SOTC Update: Indiana Hoosiers

Curt Cignetti completed an instant turn around in Bloomington in 2024. They made the CFP and now look to keep the momentum going. Let's see how it's going in the Hoosiers State of the Chart™ update.

Feb 22, 2025

State of the Chart™ Recap Edition

Live All-In Ranking: 10th
Offense: 11th
Defense: 11th
2024 Results: 11-2 (8-1 in Big Ten) **CFP Participant**

Full, LIVE Indiana Depth Chart >

All of the information that follows is just the beginning and everything will be updated in our first edition of the State of the Chart™ digital magazine. Slated for a launch in July of 2025, learn more about this and shoot us your email to be kept up-to-speed on launch dates and receive sneak previews…

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|||||| STATE OF THE CHART™ SUMMARY

It was a dream season for the Hoosier faithful as the savior Curt Cignetti strolls into town with his team of assistant coaches, a handful of the better JMU players and a quarterback from Ohio. Many scoffed at the attempt to bring in a bunch of group of five players and expect to compete at the Big Ten level. Compete they did. Even dominated most of the time. The +15 turnover margin is not sustainable, but they earned a good amount of that with ball hawking on defense and smart, efficient offense. That offense, led by the aforementioned Ohio transfer-in Kurtis Rourke, was one of the best in the country. The defense was smothering, especially against the run and forced teams to try to beat them through the air. That didn’t work either. The only knock is that they were exposed a bit in their two losses, which just so happened to be against the final two teams battling for the National Title — Ohio State (only regular season loss) and Notre Dame (first round of the playoff). They crushed Vegas’ expectations all season with a +146 in weighted spread, which takes the results against what Vegas anticipated. They will lose a lot of talent and finding a replacement for Rourke will be tough, but Cignetti and company are having early wins in the portal and bringing in a top 25 recruiting class. Things have turned in Bloomington and now they look to keep it that way.

|||||| HEAD COACH AND COACHING STAFF

Curt Cignetti turned this thing around quickly in Bloomington. He brought key staff, tons of talent, both from his last job at James Madison and others to build this into a winner. Their only two losses in '24 were to the eventual National Title game contenders -- Ohio State and Notre Dame. The momentum has turned, the recruits are coming in and now the job becomes keeping them here, towards the top of the Big Ten.

Coaching Staff Notes/Changes:

Offensive Coordinator Mike Shanahan came over from James Madison with Cignetti and immediately authored one of the most efficient offenses in the country…in the Big Ten. He did enough to earn FootballScoop’s Offensive Coordinator of the Year award.
The only loss is quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri, who is heading to UCLA. It’s not a small loss as he is credited (along with Shanahan) with the guided progression of quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who came to Indiana from Ohio this season and became one of the best in the game. Sunseri and Cignetti have been together since 2021. They moved quickly to find his replacement and went to the NFL ranks to bring in Chandler Whitmer away from the Atlanta Falcons. He had been the pass game coordinator for Atlanta and had other stints in the NFL and college (including Clemson and Ohio State).

Note: This is a “dynamic” article; meaning we will update any information that comes in this “off-season” and post a note when impactful moves are made or news breaks.

|||||| 2024 SCHEDULE / RESULTS ANALYSIS

They lucked out a bit with this schedule, avoiding some of the Big Ten’s best and getting Michigan on a ‘down’ year. The schedule ended up ranking 67th in FBS according to our SOS+ metric. It doesn’t diminish the fact that they handled their business all the way up to the Ohio State game in week 13 when they were humbled in Columbus. The blowout win at UCLA in week three was the one that really put them on the map as a team on the turn. They kept rolling through some of the “easier” opponents, but blowing them out of the water, before Michigan game. That one finished close (5 points), but post-game win expectancy says they fully deserved that win. Going to South Bend for the first College Football Playoff game was a tough draw and ended the run there.

