Author: Mike Schumann

ESPN’s data driven SP+ model continues to project Indiana as the worst team in the Big Ten in the final update before the 2024 season.  But that projection comes with a caveat. Produced by that outlet’s Bill Connelly, SP+ says Indiana is the No. 81 team in the country, and last in the 18-team Big Ten.  The model says IU will have the No. 91 offense, and No. 61 defense, and the No. 63 special teams. Here is how the SP+ model forecasts the Big Ten going into the 2024 season, with 2024 IU opponents in bold. Note that there…

Offensive line is the big question mark surrounding IU’s revamped attack in 2024. And that unit has suffered a major loss before new head coach Curt Cignetti’s first season in Bloomington gets started. ESPN’s Pete Thamel is reporting anticipated starting right guard Nick Kidwell will miss the entire 2024 season with a knee injury.  The Daily Hoosier can confirm the report. Kidwell also suffered an injury four games into the 2023 season and received a medical hardship waiver that cleared him to play this season, his seventh year on a college campus. On the opening day of fall camp, Cignetti…

Trey Galloway calls consensus first team All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis one of his best friends. But when asked which former teammate he’d most like to run it back with for one more season, Galloway went a different direction. “I would say Kel’el (Ware),” Galloway told Miller Kopp on the Player’s Perspective podcast. Although both Galloway and Kopp playfully acknowledged Jackson-Davis would be disappointed in that choice, the fifth-year IU guard had sound logic. Pressed into duty as the team’s primary ball handler for much of the 2023-24 campaign, Galloway developed into a high-level facilitator. The 6-foot-5 Culver, Ind. product became the…

The latest sign Indiana football has a much more manageable schedule in 2024 came this week via the release of the preseason AP top-25. At least based on the preseason rankings, the Hoosiers will face just two ranked opponents all season — No. 2 Ohio State, and No. 9 Michigan.  And those contests do not arrive until games 11 and 10, respectively. Buried in the other teams receiving votes of the preseason AP top-25 are two more Indiana opponents — Washington at No. 32, and Nebraska at No. 35. In total, 42 teams received votes in the AP poll, meaning…

Indiana appears to have a very good chance to land 5-star class of 2025 quarterback Julian Lewis. Although he is currently a USC verbal commit, Lewis has visited Indiana multiple times in 2024 as the new Hoosiers staff has been pushing hard for a flip.  He took an official visit to Bloomington over Memorial Day weekend. Ranked the No. 3 overall quarterback in the 2025 class according to the On3 Industry Average, and the No. 22 overall player, Lewis has a close connection to Indiana quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri. USC, Auburn and Colorado have joined Indiana as the main four…

While they arrived in good shape for the first day of fall camp, Indiana wasn’t going to make it through to week one completely healthy. No team ever does. The first wave of injuries came during a weekend scrimmage.  Indiana thudded (full speed until initial contact) the scrimmage in an attempt to reduce the casualties, but coach Curt Cignetti still had a few setbacks to report on Monday. “We had a couple depth guys have some injuries,” Cignetti said Monday morning. “Josh Philostin injured his knee and will be out a while. Same with [Andrew] Depaepe, the transfer from Michigan…

Throughout his time at IU, injuries have been a part of Trey Galloway’s story. He missed 15 games during his 2021-22 sophomore campaign due to two different injuries – a fractured wrist, and a groin injury that required surgery. He also missed two games during his freshman season, and three during his junior campaign due to minor injuries. The latest challenge for the Culver, Ind. product is a knee injury that cost him the end of his senior season. “I’ve dealt with a lot.  I’ve already missed a summer before with my groin. I’ve had some tough blows with my…

IU football head coach Curt Cignetti has provided plenty of clues who his starting quarterback will be when the Hoosiers open the season on Aug. 31. But Monday morning, the first-year leader of the Indiana program shared his strongest signal yet that Ohio transfer Kurtis Rourke will be behind center when IU hosts FIU in just under three weeks. Indiana had a scrimmage on Saturday, and coming out of the weekend, Cignetti says the gap has widened for the starting role. “I thought Rourke had a good day, really sort of separated himself pretty significantly in that scrimmage,” Cignetti told…

Since Indiana’s 2023-24 season came to an end, all of the focus turned to filling holes on the roster via the transfer portal. But the Hoosiers have six players returning from last year’s squad, so it’s time to look back at how they performed, and the outlook for 2024-25. Next up in the series is 6-foot-5 and 200-pound Anthony Leal, who is returning to IU for his fifth season with the program. WHAT WENT WELL After his minutes dropped to a career-low 2.1 per game in 2022-23, Anthony Leal was written off by most going into his fourth year at…

All three centers on Indiana’s 2024-25 roster will be utilizing their final season of eligibility this upcoming season. That means Mike Woodson and his staff will have a lot of heavy lifting ahead of them to add big men to the team by next summer. IU has been after Georgetown, Ky. 7-footer Malachi Moreno for well over two years. Ranked No. 25 overall and the No. 1 center in the 2025 class by the On3 Industry Average, Moreno named a top-eight and has visits set to Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio State in the weeks to come. But…