Indiana football is pulling off a marvel on the health front.
Leading up to last Saturday’s game against Michigan, the Hoosiers played seven straight games. It was seven weeks of physical, hard-nosed football without a break.
The availability report ahead of the Michigan game was spotless. Nobody was ruled out. Nobody was doubtful. Nobody was questionable.
In fact, Indiana’s health status has only improved since Week 1. In the first quarter of the Hoosiers’ opening game against North Texas, both starting corners, Jamari Sharpe and AJ Harris, went down and breakout running back Khobie Martin fractured his wrist.
Beyond those three, Indiana’s injury list has been minimal, especially among the starters.
“You try to control what you can control,” IU head coach Curt Cignetti said Monday, knocking on his wood podium. “And there are some things outside of your control, like losing those two corners in the first quarter of the opener, and Khobie Martin. But we try to keep them healthy in practice and still prepare them, which I think we do a good job of. We’ve just had some good fortune.”
It is a mix of good fortune and smart operations.
Indiana’s practices are short and ultra-efficient. Cignetti can get his team to accomplish more in 90 minutes than some coaches could accomplish in three hours. The NCAA allots 20 hours of available practice time to every team in the country each week.
Indiana only uses six.
“I’ve always been a short practice guy,” Cignetti said in 2025. “My practices have probably gotten even shorter through the years, as we do everything we can to prepare the team fully but keep them fresh and healthy.”
The difference between this year and last is that Indiana only has one bye week, and it comes after nine games. Indiana will have only three regular-season games after the bye.
“Look, this is our ninth game in a row, isn’t it?” Cignetti said. “So everybody that has played significant snaps is hurting somewhere, but they’re all able to play.”
It is a push to the finish line. That push is even stronger with the types of games Indiana has played in recent weeks. In the first 32 games of the Cignetti era, there were only three games that had a final score margin within a touchdown. In the last five games, there were four. The last three games have been decided by a combined 14 points.
Indiana has played three consecutive games of gritty, physical, smash-mouth football. Two of those games, Michigan and Nebraska, were on the road in difficult environments. In games like these, wear and tear builds up, as does the will to fight through.
“It’s really just the mindset, the endless will that this group has,” Indiana center Bray Lynch said. “You’re going to tough it out. You’re gonna fight to the very last moment no matter what the score says. It’s always 0-0 every single play. And that’s something that I didn’t necessarily see with the old staff. Sometimes guys would quit, but you just don’t see that with guys on this team. The mindset of doing anything it takes to win is true within every single guy in that locker room.”
The last game in the nine-game stretch is the homecoming game against Minnesota, another opponent that demands a high level of physicality. The Golden Gophers have knocked off three teams ranked at the time this season. Most recently, Minnesota earned a gritty, physical win against Iowa.
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck said his team had to “Out-Iowa Iowa” last week. That entails mistake-free, defensive-minded, physical football. Wearing down the opponent gradually over the course of the game. Not beating yourself.
“You’ve got to earn every yard and you’ve got to earn every score,” Cignetti said of the Gophers.
Now, Fleck and the Gophers will look to “Out-Indiana Indiana” in Bloomington on Saturday.
It will be another physical game. Another game that takes a toll on players’ bodies. For the ninth week in a row, it is just another game – the next game on the schedule.
The Hoosiers are ready to meet the challenge, and they’ve stayed healthy enough to do so. They may be hurting, but it certainly does not show on the field.
It’s one final push until the bye.
