Six wins.
For Indiana football that has seemingly always been the line of demarcation.
Get to six, everyone is at least content for now. Get more than that, and they’re ecstatic.
And if they miss the mark, well, just another season of IU football. Maybe next year.
To get six wins in 2024, IU will need at least three conference wins. But three is the total number of conference wins they achieved in the last three seasons, combined.
And still, six wins would be a disappointment to new head coach Curt Cignetti. With only six regular season wins he would need to win IU’s first bowl game since 1991 to avoid his first campaign with a losing record.
For Cignetti, the goal is definitely not mere bowl eligibility.
“Somebody asked me, how do you define success at Indiana?” Cignetti said at Big Ten media day. “I was like, ‘Well, we want to be the best.’ I mean, you don’t bring your kids up, ‘Johnny, I want you to be fourth best. I want you to be tenth best.’ Bullshit. We want to be the best.”
But the fact remains, Indiana has had only 16 seasons with six or more wins in the 76 seasons since head coach Bo McMillin left in 1947. That’s about 21 percent of the time. And in only half of those seasons did the Hoosiers win more than six games.
So you’ll have to excuse this fan base if they currently find themselves somewhere between Cignetti’s optimism and a dark history.
The Daily Hoosier conducted a poll on X asking fans how many wins Cignetti will achieve during his first regular season at Indiana.
The options were three or less, four to five, six to seven, and eight or more.
With eight home games and a bit more manageable Big Ten schedule, here is how fans are feeling about the outlook in 2024:
It’s time for an #iufb poll. What is your prediction for Indiana’s regular season win total for 2024?
Linked is a cheat sheet with @SethTow ‘s previews of all 12 opponents:https://t.co/pe2ZvMGq0z
— Mike Schumann @ The Daily Hoosier (@daily_hoosier) August 5, 2024
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
To help, we’ve completed opponent previews for all 12 of Indiana’s games. You can find those here. You can also find the schedule here:
For complete coverage of IU football, GO HERE.
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