Countdown to 2026 Indiana Football- 45 Days Lincoln Murff

The memories of IU’s unprecedented and historic unbeaten run to the National Championship are still fresh in our minds but the work is just beginning for the 2026-2027 Indiana Hoosiers. As Curt Cignetti and his staff gear up for year number three in Bloomington and embark on a quest to become repeat champs, Hoosier Huddle’s Countdown to Kickoff rolls on!

Height: 5’10”

Weight: 186 pounds

Hometown: Indianapolis, IN (Ben Davis High School)

Class/Position: Redshirt Junior/Defensive Back

National champions are determined by which teams have the greatest strengths and which teams are able to eliminate weaknesses. Indeed, the 2025 Indiana Hoosiers were a team with great strengths: a fantastic run defense, a great running game, the Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback and a generationally great head coach and coaching staff.

Furthermore, IU had no weaknesses for teams to exploit. That extended to a secondary that was led by headline cornerback D’Angelo Ponds (61 tackles) but also included Louis Moore, Amare Ferrell, Jamari Sharpe and others. 

While Moore and Ponds are now in the NFL, several pieces of the title-winning secondary return for the 2026 season and the talent includes a walk-on that is the focus of today’s countdown article: Lincoln Murff.

Murff, a native of Indianapolis and product of powerhouse Ben Davis High School, joined the program prior to the 2023 season. In high school, Lincoln Murff was actually a standout wide receiver and basketball player. He not only shone on the gridiron, he helped the Giants win the IHSAA Class 4A state title and a perfect 33-0 record, the only unbeaten basketball season in school history. As a receiver, he was named All-Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference (MIC) as a senior. Tom Allen, a former coach for the Ben Davis Giants, invited Murff to join the program and he transitioned to cornerback.

Tom Allen was fired after the 2023 season and Lincoln Murff had to impress a new coach in order to stick around. Curt Cignetti liked what he saw enough to invite Murff back as a walk-on and he earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in both 2024 and 2025. Lincoln Murff has not seen any game action through his three seasons in the program but he enters his redshirt junior campaign as an experienced defensive back in a room with a lot of youth.  

The countdown continues each day on Hoosier Huddle until IU kicks off the 2026 season against the North Texas Mean Green!