||||||| POSITION GROUP CHECK-INS

OFFENSE: This offense was really fantastic, primarily against the weaker competition. The three tough defenses they faced, they managed just 20, 15 and 17 points. So, it was a bit of a mirage, but impressive nonetheless as quarterback Kurtis Rourke became a phenom after a very good career at Ohio. They finished with 41.3 points per game (2nd in FBS), scoring touchdowns at an 87.8% clip (6th) and managing 6.51 yards per play (15th). The passing game was super efficient with Rourke leading the way, getting 9.4 yards per attempt (2nd) and the full passing game unit (QB, RB, WR, OL pass protection included) finished up ranked 4th in our AIR rankings. What they lacked in explosiveness, they made up for in efficiency, getting 47.2% of third down conversions (13th) and scoring touchdowns 80% of the time in the red zone (2nd). Again, they needed to come up with another gear against the top defensive units, but couldn’t quite find it.

||| QB

Kurtis Rourke was an overnight sensation coming over from Ohio and fitting right into what they wanted to do here in Bloomington. He is moving on and backup Tayven Jackson is also transferring out to UCF. They hit the portal to bring in Fernando Mendoza from Cal to be the starter. He joins his brother, Alberto, already on the roster as a backup. Grant Wilson also comes in from Old Dominion to provide a veteran backup. 2024 4-star Tyler Cherry was injured and is likely to miss most of ‘25.

||| RB

Tyson Lawton (JMU) and Justice Ellison (Wake Forest) came in and became a really solid 1-2 punch. They combined for over 1,500 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns in this dynamic offense. Kaelon Black, another JMU transfer played the backup role, along with Elijah Green as this group went four-deep. Black will return to compete with incoming transfers Lee Beebe Jr. (UAB) and Roman Hemby (Maryland) for touches. Green transfers out to Sam Houston to get more of a workload. They want to utilize multiple backs and again have a stable of them despite Lawton and Ellison moving on.

||| WR

There were quite a few contributors in this group. It was led by JMU transfer Elijah Sarratt, who provided a down-field threat. Ke’Shawn Williams and Myles Price both operated primarily out of the slot and were reliable targets. Omar Cooper Jr. also stretched the field. They will lose Williams and Price in ‘25 but bring back Sarratt and Cooper Jr. and will be supplemented by Makai Jackson (App State) and Tyler Morris (Michigan) via the portal. This should remain a solid unit for the new quarterback.

||| TE

Zach Horton did a nice job as an outlet when needed for Rourke in the passing game, but also held his own in both run blocking and pass protection. A solid player who will be missed next year. They hit the portal to bring in former Tennessee 4-star recruit Holden Staes and Riley Nowakowski (Wisconsin) to likely share the role vacated by Horton. James Bomba and Sam West return to provide depth.

||| OL

This was a solid group, especially when it came to opening up run lanes. they will lose their starting center Mike Katic and right tackle Trey Wedig. Both are significant losses. They addressed both in the portal with a player from each of the only two teams they lost to — Pat Coogan coming in from Notre Dame to take over at center and Zen Michalski, a tackle coming in from Ohio State. LT Carter Smith will return as a Junior and he’s developed quite nicely. Guard Khalil Benson is also coming in (from Colorado) to provide some depth on the interior. This group should not lose much ground from a year ago.

DEFENSE: The coaching staff brought in a lot of players from that smothering JMU defense in 2023. Many questioned if it would translate in the Big Ten. It did. They finished up allowing just 256.3 yards per game (2nd in FBS) and 4.28 yards per play (2nd). They were the top run defense in the country, allowing just 80.2 yards per game and 2.74 yards per tote. They were certainly no slouch in the passing game as well, holding teams to just 5.8 yards per toss (3rd). They tightened up on third downs as well, allowing just a 32.7% conversion rate. They hardly ever allowed explosive plays, with just 27 plays of over 30 yards for opponents. The one time they did was untimely as Jeremiyah Love scampered 98-yards for a touchdown early in the playoff game. Similarly to the offense, they were a bit more exposed against the better opponents with Ohio State having their way, putting up 38 points. Though, if not for the Love run, the defense held their own against Notre Dame. All-in-all, they proved they could do it at this high level and now they’ll have to prove they can run it back after losing a lot of talent on this side of the ball.

