By Michael Germanese
The first year didn’t go as expected for most first-year coaches in the Big Ten Conferences in
2025. Only three of the five were able to get their teams to bowl games, and only two finished
with winning records. The most unlikely one to start the year ended up having the most
impressive in Indiana frontman Curt Cignetti.
Cignetti led Indiana to an 11-2, 8-1 record and had Indiana winning double-digit games and in the College Football Playoff for the
first time. Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith and UCLA’s DeShawn Foster failed to make a Bowl Game this year and finished the season with the same record of 5-7 (3-6 in the Big Ten). Sherrone Moore and Jedd Fisch took over programs that played in the National Championship a year ago and both teams looked nothing like it in 2024. Moore finished the season 8-5 (5-4) while Fisch finished it
at 6-7 (4-5). Moore however finished the season on a three-game win streak, with two wins being over top 15 teams.
Now with the season coming to an end, two of the five coaches are about to have the pressure
ratcheted up to win in 2025. The days of getting 3-to-4 years to build a program are a thing of the
past. The ability to utilize the transfer portal has pushed the timeline to win. Fans and donors
alike expect coaches to compete almost right away, especially if they have top NIL resources at
their disposal.
Can Curt Cignetti Live Up to the Hype?
Cignetti is brash, arrogant, cocky, and confident is the best way to describe Indiana’s head coach. He’s not a man who’s scared to say what’s on his mind and defend what he thinks is right when
sticking up for his team. But with that comes higher expectations to win at even a higher level
than he did in 2024.
Indiana’s only two losses came to Ohio State and Notre Dame, who are about to play for a national title. Cignetti’s success was rewarded on Nov. 16 with a contract extension where he will make $8.3 million a year, making him the fourth highest-paid
coach in the Big Ten but with it is now the pressure to continue the success from year one.
If Cignetti is going to compete with the top teams in the Big Ten and nationally, he’s going to
have to bring in top talent. So far, it’s been very underwhelming with a recruiting class that
ranks 48th nationally and 14th in the Big Ten. Cignetti has 23 incoming freshmen in 2025 so far
but could add a few more with the late signing period on Feb. 5. Indiana has one four-star
commitment and 21 three-star commitments. With the top four teams ranked in the top 20 and five in
the top 10, the question will become can Cignetti continue to win with less talent coming in?
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His portal class has 19 players transferring in while 15 have decided to leave ranking it 44th in
the country and 14th in the Big Ten. Indiana’s success in 2024 had a big part in getting QB Kurtis
Rourke out of the portal to lead the offense. And Cignetti is looking to duplicate that success
again by getting Fernando Mendoza out of the portal for the 2025 season. Mendoza threw from
3,004 yards and 16 touchdowns last year for Cal.
Indiana had a very favorable schedule in 2024, Michigan was in a down year and didn’t match
up with either Penn State or Oregon. Heading into the playoff the sentiment was they didn’t
belong in the playoff having lost their only real test to Ohio State. The playoff did little to show
the sentiment was wrong after losing to Notre Dame in a game that wasn’t even competitive.
The 2025 season looks a lot more difficult to get through with Penn State and Oregon on the
schedule along with a road game at Iowa and at home against Wisconsin.
If Cignetti is going to say things like “we just don’t beat top 25 teams, we kick the s*** out of
them” and “google me, I win” then that becomes the standard at Indiana. Cignetti with all his talk has made it simple in
2025 it’s make the playoff again or the season a failure. But for Indiana, it will be hard to make the
CFP in 2025 because a 2-loss Indiana team won’t get in unless they show up in big games.
Sherrone Moore has to Win Now
Moore took over a team coming off a national championship and had them playing nothing like
that in 2024. The biggest problem was the lack of any offense due to not having a quarterback
who couldn’t throw a forward pass. Moore at times looked over his head with poor clock
management, ill-advised challenges and missed calls all mistakes that won’t be tolerated in 2024.
Moore’s first main objection was to fix the offensive inaptitude and it looks like he has on paper.
He has done it by showing the willingness to make the tough decisions by firing offensive
coordinator Kirk Campbell after one year. Campbell’s offense ranked 113th in points a game, 131st in passing yards a game, and 129th in total yards game.
Moore replaces Campbell with Chip Lindsey, who brings 27 years of college coaching
experience. Last season in North Carolina Lindsey’s offense ranked 45th in points a game, 72nd
in passing yards, 38th in rushing yards, and 48th in total yards.
And now with DC Wink Martindale interviewing for NFL jobs, Moore might have to make
another type of decision on who should be Martindale’s replacement. Just like a year ago, Moore
will be forced to do it late in the coaching cycle.
Talent wins, you don’t need to look any further than Ohio State, Moore understands this, and
has done better than most people expected in bringing in top talent. Michigan’s 2025 recruiting
class ranks ninth in the country and third in the Big Ten according to On3. The Wolverines’ class
has two five-stars, 13 four-stars, and eight three-stars. The class is headlined by Bryce Underwood, the
number one QB and player in the country. Michigan still might not be done with late signing day
coming up and still has a few key prospects there pursue they could still improve on this year’s
class.
Michigan’s portal class now is ranked 8th in the country, and second in the Big Ten. Michigan
has 13 incoming players and 23 outgoing. Moore looks to have learned from his mistakes from a
year ago by not utilizing the portal more to upgrade talent and fill significant holes in the roster.
Michigan’s schedule in 2024 was difficult considering they played all three teams that made the
college football playoff from the Big Ten. They also played Texas in the non-conference meaning
Michigan played 1/3rd of the CFP in 2024. The 2025 schedule looks nothing like that with
Michigan only playing two possibly three difficult games at this point with Oklahoma in
Norman, Nebraska in Lincoln and Ohio State at home. If Michigan beats the Sooners in week
two there should be no reason when they get to Ohio State, Michigan isn’t 11-0.
As Moore said, the goals are to beat your rivals, win the Big Ten, and win a national
championship. For a program like Michigan, that’s how you should be judged. Michigan winning
a national championship in 2025 seems far-fetched and unreasonable. The realistic expectation in
year two should be to beat Ohio State and play for a Big Ten championship. Michigan’s Offense
will be a lot better, and their defense should be just as good as in 2024. Making the expectations
at the very least for Michigan to play in the CFP.
To have such high expectations for both coaches may not be fair in year two but that’s the world
of college football now. The pressure they faced this past season will be nothing like the pressure
coming in 2025. Cignetti and Moore will win games during the 2025 season, but will they win
enough big games to make the season a success? For Cignetti, you can’t out-scheme talent and
he doesn’t have the talent to compete with the country’s best. And Moore brought in two QBs, if
he’s right on one they will be back in the playoffs, and he will be.
