Indiana
Indiana Football Loses Key Assistant Coach to SEC After Winning National Championship
MIAMI — Less than eight hours after winning the College Football Playoff National Championship, Indiana football lost an important piece to its staff.
Derek Owings, the Hoosiers’ director of athletic performance, is leaving the program for the University of Tennessee, according to multiple outlets. CBS Sports first reported the news.
The 32-year-old Owings is viewed as one of the nation’s best strength and conditioning coaches. He received a new contract in May of 2025 that paid over $900,000 and made him one of college football’s highest-paid strength coaches.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti hired Owings to his staff in 2020 at James Madison University, and he completed his sixth season working under Cignetti in Monday night’s national championship victory.
Owings earned FootballScoop.com’s strength and conditioning coach of the year award in 2025.
Cignetti often credited Owings for the Hoosiers’ on-field success, and Owings earned specific praise for developing receiver Omar Cooper Jr.’s core strength after the redshirt junior’s acrobatic, physics-defying, game-winning catch against Penn State during the regular season.
Indiana’s players often touted Owings’ weight room process throughout the season. Strength and conditioning, Cignetti said in 2024, has become very scientific — and Owings is on the cutting edge. He delivered “great results,” said Cignetti, who added he didn’t mess with Owings.
“I know the players really like what we’re doing down there,” Cignetti said in February of 2024. “He changes their bodies. He’ll cut a lot of body fat, still add lean muscle mass, quicker, stronger, faster, more explosive. I’ve seen the results. You look at the GPS numbers sort of here last year, relative to maybe where we were the year before. He’ll make ’em faster.”
Cignetti called Owings a “winning edge,” long before the Hoosiers proved it on the field.
“I think he’s a big part of what we do,” Cignetti said. “That’s why I do everything I can to keep him on the roster, pay him as well as I can, because he makes a difference. Fast and physical. It starts down in that weight room with the development, the body development, of each and every guy.”
Indiana reached contract extensions with offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan and defensive coordinator Bryant Haines before starting the College Football Playoff, and Cignetti said he hoped to give extensions to the rest of the staff after the season.
Now, the Hoosiers will have to turn their attention elsewhere and find a replacement for Owings, who served Cignetti well for six seasons.
Fernando Mendoza did not attend Indiana University’s visit to the White House commemorating the Hoosiers’ college football national championship on Monday. The Las Vegas Raiders quarterback said earlier this month that he would not attend if it interfered with any activities with his new team.
“I’m on the bottom of the totem pole here,” Mendoza said following a rookie minicamp practice. “I got to prove myself. I can’t miss practice. I don’t know anything official. I don’t have the calendar, but I just wouldn’t. As a rookie, I don’t think that’s a good look, and I want to try to best serve my teammates. And I don’t know if that’d be accomplishing that goal.”
According to the team’s official offseason schedule, the Raiders did not have any formal practices or workouts on Monday. The team’s next organized activity is May 18, its first OTA workout.
“Fernando couldn’t be here today because, as I said, he’s now a member of the Las Vegas Raiders,” President Donald Trump said in his address. “Let’s see how good of a team they have, and I think he’s gonna do great. He’s a winner.”
Mendoza wasn’t the only absence. Center Pat Coogan and cornerback D’Angelo Ponds were among the other Hoosiers not in attendance for the event due to NFL obligations. Indiana had a program-record eight players selected in April’s NFL Draft.
Trump highlighted Mendoza’s accomplishments and contributions to the school’s first football national title. He celebrated Mendoza as Indiana’s inaugural Heisman Trophy winner and praised his fourth-quarter touchdown run in the championship game against Miami.
“He’s gonna be a good one,” Trump said.
Indiana was well-represented by returning members of the team. Charlie Becker, one of Mendoza’s go-to receivers during the College Football Playoffs, and Jamari Sharpe, whose late interception secured the title-game victory, both spoke on behalf of the school, as did head coach Curt Cignetti.
Mendoza is one of four members of the national champion Hoosiers who joined the Raiders this offseason. Running back Roman Hemby and wide receiver E.J. Williams Jr. signed as undrafted free agents in the days following the draft. Wide receiver Jonathan Brady earned a contract after impressing as a tryout player during rookie minicamp.
MUNCIE, Ind. (WISH) — Police are investigating a triple shooting that took place on Muncie’s south side Sunday evening that left a woman dead and two men injured.
According to police, at approximately 5:27 p.m., Muncie Police Officers were dispatched to the 2700 block of South Walnut Street in reference to reports of several people being shot.
Officers arrived and located three gunshot victims: A 23-year-old female who died from “multiple wounds,” a 39-year-old male who is hospitalized in stable condition, and a 40-year-old male who was airlifted to an Indianapolis hospital in critical condition.
Police say a suspect is in custody, a 21-year-old man.
Police did not provide any additional information.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Muncie Police Detective Division at 765-747-4867 or dispatch at 765-747-4838.
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Sports Seriously
The Indiana Pacers lost 63 games this season for a chance at a franchise-changing lottery pick. On Sunday, May 10, they lost that chance, too.
All Pacers president Kevin Pritchard could do was apologize for taking the risk.
Indiana’s pick landed at No. 5 in the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery, one spot outside the top four protections attached to a midseason trade. The selection now belongs to the Los Angeles Clippers .
Shortly after the results were announced, Pritchard took social media and apologized.
“I’m really sorry to all our fans,” Pritchard wrote. “I own taking this risk. Surprised it came up 5th after this year. I thought we were due some luck.”
The Pacers entered the lottery with a 52.1% chance of securing a top-four pick after finishing 19-63, the second-worst record in the NBA. It wasn’t enough.
Indiana sent Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 first-round pick to Los Angeles in the midseason deal for Ivica Zubac and Kobe Brown, along with the conditional 2026 first-rounder. The pick was theirs to keep only if it landed in the top four.
Zubac appeared in just five games for Indiana after the trade because of a fractured rib.
“This team deserved a starting center to compete with the best teams next year,” Pritchard wrote. “We have always been resillient.”
Pritchard will have to be resilient if he looks at the replies to his statement. About half of the Pacers fans’ comments were not happy, and fans of other teams called him out for “tanking.”
There were also a large number of fans who were supportive of Pritchard taking that risk.
Tyrese Haliburton is expected to return next season after tearing his Achilles in last year’s NBA Finals. The Pacers will have him Pascal Siakam and a roster they think is built to compete. They just won’t have that first-round pick to add to it.
The 2026 NBA Draft begins June 23 in Brooklyn.
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