Despite carrying the national champion title into the 2026 season, IU football enters spring practice like everyone else — full of questions.
What are the biggest questions head coach Curt Cignetti and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan face in their pursuit of back-to-back titles?
Here’s our top questions confronting the IU offense in 2026.
QUARTERBACK
There’s no question Josh Hoover enters spring ball as the anticipated 2026 starter, but like 2025, there is a question about who will serve as the backup.
Snaps in spring practice and in the spring game should provide obvious clues.
Based on experience, the leading contender to backup Hoover is seventh-year Grant Wilson. He has appeared in 25 career games with 14 starts, with most of that work coming at Old Dominion. But Wilson was ostensibly in the same spot last year and served as the third-string QB behind the Mendoza brothers.
Redshirt freshmen Tyler Cherry and Jacob Bell are very inexperienced, but like Alberto Mendoza a year ago, both have spent time in the program. It will be interesting to see if one of them breaks out.
RUNNING BACK
There’s little doubt Indiana will utilize a rotation at running back to open the 2026 season. That’s been the approach by Cignetti in both 2024 and 2025 at IU, and at his prior stops.
Interestingly, the rotation started as three players in each of the last two seasons and shrank to two as those campaigns progressed, due to injuries and performance.
Boston College transfer Turbo Richard is a clear member of what will probably be another three-headed monster in the backfield. And Khobie Martin made enough of a splash when given chances to believe he’ll be in that mix as well.
But what about Lee Beebe, Jr.? He was part of the running back trio to start the 2025 season before suffering a season-ending knee injury in week three against Indiana State. He won’t be a participant in the spring of course, but should be ready for fall camp.
Will Beebe, Jr. be fully confident and back to his former self by week one? Or will the Hoosiers need to look to far less experienced options like Sean Cuono or Jayreon Campbell as the third back? It will be an important spring for Cuono and Campbell.
WIDE RECEIVER
The top three on Indiana’s depth chart seem clear.
Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh both look like candidates for All-Big Ten and perhaps All-America on the outside.
But what about the slot? Will Shazz Preston move inside and follow Omar Cooper, Jr.’s path. That worked out pretty well for Cooper, who is now getting first round projections in next month’s NFL Draft. But Preston only played about 10% of his snaps last season at the slot. In any event, Preston is clearly in the mix for major snaps.
The wildcard is Tyler Morris, who transferred in from Michigan ahead of the 2025 season before he suffered a season-ending knee injury during spring practice.
Morris is on a different timeline than Beebe, Jr. Morris was back practicing with the team in January, and a year out from his injury, should be fully cleared for this spring. He has plenty of experience in the slot, and if he’s good to go, would allow Preston to stay outside and really balance out the room with four veterans.
Another question: Which of the 2024 freshmen, who all had limited to no roles, will be ready for a Becker-like breakout this fall? There’s room in the rotation for someone to step up. Based on 2025 snaps, Lebron Bond and Davion Chandler are the most likely to emerge.
TIGHT END
Cignetti has already referred to this position group as the biggest question mark on the 2026 team.
Indiana must transition from trusted veterans Zach Horton in 2024 and Riley Nowakowski in 2025 to someone heretofore unproven.
Miami (Florida) transfer Brock Schott is the clubhouse favorite, but he arrived in Bloomington with an injury and will miss the spring.
Schott and everyone else in the tight end room has “freshman” in their eligibility description — either true freshman or redshirt. And IU needs a couple of them to emerge as the Hoosiers utilize two tight ends regularly.
This group will be something to watch throughout the spring and into fall camp.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Indiana returns plenty of experience along the offensive line, in Carter Smith, Drew Evans and Bray Lynch. And they added a proven veteran in two-year Wisconsin starter Joe Brunner.
But replacing leader and star Pat Coogan at center will be no small task. The center position entails so much — from pre-snap recognition to coordination with the quarterback and rest of the team. And whoever replaces Coogan, that individual won’t have any meaningful experience in the role.
Lynch looks like the pre-spring leader to take over at center, but we’ll be monitoring this carefully for the next five months.
And Adedamola Ajani saw action both inside and out in 2025, including snaps throughout the postseason. Will he be the starting right tackle? Will they move Brunner outside and play Ajani at guard? Will someone younger emerge like Evans and Lynch did in in 2024? There’s a lot to keep an eye on with Bob Bostad’s group.
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