Bison Bites: Dispatch #13

Data bites touching on: Indiana's recruiting momentum, Fernando Mendoza's value metrics compared to other FBS QBs, and Indiana's WRs against man-to-man coverage.

If you’re new enough to Bite-Sized Bison, you might not be familiar with Bison Bites. Each dispatch of Bison Bites is intended to be a quick-hitting list of approximately 3-5 statistics of interest between typical Bite-Sized Bison posts.

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Indiana’s 10 commitments to the 2026 class before June 3 is more than any class in at least the last 15 years.

With the commitment of Wisconsin OT Kenton Mondeau on June 2, Indiana reached its 10th commitment of the class quicker than it has for any recruiting class during the Early Signing Period Era (since 2017).

The chart below shows Indiana’s commitment totals by June 3 for the last 15 recruiting cycles.

It’s important to note that commitments began occurring earlier in recruiting cycles due to the Early Signing Period in December, which began for the Class of 2017. Now, teams typically have their recruiting classes near-complete by the season’s kickoff. That wasn’t always the case before the Early Signing Period because there were a couple of months left following the season to complete recruiting efforts by early-February.

You might also notice in the chart that this trend for Indiana was already in effect during this staff’s first full recruiting class (2025), even though the staff wasn’t at Indiana for the previous summer or fall to build recruiting momentum for the class. Building classes earlier is clearly an emphasis for Curt Cignetti.

June 3 is a notable date not only because it’s the day after Indiana’s 10th commitment this cycle but also because it is just at the beginning of official visit season. Through June 22, prospects will be making official visits to programs before a dead period that stretches from June 23 into August. That period is when a massive number of commitments will happen across college football. The Hoosiers will need to hang onto their current commitments through the summer primarily, but a few will remain priorities into the season as well.

Indiana’s 10 commitments is not a particularly large number in relation to the rest of the country. It ranks tied for 28th in that regard, but as a program, this is a more modern, bold approach to recruiting that Indiana hasn’t seen before.

Why is Indiana finding this recruiting success in 2026? It’s easy to point to the historic 11-win season that featured a College Football Playoff appearance, but it’s more than that. IF a program is primarily relying on the previous season’s success for the current recruiting cycle, it’s already too late. Last June, Indiana – both on-field assistants and support staff – had their foot on the gas to market the program as something new, and, thanks in part to the staff’s success at JMU, it pulled some significant talent onto campus for those ever-important June visits. For anyone paying close attention, it was clear that, with any notable success in 2024, this 2026 class was going to be strong.

Indiana has had successful seasons before; why is this class filling up so quickly? It’s not just that it’s filling up either. These are highly rated recruits too.

Commitments happen, especially when this early in the calendar, because recruits want to claim their spots in recruiting classes. Sometimes, programs find better prospects for those spots and need to nudge guys out, and sometimes, recruits receive more appealing offers and flip to other programs. That’s the nature of competing at a high level in the offseason. But if a class is filling up, it’s not just because the program is having on-field success but also because it does a good job with marketing from the support staff and a proactive approach and galvanizing message from the coaches, among other things.

Recruiting classes that are built in this way are a prime signal of program health. While Indiana won several program-altering, memorable games in recent seasons, we know now – particularly with the recent increased investment from the University and Cignetti’s approach to operations – that the program was still not exactly in a healthy state. That appears to be changing.

Fernando Mendoza ranked 28th among FBS QBs in EPA/play (passing and rushing) during the 2024 season.