2021 Indiana Hoosiers football team

The 2021 Indiana Hoosiers football team will represent Indiana University in the 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Hoosiers will play their home games at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana and compete as a member of the East Division of the Big Ten Conference. The team will be led by fifth-year head coach Tom Allen.

2021 Indiana Hoosiers football
Conference	Big Ten Conference
	East Division
Head coach	Tom Allen (5th season)
Offensive coordinator	Nick Sheridan (2nd season)
Co-offensive coordinator	Grant Heard (2nd season)
Defensive coordinator	Charlton Warren (1st season)
Co-defensive coordinator	Kevin Peoples (2nd season)
Home stadium	Memorial Stadium (Capacity: 52,626)
Uniform

2021 Big Ten Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
East Division
Indiana		0	–	0					0	–	0
Maryland		0	–	0					0	–	0
Michigan		0	–	0					0	–	0
Michigan State		0	–	0					0	–	0
Ohio State		0	–	0					0	–	0
Penn State		0	–	0					0	–	0
Rutgers		0	–	0					0	–	0
West Division
Illinois		0	–	0					0	–	0
Iowa		0	–	0					0	–	0
Minnesota		0	–	0					0	–	0
Nebraska		0	–	0					0	–	0
Northwestern		0	–	0					0	–	0
Purdue		0	–	0					0	–	0
Wisconsin		0	–	0					0	–	0
Championship: December 4, 2021
$ – Conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions y – Championship game participant As of February 5, 2021; Rankings from CFP Rankings.

Spring Game

The 2021 Spring Game is tentatively scheduled to take place in Bloomington, Indiana in the Spring; however, the dates for the game have not yet been announced.

Date	Time	Spring Game	Site	Result	Source
			Memorial Stadium • Bloomington, IN

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, where they would lose by six points to Ole Miss, 26–20.[1]

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.[2] The truncated season was due to ongoing issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]

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 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.[4] 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;[5] however, on December 15, both teams again mutually agreed to cancel the Friday contest, due to issues remaining on both teams with COVID complications.[6]

Offseason

Coaching changes

On December 12, 2020, the South Alabama Jaguars announced that they had hired Indiana defensive coordinator Kane Wommack 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.[7] 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).[8]

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.[9]

Transfers

Outgoing

Notable departures from the 2020 squad included:

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Notes
Harry Crider	57	Offensive Lineman	6'4'	311	Senior	Columbus, Indiana	Declared for NFL Draft
Jerome Johnson	98	Defensive Lineman	6'3'	304	Senior (Redshirt)	Bassfield, Mississippi	Declared for NFL Draft
Whop Philyor	1	Wide Receiver	5'11'	180	Senior	Tampa, Florida	Declared for NFL Draft
Jovan Swan	51	Defensive Lineman	6'2'	280	Graduate Transfer	Greenwood, Indiana	Declared for NFL Draft
Haydon Whitehead	94	Punter	6'2'	219	Graduate student	Melbourne, Australia	Declared for NFL Draft
Rashawn Williams	13	Wide Receiver	6'2'	200	Freshman (Redshirt)	Detroit, Michigan	Transferred

Incoming

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Notes	Prev. School
Zach Carpenter	58	Offensive Lineman	6'5"	329	Sophomore	Cincinnati, Ohio	Transfer	Michigan
DJ Matthews	1	Wide Receiver	5'10"	160	Senior (Redshirt)	Indianapolis, Indiana	Graduate transfer	Florida State

Schedule

The Hoosiers' 2021 schedule consists of 6 home games and 6 away games.[10] The Hoosiers are scheduled to play three non-conference games, against Idaho and Cincinnati at home and on the road against Western Kentucky.

The Hoosiers are scheduled to host Rutgers, Ohio State, Michigan State and Minnesota. They are scheduled to travel to Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Penn State and Purdue.

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 4		at Iowa	No.	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, IA
September 11		Idaho*	No.	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN
September 18		Cincinnati*	No.	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN
September 25		at Western Kentucky*	No.	Houchens Industries–L. T. Smith Stadium Bowling Green, KY
October 2		at Penn State	No.	Beaver Stadium University Park, PA
October 16		Michigan State	No.	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN (Old Brass Spitoon)
October 23		Ohio State	No.	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN
October 30		at Maryland	No.	Maryland Stadium College Park, MD
November 6		at Michigan	No.	Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI
November 13		Rutgers	No.	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN
November 20		Minnesota	No.	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN
November 27		at Purdue	No.	Ross–Ade Stadium West Lafayette, IN (Old Oaken Bucket)
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll and CFP Rankings (after November 24) released prior to game All times are in Eastern time

• Sources:[11]

Rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Final
AP
Coaches
CFP	{{{cfp_pre}}}	{{{cfp_1}}}	{{{cfp_2}}}	{{{cfp_3}}}	{{{cfp_4}}}	{{{cfp_5}}}	{{{cfp_6}}}	{{{cfp_7}}}	{{{cfp_8}}}							Not released

Radio

Radio coverage for all games will be broadcast on 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.[12][13]

References

1. "Gator Bowl 2021 - Box Score". ESPN.com. January 2, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
2. "Big Ten Will Play Football in 2020, Reversing Decision". NYTimes.com. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
3. "Big Ten to play conference-only football schedule for 2020 season amid COVID-19 pandemic". CBSSports.com. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
4. "Purdue, Indiana mutually agree to cancel Saturday's Old Oaken Bucket". IndyStar.com. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
5. "No. 7 Indiana and Purdue Have Bucket Game Rescheduled For Friday Dec. 18". HoosierHuddle.com. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
6. "Indiana and Purdue Mutually Agree to Cancel Bucket Game". IUHoosiers.com. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
7. "KANE WOMMACK NAMED SOUTH ALABAMA HEAD FOOTBALL COACH". USAJaguars.com. 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
8. "Indiana Hoosiers to hire Georgia Bulldogs DB coach Charlton Warren as defensive coordinator". ESPN.com. 2021. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
9. "Mike Hart Joins Michigan Staff as Running Backs Coach". MGoblue.com. 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
10. "2021 Schedule". IUHoosiers.com. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
11. "2021 Indiana Hoosiers Football Schedule". FBS Schedules. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
12. "Broadcast Information". www.IUHoosiers.com. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
13. "Inside IU – Voice of IU sports". www.wslmradio.com. Retrieved December 22, 2020.