One after another, six Indiana Hoosiers shook off pouring rain on their way into the Henke Hall of Champions at Memorial Stadium for one-on-one interviews with Sports Illustrated last week. 

None was on time.

They were all early.

They were running on Cignetti Time, where being late is a foreign concept. That’s one element of the detail-oriented, habits-based standard set by first-year Indiana coach and immediate program savior Curt Cignetti. It’s a standard that has been transferred to Bloomington by the 13 Hoosiers who first learned it from him at their previous stop, James Madison University. 

They are the program’s ministers of culture.

The six who sat down for interviews were all former Dukes. They relocated from Harrisonburg, Va., to the heart of the Midwest, from the Sun Belt Conference to the Big Ten, from competing in relative obscurity to becoming a national curiosity. They all have a few things in common, beyond punctuality:

Surprised to be 10–0? Why should they be when these same players were 10–0 last year, on their way to an 11–2 record? They were 8–3 the year before that, a roaring success after James Madison moved up from the FCS level to FBS. And the year before that, in 2021, they went 12–2 and reached the FCS playoff semifinals.

The Indiana players who were on Cignetti’s final three JMU teams are now 41–6 in college. Their .872 winning percentage compares favorably to players who have spent four years at Alabama (.846), Michigan (.849) and, yes, this Saturday’s Goliath opponent, Ohio State (.857).

Different school, different uniforms, different opponents, different level of attention and acclaim—same results.

“Winning was always the plan,” says linebacker Aiden Fisher, Indiana’s top tackler. “With the success we had at JMU it was like, why not continue that here?”

The shock comes from how easily it has translated. The Dukes of Hoosierland stand in direct refutation of the perceived talent gulf between the Power 4 conferences and the Group of 5. There is an eternal gulf of resources and exposure, to be sure, but not always in ability.

The national leader in passing yards per game is Cam Ward of the Miami Hurricanes, who started his college career at the FCS level at Incarnate Word. His ability translated up the ladder.

The national leader in rushing is Ashton Jeanty of the Boise State Broncos, who drew scant power-conference interest coming out of high school. He’s now considered a first-round NFL draft pick and might win the Heisman Trophy.

Anyone who doubted Shedeur Sanders’s ability to transition from FCS Jackson State to the power-conference Colorado Buffaloes has been properly silenced. The top receiver for the No. 1 Oregon Ducks, Tez Johnson, transferred in from a Sun Belt program, the Troy Trojans. Last year’s leading FBS rusher, Cody Schrader of the Missouri Tigers, came from Division II Truman University.

Indiana is the ultimate collective example, a team-wide triumph of transferrable talent that is assuredly unprecedented in the FBS ranks. It’s a football miracle to go from 3–9 to 10–0 in a single season with nearly half of the depth chart upgrading from lower levels. 

Twenty-seven players transferred in to join Cignetti’s start-up, and 21 came from the G5 or FCS ranks (13 from JMU). The transfers fit the coach’s production-over-potential philosophy—older, experienced guys who had proven they could play college ball, regardless of what their recruiting rankings were coming out of high school.

Indiana’s quarterback, Kurtis Rourke, is a Canadian who had performed well for years with the Ohio Bobcats in the Mid-American Conference. He’s now No. 2 in the nation in pass efficiency. Its No. 3 tackler, Shawn Asbury II, made 93 tackles in 2023 at Old Dominion. Indiana’s third-leading player in tackles for loss, CJ West, is from Kent State.

But the vast majority of the key contributors who have elevated to the Big Ten—and elevated the Hoosiers within the Big Ten—are from James Madison. Four of Indiana’s top five tacklers are from JMU. So are its top three in sacks. The leading receiver is a JMU transfer, as are the Nos. 2 and 3 rushers.

Beyond Rourke, Indiana’s leading candidates for individual postseason honors were Dukes who have kept doing here what they were doing there. Fisher, who is tied for second in the Big Ten in tackles with 98, had 108 stops last year. Defensive end Mikail Kamara, has 15 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks after producing 19 and 7.5, respectively, in 2023. The Harrisonburg-to-Bloomington pipeline has been a rich strike.

“The coaches told us, ‘Yo, we believe you could fit in the Big Ten,’” linebacker Jailin Walker says. “So we trusted their word. We came to the Big Ten and we got better. Bigger and stronger and better.”

It’s striking how many of the Dukes of Hoosierland are from the state of Virginia: Fisher is from Fredericksburg; Kamara from Ashburn; Walker from Richmond; running back Kaelon Black from Virginia Beach; leading receiver Elijah Sarratt from Stafford; defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker is from Norfolk; tight end Zach Horton and defensive tackle James Carpenter from Roanoke. And almost none were seriously recruited by the in-state Atlantic Coast Conference programs the Virginia Cavaliers and Virginia Tech Hokies.

