One season removed from making the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff, Indiana football heads into 2025 with expectations to make another appearance in the field. After the past year discussing whether or not Indiana’s success in 2024 was a fluke, ESPN college insider Pete Thamel didn’t dance around his pick for the last team in his projected CFP field.

“I am going to take Indiana with my final pick,” Thamel said on the ESPN College Football Podcast.

Indiana went 11-2 in 2024 with its two losses coming at Ohio State and at Notre Dame — the eventual national champion and runner up.

The hype around Indiana’s success in Curt Cignetti’s first year in Bloomington tried to be diminished by national reporters who weren’t ready to see this new Indiana program for what is was, and is — a very good team.

Whether it was about the lack of quality wins on its resume or the lack of ranked opponents. The conversation surrounding Indiana and its success continues to draw national eyes leading into the first weekend of the college football season this year.

What stands out most to Thamel, and why he’s a ‘believer’ of Indiana, is quarterback play.

“If you look at what Curt Cignetti has done with quarterbacks, going back to JMU, they have pretty much had the quarterback who is the conference player of the year or leads the conference in passing every season,” Thamel said. “There is a lot of great buzz around Fernando Mendoza … Todd McShay, he loves Mendoza. Mendoza is — there’s probably 10 or 11 quarterbacks who could be considered first round picks this year — this is a golden age of college quarterbacks. Mendoza, in that (Cignetti) system that has produced nothing but effective and efficient quarterbacks, is going to thrive.”

Mendoza takes the reins over from Kurtis Rourke, the Ohio transfer who finished in the top-10 of the Heisman voting last season and led the Big Ten and was the seventh-rated passer (88.4) in power four conferences, per Pro Football Focus. He threw for 3,042 yards, 29 touchdowns and just five interceptions.

Enter Mendoza, who was one of the most highly sought-out transfer QBs in the offseason. Indiana beat out the likes of Georgia and Miami in his recruitment.

Mendoza, who is already projected in some first-round mock drafts for the 2026 NFL Draft, threw for 3,004 yards with 16 touchdowns and six interceptions for Cal last season. He was the most sacked quarterback in power conferences.

All-American players Aiden Fisher, Mikail Kamara and D’Angelo Ponds all return to a Bryant Haines’ defense that was ranked second in the nation last year.

“They had the number two defense in the country last year,” Thamel added. “Now are they going to have the number two defense in the country (this year), no. But they have all-big ten lynchpins at all three levels coming back on defense.

Indiana’s schedule — while a discussion last year, shouldn’t be this season. Week four ushers in No. 12 Illinois, followed by back-to-back road matchups against Iowa and No. 7 Oregon. Later in the season is a road game against No. 2 Penn State.

Will Indiana will all four? No. Does it need to? No. But it’ll certainly be tested and tested early.

And, it’ll have the opportunities to make a significant impact when it’s time for the College Football Playoff Committee to put together its field.

“Until Cignetti starts to lose games, I am a believer,” Thamel said. “I think they have a ton of personnel and you have to trust him with his portal evals at this point, too.”

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