BLOOMINGTON— Mike Katic was going. With the disappointment of a 3-9 season and the departure of his coach Tom Allen, the senior guard who had been a high school star in Pittsburgh, decided it was time to put college football in his rearview mirror.

No, he wasn’t going to opt out for his fanciful career idea and join World Wrestling Entertainment, emulating his idol of that sport Brock Lesnar. Even if he might well fit in performing body slams. That would have been a bold stroke, alright.

Freedman

Given the changes in Hoosier world, it was time to go for the NFL, Katic felt, where his 6-foot-4, 318-pound body would be appreciated in some big city more than in Bloomington.

Only then new Indiana coach Curt Cignetti took over, made an intriguing offer, and Katic figured that it would be more beneficial for him to stay than go – and learn more about becoming a center.

“I declared for the draft,” Katic said at the recent Big Ten football media days event at Lucas Oil Stadium of how close he was to exiting IU. “I was really starting to look at agents.”

The great anomaly about the phrase “center of attention” is that playing center in football is almost the opposite of what that connotes. Being a center is often tantamount to being invisible.

However, good centers in pro ball are not only critically important to offenses and kicking games, they tend to be in short supply and have long careers. So, this could be a valuable year for Katic’s future.

“It’s more reading of defenses and reading of fronts,” Katic said of the appeal of playing center.

No high school star chooses a college team expecting to play for a loser, but Katic has suffered along with the rest of Hoosier Nation in recent years during IU’s struggles. Sticking around for five years means he has seen tremendous turnover on the roster, no more so than this year when Cignetti brought in a raft of new assistant coaches and 30-some new players.

Was that dizzying? Katic might have been deadpan joking, but he said, “I like meeting new people.” That response may make the milk run out of some people’s noses, or it just may be disingenuous.

Katic did like meeting Cignetti, who took over from James Madison, where he put a previously unknown program into the rankings.

“From the first team meeting, he was a no-BS kind of guy,” Katic said. “He’s a winner. He wins football games.”

That is a true summary of Cignetti’s coaching career and Katic said the new head man brought some swagger and confidence with him from Virginia, from Elon, where he also won, and from being a former assistant coach at Alabama when the Crimson Tide won one of its national titles under Nick Saban.

Unlike quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers, linemen like Katic do not compile gaudy statistics. Even head coaches mostly learn what they know about those unheralded offensive big guys from watching film.

In the case of Cignetti’s hurry-up roster revamping through recruiting and hustling for transfers, he had a limited time to evaluate holdovers who did not swiftly depart of their own choosing. Clearly, Cignetti must have seen good habits, work ethic and results watching moving pictures of Katic on the field to even make an attempt to lure him back into the IU fold.

The Hoosiers open the 2024 season at home Aug. 31 against Florida International, not one of the new members of the expanded Big Ten Conference, and a team of limited renown.

This Indiana team must jell quickly and record W’s to make a good impression, but the meat of the schedule comes later against Maryland, Northwestern, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue from the list of old-time rival foes.

There are also tests against former Pac-12 new league entries in UCLA and Washington.

There is a new coach in town and so, so many new faces on the roster. How quickly can the new Hoosiers come together and become regular winners? It seems many people have asked Katic.

He said he gives everyone the same answer.

“I’ll let you know week three,” Katic said.

That weekend, Sept. 14, Indiana will be in Los Angeles to play UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Since the last time IU played at the Rose Bowl was for the big bowl game in 1968, the mythic old stadium is practically like visiting another planet.

It could all turn out like the song “New York, New York” with a massaging of the lyrics into “If I can win there, I can win anywhere.”