Don’t cheapen Indiana football’s national championship with Curt Cignetti
Curt Cignetti brought to life Indiana’s corpse of a program. In two years, he turned a doormat into royalty. Incredible, truly.
Fernando Mendoza makes enough winning plays against Miami. That’s your Heisman winner, folks.
MIAMI GARDENS, FL — Do not allow yourself to slip into the trap of believing Curt Cignetti awakened a sleeping giant.
That’s a misnomer.
No football giant ever existed in the basketball country known as Bloomington, Indiana, before the Hoosiers hired a Yinzer old enough to retire but determined enough to achieve the unthinkable.
Cignetti brought life into Indiana’s corpse of a program.
In two years, he turned a doormat into royalty.
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This isn’t so much awakening a giant as it is transforming a zombie into a vibrant king wearing college football’s crown. In doing so, Cignetti hatched one of the most unfathomable national champions in college football history.
Indiana just achieved an undefeated season. In football.
Let that sink in.
Incredible.
Historic.
Transformative.
All of that, and more.
Before Cignetti, in the time of B.C., Indiana was a nobody.
After Cignetti, the Hoosiers are lords.
“Seeing the confetti come down,’ said Indiana’s Isaiah Jones, who scored a touchdown on a blocked punt recovery, ‘it’s surreal.’
I’m still struggling to believe it, because of Indiana’s history, but nothing about this particular season or Indiana’s postseason run felt fluky.
The Hoosiers owned this season, and they controlled this College Football Playoff, and although Miami kept counterpunching in a cardiac finish, Indiana was just a little better, a bit closer to complete, in a 27-21 triumph while cementing a perfect season.
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There will be time in the days and weeks to come to debate where this 16-0 Hoosiers team ranks among the greatest teams of all time.
No matter where you land in that debate, there should be no debating the remarkableness that Indiana, one of the sport’s meekest programs throughout most of its existence, found its way into the conversation.
NIL not only reason for Indiana success
When they try to explain this season, obvious narratives will emerge.
NIL. Transfers. Veteran roster.
Truth can be found in each of those ideas, but none of those realities should cheapen what Indiana achieved.
Indiana’s squad is seasoned, but Cignetti did not invent the concept of veterans. Miami teemed with experienced players, too, and it showed in this heavyweight finish.
Transfers fueled Indiana, undoubtedly. This feat wouldn’t have been possible without transfers. But, Cignetti did not raid blue-blooded cupboards. He built a winner with guys from James Madison and California, Maryland, and Kent State.
NIL aided the possibility of leveling the playing field, but Indiana did not pace the pack for spending, nor is this roster overflowing with former blue-chippers.
In the first four seasons of the NIL era, the national champions were Georgia, Georgia again, Michigan and Ohio State.
Not exactly a run of plucky underdogs.
Perhaps, Indiana will be at the vanguard of ex-doormat dominance, and Northwestern, Rutgers, Wake Forest and Kansas will follow in its footsteps. I sort of doubt that, don’t you?
This being a copycat industry, coaches will try to mimic Cignetti’s strokes of genius, but attempts to imitate excellence so often come up empty.
There was something special about this team. Something unbeatable.
These Hoosiers, many of them former two- and three-stars and even no-stars, jelled and developed into premier talent under Cignetti’s watch.
“It’s an emotional moment, to know what we did for Indiana,” said cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, one of Indiana’s many impact transfers.
Fernando Mendoza unleashes another Heisman moment
Indiana’s defense controlled the first half, and Jamari Sharpe sealed the win with an interception. Its offense made winning plays in the second half. The Hoosiers scored on a blocked punt. It took that kind of complete effort to fend off Miami.
Fernando Mendoza, the quarterback almost nobody wanted out of high school, wasn’t consistently at his best. Miami’s vaunted defense had much to do with that, persistently harassing and hitting the Indiana quarterback. But, Mendoza made two critical fourth-down conversions on a pivotal scoring drive. He pinballed his way into the end zone on a run that will live forever in Indiana lore.
That’s your Heisman winner, folks. The one who played high school football in the shadow of Miami’s campus. Another remarkable plot point of this inimitable story.
It’s not hyperbole to call this a once-in-a-lifetime season. You could’ve lived two lifetimes and never witnessed another Indiana season comparable to this one.
Talk to someone who’s followed the Hoosiers for longer than the past two seasons, and they could tell you about how, if you wanted to see Indiana’s stadium packed to the gills with color resembling crimson, you might need to wait until Ohio State came to town, when road fans lended an assist.
Who could blame Indiana fans if they weren’t consistently selling out the stadium for teams that finished with three, four and two wins in the three seasons before Cignetti’s arrival?
Ah, but that was the time of B.C.
Once Cignetti turned the clock into the era of A.C., Indiana fans dwarfed Alabama fans at the Rose Bowl. They turned Atlanta into South Indy in the CFP semifinals.
In this culmination played at Miami’s home stadium, the crimson and cream outnumbered the green and orange. Tucked into a crowd that included America’s president were flags with the stars and stripes and Cignetti’s face on it. Yes, Cignetti has taken a place among the heroes. He transformed a forever zombie into a first-of-its-kind giant that could not be stopped.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.