This Year's Sleeper Team

Sports Talk
1

This past week, Indiana demolished a pretty fair Nebraska squad, a team that made mincemeat of Northern Illinois which upset Notre Dame. Indiana is no quirk. It is a team reinvented through the transfer rules. Indiana has 8 transferee starters on offense. On defense, Indiana has 9 transferees. It’s certainly a different team this year. It appears Indiana was successful in raiding the James Madison team, a team loaded with talent last year.

Indiana’s stats are arguably some of the best in college football. They rank 5th in total offense and 7th in total defense. Ohio State, the conference favorite ranks 6th and 2nd in the above categories.

Curt Cignetti is Indiana’s new coach. Cignetti is from the original Saban coaching tree of Alabama. Cignetti played QB in college. At Alabama he coached the great Julio Jones. He recruited Heisman winner Mark Ingram and talented LB Donta Hightower. His lifetime coaching record is a splendid 126-35. Cignetti’s last coaching job was at James Madison, so it is small wonder so many of his loyal players followed him to Indiana.

Do you suppose unbeaten Indiana can win the Big Ten? Will Cignetti emerge as one of the best coaches in the college game?

1 Like
2

Indiana destroyed Nebraska 56-7 while Ohio State had to score late in the game to get by the Cornhuskers by just a whisker… Indiana is for real. In their last game, they whipped a fairly good Washington team and did so without their injured first string QB.

This may be an outrageous prediction, but I see Indiana playing for the Big Ten championship. Left on their schedule are Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, and Purdue. Ohio State still has to play Indiana, Penn State, and arch rival Michigan. Oregon has far and away the easiest pathway to finishing the season undefeated. Oregon will fall to the Hoosiers in the championship game. Lee Corso will be ecstatic when and if this transpires. I hope it does.

3

I could see that. Penn State almost just lost too, so I could see Ohio State winning out except for Indiana.

4

I think Indiana is for real but I still think a buttoned up Ohio State team will beat them.

If they played today, Ohio State is probably favored by 14.

It wouldn’t totally shock me if Indiana beat them.

5

Indiana is a very good football team. Their head coach has Jimmy Johnson level confidence. When asked what he does, confetti said win, google me. It would not surprise me to see them beat Ohio state.