Seven more JMU players following coach to Indiana

Next season’s Indiana football team will carry a decidedly purple hue along with the Hoosiers’ traditional crimson and cream.

Seven key contributors to James Madison’s run to the national top 25 this season announced late Saturday or early Sunday that they are following coach Curt Cignetti in transferring to Indiana. All of them, including two from Virginia Beach — running back Kaelon Black and offensive lineman Tyler Stephens — wanted first to be part of the Dukes’ first bowl appearance. JMU lost 31-21 Saturday to Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas, to finish 11-2.

The Dukes would have qualified for the Sun Belt Conference championship game the past two seasons as the East Division representative, were it not for NCAA rules forbidding it because the Dukes were transitioning from the FCS to the FBS.

Black caught a fourth-quarter touchdown pass against the Falcons. The other five players are defensive lineman James Carpenter, tight end Zach Horton, offensive lineman Nick Kidwell and linebackers Aiden Fisher and Jailin Walker.

Kidwell, who missed the game due to an injury, was serving as an assistant coach on a staff that had been depleted because six of Cignetti’s aides joined him with the Hoosiers.

In a way, this large number of Dukes promoted themselves from a Group of Five conference to a Power Five via the transfer portal. They will try to help rebuild an Indiana program that often has languished at or near the bottom of the Big Ten. This season, the Hoosiers were 3-9, 1-8 in the conference.

They will join, at least, defensive lineman Mikail Kamara and running back Ty Son Lawton, who announced their commitments to the Hoosiers before the bowl and did not play in it.