||| DL

This is where the run defense was at its best with 6-7 deep rating well above average against the run. Mikail Kamara provided the pressure on the quarterback, racking up 10 sacks and 40 hurries. CJ West was a complete beast on the inside, stuffing lanes and dropping ball carriers. He leaves a year early for the NFL. They will lose two more major contributors, but bring in DT Dominique Ratcliff from Texas State, who will slide right into West’s spot on the interior. Other younger players will be asked to step up and this has a chance to be just as good with Kamara coming back for one more year.

||| LB

The second level was certainly no slouch in cleaning up anything that made it to them (which wasn’t much). They didn’t bring much pressure but stayed home and wrecked any chance of success on the ground. JMU transfer Jailin Walker translated his game just fine and became a complete beast for this team. Other than Walker, most of this group comes back, including Rolijah Hardy, who came out of nowhere as a true freshman (0-star recruit) to play in 11 games and develop one of the highest run defense ratings in the country.

||| DB

The third level was just as good and took full advantage of the success in the run game. CB D’Angelo Ponds, S Amare Ferrell and FS Shawn Asbury II led the way with 15+ player ratings. They will lose four of their top six, but Ponds and Ferrell are returning and Jamari Sharpe and Bryson Bonds rate well in a limited sample. The depth takes a hit with three transferring out, but they bring in four more from the portal to handle any negative impact there. Expect more of the same from this unit in ‘25.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The special teams unit as a whole could be rated as a little above average. Kicker Nicolas Radicic was very good when they needed him, but that wasn’t very often (11 attempts). He nailed 69 PATs. Punter James Evans was okay, but nothing spectacular. They are bringing in Mitch McCarthy from UCF to handle punting duties in 2025. That is an upgrade. Myles Price was the primary punt returner and flashed from time-to-time in that role. He graduates and they’ll need to find a replacement. There are plenty of athletes on this roster to get that done.

Reader feedback is requested and encouraged! Who knows these teams better than their passionate fan bases? We don’t pretend to know it all and would love your feedback. We will update/edit based (and credit) for anything that is brought to our attention. Let’s do this together…

|||||| TRANSFER PORTAL TRACKER

Cignetti is doing it again. After topping our portal tracker ratings last year, they are getting another solid haul this season. At this point, this ‘talent churn’ is ranked 17th in all of FBS and second in the Big Ten. Led by quarterback Fernando Mendoza, coming in from Cal to replace the great Kurtis Rourke, there are other positions getting an infusion of talent. A pair of running backs are coming in with Lee Bebee Jr. (UAB) and Roman Hemby (Maryland) committing to play next year in Bloomington. They lost more this year, which is to be expected, but still come out on top based on our cumulative player ratings. On the defensive side, they get Dominique Ratliff from Texas State, who is going to pay big dividends right away in his final season of eligibility. Pat Coogan comes in from Notre Dame to replace center Mike Katic with zero dip in production and possibly even an upgrade. This is how you keep the momentum going.

Below is a screen shot of the full, live Transfer Portal Tracker over at CFBDepth.com. Click the image or the button below to view it in its entirety…

Live Indiana Portal Tracker >

|||||| 2025 RECRUITING CLASS

It’s not just the portal that Cignetti and crew are doing well in, they are also performing in the high school recruiting game. This class ranks in the top 25 and with the history of player development, it likely ends up being better than projected. Just one four-star coming in, but plenty of high 3-stars make up a large class.

Here is a snapshot of the 2025 Recruiting Class+ with a link to the live page with updates throughout the cycle:

2025 Indiana Recruiting Class+ >

|||||| 2025 SCHEDULE LOOK AHEAD

They are due for a tougher slate of action in 2025 and they got it. After starting 3-0, they will get a test from Illinois at home in week four and then a road trip to Iowa City (Iowa) will not be easy. If they can get to the bye in week six undefeated to prep for a trip to Oregon, that would almost be necessary. What’s awaiting them after the Ducks is a bit easier before they have to go to Happy Valley to play Penn State on the road. No slip ups can occur with those three Big Ten road contests.

There is a lot of movement and decisions to be made throughout the off-season, including more portal moves, winter workouts and spring ball. Get all caught up with the full-on State of the Chart Magazine coming in July. If you missed the ad before, get more information and give us your e-mail to stay in the loop on everything SOTC!

State of the Chart Magazine >

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