\u201cComplacency kills success.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Aiden Fisher<\/a>\u2018s media availability at last month\u2019s Huber\u2019s NIL event put on by Hoosiers Connect<\/a>, he shared why Indiana could be even better in 2025, and those three words explained the mentality that he and the team are using to do exactly that.<\/p>\n Indiana certainly lived by those words in 2024. With each passing week, and each passing win until the Hoosiers were 10-0, they had an opportunity to get complacent. It took until their 11th game for Indiana to slip up, and it slipped up again in the College Football Playoff, but when it was all said and done, Indiana completed the greatest season in its 100-plus-year history.<\/p>\n Now, with more expectations, the Hoosiers are looking to exceed them once again rather than simply celebrate having high expectations in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not so much of a \u2018what are we going to do this year,\u2019 you know? \u2018Are we going to be good\u2019? You know, that\u2019s the standard now. Everybody knows that,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n While they\u2019re just rhetorical questions, Fisher is reminding everyone that the questions being asked before an Indiana football season have drastically changed. From wondering about bowl eligibility to speculating if the Hoosiers can remain unbeaten, the perception of Indiana football\u2014both locally and nationally\u2014has changed.<\/p>\n Of course, Indiana held an undefeated record for a program-record amount of time, but it still resulted in an early playoff exit. While many still consider it a magical season for good reason, the Hoosiers are using their December letdown as fuel.<\/p>\n \u201cWith going to CFP and having a successful year, that\u2019s not going to do anything for us this year. So, obviously, we know we\u2019re capable of, we know what we can reach and kind of things that we\u2019re destined for. We just got to make it happen,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n Fisher is right\u2014the 11 wins secured by the Hoosiers a season ago won\u2019t count toward a 2025 CFP berth, but the foundation those wins built will certainly make a difference. The lessons learned in both the Ohio State<\/a> and Notre Dame<\/a> losses will allow Indiana a chance to improve upon last season, and the Indiana linebacker agrees.<\/p>\n \u201cThe good part about it is there\u2019s a lot of room for improvement, even with the solid year that we had. Obviously, in the two losses\u2026 we made mistakes in those games, but there\u2019s just so much room for improvement,\u201d Fisher added.<\/p>\n Standing next to Fisher during the media availability was Elijah Sarratt<\/a>, Indiana\u2019s go-to wide receiver, who shared similar thoughts as his All-American teammate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a good group last year, but, yeah, of course, we\u2019re trying to improve from the team that we were last year,\u201d Sarratt said.<\/p>\n He added that he and the team are looking to repeat the success from a year ago, but build upon it by fixing the mistakes found in Indiana\u2019s two losses, just like how Fisher explained it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to do the same things we did last year and improve on the things that we didn\u2019t do,\u201d Sarratt said.<\/p>\n MORE (On3+): One thought on every incoming true freshman on the Indiana football roster<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n In order build upon its success, Indiana had to dip into the transfer portal and replace its departing key pieces. Sarratt made sure to mention this, as he explained that even with the skilled returners has, the Hoosiers will be able to improve due to transfer additions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve brought in a lot of winners\u201d Sarratt said, giving Indiana fans hope that this group could be even better than the last year.<\/p>\n For Fisher and Sarratt\u2014both returners from last year\u2019s Indiana team and former James Madison Dukes\u2014they understand that Curt Cignetti<\/a>\u2018s teams, wherever they may be, are always built on being hungry for more.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get complacent, you get fat and happy, and you\u2019re gonna be right back at the bottom where you started,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n He added that in order to never get complacent, it\u2019s important to understand where the journey started. For him, Sarratt and many others, it was at JMU. But for the Indiana fans, the start of the transformation was an incredibly disappointing campaign before Cignetti and his staff arrived.<\/p>\n \u201cMake sure we know where we started from, which is that 3-9 when we got here, wasn\u2019t very good, and making sure we never even get close to touching that again,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n While simply avoiding a losing season seems like a small task compared to what Indiana did last season, remembering what Hoosier football used to be is important in realizing just how different expectations are going into 2025.<\/p>\n Despite all the added expectations, increased buzz around the program, and the doubters ready to declare the 2024 season a fluke, Fisher, Sarratt and the rest of the Hoosiers will avoid complacency like their lives depend on it.<\/p>\n While some have said that Indiana has evolved from hunters to the hunted, that couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. As explained by Fisher and Sarratt at Huber\u2019s Winery, if the Hoosiers don\u2019t get comfortable, they\u2019ll remain as dangerous as they were a year ago\u2014with an opportunity to get even better this time around.<\/p>\n Not yet a member of TheHoosier? Take advantage of our launch with On3 and\u00a0join our community<\/a>! Just $1 for your FIRST MONTH and then 50% off the rest of your FIRST YEAR! Join\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cComplacency kills success.\u201d During Aiden Fisher\u2018s media availability at last month\u2019s Huber\u2019s NIL event put on by Hoosiers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,723,26781,20593,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-104593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-in","10":"tag-indiana-football","11":"tag-indiana-hoosiers-bloomington","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114627819816535975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}