‘Full steam ahead’: IU football outlines mission for 2026 season at Big Ten media days
- Ian Plaskoff
- 1h ago
IU football coach Curt Cignetti took on Big Ten football media days for the third time on Thursday in Chicago with a different theme than the prior two.
In 2024, he was a new face who confidently touted the upcoming success of a previously dull program.
In 2025, he let the world know there was another jump to be made after a magical run to the College Football Playoff.
In 2026, he deflected praise for winning a national championship to reestablish the standard with his new group.
Cignetti’s three seasons in the Big Ten have been as eventful and influential as any coach in history. Each Big Ten football media days appearance has perfectly marked where his program stands, where he needs to take it and how he needs to get there.
The 2026 edition was no exception.
“In my mind, we’re not defending the national championship, we’re starting a new season,” Cignetti said.
There is no denying the fact that Indiana’s national championship run is, and will always be, one of the greatest stories in sports history. The 2025 Indiana team will be cemented in sports lore forever. Indiana’s fanbase will hold onto those memories for a lifetime.
Cignetti and his players emphasized that 2025 is in the past.
“I still wake up every day and it feels as surreal as it is,” Indiana offensive tackle Carter Smith said. “Not many people expected it, but at the end of the day, it happened. We are National Champions. But now it’s full steam ahead to 2026.”
The 2026 season adds a new dynamic. The Hoosiers are not just relevant. They are hunted.
“The target is on our back, but we bought a bigger gun,” Cignetti said.
The “bigger gun” Cignetti refers to is a revamped roster, an established culture and experience at the biggest moments. He just has to find the right way to utilize all of the new weapons.
While Indiana may have lost a Heisman Trophy winner, multiple All-Americans and a key group of leaders and veterans following the 2025 season, it did not ignore the issue.
The Hoosiers added 17 new transfers, most of whom have experience at the power-four level. They retained leaders and major producers from the 2025 squad who can set the tone within their position groups and carry the Indiana culture to their new teammates. They bring back the majority of the coaching staff that has proven to be one of the best, if not the best, in the country.
Most importantly, Indiana returns its system focused on development, consistency, and lacking complacency. The “bigger gun” will fire when the highly-touted new pieces and returners mesh and adopt the system together.
“All I can say is, going into this season, I know I’m going to get asked some questions,” Cignetti said. “We’re very process-driven. Our focus is on the things you have to do in the here and now to improve as much as possible today, those types of things. We don’t talk about product results. We don’t talk about championships, playoffs, national championships, those sorts of things.”
Those who have been through the Cignetti system are already carrying the culture forward.
“We’ve still got a lot more chips on our shoulders,” linebacker Isaiah Jones said. “We’re not satisfied with just one year of success.”
Year three of the Cignetti era will be the first in Indiana’s history in which the Hoosiers defend a national championship. The 2025 Indiana team that allowed a title defense to exist played the Cignetti system better than anyone else.
“What separated last year’s team from the other really good teams I had was their day-in, day-out consistency,” Cignetti explained. “They stacked meetings. They stacked practices. They went into every game with the right mindset and respect for the challenge. And then they put it between the white lines and did the things that we emphasize.”
Cignetti and his staff are looking for the 2026 team to be the same way.
As Cignetti and his players made clear at media day, Indiana’s title defense will not be against the rest of college football.
It will be against complacency and inconsistency within its own walls.
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