2026 IUFB: CHAPTER 3

[Stuhoo]

27 minutes ago, Artie86 said:

...looking back,  if Ju Ju Lewis actually ended up at IU, where he would be on the depth chart? I sort of wonder if he may be following a somewhat similar path like former 5* Christian Lander and IU Basketball. 

IndianaBasketball Forum

 

 

IMO he'd be behind Grant Wilson.

[Artie86]

2 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

IMO he'd be behind Grant Wilson.

....it just seems Ju Ju's a bit undersized.

[JSHoosier]

1 hour ago, skhoosier2 said:

Exactly what I took from it when I listened which is why when you mentioned it, I commented above that I thought Cig feels he's not reliable.  Probably red flags from last year at PSU not to mention even when he did practice there were things Cig said about him that were concerning.  He doesn't have depth so IF Harris gets healthy, he's likely going to have to play him.  Is there anyone behind Bell?

Carson Williams transferred in from Montana State. Kasmir Hicks is on the roster too but he's a freshman.

I work with a PSU fan, he said Harris is good when he's on the field but the problem is getting him on the field and called Harris injury prone.

[Stuhoo]

1 hour ago, Artie86 said:

....it just seems Ju Ju's a bit undersized.

I believe the word is 'Pavi-esque'.

[AH1971]

4 hours ago, Brass Cannon said:

His head coach is actively calling out his practicing when it’s not needed he could have just been. “Looking forward to getting him back”.  He went out of his way to point out how little he has practiced.  That’s not helping his case 

Can't play guys who don't practice. Can't practice if you're injured. They go hand in hand and Cignetti gave an honest answer in regards to his situation.

[Brass Cannon]

22 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

Can't play guys who don't practice. Can't practice if you're injured. They go hand in hand and Cignetti gave an honest answer in regards to his situation.

And cigs hinting that maybe there’s some disagreement about the injury status 

[Hoosier987]

6 hours ago, Artie86 said:

....it just seems Ju Ju's a bit undersized.

Anyone see the tape of JuJu running OB 2 yards before the first down marker? The nearest defender was 5 yards away 

[Magnanimous]

I don’t understand reading some of these comments. Cig is not “calling out” any of his players. He noted Harris’ availability so far and defended Hoover today against the BS criticism he’s currently facing from some of y’all. It’s been 3 games; they’re trying out different combos and finding things to improve upon. Yes, Hoover has missed a few throws, the defense was not in sync game 1, and there are some depth issues in the secondary. Guess what, we’re still dominating and no other team has looked fantastic either.

We need to stop comparing this team after 3 weeks to last year’s CFP team. Hoover has played very well, all things considered, across three games. But because he missed a few throws (only one this weekend according to Cig), he’s now a huge red flag? Nonsense. Last year Mendoza was obviously fantastic, but he also threw critical INTs against Iowa, Oregon, Penn State, and Ohio State last season, and he played absolutely terrible @Purdue. We tend to gloss over those points because we won the whole thing and he’s the best player in school history. Hoover deserves some grace and support, and he doesn’t need to be trashed because he hasn’t looked like Fernando in the Peach Bowl. The kid has enough in his arsenal to lead us back to the CFP and compete for a title. He also has the second highest passer rating in the country.

After the defense proved Week 1’s tackling issues to be a fluke, I haven’t seen anything out of this team to make me think we shouldn’t be favored in every game and not still be playing  football into late December, at least. This is college football. Most “good” teams are closer to last year’s Alabama team than elite. I think we look much more talented and balanced than that already.

[Hovadipo]

8 minutes ago, Magnanimous said:

Hoover has played very well, all things considered, across three games. But because he missed a few throws (only one this weekend according to Cig), he’s now a huge red flag?

I’ve seen little to none of this on here. 

[Magnanimous]

22 minutes ago, Hovadipo said:

I’ve seen little to none of this on here. 

I’ve seen some here and also on other boards

[Artie86]

1 hour ago, Hovadipo said:

I’ve seen little to none of this on here. 

….this part in an article about Hoover, (came out today) in “The Daily Hoosier” is pretty informative and eye opening! 

….But it’s also appropriate to point out the reality — Hoover has been pretty darn good thus far.

How good?  It’s been a near carbon copy of Mendoza’s first three games a year ago.

Through three games, Hoover has completed 72.5% of his throws for 649 yards with 10 TDs and no INTs.

And through the first three games a year ago, Mendoza had completed 72.4% of his throws for 708 yards with nine TDs and no INTs.

It was the Big Ten opener against Illinois a year ago that Mendoza truly broke out and put the nation on notice.

So in that sense, we haven’t even hit the point where we know all that much about Hoover.

But Cignetti knows one thing.

“I’m glad he’s our quarterback.”

[Hollywood Mike Miranda]

7 hours ago, AH1971 said:

Can't play guys who don't practice. Can't practice if you're injured. They go hand in hand and Cignetti gave an honest answer in regards to his situation.

"Sometimes the best ability is availability."

- literally Cig during a recent press conference

[skhoosier2]

3 hours ago, Hovadipo said:

I’ve seen little to none of this on here. 

I don’t think anyone thinks Hoover is a red flag. Did he miss some throws?  Sure. Will the staff address and fix it?  Yes. He was used to RPO air raid. This is new. He’s not always making the right read. Missing some check downs and by his own admission there is a lot of details he’s never been responsible for before. He will get it. Mendoza wasn’t perfect. He had pin point accuracy but made his share of mistakes. The running game and o line haven’t been spectacular and we are missing leaders that are hard to replace. We are going to lose a game at some point. Secondary is a concern. Lacks depth and Harris can’t get on the field. But Haines will scheme around it and figure it out. Running game gets exponentially better when Khobie comes back. Lee is a beast of a blocker and turbo is clearly RB1. We are ok. Just entering conference play with some questions. Best staff in the country will have them prepared for battle. 

[jermhoosierfan]

Kinda hard to believe still that IU is that good.

[Lebowski]

 

[Demo]

 

[Brass Cannon]

38 minutes ago, Demo said:

 

Insanity is it happened once. Against Maryland of all teams.  Not Oregon. Not OSU x 2.  Not Notre Dame or Iowa.  Maryland the team whose coach is only employed because somebody is too lazy to do the paperwork.  
 

College football is amazing but it’s certainly weird sometimes 

[Artie86]

https://hoosierhuddle.com/2026/09/28/numbers-that-mattered-indiana-nw/

This is a good eye opening read as well as encouraging. Below is a small part of the article that really stood out to me about IU up to this point.

This margin of victory against Northwestern is both important and a nothing-burger all at the same time. It’s important because it’s earlier in the season than the other games above, there is some real concern for the IU secondary, and the opposition is probably the lowest level among the teams mentioned above as well. Those are the important aspects to this. However, I believe more so in the ‘nothing-burger’ category. Indiana is still running very vanilla plays and not bringing much complexity at all to the opposition, the IU secondary will get healthier and, while not having Ponds this year is a big loss, I fully believe in Bryant Haines and this team to right the ship, and Northwestern might actually be a good team – Cignetti said so himself

[DChoosier]

A lot of chatter about keeping our playbook vanilla.

When do we open up things?

Nebraska?

OSU ?

I get the element of surprise so one part of me could see waiting until OSU but on the flip side do we want to wait all the way until the 7th game and do we really want to give additional live-game schemes/plays a first shot against OSU? 

I’m guessing we open up a fair bit against Nebraska.

[LIHoosier]

Big Noon at Nebraska for Week 6