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35 minute sit-down with Rece Davis in the film room. I haven't watched it yet, but I'm betting this is going to be real good.

Kurtis Rourke got the start for the 49ers tonight. And he’s got healthy knees. So? 12-14 passing, 3 rushes for 14 yards. Yessiree

IU beat Oregon last year ... twice, when Oregon was just as talented as they will be this year. Now Oregon lost both of their coordinators. Three other offensive staff members left with Stein to go to Kentucky. Oregon has tons of talent? Coaching is a integral factor when players look ultra-talented. Other teams are extremely talented and don't have to deal with new people scattered all over their coaching staff. And I don't want to hear about "payback" for last year. The time for payback for Oregon against IU was in the Peach Bowl. That was their pre-game locker room hype, and lasted only until superior coaching and preparation guided DeAngelo Ponds to jump the route on the game's first play. AFter that, Oregon wasn't thinking about payback, they were thinking "uh-oh, here we go again." I'll take the team that had enough talent last year, has just as much talent this year, and returns its entire coaching staff.

New trophy case.

A must read for training camp intell from The Daily Hoosier. Young players on the rise and Nick Marsh’s dominance: https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/iu-football-fall-camp-2026-week-2-notes/

And Riley Nowakowski getting in on the act. Between all the different roles he can fill combined with the guy and teammate he is he will be uncuttable.

Gift from my kids! (Was supposed to be a bourbon glass, but…$

When USPS starts busting out this stuff is when we know the season is just starting to come over the horizon.

This Cignetti guy just might work out.

Have the Steelers/Packers on and he's just made 4-5 plays in a row, he's everywhere. So I'll start this thread and hope he makes the team.

“In the discussion for the best B1G DL we’ve seen in 20 years of doing this” I will never be able to get my mind around this stuff.

If that's how you feel ... this was fun:

Per 247 composite rankings, the five most talented rosters last season were: Georgia Bama OSU Texas Oregon We went 4-0 against those teams, in one road game and three neutral site games. So I'm not sure how you are measuring "talent." For me? Talent is as talent does. So while Oregon is an objectively very good and talented team, I prefer the talents of guys like Hardy, Jones, Evans, Khobie, and on and on and on, even if they were two and three stars. Oh, and are you saying that the best front seven in the nation isn't a Bryant Haines-coached group that includes Tucker, Landino, Daley, Osunsami, Jones, Hardy and Wyatt? To me that's not just a hot take, that's a wrong take. Finally, I find it really interesting that many/most of the pundits are falling into the same trap of grading a Cignetti football team based on 'talent profile' instead of process, culture, attention to detail, and system. IU gets more flowers than ever, but teams like Texas and Oregon are their preference over Indiana. Still! It's frankly kind of awesome.

Marcelino McCrary-Ball had 4 tackles, 1 forced fumble for the Jets.

Dave Revsine is on a tweet storm about this. Sorry for the giant post, but comments and clips he posted are good.

29 snaps on OL last night.

Will Fernando Mendoza be the GOAT when he retires? It's entirely possible IMO. I will not be hearing arguments at this time.

First NFL TD -- sort of.

If you’re feeling a little self-loathing today and looking for a reason to jump off the nearest bridge but can’t quite work up the gumption, here’s an Archie Miller interview for you.

Halfway through the video and I couldn't be more excited for the season. Less than a month to go. Our football coach is a total savant. See a lot of people online doubting Josh Hoover... seeing Cig break down some of his tape instantly makes those doubts seem silly.

https://www.insidethehall.com/2026/08/09/report-iu-basketball-to-host-western-illinois-next-season/ Western Illinois coming to Bloomington Dec 6. Sure, they were 364 in KenPom last year, but records are meaningless when these 2 get together.

Yes, I’m that age as well. But I was at the game a couple years ago in Bloomington when Dylan Raiola spent most of pre-game warm-ups running his mouth to our student section presumably about he was going to show them who had the better football program. And then he certainly went out and did just that.

Since it’s already happening on night 1 of the preseason, might as well get this rolling now. There’s gonna be a lot of it moving forward.

Haines is a stud. I can’t believe they retained him. I hope they do some sort of “executive head coach in waiting “ deal where he stays until Cig retires.

Are you implying that Josh Hoover’s new best friends are not his run game and defense?!!? I’m considering telling on you to Cig.

