Indiana football raised a championship banner. Its players had already moved on
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BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana football team is long past celebrating last year’s national title win.
Ahead of a 52-16 win over North Texas on Saturday, the No. 6 Hoosiers (1-0) debuted a 2025 championship banner in the south end zone of Memorial Stadium. The sold-out crowd broke into a sing-a-long to Queen’s “We Are The Champions” when the signage was unveiled.
Indiana players were in the locker room as the scene unfolded, but none of them gave the banner much thought upon entering the field.
“I just didn't really notice it,” Indiana linebacker Isaiah Jones said. “It’s cool to have that up there, but that's last year. We’re trying to put another team together that's going to go out there and compete.”
Indiana receiver Charlie Becker was so locked into the task at hand that he didn’t even know a banner was going up before the game.
“Seriously?” Becker said. “Where’s it at?”
After getting clued in to the sign’s whereabouts, Becker gave it a seal of approval — ”That’s sick” — but was more interested in talking about the game. He led the Hoosiers with four catches for 64 yards and two touchdowns.
“I’ve said it a million times, we don’t really look back at last season, we don’t really care,” Becker said.
Their comments show IU coach Curt Cignetti had an attentive audience throughout the offseason. After Indiana’s undefeated season, Cignetti focused on eliminating complacency at every turn by emphasizing one of his maxims for players to stay “humble and hungry.”
With veterans like Jones and Becker in the locker room heeding their coach's advice, complacency never entered the picture.
“Everyone's trying to lock in on what's going on in the field,” Jones said. “That scoreboard's not going to throw a pass or catch a ball or run the ball. So we're trying to focus on the 11 guys on offense.”
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana football raised a championship banner. Its players had already moved on
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