IU football first spring practice notebook: Cignetti recaps day one of 2026 season

Curt Cignetti at IU spring football practice.

IU football’s 2026 season began on Thursday morning as the Hoosiers took the field for their first spring practice.

It was the first time the program’s incoming transfers and early high school enrollees took the field inside John Mellencamp Pavilion with their new team.

After practice, Curt Cignetti met the media for the first time since the Hoosiers’ national championship victory in Miami on January 19th.

Josh Hoover, Nick Marsh make first appearances

The top transfers in the Hoosiers’ 2026 portal class, quarterback Josh Hoover and wide receiver Nick Marsh, donned cream and crimson practice uniforms for the first time.

A transfer from TCU, Hoover showed off his arm strength and accuracy when throwing to his new teammates. Listed at 6-foot-2, the Rockwall, Texas native is noticeably smaller than his predecessor, Fernando Mendoza.

He and his fellow signal callers worked with returning quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri, who returns after being relieved of his offensive coordinator duties at UCLA midway through his lone season in Westwood.

Hoover connected with top receiver targets, including Michigan State transfer Nick Marsh.

Before practice, Cignetti scolded Marsh for sporting gold colored cleats instead of the normal red, white, or black.

“He learned what getting your ass ripped is all about,” Cignetti said. “I don’t know if that happened to him very often at Michigan State. That was before practice started. That was a wake-up call.”

On the field, he looked every bit the standout receiver he was with the Spartans. His athleticism and pass-catching skills will complement returners Charlie Becker and Tyler Morris in the stacked receiver room.

Familiar faces emerge as leaders on day one, more to come

Last season, Indiana’s four de facto captains, Pat Coogan, Aiden Fisher, Roman Hemby and Riley Nowakowski, led jumping jacks at the end of the team stretch.

With all four of last year’s captains graduated ahead of next season, it was intriguing to see who would assume the role of leading the pre-practice ritual.

In the middle of the 102 Hoosiers, Drew Evans, Isaiah Jones and Tyrique Tucker led the jumping jacks. Assuming Fisher’s role as the team’s motivational speaker was the senior linebacker, Jones.

It should come as no surprise that Hoover wasn’t in the fold, as Cignetti isn’t one to appoint his quarterback as a leader. Neither Mendoza nor Kurtis Rourke was a captain in their lone seasons in Bloomington.

A fourth leader will likely emerge in the coming months and it will be clearer as spring and fall camp transpire.

“We’ve got a good core nucleus of guys returning that are going to be good leaders on this football team that are seniors,” Cignetti said. “It’s important, and it grows during the spring, but then it really starts to flourish in fall camp and in season.

“We’re early here, but we’re going to be in good shape.”

Intensity was high for practice one

Cignetti’s practices open to the media are almost identical. There isn’t much shown outside a few individual position-specific drills, preceded by dynamic stretching. Everything is done with conviction and with maximum effort from players and coaches.

Thursday afternoon was no different from the open practice on Saturday at Florida International University ahead of the national championship game.

From Director of Athletic Performance, Tyson Brown, blowing his whistle during the stretching period to each player not taking a single rep off, it was business as usual for Cignetti’s new-look squad.

With the perfect 16-0 season now in the rearview, Cignetti and his staff’s focus honed in on what this year’s team can do to get better every day.

“All we’re going to try to do is get as much juice, squeeze as much juice out of this group as we can this spring and take them as far as we can,” he said.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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