I’m so confused. Weren’t they a bunch of 27yo AAAA guys who were in college because they couldn’t compete at the next level? Yes, I’m sure I read that somewhere.

Yeah, it’s football so I halfway, at best, know what I’m watching and maybe I’m just enamored of the glaring toolkit, but, man, when you watch the Marsh video and all the stuff he’s got if the light is fully on there other than Smith who in the B1G, hell, in the country, has the potential to be any more dominant than that kid? He doesn’t just look like an NFL guy, he looks like an NFL GUY. Somebody want to tell me that a Davante Adams was more tooled up at 19 than Marsh?

Fisher with 7 tackles. Imagine that.

Nowakowski with 4 yd TD catch..

D3 U of Chicago gym capacity: 1658 D1 Harvard gym capacity: 1636

Cig said Albero was the one player he hated to lose. But he was also obviously not comfortable turning the offense over to him this year. I was hoping it would work out but I'll defer to Cignetti on all personnel matters. Cig is a savant when it comes to quarterbacks. Given the way he views the position, I wonder if we will ever have a qb developed in house become our starter.

4/5 were playoff teams. OSU probably was the most talented roster and they might be again. I’m confused as to your point…lol. IU got snubbed from those lists last year but they’ll be there this year. I’d be willing to bet 4/5 of IU/OSU/Oregon/ND/Georgia make the playoffs. Coaching matters and so does QB play. Hence some of us saying it is a *slight* edge having a returning top 5-10 QB. Even Cig said in that 30 min film breakdown there were some plays Mendoza just made that he either didn’t coach or had only seen a few times in his career. That’s the difference between a national championship and a 2nd or 3rd round exit sometimes. I think the 3 best teams will be IU, OSU, and Oregon. IU’s advantage, imo, lies in a defense that could be better than the previous two versions (maybe the same with the Oline). A dominant Dline can carry a D like no other position group. But I don’t think there will be a ton of separation between them and Oregon/OSU. The difference between the ‘24 OSU game and last year’s was disproportionately on Mendoza. The D played awesome from horrible field position all game in 24 but Rourke got smacked around, rattled, and threw some awful balls (plus some shoddy special teams play). Mendoza got absolutely drilled the first series but came back to lead some huge drives on the back of Heisman-level throws. I’m willing to bet Hoover is better than Rourke, but I’d be nervous betting money he equals Mendoza’s season. I think the B1G will be a dogfight all the way through.

Some rare special teams love

Hey hold your horses. We have to wait 4 years to make a judgement on a coach.

Lots of fans from other programs desperately want to believe last year was a lucky fluke and/or Cig was just first to this idea of getting older guys on the team. After we repeat this season it will be impossible for them to deny that this is anything but a Saban-like dynasty... but even better because of where it's happening.

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/iu-volleyball-coach-shares-hilarious-story-of-first-time-he-met-curt-cignetti/ Steve Aird talks about the first time he met Cignetti.

He played most of his senior season at IU with a completely chewed up ankle. Tried to gut it out but by the playoffs he was cooked. Kinda healthy now, eh?

Oregon thinks those unis are ugly.

The champs are getting previewed tonight

The NFL made one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Jl-DEuiMU The NFL gestapo wont let it embed.

Cigs last two QBs at Indiana are starting tonight in the NFL. Remember that anytime somebody tells you that QB is a real question mark for us

Don't worry, Romo would refer to Fernando as Mahomes. Fifteen, schmifteen what's the difference?

Not loving the Mendalorian nickname here. That needs to die out quick.

Yeah, Fickell is probably the odds on favorite to be the first in-season firing.

My one issue is if Notre Dame doesn’t win because they don’t play a single game of merit we will get the shaft. That said I hope Wisconsin kicks the **** out of the crying Irish. Hell I hope Purdue beats them then goes 0-9 in conference

Just finished. That was spectacular. The annoyed curmudgeon that is forced to answer questions from reporters turns into a kid on Christmas morning when he gets to throw on the tape.

And the fact that we had to beat OSU to get the #1 is further evidence. OSU played 2 CFP teams. Lost both. Played 3 CFP Caliber teams and scored an average of less than 13 points. OSU was ranked 1 based on their name. We had at least 2 regular season wins more impressive than their most impressive