The losingest program in major college football just won the national championship. They did so by finishing the season 16-0 and were clearly the best team in the country all season. But How will the Indiana Hoosiers and Curt Cignetti follow-up the most improbable year ever?
After losing much of their offensive arsenal to the NFL draft, the Hoosiers will be forced to find replacements if the team wants to continue their current trajectory and remain a power player in the Big Ten conference.
Fernando Mendoza was the No. 1 overall selection to the Las Vegas Raiders and his two biggest targets also got drafted. Omar Cooper Jr. went as pick 30 of the first round heading to the New York Jets. while WR Elijah Sarratt waited to hear his name called until Day 3 of the draft, being selected No. 115 overall in the fourth round to the Baltimore Ravens. In between these two WR stars, RB Kaelon Black was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers as the No. 90 selection near the end of the third round.
With these players gone. Cignetti will be asked to predict how incoming transfer QB Josh Hoover will be able to compete with the legacy that Mendoza has left behind. Cignetti, in his direct manner, will of course state that Hoover is his own person and he is not competing against a legacy. This is true of course. But it will not make the fans feel better if Hoover cannot improve on his turnover issues which plagued him with TCU.
At WR, returning starter Charlie Parker will team with incoming Michigan State transfer Nick Marsh to again give the Hoosiers a talented room. But it will be all for naut if Hoover is unable to get the ball to them accurately. Defense will be another critical issue for Cignetti and Indiana.
CB DâAngelo Ponds, the heart of the defense, was taken as the No. 50 selection in the second round. He will be joining teammate Cooper Jr. with the Jets. Though he will have a difficult challenge. Being  looked at to replace Sauce Gardner whom the Jets traded to the Indianapolis Colts. On top of the hard hitting Ponds, the defense also lost LB Aiden Fisher to the draft and many of the veteran players who joined Cignetti from James Madison have moved on through graduation.
With these two questions being important, the biggest advantage that Indiana has is the continuity of the coaching staff as the Hoosiers will bring back Defensive Coordinator Bryant Haines for his second season and Offensive Coordinator Mike Shanahan enters his second season with Indiana and his fourth overall with Cignetti. He also worked with at James Madison. Including three years as offensive coordinator of the Dukes.
Indiana will be loaded once again. But there are questions to be asked. These are the top burning questions for fans and analysts alike.
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