Indiana finishes regular season with exclamation point. Now come the questions
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – Speaking in the afterglow of his team’s senior day win against Wisconsin almost two weeks ago, Curt Cignetti admitted he struggles in the moment for perspective.
That a man in his position finds it difficult to “step back” — his words — “and think about what we’ve accomplished here” is understandable. Yet that perspective came easier Friday night, as Cignetti’s Indiana football team clinched its first appearance in the Big Ten championship game with a 56-3 rout of rival Purdue at Ross-Ade Stadium painted crimson by the very success Cignetti can’t allow himself to soak in for fear of the complacency it might feed.
In that same monologue delivered earlier this month, Cignetti allowed for himself the best advice he could give his fans now too. Words that frame perfectly these heady, historic days for the program Cignetti has turned into the national force he said he would.
“It’s been fun,” Cignetti said. “Let’s have more fun.”
For Indiana, these are the glory days. They may yet last awhile. None endure forever. Best enjoy these while they do.
Each week brings another first since, or never before, this season a race to rewrite as much of the record book as possible. Last season was the whirlwind rise, the season when nothing could go wrong because too much had gone right. But this one will be remembered forever.
The hows and whys of Friday night won’t matter to anyone not of an Indiana persuasion. Fans get another year to bathe in a dominant rivalry showing, and this was certainly that. But on the field, No. 2 IU is chasing something far greater than an Old Oaken Bucket.
Whatever happens across the next eight days, or the next six weeks, this season has changed so much about Indiana for the foreseeable future. Maybe for good.
And while Cignetti and his players have the big prizes now firmly in their sights, there should be nothing wrong with stopping for a moment to appreciate seasons like these will in their own way last forever.
“First team in Indiana history to go 12-0 in the regular season,” Cignetti said. “That’s absolute. Whatever happens from here, this team will always be the first team.”
On the topic of those hows and whys, Cignetti will still have enjoyed them Friday.
He said postgame he felt the Hoosiers (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten) hadn’t “improved” in the weeks leading up to wins over Penn State and Wisconsin.
“We asked our guys to do more,” he said.
To the naked eye, Indiana appeared worn down, by the physical demands of six-straight weeks without a break, plus the mental and emotional toll of chasing a season that’s a lot more rare than most fans realize.
Cignetti suggested there had been just five Big Ten teams to complete a 12-0 season since 2000. It was too late, too dark and too cold for anyone to do the research to either confirm or disprove his claim. (Editor’s fact check: Big Ten teams to go 12-0 in the regular season since 2000 included 2015 Iowa; 2017 Wisconsin; Ohio State in 2002, 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2019; Michigan in 2022 and 2023; and 2024 Oregon.) The fundamental point remained anyway.
Even this kind of perfection is difficult. Arguably more so in the portal era. That difficulty was reflected in less-than-its-best IU performances across recent weeks.
Not this one.
Indiana led 28-3 at halftime and just loped away from there. The Hoosiers rushed for 355 yards. Four players found the end zone on the ground. By the end, Indiana had freshman handing off to freshman and still pounded its way through an overrun Purdue (2-10, 0-9) defense.
And when the Hoosiers were through, they celebrated retaining the Bucket with Cignetti, with their fans, with each other. There was, Cignetti admitted, a fair bit of cigar smoke hanging in the visitors’ locker room late Friday night.
“There’s a lot of celebrating going on in that locker room right now,” he said. “They’re having a good old time. But they also understand they get to enjoy it for 24 hours. They understand, it’s a great night for Indiana.”
That’s his general rule: Twenty-four hours to enjoy a win, then it’s on to the next thing.
The Hoosiers will need at least that long to start properly scouting their Big Ten championship game opponent — we won’t know who they’ll play Dec. 6 until sometime Saturday, depending upon results in Ann Arbor and potentially Seattle.
As for its own path to Indy, IU left no doubt.
“We wanted to walk out of this game with an exclamation point, and not a question mark,” Cignetti said, “and we did.”
His team walked out with more than that. As Indiana’s team buses pulled away Friday, they did so with history onboard.
Not just a footnote, or a new career best. But the kind of thing that lasts forever, stamped in bronze and frozen permanently in the memory of a fan base now living through the best days of its program’s existence.
For Indiana football, these are most certainly the glory days. Cignetti had those 12-0 Big Ten teams at the ready when he referenced the number. Michigan here, Ohio State there. Oregon last year.
“Indiana, now,” Cignetti said, adding his trademark wink. “Add them to the list.”
Add them to the list. Forever. It can get better than this, but not by much.
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