The Indiana football team got to take quite a victory lap this offseason.
A national championship is always sweet, but it probably tasted that much better coming from a program that was the losingest in college football history at this time last year.
After the Hoosiers reveled in finishing off the first 16-0 season in modern college football history, coach Curt Cignetti is ready for more.
“I’m really excited. I’ve been on vacation long enough,” Cignetti said Thursday at Big Ten media days in Chicago. “I’m tired of being bossed around by my wife. I’m ready to boss somebody else around and develop a football team.”
Cignetti made historic basketball power Indiana into a football juggernaut overnight, posting a 27-2 record over his first two seasons, nearly as many wins as the 28 the program had in the six years before his arrival combined.
But after last year’s team proved its bona fides with six wins over top-10 opponents, this year’s team has some new faces that will need to step up.
Most notably, after Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza was the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft in April, TCU transfer Josh Hoover is stepping in. Hoover completed 65.2% of his passes over the past three seasons for 9,629 yards, 71 touchdowns and 33 interceptions.
Standout receivers Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt are also gone, replaced by productive Michigan State transfer Nick Marsh.
Amid the turnover, Cignetti doesn’t believe much will change.
“It’s different people,” Cignetti said, “so there’s going to be a little bit of a different team, but it’s going to be more same than different. All of our teams have been successful because they’re more similar than different. … We’ve got to create the identity, the mindset, the relentlessness, the resiliency.”
–Michigan ready to move past dramatic offseason
No team in college football has been unwillingly thrust into the spotlight more this offseason than Michigan.
Head coach Sherrone Moore was fired in December for an inappropriate relationship with a staff member and subsequently was arrested for allegedly trespassing at the employee’s house and threatening her.
Before that was the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal that loomed over Michigan’s 2023 national championship campaign.
Kyle Whittingham, who left Utah in December after 21-plus seasons and a program-record 177 wins, was hired to guide the team through the tumultuous period of turnover.
Whittingham said of the Michigan players, “They’re hungry and ready to get back in a season, get some football. They’ve been through a lot in the last four or five years. Hopefully, we can put the drama to bed and just get back to being student-athletes and having a great college experience.”
Quarterback Bryce Underwood taking a step forward in Year 2 with the program would make things easier for Whittingham. The No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 class, Underwood didn’t have the most impressive stat line as a true freshman (60.3% completion rate, 2,428 yards, 11 passing TDs, nine interceptions with 392 rushing yards and six TDs) but still managed to lead Michigan to nine wins.
Underwood feels more confident after training alongside Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, a former Heisman Trophy winner, this offseason.
“One of the main things I learned from Joe is how calm he stays. Staying calm during the storm,” Underwood said in an interview with Fox Sports. “That’s one of the biggest things I’ve been focusing on.”
–Matt Rhule pushing for more at Nebraska
Matt Rhule brought a level of stability that had been missing at Nebraska in his first three years atop the program.
After the Cornhuskers had seven straight losing seasons from 2017-23, Nebraska won seven games in both 2024 and ’25.
Standing alongside three national championship trophies after a different Big Ten team won it all in each of the past three seasons, Rhule made it clear he is not yet close to what he wants to accomplish in Lincoln.
“I stood up here a few years ago saying before we can talk about doing great things, we have to earn back the respect. These (players), they kind of erased the narratives,” Rhule said. .”.. We know that’s not enough. We didn’t come to Nebraska to go 7-6. We came to compete for this (trophy). Being here today with teams who have won the national championship, it’s inspiring.”
Former five-star quarterback prospect Dylan Raiola, an early recruiting coup for Rhule, left Nebraska this offseason after two years with the program.
The Cornhuskers pivoted and brought in Mountain West Player of the Year Anthony Colandrea, who threw for 3,459 yards, ran for 649 more and accounted for 33 touchdowns (23 passing, 10 rushing) last season for UNLV.
“He’s a great yin to my yang,” Rhule said of Colandrea. “I’m old school, be tough, incrementalist, get better day by day. He has some swagger and juice to offset me. I can’t wait to watch him play.”
–Field Level Media
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