Blatant Homerism: Offseason scattershooting
Now that the college football offseason has finally arrived, I’ll share a few random thoughts that have been floating in my head for the last month or so…
I have no doubt that some college football scribe has already started compiling information for a book about Indiana and what should go down as the most miraculous turnaround in the sport’s history. The handiwork of coach Curt Cignetti to take the Hoosiers from perennial Big Ten doormat to a 16-0 season and national championship will end up as the subject of things like documentaries and case studies in organizational development for years to come. Naturally, the conversation outside of Bloomington is already turning to lessons other programs can learn from Indiana’s incredible 2025 run.
However, I don’t consider it hating on the Hoosiers to note that two key breaks worked decidedly in favor of IU in ‘25.
First, looking at PFF’s data, it seems clear the Hoosiers enjoyed remarkably great health and continuity all year on both sides of the ball. Their starting 11 players missed a total of seven games combined during the season, which works out to 4% of 176 total starts. The player who missed the most action out of that group, guard Drew Evans, still played 73% of Indiana’s 1,097 offensive snaps during the season.
A similar story played out on the other side of the ball. To be sure, IU suffered a major blow when it lost edge rusher Stephen Daley for the season as the result of a freak accident after its win in the Big Ten championship. Notably, though, Daley still played the 12th-most snaps of any defensive player on IU’s roster in 2025. The top 11 missed a total of two games, or 1% of the Hoosiers’ total starts for the year. The top 12 all got at least 58% of the 918 snaps played by the defense.
Second, the Hoosiers benefited from tremendous turnover luck. Granted, IU definitely took care of the ball: The Hoosiers fumbled just eight times in 16 games, which was easily one of the best marks in the country. Losing only one of those fumbles, on the other hand, is an outlier. The same could be said for recovering 11 of their opponents’ 16 fumbles on the season. As such, you could make the case that IU’s turnover margin was out of whack by six fumbles alone.
IU ended up in the black on interceptions as well. Its opponents converted about three fewer passes defensed – the combined total of interceptions and passes broken up – into interceptions than expected. Conversely, the Hoosiers picked off roughly four extra passes relative to their expected amount in ‘25.
In other words, IU finished with a turnover margin that was about 12 to 13 turnovers higher than expected.
None of that diminishes what Indiana accomplished this year. But you can’t really build good health and a turnover-margin windfall into your program’s plans for the future.
Amid the upheaval currently taking over college football, I’m not sure that everyone appreciates the trick that the sport’s powerbrokers are trying to pull off.
College football became a popular, profitable enterprise operating a specific way for decades – albeit a way that was grossly unfair and exploitative. The legal system essentially abolished core parts of the sport’s business model in recent years by forcing the schools to remove the rigid rules governing player compensation and movement between programs.
At the exact same moment, the true paymasters of college sports – television networks – are using their influence to remake the fundamental structure of college football to better suit their own needs. Specifically, they’re pushing the schools to reorient around a centralized operating model that fits with marketing college football as a national product. (Ironically, you could make a strong case that the latter project is fueling the former.)
I try my best to not be the kind of person who resists new ways of doing things because they don’t like change. (By definition, the most impactful advancements in human history have required people to adapt to change.) But it feels like college football fans are riding in a plane that is still being built in midair. To that end, even though the Oklahoma Sooners just completed a football season that should be considered a success in the sport’s new world order, it felt kind of hollow.
OU won 10 games in a new conference against an impressive slate of opponents – most of which have no meaningful history with the Sooners and come from places that are multiple states away from Norman. OU was rewarded with a spot in a postseason tournament that even the team’s most ardent fans would acknowledge it couldn’t win. In that sense, it was like watching a technical marvel of a movie with a mildly compelling story underneath the effects.
Now I get to spend the offseason hoping players who defected to OU from rival programs will help elevate the team from College Football Playoff participant to national-championship aspirant. I guess the good news is that the Sooners I wanted to stick with the program for 2026 didn’t get lured away.
I’d love to believe what we’re witnessing now in college football represents a form of creative destruction in service of something better to come. However, if this is proceeding according to some grand plan, I can’t see it. The sport itself isn’t dying – people like watching and gambling on football too much for that to happen in my lifetime. But the parts of college football that made it so interesting to me are withering.
On this week’s free episode of the podcast, Brady and Payton discussed newcomers on both sides of the ball that they guarantee will help the Sooners improve in 2026. Since I didn’t get to participate during the show, I’ll add my two cents here.
On offense, I’ll plant a flag behind offensive lineman E’Marion Harris. The former Arkansas Razorback developed for four seasons under a staff with a keen eye for talent in the trenches, and he’s bringing with him nearly 1,600 snaps of experience in two years as a starting lineman in the SEC. OL coach Bill Bedenbaugh can add Harris to the mix immediately and allow him to compete at right tackle.
And give me edge Kenny Ozowalu on defense. Ozowalu logged 340 snaps in ‘25 as a redshirt freshman for UTSA and notched six tackles for loss in 12 games. He flashed enough promise to garner interest from multiple heavy hitters when he entered the transfer portal At 270 pounds, the Sooners can likely play him as both a traditional five technique on the edge or slide Ozowalu inside to defensive tackle in passing situations. He may not show his full potential until 2027, but Ozowalu should still contribute next year.
Together We’re More: Charles Shadle
Each month the Choctaw Nation - the title sponsor of Through the Keyhole - releases a video highlighting the lives of tribal members and how they impact their communities.
Charles Shadle is a composer and Senior Lecturer in Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His Oklahoma roots have always been central to his identity, and they inspire the music he creates.