‘He’s a winner’: Mike Katic saw a clear vision under Curt Cignetti. Now he’s part of the new era bringing ‘swagger’ back to Indiana football

The Indiana football program lost its entire starting offensive line from last season as soon as the year ended. That coincided with Tom Allen’s firing and an uncertain future.

While most players hit the transfer portal, Mike Katic decided to pursue professional options. That was until an out of the blue conversation tilted the scale towards IU in favor of a return.

“I declared for the draft after last season and that was my plan before last season,” Katic said at Big Ten Media Day. “I was really starting to look at agents and things like that and then (offensive line) Coach Bostad called me on a Wednesday morning and said, ‘Hey there is an opportunity for you to come back and play center’. I talked to my family and my friends and thought that was the best thing for me.”

While Katic had a previous relationship with Bob Bostad, it was a conversation with new head coach Curt Cignetti that still needed to happen.

After that, it was an easy decision for Katic to come back to Bloomington.

“I got on the phone with coach Cignetti and yeah, the rest is history,” Katic said.

Why? The winning culture that Cignetti brings and that Katic wanted to be part of.

“He’s a winner, I think that’s his pitch to a lot of guys,” Katic said. “He wins football games. If you want to be successful in the Big Ten, then you better have that confidence and that swagger about you to win football games. With that and along with the opportunity to play center, it was a win-win for me.“

Katic has started 37 games for Indiana football since 2019, including all 12 last season. In total, he’s made 39 appearances for the Hoosiers.

Katic returns as the best rated pass blocking lineman from last season with a rating of 75.8, per Pro Football Focus. He gave up just two sacks and had one penalty all season.

But now, he’s switching positions full time and taking over as the leader of the offensive line — at center.

“I think I’m adjusting well,” Katic said of the position change. “I played it (center) for four games in 2021 so I’m familiar with the position, it’s just more about getting used to coach Bostad’s verbiage and teaching on playing center. It’s going well.”

While he does have some — albeit limited — experience, the complexity of the defenses is what Katic will have to work on the most.

Reading coverages, blitzes, schemes. It’s an extremely important position, especially for Indiana who enters with a new quarterback, vastly different offensive line — and of course a new coach.

“I think — because especially nowadays in today’s college football it’s a lot more reading defenses and knowing coverages and packages and personnel and reading fronts and front sevens, linebackers, when they’re bringing pressure, when they’re not,” Katic explained. “At guard — as I got older the guard position got a lot easier for me reading defenses and knowing tendencies and stuff like that. But center has to identify the MIKE, the WILL, the SAM and everything like that. It’s a lot more on my plate but I’m old enough and mature enough to build that knowledge.”

So, for one final ride, Katic embarks on his last fall camp. The excitement surrounding the season is there and Katic sees the change that Cignetti has brought to Indiana football.

“From the first team meeting I knew he was a no BS guy,” Katic said. “You’re going to get in, do the work and if you don’t you’re not going to play.

“Everyone walks around with some swagger and confidence. I think that bridges off what he does, how he conducts himself in meetings. In front of the team he does a really good job leading us by example so everyone goes with that.”

SEE ALSO: Curt Cignetti ‘had to wake some people up’ when it came to Indiana football. Why? He wants ‘to be the best’ — and he’s not changing his tone.

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