Indiana Football: Coaches continue to disrespect Hoosiers with new poll

The Indiana football team return a lot of key players from an eight-win team last year, but still are getting no respect from the coaches.

Indiana might not be your household name when it comes to football, but you better not sleep on them this year because they have a lot of talent returning. They have a potential star quarterback in Michael Penix, a reliable and good running back in Stevie Scott, and one of the best receivers in the Big Ten in Whop Philyor.

They return all of this plus an improved defense and yet they are still getting no respect from the coaches in their preseason poll.

The problem isn’t that they didn’t make the top 25, it is how far down they are in the poll. The Hoosiers are on the list of teams that got votes, or should I say vote. Indiana got one vote, that’s it just one.

For reference, the Nebraska Cornhuskers got three! The same Cornhuskers that Indiana beat in Lincoln last year and return more talent than they do. Yes, it is only two votes but what NCAA coach could honestly look at these two teams and give a vote to Nebraska is mind-boggling.

Among teams that got more votes than the Hoosiers is a 7-6 Tulane team and a Miami (FL) team that got shutout in their bowl game to Lousiana Tech.

Also, way ahead of the Hoosiers was Tennessee who they barely lost to in the bowl game in Florida. The Volunteers got 111 votes to be just out the top 25, but the Hoosiers who should have won the game and again return a ton a talent get just one.

I get that preseason polls don’t matter, but it is still a reflection on where they see your team heading into the year. The fact that they can’t look at IU and think they are better than just one vote is ridiculous.

I can, again, understand why they aren’t in the top 25, but they should be just outside of it. Especially when you look at the teams that got more votes.

We still can’t get over the Cornhuskers being ahead of the Hoosiers. Will someone please get off the Nebraska is back train. They haven’t won anything but apparently three coaches think they are better than Indiana. And that is just the ones that voted. There are probably many more that think that way.

The good news is Indiana will get to show what they are made of early and often in the Big Ten schedule. They have the chance to prove them all wrong and show that Indiana is a team to be taken seriously.

Preseason polls may not matter, but it can definitely be used as bulletin board material. The coaches still don’t respect the Hoosiers and they may like it that way.