.
But still, it takes some time to get a new system down and it’s not out of the question that it could take a few games for the defense to truly settle in. Luckily most of those contests will be against Group of Five or FCS teams.
What will success look like in year one? Especially in the new Big Ten?
Curt Cignetti wins. A lot.
He has one of the highest win percentages among active head coaches. Nationally, not just in the Big Ten. But Indiana is going to be an entirely new challenge, especially with all the less-than-ideal history behind the program.
The nonconference offers Indiana a chance to establish a winning culture early if it takes care of business. Learn how to win, take the conference games you should and make it to the postseason. That’s probably what the program can be at its ultimate peak, with a few dream seasons mixed in.
Can a bowl trip happen in year one? Maybe. The nonconference offers the potential for that if enough breaks the Hoosiers’ way in Big Ten play.
What does Cignetti think?