The 2021 Indiana Hoosiers football team represented

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

in the 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Hoosiers played their home games at Memorial Stadium in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...

and competed as a member of the East Division of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

. The team was led by fifth-year head coach Tom Allen. Indiana finished the season with a 2–10 record, which would be their worst season since 2011, when they finished 1–11.

Spring Game

The 2021 Spring Game was held in Bloomington, Indiana on April 10; however, it was a closed-practice, with the general public not in attendance.

Previous season

The Hoosiers finished the 2020 season 6–1 in Big Ten play to finish in second place in the Eastern Division. This would be the Hoosiers' best finish to a season since the 1967 season. The Hoosiers were invited to the

Outback Bowl The ReliaQuest Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, usually on New Year's Day. The event has been formerly called the Hall of Fame Bowl from 1986 to 1995 and the Outback Bowl from 1996 to ...

, where they would lose by six points to Ole Miss, 26–20. Following an initial cancelation of the football season by the Big Ten on August 11, 2020, the Big Ten would reverse their decision on September 16. The truncated season was due to ongoing issues related to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The COVID-19 pandemic was particularly impactful on the Hoosiers late in the season, when on December 9, Purdue and Indiana announced a mutual one-time cancellation of the

Old Oaken Bucket The Old Oaken Bucket is a traveling trophy awarded in American college football as part of the rivalry between the Indiana Hoosiers football team of Indiana University and Purdue Boilermakers football team of Purdue University. It was first awa ...

rivalry game (originally scheduled for December 12). Team-related activities were paused because of an elevated number of coronavirus cases within both the Boilermakers' and Hoosiers' programs. On December 13, Purdue and Indiana came to a mutual agreement to reschedule the Old Oaken Bucket game for one week later, on December 18; however, on December 15, both teams again mutually agreed to cancel the Friday contest, due to issues remaining on both teams with COVID complications.

Offseason

Coaching changes

On December 12, 2020, the

South Alabama Jaguars The South Alabama Jaguars represent the University of South Alabama in NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics. USA competes in the Sun Belt Conference; it is the conference's only remaining charter member from its inception. USA's athletics t ...

announced that they had hired Indiana defensive coordinator

Kane Wommack Kane Wommack (born April 19, 1987) is an American football coach and former player who is currently the head coach at the University of South Alabama. He previously served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Indiana from 2018 t ...

as their new head coach; Wommack had previously served three years for the Hoosiers in a defensive coaching capacity, first as its linebackers coach in 2018 and then as its defensive coordinator for 2019 and 2020. On January 17, 2021, Indiana announced that they had hired Georgia Bulldogs defensive backs coach Charlton Warren as the Hoosiers' new defensive coordinator; Warren had served as the defensive back coach for Georgia for two years (2019-2020). On January 13, 2021, the Michigan Wolverines announced that they had hired Indiana running backs' coach Mike Hart as their new running backs' coach; Hart had served four years as the Hoosiers' running backs coach (2017-2020) and also split time as the Assistant Head Coach. On February 8, 2021, Indiana announced that they had hired

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The ...

running backs' coach

Deland McCullough Deland McCullough (born Jon Briggs on December 1, 1972) is a former American and Canadian football running back in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). He is currently the running backs coach at the University ...

as the Hoosiers' new running backs coach; McCullough had previously served as the Hoosiers' running backs' coach from 2011 to 2016.

Transfers

Outgoing Notable departures from the 2020 squad included: Incoming

2021 NFL draft

Hoosiers who were picked in the 2021 NFL Draft:

Preseason

Position key

Recruits

The Hoosiers signed a total of 14 recruits.

Preseason Big Ten poll

Although the Big Ten Conference has not held an official preseason poll since 2010,

Cleveland.com ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of Ma ...

has polled sports journalists representing all member schools as a ''de facto'' preseason media poll since 2011. For the 2021 poll, Indiana was projected to finish third in the East Division.

Schedule

The Hoosiers' 2021 schedule consisted of six home games and six away games. The Hoosiers played three non-conference games, against

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

and

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

at home and on the road against

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

. In conference, Indiana hosted

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and w ...

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

, and

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. They traveled to

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, Penn State, and Purdue. *Sources:

Personnel

Roster

Rankings

Game summaries

At No. 18 Iowa

vs Idaho

vs No. 8 Cincinnati

At Western Kentucky

At No. 4 Penn State

vs No. 10 Michigan State

vs No. 5 Ohio State

At Maryland

At No. 7 Michigan

vs Rutgers

vs Minnesota

At Purdue

Awards and honors

Award watch lists

Listed in the order that they were released

Radio

Radio coverage for all games will be broadcast o
IUHoosiers.com
All-Access and on various radio frequencies throughout the state. The primary radio announcer is long-time broadcaster Don Fischer with

Play-by-Play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

References

{{Indiana Hoosiers football navbox

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

Indiana Hoosiers football seasons

Indiana Hoosiers football The Indiana Hoosiers football program represents Indiana University Bloomington in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football and in the Big Ten Conference. The Hoosiers have played their home games at Memorial Stadium since 19 ...