Indiana is set to open the 2024 season under first-year head coach Curt Cignetti with a home date against FIU on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.
And when they take the field this weekend, the Hoosiers will field one of the nation’s most overhauled and veteran rosters, along with one of the youngest coaching staffs.
IU fans will want to watch the first few games with a roster in hand.
In a list compiled by Troy University’s athletic communications office, Indiana was tied for the ninth-fewest returning players in the FBS along with a tie for third-fewest returning scholarship players. And after the way the last three seasons turned out, that’s probably not a bad thing.
Cignetti brought in total of 54 newcomers with him to Bloomington, which includes 30 transfers.
But just because they are new to Indiana, many of the transfers are not new to Cignetti. Thirteen of those transfers arrived from James Madison, where Cignetti went 52-9 over the last five seasons.
And Cignetti placed a heavy emphasis on recruiting proven veterans out of the portal, rather than players with potential.
23 of Indiana’s transfers have three-or-more years of experience playing college football. Of that group, 14 have earned all-conference or all-conference honorable mention at their previous institutions: Shawn Asbury II, James Carpenter, Mile Cross, Justice Ellison, Zach Horton, Terry Jones Jr., Mikail Kamara, Nick Kidwell, Nahji Logan, Myles Price, Kurtis Rourke, Tyler Stephens, Jailin Walker and CJ West.
Entering the 2024 season, Indiana’s roster will feature 26 student athletes who have already earned their degrees. Of the 26 graduates, ten of them own degrees from Indiana, while 16 transferred to IU with degrees already in hand.
There are 34 players in FBS Football who are playing in their seventh year of eligibility, meaning they began their college careers in the fall of 2018. The Hoosiers have four of those 34 seventh-year players: Nick Kidwell, Ty Son Lawton, Jacob Mangum-Farrar and Solomon Vanhorse.
The mark of four is the most seventh-year players on any FBS team. Indiana is one of seven teams with multiple seventh-year players and Illinois is the only other Big Ten team with at least two.
Of Indiana’s 30 transfers, the list includes 13 defensive players, 15 offensive players and two specialists. There are 29 players from Division I (28 FBS, 1 FCS) and one from the Division III level.
While Cignetti brings a veteran laden team to the field in year one, his coaching staff is almost entirely new to IU — and one of college football’s youngest.
Nine of Indiana’s 10 on-field assistant coaches are new for the 2024 season, with offensive line coach/run game coordinator Bob Bostad the only holdover from the Tom Allen era.
The 10 on-field assistants for the Hoosiers rank No. 4 in the FBS and No. 2 in the Power 4 in average age at 38.2 years old. Only Georgia Tech (33.2) has a younger group of assistant coaches in the Power 4 ranks.
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