Indiana Hoosiers football coach Curt Cignetti is about to understand what it’s like to lead one of the top teams in the nation into an offseason, with sharks circling everywhere looking to poach his best players.
It’s a problem Cignetti handled with ease this past offseason, when Indiana’s roster lost over 20 players, including two who were drafted to the NFL. It’s also one that he is already offering a solution to.
As The Indianapolis Star’s Zach Osterman noted, Cignetti is already having tryouts on his roster during blowouts, of which IU has had two in recent weeks, with a 55-10 win over the Maryland Terrapins in College Park and a 56-6 win against the UCLA Bruins in Bloomington.
“No. 2 Indiana stands poised to lose meaningful contributors — whether to attrition or the NFL draft — at nearly every position this winter. The Hoosiers, now 9-0, won’t be worried about tomorrow until it’s time, but Cignetti knows a coach must be,” Osterman wrote.
“The emergence of a handful of promising new faces across the last several weeks allow him room to begin planning his roster renewal for 2026, even if that process will remain on the backburner for the foreseeable future.”
That’s one hidden benefit of running one of the dominant programs in the country: you can deploy guys every week when the score is of no concern because every game is out of reach for the opponent.
Cignetti is quickly learning that even for the top tier of schools, attrition is a major challenge. He may even be looking for a new offensive coordinator once ADs across the country make the connection that Mike Shanahan has been a major part of the Hoosiers’ dominance the past two years and the James Madison Dukes’ dominance for several years prior.
Cignetti’s ability to rebound and rebuild will determine whether or not he’s worthy of the massive $93 million contract extension he received this season. Luckily, he’ll have the backing of one of the biggest alumni donor bases in the country, with Mark Cuban fully invested as its unofficial designated mega-donor.