“My family’s a big Virginia Tech family,” Horton says. “We still cheer for them today because that’s how we are. But not be able to get recruited by them or hear anything from them makes you play for a little bit more.”

“Oh yeah, it bothered me,” Fisher says. “It still does. But I think we’re sitting in a much better spot than they are right now.”

That’s inarguable. Virginia currently is 5–5 and hasn’t had a winning record since 2019. Virginia Tech also is 5–5, with a 34–37 record since ’19. If those schools had done a better job evaluating and recruiting their home state than Cignetti did at JMU, imagine how different things might look.

Cignetti, like his JMU transfers, arrived in Bloomington with a smoldering desire to prove himself. He was 62 years old and had won a ton of games at lower levels without getting a shot at a power-conference job. He got to the top late.

“I’ve always had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder,” Cignetti says. “Like the JMU guys who were wondering, ‘Why didn’t I get recruited by Virginia or Virginia Tech?’ You take that and there’s something about a championship culture, too, that brings out the best in people, versus maybe a place that’s struggling and guys aren’t around the best role models.”

Cignetti brought his role models with him, facilitating a quick overhaul. The mass exodus from Harrisonburg is a bit of a touchy subject at JMU, although the 8–2 Dukes have survived quite well under new coach Bob Chesney. But the players say Cignetti and his staff let them make their own decisions on whether to make the move to Indiana.

“It was kind of like the elephant in the room,” Horton says. “We all knew that we have the chance to prove something again and follow him over there. So we all kind of knew that once we get one person to go, that ball’s going to start rolling and that’s kind of what happened. And here we are now.”

Five JMU players visited Indiana together in December. James Madison has good G5 facilities and support staff, but not Big Ten facilities and staffing. That resonated. 

“The resources here are different,” says running back Ty Son Lawton, Indiana’s No. 2 rusher and a seventh-year player who began his career at FCS program Stony Brook. “I’m not used to this kind of stuff.”

Fisher is believed to be the first JMU transfer to commit, starting the migration. By the national letter-of-intent signing period, Cignetti had secured enough transfer talent to utter his now-famous line, “Google me. I win.”

“In my heart, I knew we had flipped this roster,” he says.

Then his Dukes of Hoosierland flipped the locker room. A lot of players from the Tom Allen era didn’t stick around, but those who did were ready for a change. They embraced their new teammates, who gave them a crash course in the Cignetti Way.

“It was awesome,” Fisher says. “Not what we expected at all really. You come into the team meeting, and I’m thinking these guys are like, All right, new coach brought his own players. They’re going to act a certain way, we’re not going to take them in.

“So we got here and the first thing they’re like, ‘You guys want to go get dinner? You guys want to hang out?’ And they kind of caught me off guard how welcoming everybody was.”

Spring practice had its ups and downs, but Rourke says the team started to coalesce during summer workouts. Armed with a user-friendly schedule—which has become a source of College Football Playoff contention—a team full of winners was ready to win.

With confidence snowballing and wins piling up, Indiana has kept it going amid mounting hype and pressure. Now comes the ultimate proving ground—a playoff-caliber showdown with the blueblood Ohio State Buckeyes in their massive stadium. The Buckeyes are 30–0–1 against the Hoosiers since 1968 and are favored by two touchdowns Saturday.

College football has a perverse habit of eating its own feel-good stories. Embracing the underdog turns into deconstructing the underdog. The hater culture is strong in the sport, and Indiana is the subject of that now—the Hoosiers haven’t beaten anyone, the refrain goes, and will be exposed Saturday.

“We love it,” Fisher says. “We hear it every game. That team isn’t that good anyway. And we’ll go and blow somebody else out and they’re like, Oh, that was a fluke. I’m excited to hear what they say after the next one and see if they think [the Buckeyes] are nobodies as well. So I’m looking forward to it.” 

What Indiana has done—and who has done it—to this point is one of the most unique accomplishments in college football history. It’s the biggest underdog story in the Big Ten since Northwestern rose up from decades of futility to win the league in 1995 and reach the Rose Bowl. But even that was a slow-build miracle—Gary Barnett was in his fourth season as coach. Transfer rules have clearly helped accelerate the timetable, but what Cignetti has done in a single year is without precedent.

For a bunch of JMU transfers who started their careers playing FCS football, then in the Sun Belt, running into the Horseshoe on Saturday will be the moment of their athletic lifetimes to date.

“Growing up, watching all these games, all these incredible players there, and getting the chance to play there in this type of game is pretty surreal,” says Carpenter, who walked on at JMU. “It’s a dream come true.”

