Don’t do it. Don’t tell me about my realism regarding the 2024 Indiana Hoosiers Football Team is based on my positive affection for Coach Tom Allen. Yes, I liked the guy. I still do. That won’t change. I also implied that Coach Allen and Indiana University needed to hammer out a treaty that would facilitate his way out of town last fall before they did just that about a week later.
Coach Allen is off to greener pastures. I have not seen a game at Penn State. But I can tell you that Beaver Stadium is a thing of beauty, and the Penn State Berkey Creamery has the best ice cream in America. Being a part of a great college football history is not a bad place to hang out for a while. Of course, I hope the Nittany Lions win every game.
On to the Hoosiers.
Am I the only one who is a realist when it comes to Coach Curt Cignetti? Has Indiana University Football become such a sympathetic/inspiring figure in the eyes of Hoosier fans that they automatically think the new coach will come in and win 7 games? This is the first time in my life that I have witnessed wishful thinking that seems a little more than just wishful.
Rest assured there will probably be no games in Indiana’s Memorial Stadium like the one they played against Michigan in the snow a few years ago. Coach Cignetti will see to that, providing he keeps blowing off as much hot air as he has since he made it to Bloomington. If hot air will give Indiana victories, the Hoosiers may land in the Music City Bowl.
Other media types don’t believe Indiana will face a challenge until the third game of the season. That is when the Hoosiers go to Pasadena to take on the UCLA Bruins in ‘some old stadium’.
Look, Coach Cignetti comes in from James Madison University with a great run there. 52-9 is darn good in five years of work. But where was James Madison in the five years before Coach Cig got there? 55-13. Coach Cig inherited a gold mine at JMU in terms of the Colonial Athletic Association.
We all know that these FCS and fledgling FBS programs schedule a “money” game with a traditional power. They need the money to help keep their football budgets as healthy as possible. That is why Alabama plays a JV team every year before the Iron Bowl. So, I asked how Coach Cig’s JMU teams did against the big boys in his 5 years there with his first three teams being FCS and last two at the FBS level. And how the five teams, all at the limited FCS level did in the “money” games before Coach Cig took over at JMU? Keep in mind the Covid year of 2020. That fall the CAA postponed the season until the spring of 2021. That was a season of attrition for sure. That saw the JMU Dukes play only five conference games before going 2-1 in the FCS playoffs.
The JMU teams coached by Everett Withers in 2014 and 2015 went 18-7 overall and lost to Maryland in 2014 while defeating SMU in 2015. Mike Houston took the JMU helm in 2016 and went 37-6 in his three years. The money games he played were losses against North Carolina in 2016, a win against East Carolina in 2017, and a loss to NC State in 2018.
It’s safe to say Coach Everett Withers and Coach Mike Houston had the refrigerator full when Coach Curt Cignetti made the move to JMU from Elon, unlike the empty cupboard he had to replace at IU. And, just like when he landed at Indiana and increased his salary seven times over, he said it was a tough decision to leave Elon after only two seasons.
During the Curt Cignetti five-year JMU era, the Dukes were 52-9. In the money games, minus the abbreviated 2020 Covid season, James Madison was 1-2. They were defeated by West Virginia in 2019, Louisville bested them in 2022, and JMU defeated Virginia in 2023. Coach Cig’s team did not play an FBS team in 2021 which was JMU’s last season in FCS. Not much there.
As I said earlier, many folks don’t believe the Hoosiers will be tested before the third game of the season when the UCLA Bruins host their first Big 10 game. And I think the Bruins will be ready.
Coach Cig recently said, “We’re just going to an old stadium to kick somebody’s ass. When I say that, that’s not directed toward UCLA. That’s the objective every week.”
For Coach Cig’s sake I hope he’s not expecting to play the Pasadena City College Lancers that day. The Bruins will be there, and they will be ready. You can get two tickets to the Indiana game at The Rose Bowl for 30 bucks less than I paid for one to see UCLA play USC eight years ago. The next week against Oregon, the same ticket as the one to IU is 77 dollars higher. So, I guess the Hoosiers have them right where they want them, if they don’t mistakenly show up at The LA Coliseum that day, you know, the other “old stadium”.
For me, the season starts at Memorial Stadium against FIU on August 31st. Coach Cig’s last four home openers have been against Bucknell, Middle Tennessee, and Morehead State twice. A two-score victory over FIU will give me a glimmer of hope.
This is The Big 10 boys, and it is a whole new ballgame, Google notwithstanding.
Nothing would please me more than to eat many words here. But as you know, I speak the rights. Google me.
Danny Johnson
NEXT UP: The 2024 speaktherights.com College Football Preview