A New Era: Numbers to Know as Indiana Kicks Off Against FIU

Written by: Nate Comp (@NathanComp1)

A new college football season is upon us and with that come new metrics to track. Each week, we at Hoosier Huddle will deliver you statistics to keep in mind before Indiana takes on their upcoming opponent. For this week’s edition, with no games having been played, we take a fun look at the Indiana football program and Curt Cignetti’s head coaching tenure as a whole to preview what we could see out of this new era of Indiana football in game one.

12 Carries, 55 Yards, 1 TD

Can we learn anything from the last time Curt Cignetti had his first game at a school? I’ll try. I went back and checked the box score from Cignetti’s first game at James Madison. The Dukes were on the road against West Virginia for his first game at the helm. Though they were the underdogs in the matchup, they took a 7-3 lead into halftime. Ultimately, they fell short of the upset bid and fell 13-20. (Cignetti went on to lead JMU to 14 consecutive victories, ultimately falling in the FCS championship but finishing the season 14-2).

So why include this stat?

Well, I noticed something interesting in the box score. The lead rusher for that game was Solomon Vanhorse – now a senior and a member of the Indiana Hoosiers. Vanhorse had 12 carries for 55 yards and 1 touchdown in that game five years ago. Used primarily as a special teams or gadget player now, I found it ironic that a familiar name popped up from so long ago. 

6,204

This is more of a silly stat, but it is a new era of Indiana football and no games have been played yet to truly dive into the advanced metrics… so why not? At the time of writing, it has been 6,204 days since an Indiana coach won their first game as head coach. This stat spans all the way back to September 1st, 2007, when Bill Lynch’s Hoosiers beat Indiana State 55-7 in his first game at the helm. There have been two coaches since that debut, Kevin Wilson and Tom Allen, but both ultimately dropped their opener: 27-20 against Ball State in Lucas Oil Stadium in 2011 and 49-21 against Ohio State in 2017, respectively.

Curt Cignetti will have the chance to “break this streak” (that admittedly no one is tracking) and unlike Tom Allen, he has a favorable matchup to do so. As for setting a tone for the entire era, Curt Cignetti does not see it that way.

“I don't look at it that way,” said Cignetti Monday during his presser. “This is the opponent. I'm spending every second of my day with a sense of urgency, trying to help put us in the best position being as good as we can be. And that's how we look at things as coaches. I think, across the country.”

4am

The season has begun, and with that comes a new schedule for the always process-oriented Curt Cignetti. That schedule begins when most of us are sleeping, as he revealed during Monday’s press conference that his day starts when he awakes at 4am and is in the office around 5am.

What I found more interesting, however, is how he schedules a game week’s practices. For any media member that has attended a practice, or even those players participating in them, the word out of camp is a Cignetti practice is no joke.

“I love Coach Allen, but last year, he wasn’t as hard on us and yelling at us to pick up the tempo and stuff,” said Omar Cooper last week. “Then, there’s the fast-paced practice. Last year was kind of a little slower. That’s different.”

For game week, Cignetti has these fast-paced practices scheduled this way:

“Typical in-season, I was up at 4 a.m. and in the office before five,” said Cignetti. “We'll have a light practice tonight [Monday], and then tomorrow is first and second down and punt return, and then Wednesday's third down, and Thursday's red area, goal line and two-minute. Mornings and afternoons are spent preparing for those situations and then we put it all together.”

Expect a prepared team to come storming out of those tunnels come Saturday afternoon.