Every now and again, I look at the January 2, 2026 edition of the Los Angeles Times and just sit and smile. I didn’t just smile today when I thought about The Rose Bowl, I chuckled. You think Bill Curry knows that the current coach at Alabama got a raise and a contract extension today after his Tide team’s last game was a beat down handed to them by the Indiana Hoosiers? Context, my friends, context. Times change. Indiana proved that.

Tomorrow we will have even more tangible proof. Roger Godell is going to call out the name of Heisman Trophy winning IU QB Fernando Mendoza as the first player taken in the 2026 NFL Draft by the Las Vegas Raiders. More Hoosiers will follow. IU receiver Omar Cooper Jr. might be called in the first. D’Angelo Ponds, the packer of the most punch in a little frame since Bob Sanders will have his name called out too. Who knows how many Hoosiers will be drafted?

In the modern era the most Indiana Hoosiers to be NFL draft picks is 7 in 1976. I saw that team play Michigan and Ohio State on the first two Saturdays of October that year. #1 Michigan beat Indiana 35-0 in front of less than 31,000 fans. The next week Ohio State beat the Hoosiers 47-7 in front less than 40,000. One wonders how many yards Pete Johnson must have ran for that day for the Buckeyes. Yep, the 5-6 1976 Indiana Hoosiers had seven players drafted that year. The first one to be drafted was offensive tackle Greg McGuire in the 6th round. News flash: In 1976 there were 17 ROUNDS in the NFL Draft. Since 1994, the NFL draft has been 7 rounds culminating with the last pick affectionately known a Mr. Irrelevant.

I don’t know how many Hoosiers will end up being drafted. My guess is 8. Not just because I want them to set another high-water mark in the realm of the rutabaga. I truly think they have that many NFL talent level players.

I was on campus last month in Bloomington. I looked around, took some pictures, tried to remind myself what really happened here last year. The last two years, actually. The Hoosiers are 15-0 at home under Coach Cig so far (and 18-0 in the crimson jersey). And I am glad Cig is in charge and you and I are not. We know too much about IU Football.

Still, I have to tell you. Even though I have been to stadiums far and wide that hold more than 100,000 fans when those places were busting at the seams, I felt something different this time looking at Memorial Stadium. Man, that trip to Neyland Stadium to watch Alabama play Tennessee in 2016 was an amazing experience.

Incredible.

But on this day in March 2026, I thought long and hard at everything that was last season for Indiana Football. The chasm between what was last year and what we always knew before will no doubt stay with me for a long time. Why wouldn’t it? But on this day in March 2026, as I walked around Memorial Stadium, for the first time the place seemed small and more intimate than it ever did before. I felt like I was looking at the place through the eyes of someone from Iowa or Penn State, even though I know the place like the back of my hand.

Tomorrow night we are going to hear the names of Indiana Hoosiers players’ names being called out at the NFL Draft. Consequently, on the big scoreboard inside Memorial Stadium, as Indiana is holding their Spring Game, those names and those faces will be on prominent display to celebrate and to remind any prospective Hoosier that may be in attendance of what was and what could be again. That’s why the stadium will be packed on that first Saturday in September. We’re all believers now.