On Tuesday’s ESPN CFP Rankings Show, ESPN college football analyst Joey Galloway shocked the entire cast when he suggested that Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti should sit out starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke for the Hoosiers’ biggest game of the season Saturday against Ohio State. Just a day later, Galloway got a chance to explain his rationale for this opinion, and he doubled down on the comment.

Galloway’s suggestion for Indiana to bench Rourke for the game, which he said was largely made while considering the injury to Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis last year, drew instant criticism from the remainder of the cast, with Booger McFarland and Greg McElroy immediately pushing back against him.

On Wednesday, Galloway got a chance to defend his take when he joined Rece Davis on the College GameDay Podcast. Davis started off the podcast episode by affirming his respect and friendship with Galloway before wholeheartedly disagreeing with his opinion.

“Joey, I’m having you on for a number of reasons. One, I have high regard for your talent. I consider us friends, I hope you feel the same way. You do such a tremendous job. You are astute in the ways of the (CFP) committee. You understand the complexities. You understand that it’s not a monolithic body. They have to come out with one answer, but there are differing opinions in the room.

“But the other reason you are on here is you said some things on the show last night that… Knowing you as I do, I almost felt like you were lobbing a smoke bomb into the midst of the crowd just to stir things up. Almost being facetious to make a point.

“Because what you said… You correct me if I’m wrong. If you were Indiana and the playoff predictor says that you have a 96 percent chance of making the playoff even if you lose to Ohio State. And the one thing you couldn’t have happen would be lose your quarterback, that you would sit Kurtis Rourke against Ohio State.

“I can’t wrap my head around this at all… As in you actually believing this is something they should do. Why would you say this is something Indiana should do?”

Galloway then replied, doubling down on his take that Indiana should sit Rourke because he believes that Indiana would be in the CFP even despite a loss to Ohio State, but wouldn’t if Rourke goes down with an injury.

“Let me give you a little history, Rece,” said Galloway. “Because I have evolved. I was the guy that would argue when guys would sit out their bowl games. I was the guy that was like, I can’t believe they would do that.
“I’ve evolved now after watching what happened to Florida State last year with Jordan Travis. A team that was absolutely about to be in the playoff. There was no doubt they were in. Their quarterback gets hurt and now they are out of the playoff.

“I’m being 100 percent serious. If I am Indiana, I am considering not playing Kurtis Rourke. Now, I don’t have to make that decision. So it’s much easier from behind a desk to say ‘Don’t do it.’ I still feel that if you do play him, I would put him in a glass bottle and roll him out there.”

Galloway then went on to pose Davis a hypothetical question on whether he would rather beat Ohio State or make it into the College Football Playoff.

Davis replied like the majority of college football fans would, saying that a win over Ohio State all but ensures that Indiana would be in the playoff regardless of what happens the rest of the season.

“Beating Ohio State,” said Davis. “Because you go to the playoff if you do that.  I respect your right to say this and I understand where you are coming from. But a couple of things as it pertains to this particular playoff and this particular team.

“Nobody in the history of the sport has lost more games than Indiana. Indiana is in a position right now to win the Big Ten. And if you put your quarterback on the shelf, you are saying you don’t really belong. We’re trying to sneak in the back door. And there is no way that Curt Cignetti is doing that, nor should he.”

Davis really hit the nail on the head in his reply to Galloway’s hypothetical question.

By benching Rourke, you are essentially saying that you feel like you are safe to make the CFP regardless of putting your best effort forward for the remainder of the season, which is obviously a terrible look to the committee.

Not only that, but you can’t assume that some freak injury is going to happen. That could happen at any given time in practice to any player.

Galloway doesn’t seem to realize the kind of statement a potential win over Ohio State would mean for Indiana. Not only to the CFP Committee, but to the remainder of the contending teams in college football.

Regardless, Galloway is sticking to his guns despite all of the criticism online and the pushback from Davis here. And that’s at least admirable, albeit quite unpopular.

[ESPN College Football on YouTube]

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A stretch of marquee nonconference games await Indiana next week in the Bahamas, but first the Hoosiers have business to attend to at home.

No. 16 Indiana hosts UNC Greensboro Thursday at 6:30 p.m. ET at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The game will be broadcast on FS1, as the Hoosiers look to improve upon their 3-0 record. 

Despite a sluggish first half against Eastern Illinois and a few lapses against SIUE, Indiana has comfortably won each of its first three games. Its smallest margin of victory is an 87-71 win Saturday against South Carolina. Thursday’s game is predicted to play out similarly, as the analytics site barttorvik.com favors the Hoosiers by 18.9 points. 

