If you take a look at the college football rankings, you’ll see many familiar names at the top.
Oregon. Ohio State. Texas. Penn State. They are traditional powerhouses who consistently compete for conference and national championships and bring in five-star recruits.
The next name down the list, however, might draw a double take.
Indiana.
A program much more known for its success on the basketball court than on the football field — it has five national titles, three under legendary coach Bob Knight — Indiana is enjoying its best season ever and is in contention for the College Football Playoff.
On Saturday, the No. 5 Hoosiers face No. 2-ranked Ohio State at noon ET in arguably the biggest game in their history.
If it sounds improbable that one of the least successful programs ever is now the hottest team in the sport, you’d be correct.
Indiana (10-0) has not totaled 10 wins combined over the last three seasons. In 126 years, it has made just 13 bowl games and has never finished with double-digit victories. Its lone Rose Bowl appearance was in 1967, when a Southern California running back named O.J. Simpson took home the game’s MVP award.
So what has led to the quick turnaround? It starts with a new coach who seized control of the fan base the moment he stepped foot on campus.
When Curt Cignetti was introduced to the Assembly Hall crowd at a basketball game in December, he took the microphone and immediately said Indiana’s biggest rival, Purdue, “sucks and so does Michigan and Ohio State.” The crowd went bonkers.
At his introductory news conference earlier in the day, wearing a blue suit with a white shirt and a crimson tie, he was asked about attracting players to Bloomington. Why would a top-ranked high school recruit or transfer consider the Hoosiers over bigger programs?
His answer was simple.
“I win,” Cignetti said before a long pause. “Google me.”
That phrase, which now appears on T-shirts and memes across social media platforms, sent shock waves through the fan base. And he was not just saying it loosely.
Cignetti, 63, has, in fact, been a career winner. A member of Nick Saban’s original Alabama coaching staff in 2007, he has risen through the ranks in recent years. His first head coaching job came in 2011, when he took over a struggling Indiana University of Pennsylvania team and led it to a 53-17 record over six seasons. After two seasons at Elon, where he went 14-9, Cignetti compiled a 52-9 record at James Madison. The Dukes lost only one game last year.
Nothing has changed at Indiana.
The Hoosiers, coming off a three-win season, are ranked first in the Big Ten in points per game (43.9), passing yards (2,765), passer rating (179.8) and rushing touchdowns (32) and second in passing touchdowns (25).
Those numbers have come largely from a roster of newcomers, as Cignetti went harder than just about anyone else in the transfer portal. In addition to 17 freshmen, 31 players have come from other programs — the second most in the country behind Colorado. And here’s the crazy part: 13 of those were from James Madison.
Of Cignetti’s 22 starters, 16 are transfers.
They include starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke, a former Ohio Bobcat who won the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Year award in 2022. Rourke has thrown for 2,410 yards, 21 touchdowns and only four interceptions. His 88.1 passer rating is the second highest in the country behind Miami’s Cam Ward.
The Hoosiers also boast one of college football’s best defenses. They allow just 270.4 yards (No. 3) and surrender 15 points a game (No. 7).
“This is a team that’s capable, and the only limitations on this football team would be those we put on ourselves, between our ears,” Cignetti said this week at a news conference. “But this is a group of guys that do not think that way. We’re going to go into this next game confident, believing, and we’re going to go out there and we’re going to play well.”
Doing so against No. 2 Ohio State is easier said than done. The Buckeyes, a storied program with eight national titles and 39 Big Ten titles, are once again incredibly dangerous.
Led by a transfer quarterback themselves, former Kansas State star Will Howard, Ryan Day’s squad has suffered just one loss this season: a 32-31 defeat to No. 1 Oregon on the road. It boasts a two-headed monster in the backfield with running backs Quinshon Judkins (723 yards, eight touchdowns) and TreVeyon Henderson (662 yards, five touchdowns) and has arguably the best freshman receiver in football with Jeremiah Smith.
The Hoosiers are 12-80-5 in history against the Buckeyes and have not defeated them since 1988. That includes 31 straight losses. Nonetheless, Cignetti said his team will be ready to shock the college football world.
“We have to stack moments, meetings, practices and days to give ourselves the best chance to be successful on Saturday,” he said this week. “I’m confident in our team that we’ll prep well this week, play well, go in there, play with poise and play our game. Excited about the opportunity.”
The confidence Cignetti has in the program is also what the program has in Cignetti. Last week, the Indiana administration extended his contract through 2032 with annual salaries worth $8 million a year.
It hopes this season is the start of something special.
“After first meeting Coach Cignetti, we were very confident that he was the perfect fit for what we were trying to build with our football program,” athletic director Scott Dolson said in a statement. “We were confident IU could become a winning program and we love what he’s building here. We love the student-athletes that he’s bringing here. We love how our fan base has rallied around this team and made Memorial Stadium the place to be on Saturday afternoons. And now, we love the fact that he’s going to be doing all those things right here in Bloomington for a long, long time.”
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