Your Indiana Who-siers

 College football's big opening weekend rolls out tonight, and right away, at least in these parts, everyone's wondering if Notre Dame is overrated, and if Purdue's going to be any good, and (at least in the Blob's precinct) if the old alma mater, Ball State, can pick up a win against Missouri State before getting crushed by The U next week in Miami.

And  then, of course, there are your Indiana Hoosiers. Or Who-siers, perhaps more accurately.

They've made a lot of noise in the offseason, most of it coming from the vicinity of new head coach Curt Cignetti's mouth. He's won everywhere he's been, he says. He's going to win at IU, he says. Gonna put the "Boom!" back in B-town, at least to the extent he can in a place where the football decibels have mostly been considerably lower.

Well, forget that, um, noise. Cignetti's brought a whole new attitude to Indiana football, and a whole pile of new faces, too. Some of them came from James Madison, where Cignetti was extremely successful. Some of them came from elsewhere. None of us really knows them yet -- hence, Who-siers -- or what they're going to look like when Cignetti sends 'em out against Florida International two days from now.

Here's what we do know: The Big Ten is not the Sun Belt Conference, where Cignetti and those JMU transfers made their bones.

Here's what else we know: Nonetheless, it's not crazy to think Coach Cig could stroll into the Big Ten and win seven or eight games this fall.

"Well, look who's drinkin' the Kool-Aid now," you're saying now.

Nah, not really. I saw someone picked the Hoosiers to go 9-4 including a bowl win, and scoffed just as hard as everyone else.

Until.

Until, that is, I got a look at the schedule.

The schedule informs me Indiana has eight home games this year, including five of their first seven. The Hoosiers open with two home games against some French pastry -- Florida International and Western Illinois -- then head west to UCLA, which was a "meh" 7-5 last year and is breaking in a new head coach after Chip Kelly left to run Ryan Day's offense at Ohio State. 

Then it's back home for more French pastry, Charlotte from the American Conference. Then the Hoosiers are home to Maryland, which went 8-5 last season -- including a 44-17 rump-roasting of Indiana -- but has a new quarterback running the show. 

After that, it's a roadie at Northwestern, a 7-5 team that's picked to scrape the nether regions of the barrel in 2024. Then it's back home to welcome Nebraska, which hasn't reached a bowl game in this decade and, according to head coach Matt Rhule, will throw heralded freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola into the deep end right from the jump.

Best case, I've got Indiana 6-1, maybe 5-2 after that week. Worst case they lose at UCLA, lose at Northwestern, lose at home to Maryland, and sit 4-3. 

Factor in losses to Michigan, Ohio State and (maybe) Washington or Michigan State, and you're looking at 7-5 or 6-6 and a bowl berth.

This assumes, of course, that the product matches the hype and the preparation. 

Cignetti is banking on a transfer quarterback (Kurtis Rourke) who was the MAC Offensive Player of the Year at Ohio in 2022. At 6-5 and 223 pounds, he has classic size. He also has an extremely educated arm. In his POY season, he passed for more than 3,200 yards, had a 69 percent completion rate, and threw 25 touchdown passes and just four interceptions.

So, he's solid. But, again, the MAC is not the Big Ten.  

On the other hand ...

On the other hand, the part of the Big Ten he'll be asked to take on this season, with a couple of exceptions, is not nearly as rough as it could be. So he's got that going for him.

And the Who-siers?

Same deal.