UNC Greensboro comes to Assembly Hall with a 2-1 record, having defeated Florida Gulf Coast and North Carolina Wesleyan and losing 81-68 at SMU. In their fourth season under coach Mike Jones, the Panthers were picked to finish sixth in the preseason Southern Conference coaches poll after top-five conference finishes the last three seasons.

UNC Greensboro (177th, per Torvik) is considered a step up in competition compared to SIUE (283rd) and Eastern Illinois (294th). And although crucial matchups in the Battle 4 Atlantis loom, Indiana can’t look too far ahead.

Here are three things to watch in Thursday’s game.

Can Indiana limit UNC Greensboro’s 3-point shooting?

UNC Greensboro enters Saturday’s game shooting 39.7% as a team from 3-point range. A large chunk of that production has come from guards Kenyon Giles and Donovan Atwell. Giles has made 10-of-20 3-point attempts this season, and Atwell has made 7-of-18 attempts, accounting for 17 of the team’s 29 3-pointers made this season. The remaining 12 are spread across six players. 

Teams have not shot well from 3-point range against Indiana this season, just 26.7%, but they are getting plenty of shots up. Indiana’s defense ranks 245th out of 364 teams nationally after allowing 25 3-point attempts per game. UNC Greensboro has attempted 24.3 3-pointers per game through three contests this year, good for 162nd most in the country.

The Spartans will have to knock down outside shots to stay competitive in this game. Indiana guard Kanaan Carlyle said it’s a priority to pressure the ball and make their shots as difficult as possible. He thinks the new-look Hoosiers are still adjusting to Woodson’s defensive concepts, but they have made progress in the early stages of the season.

Defense has always been part of Carlyle’s game, and it’ll be important Thursday night.

“Since a young age, that’s been an emphasis of me and my family. My dad was my trainer growing up, so it was a big emphasis to play defense, be a two-way player, play both ends of the court,” Carlyle said Wednesday. “So me coming here, that’s something I wanted to emphasize and definitely focus on. On this team, we got a lot of scorers, a lot of people who can put the ball in the basket. And I wanted to be the one who they could depend on every single night to defend and pick up 94 feet.”

Will Luke Goode find his shooting stroke?

Indiana added Luke Goode out of the transfer portal to help solve its 3-point shooting woes from last season. The Hoosiers ranked 12th out of 14 Big Ten teams in 2023-24 with 32.4% 3-point shooting and attempted at least 97 fewer 3-pointers than every team in the conference. 

Meanwhile, Goode made 61-of-157 (38.9%) 3-point attempts last season at Illinois – more attempts and makes than any Hoosier. The 6-foot-7 Fort Wayne, Ind., native shot 38.8% from 3-point range across three seasons at Illinois. 

Since joining the Hoosiers, Goode has gotten off to a slow start from beyond the arc. He’s made 2-of-10 3-point attempts this season, both of which came in a 2-for-5 day against Eastern Illinois. They don’t count toward his season totals, but he also went 2-for-12 on 3-point attempts across both exhibition games, with both makes coming against Marian. 

Three games into the season, it’s too early to be concerned about Goode’s long-term 3-point shooting because of his strong track record in this area. Woodson also seems to have confidence in Goode’s shooting ability, as he’s drawn up plays to free him up for shots. It’s just a matter of time before shots start to fall for Goode, and Thursday would be a good time to get back on track, with three crucial games coming up in the Bahamas.

Can UNC Greensboro handle Indiana inside?

Indiana often has a size advantage over mid-major opponents, and that will be the case again Thursday. UNC Greensboro’s tallest starter is Jalen Breath, a 6-foot-8, 225-pound junior, and next is 6-foot-6 senior Miles Jones. Demetrius Davis, a 6-foot-8 senior, averages 15.3 minutes per game, but the remaining forwards on the roster have each logged single-digit minutes on average. 

That’s a significant dropoff from an Indiana front line that includes 7-foot Oumar Ballo and a pair of 6-foot-9 forwards in Malik Reneau and Mackenzie Mgbako. Indiana’s guard play is much improved this year, but the Hoosiers still won’t hesitate to look inside for easy baskets, especially with a height difference like this. Indiana has played Ballo and Reneau for just under 20 minutes per game across its first three games, and it could opt to play more small-ball lineups against UNC Greensboro. 

UNC Greensboro also lacks shot-blockers, as it has blocked just eight shots all season. The disparity in size could be seen from a rebounding standpoint, too. UNC Greensboro has rebounded well this year, ranking 34th nationally with 43.3 rebounds per game, even though it doesn’t have a big front line. Indiana has been a good defensive rebounding team, 35th in the country, but it rarely crashes the offensive glass, ranking 341st in that category.

Whether Indiana’s front court can establish position inside, generate a rebounding advantage and deter UNC Greensboro at the rim will be instrumental in Thursday’s game.