When Curt Cignetti arrived at Indiana on Nov. 30, 2023, one of the first tasks he faced was assembling his coaching staff.
He had experience in the task, having done so three times before — at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Elon University and James Madison University. He brought six assistants with him from JMU and hired three from other collegiate schools.
He retained just one assistant from previous Indiana head coach Tom Allen’s 2023 staff: offensive line coach and run game coordinator Bob Bostad.
Now in his third season in Bloomington, Bostad has 27 years of experience as an offensive line coach in both the college and NFL ranks. In 2024, his unit was a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award, which is given to the best offensive line in college football.
Across the first three games of the 2025 season, Indiana’s rushing attack has gained 932 total yards on 132 attempts. The Hoosiers average 307.7 yards per contest.
Not only has the offensive line produced advantageous holes for the running backs, but it has also kept redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza upright. The University of California, Berkeley transfer was the second-most sacked (41 times) signal caller in the country in 2024. He’s been sacked just once this season.
“Well, we're doing a good job up front, and the tight end and receivers are doing a nice job blocking; backs are running hard,” Cignetti said during his press conference Monday. “And Bob does a great job with the line.”
Indiana has played three inferior opponents — two Group of Five teams and a Football Championship Subdivision one — to begin its season, Cignetti admitted.
The Hoosiers’ toughest test so far this season comes against No. 9 Illinois at 7:30 p.m. Saturday inside Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. The game was announced as a sellout seven weeks ago. It’s nationally televised on NBC with a surely raucous environment expected to give Indiana an advantage.
And Fighting Illini head coach Bret Bielema is more than familiar with Bostad.
Bielema was Wisconsin’s head coach from 2006-12. Bostad spent six seasons under Bielema, serving as tight ends coach and run game coordinator for two seasons before shifting to offensive line coach and RGC for the next four. The duo won two Big Ten titles together in 2010 and 2011.
Since Bostad left Madison, Wisconsin, after 2011, the two haven’t reconnected. Bielema left after 2012 for the University of Arkansas, which he coached for the ensuing five seasons before he was fired at the end of the 2017 season.
He then spent 2018 and 2019 as a consultant and defensive line coach, respectively, with the New England Patriots before going to the New York Giants in 2020 as the outside linebackers coach and senior assistant coach.
Now in his 17th season as a head coach, Bielema holds Bostad in high regard.
“Bob Bostad is, in my opinion, one of the best assistant coaches I've ever had,” Bielema said in his press conference Monday. “... When we were together, not only the coaching and the development of our current team, but he did an incredible job in recruiting, building that offensive line.”
In Bostad’s two seasons as the tight ends coach in Madison, he developed three players who were drafted into the NFL. Then, under his tutelage, he sent nine offensive linemen to the NFL — including three first-round selections.
The college football landscape was much different when the two worked together at Wisconsin. No transfer portal. No Name, Image and Likeness. No College Football Playoff.
When teams had success, they weren’t recruiting players from the portal. Instead, coaching staffs were solely focused on high school players. When those recruits got on campus, coaches began developing them.
“We built a lot of really good players,” Bielema said. “... And Bo (Bostad) just really had a very good knack at taking a player that he saw a certain skill set and we got him in our program.”
Of Indiana’s five starting offensive linemen, three of them began their careers at Indiana — redshirt sophomore Bray Lynch, redshirt junior Carter Smith and sixth-year senior Kahlil Benson, who transferred back to Bloomington after spending 2024 at the University of Colorado.
After Bostad’s second stint at Wisconsin from 2017-21 under former Badgers head coach Paul Chryst, now-redshirt sophomore Drew Evans followed Bostad to Indiana. Redshirt senior Pat Coogan, who transferred from the University of Notre Dame in the winter, is the lone starter who didn’t begin his career at Indiana or under Bostad.
The group will face off with Illinois’ stout front seven. The Fighting Illini’s opponents this season have gained just 73 yards per game on the ground.
Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry is also no stranger to Bostad. Henry played four seasons at Wisconsin from 2007-2011 and said Bostad is a “gritty dude” who will have his unit ready.
“They got an incredible looking offensive line,” Henry said. “Those guys play physical, right? You can tell they're well-coached in what they do up front and how they climb on the second level, and how they double-team guys.”
The Hoosiers’ offensive linemen have largely dominated the lines they’ve faced this season. Henry doesn’t want that trend to continue Saturday.
“We got to make sure we do a really, really good job of making sure that we eliminate the explosives and try to do the best we can to stop the run,” Henry said. “Because the run game, it just opens up everything they do in the pass game with RPOs and the down the field throws.”
Since Henry played defensive back during his career with the Badgers, he wasn’t on the same side of the ball as Bostad. Still, he said he’s “really excited” for the opportunity ahead and to see Bostad.
Should Henry’s defensive line overwhelm the Hoosiers’ offensive line, Indiana’s offense could struggle to make the winning plays it’s accustomed to making this season.
“I hope he remembers me,” Henry joked, “but I think it's going to be a really, really great game and a phenomenal, phenomenal atmosphere.”
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
