Curt Cignetti has won everywhere he’s been but many believed when he took the Indiana job that he was a great coach stepping into a nearly impossible situation.
Indiana football was nowhere.
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Not counting the shortened COVID season, the Hoosiers had one winning season in the last 15. Two winning seasons in the last 28.
And the Big Ten was adding USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington to only crush the little guy more.
Asked about his recruiting pitch to recruits:
“It’s pretty simple,” Cignetti said early on. “I win. Google me.”
That was met with a collective eye roll. OK, buddy. This isn’t James Madison, Elon or Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
“This is an exciting opportunity at a prestigious university at the top football conference in the country and there is no reason why we can’t be successful, pack the stadium and be a source of pride to the entire university and the town of Bloomington and the state of Indiana,” Cignetti said at his introductory press conference.
“We’re going to change the culture, the mindset, the expectation level and improve the brand of Indiana Hoosier football. There will be no self-imposed limitations on what we can accomplish.”
Everything has already changed.
There was no adjustment period, no phasing in his system, no first-year challenges followed by a slow climb to a winning season and possibly more. Usually, coaches get about three seasons to implement their system and get everything rolling before getting on the hot seat. Cignetti needed like three minutes.
Indiana is 5-0. Indiana went to the Rose Bowl and blitzed UCLA, 42-13. Indiana is coming off a 42-28 victory over Maryland this past weekend. Indiana is outscoring opponents 49-13. Indiana has won five-straight games by double digits for the first time since Theodore Roosevelt was president.
Indiana is ranked No. 23 in this week’s AP Top 25 and enters the weekend as a two-touchdown favorite over Northwestern.
The Hoosiers aren’t winning fluke games. They’re rushing for more than 210 yards per outing with 21 touchdowns and have given up fewer than three yards per carry and three scores. They’re throwing for more than 302 yards per game, giving up about 157.
The schedule gets tougher after Northwestern through October and into early November with Nebraska, Washington, Michigan State, Michigan and Ohio State before closing out with rival Purdue but a bowl game seems like a guarantee.
Maybe much more is possible.
“I don’t know what the old Indiana was other than what I watched on tape or maybe look in the record book,” Cignetti said after the Maryland win. “We are what we are and we have a blueprint and a plan and a philosophy of how to play the game. It’s all about people and processes. We have a chance to be a good football team.
“Todd Blackledge said at the end of the UCLA game, ‘This is a good football team.’ You have to prove it every day, every play.”
There are still challenges.
Indiana’s quarterback, running back and top receiver came from the transfer portal so replenishing those players year-in and year-out through the portal is a challenge until high school recruiting picks up. Cignetti brought with him a lot of talent from James Madison and many of those players will cycle out of college football soon.
The Hoosiers are making a serious run at five-star quarterback Julian Lewis, who’s currently committed to USC, but flipping him will be tough even if he has a great relationship with position coach Tino Sunseri. The lone four-star in Indiana’s recruiting class, Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances’ Byron Baldwin, is being heavily pursued by Colorado, Alabama and others.
Despite some challenges that looked like impossible hills to climb only last season, Cignetti has already turned the Hoosiers into a serious contender.
Not only is Cignetti a winner (I Googled it) he’s a turnaround machine.
At his first coaching stop at IUP, the team went from 6-5 the year before he got there to 7-3 in his first season. Elon went from 2-9, its sixth-straight losing season, to 8-4. James Madison was a respectable 9-4 but he improved the Dukes to 14-2.
But this is his best job yet. Indiana was rudderless, going nowhere and the conference was only getting tougher. Indiana has more wins through five games than in any of the last three whole seasons. The Hoosiers won nine games total during that stretch.
Yet, here are the Hoosiers, 5-0 with some impressive early wins, riding high into another Big Ten weekend this time as two-touchdown favorites. This is the best start for Indiana football since 1967 when Cignetti was just 6 years old.
It’s been a long time waiting for these Hoosiers. And it feels good.
“Winning is good because it deepens belief and confidence which leads to success,” Cignetti said. “You still have to put the work in but it strengthens that confidence and belief.
“Players feed off that energy. It’s all about energy. You have to have energy to do anything. The fans are supplying the energy and the players are feeding off the energy. I don’t know how many points it’s worth but it’s really important and we have everything moving in the right direction here.”
