Hoosiers Now

Is 2025 Indiana Better Than 2024? The Answer is a Resounding Yes

Are the Hoosiers even better than they were a year ago? Yes - and there is one reason why:
Jackson Langendorf|
Head Coach Curt Cignetti during the Indiana versus Illinois football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025
Head Coach Curt Cignetti during the Indiana versus Illinois football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025 | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Indiana Hoosiers

11-2 in 2024. A College Football Playoff berth. The greatest single season in Indiana football history in Year 1 under Curt Cignetti. 

Well, Cignetti and his Hoosiers very well may overshadow that campaign with an even more emphatic 2025 encore. If a 63-10 blasting of No. 9 Illinois in Week 4 is any sign, Indiana is well-equipped to not just make the CFP, but perhaps be a legitimate contender to win it. 

Is 2025 Indiana Football Better Than 2024?

That brings us to our question: Is 2025 Indiana better than 2024? The answer is fairly simple. It’s a hard yes – and here’s why:

Did Indiana somehow get an upgrade at quarterback?

Fernando Mendoz
Indiana's Fernando Mendoza (15) before the Indiana versus Illinois football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025 | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A proven veteran, Kurtis Rourke (had spent five seasons at Ohio) was a dream find for Indiana in 2024. Rourke produced (3042 yards and 29 touchdowns with just five interceptions) and he led the Hoosiers on their magical run. What he did to help turn around the program alongside Cignetti cannot be understated, and it certainly shouldn’t be glossed over. 

But in their loss to Ohio State, Rourke went just 8-for-18 for 68 yards. Their other loss – in the CFP against Notre Dame – Rourke was better with 215 yards and two scores. Still, he threw an interception and both of his touchdowns, along with nearly all of his passing yards, came with less than two minutes remaining when the game was well out of hand. 

Rourke offered a level-headed, calm and collected presence under center – and he was a true leader. And although all of that is coveted at the quarterback position and integral to winning, for a team to get over the hump, it needs an uber-talented star at quarterback. Fortunately, in 2025, the Hoosiers have one in Fernando Mendoza. 

Mendoza has been projected by some media outlets as the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft – and for good reason. He has fantastic size at the quarterback position at 6-foot-5, is absurdly accurate with his arm and, most importantly, reads the field better than arguably any QB in all of college football. 

The intangibles are also there. But what makes Mendoza so dangerous in the Hoosiers offense is that his strengths line up perfectly with offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan’s scheme. Mendoza’s processing time is second-to-none. No quarterback recognizes coverages and schemes, or reads the eyes of linebackers quicker or better than Mendoza. 

And in Shanahan’s RPO-dominant offensive scheme, Mendoza’s capabilities are instantly on full display. When a quarterback makes reads as accurately and as instantaneously as Mendoza does, there’s nothing a defense can do – which Illinois learned firsthand on Saturday night when it gave up 63 points to Indiana. 

In 2025, Indiana has the tools – or the tool, we should say – to find itself sitting atop the college football mountain by year’s end. That statement would have been laughable just two seasons ago. But Cignetti has arrived – and now Mendoza has, too.

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Jackson Langendorf
JACKSON LANGENDORF

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