A surprise ranking in the 2026 AP Top 25 Poll was the defending champion Indiana Hoosiers football team at six overall. It is only the sixth time in history that a reigning champ has been outside the top five in the following year’s preseason poll. The last four teams to suffer this fate finished their seasons outside the top 25 as a whole. The hosts of the Lights Out Sports Podcast discussed whether or not Indiana will have a similar end to their 2026 campaign.
The fact of the matter is that Indiana is in a much different situation than the other teams, because they are living in a different world. The 2007 LSU team that won the National Title lost seven players to the NFL. The 2019 LSU and 2023 Michigan teams lost 13, and the 2011 Auburn Tigers had 19 new starters the year after winning. Indiana suffered losses too, but it’s nowhere near the same thing.
The 2026 Indiana Hoosiers Football Team
In modern college football, a team can lose 10 or more players and restock the cupboard the following season in the transfer portal. Head coach Curt Cignetti has proven to be a master recruiter in the portal, and the 2026 class he just brought in may be his best ever. The team’s biggest loss was quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the first pick in the NFL Draft. Cignetti replaced him with TCU’s Josh Hoover.
The former Horned Frog is not projected as a first-round pick, but neither was Mendoza when he landed in Bloomington. A serviceable quarterback at Cal, Mendoza threw for 3004 yards, 16 touchdowns, and six interceptions his last season there. This gave him a better-than-average passer rating of 144.6.
Hoover comes in with more passing yards than any other signal-caller in college football. Last season he passed for 3,472 yards, 29 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. His passer rating was 153.4. If Cignetti can take Mendoza from 16 touchdowns to 40, what sort of magic can he work with Hoover? Could Indiana have back-to-back Heisman winners?
The Hoosiers didn’t just lose their top quarterback; they lost his top two receivers as well. Once again, this is not a problem for someone like Cignetti. He brought in Nick Marsh from Michigan State, who, at 6’3 and 200 pounds, is a bigger and better target than Omar Cooper or Elijah Sarratt. Shazz Preston from Tulane will be on the other side of the line, after averaging 16.8 yards per reception for the Green Wave.
Indiana’s backfield got an upgrade as well. Kaelon Black is on the San Francisco 49ers now and has been replaced by Turbo Richrad out of Boston College. The latter is far more versatile, not only averaging 5.2 yards per carry but also hauling in 30 receptions for 213 yards and two touchdowns (Black had just four receptions last year and no scores). The Defense got some serious upgrades as well.
The Defensive Upgrades
The team’s biggest departure was cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, a first-round pick by the New York Jets. His replacement is AJ Harris from Penn State. The number 20 overall recruit in ESPN’s top 300 of 2023, Harris committed to Georgia and then transferred to the Nittany Lions after his freshman year. Pro Football Focus (PFF) had projected him as the top cornerback in the 2026 NFL Draft before a down year.
The former five-star recruit still has all the tools and is looking to get back into the conversation as a top 2027 draft prospect. There should be plenty of lame ducks for him to pick off, because Indiana supercharged their pass rush through the portal as well. They brought in two edge rushers from Kansas State (Tobi Osunsanmi and Chiddi Obiazor) and Notre Dame’s Joshua Burnham. The trio combined for 16.5 tackles for a loss and nine sacks last season.
Just because the National Champions got better doesn’t mean they will repeat as kings of the mountain. It’s a long season, and they aren’t the only team that improved from 2025. One thing that is for certain, though: As long as they aren’t bitten by the injury bug, there is a 0% chance they finish the season unranked.
