A complete preview and prediction for the Indiana Hoosiers in the 2025 college football season.
Indiana Football: 2025 Hoosiers Season Preview and Prediction originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Indiana heard all the critics attributing last season’s historic success to one of the easiest schedules among Power 4 teams. Coach Curt Cignetti will ignore the noise, and he has IU well-positioned to win nine or more games in back-to-back seasons for the first time ever thanks to the job he did locking up top returning talent and securing proven transfers.
[Editor's note: This article is from Athlon Sports' 2025 College Football Preview print magazine. Order your copy today online, or pick one up at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]
More Big Ten team previews:
Illinois | Iowa | Maryland | Michigan | Michigan State
Minnesota | Nebraska | Northwestern | Ohio State | Oregon | Penn State
Purdue | Rutgers | UCLA | USC | Washington | Wisconsin
Indiana 2025 Season Preview and Prediction
Previewing Indiana’s Offense for 2025
Indiana’s path to an eight-win turnaround started when head coach Curt Cignetti opened up his offensive playbook. The Hoosiers set single-season team records with 72 offensive touchdowns and eight 40-point games. Cignetti has to replace quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri and starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke, but it doesn’t hurt that IU signed Fernando Mendoza, the No. 4-ranked transfer quarterback (from Cal), as Rourke’s replacement. Mendoza completed 68.7% of his passes behind one of the worst offensive lines in college football.
Mendoza will have more time to throw with IU bringing back three starting linemen and signing prominent names — specifically Pat Coogan (Notre Dame) and Kahlil Benson (Colorado) — out of the portal.
Indiana’s running back room experienced a lot of turnover, but don’t expect a drop-off. The Hoosiers grabbed a pair of explosive running back transfers — Roman Hemby (Maryland) and Lee Beebe Jr. (UAB) — who ranked among the top pass-catchers in the FBS last season at their position, an element that was missing from Cignetti’s offense last season.
Related: Big Ten Predictions for 2025
Previewing Indiana’s Defense for 2025
Indiana can boast of All-Americans at every level of the defense with edge rusher Mikail Kamara, linebacker Aiden Fisher and cornerback D’Angelo Ponds all coming back for another season. They helped the Hoosiers finish second nationally in total defense (256.3 yards per game) and sixth in scoring defense (15.6 points per game).
Kamara was a cheat code last season with an FBS-leading 68 quarterback pressures as well as 10 sacks, but he benefited from veteran defensive tackles James Carpenter and CJ West drawing plenty of attention. The Hoosiers needs to rebuild the interior without Carpenter and West.
While the secondary has plenty of talent — the Hoosiers added four experienced defensive backs — they might experience some growing pains as they look for the right mix around Ponds and safety Amare Ferrell.
Previewing Indiana’s Specialists for 2025
Indiana’s kicking game is in good shape with starting placekicker Nicolas Radicic coming back and experienced UCF transfer Mitch McCarthy replacing longtime punter James Evans. Radicic set a single-season program record with 69 PATs — second most in the FBS — and went 10-of-11 on field goals in his first year as a full-time starter.
National Ranking: 16
More Big Ten team previews:
Illinois | Iowa | Maryland | Michigan | Michigan State
Minnesota | Nebraska | Northwestern | Ohio State | Oregon | Penn State
Purdue | Rutgers | UCLA | USC | Washington | Wisconsin
Related: Big Ten Football 2025 Predictions
Related: College Football Rankings: Projecting the Top 25 Teams for 2025
Related: Athlon Sports 2025 College Football Preview Magazine Available Now
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: General Sports
