Look, we’re all idiots. If you don’t believe it, just ask Curt Cignetti.
But I do have a question for Indiana’s all-powerful great one of a coach, if I may.
Clock management, ever heard of it?
"It was really how many things you can do wrong and walk away with a very bad loss,” Cignetti said after Indiana's 23-16 overtime win over Minnesota ― a minor miracle that kept him from having to address some uncomfortable realities in the Hoosiers’ quest to repeat as national champions.
At the top of the list: why Cignetti, in a tie game with Minnesota and late in regulation, failed to use
one of two timeouts to save precious seconds?
The setup: Score tied at 13, Minnesota had a decision to make with 61 seconds to play and staring at 4th-and-long: attempt a 60-yard field goal, or punt and play defense and get to overtime.
Gophers coach P.J. Fleck, he of the time management skills, decided to not call timeout and run the clock because, like most coaches in that specific situation, didn’t want to leave Indiana with time to tie the score (if Minnesota hit the field goal) or win the game (if Minnesota missed the field goal or punted).
So the clock runs. And runs. And runs.
It is here where we pause to remind you that Indiana had two timeouts remaining, and that you can't take them with you. No matter what Google says.
So the clock runs and runs all the way down until — you’re not going to believe this — Fleck himself calls timeout. With 24 seconds remaining in regulation. Then decides to try the 60-yard field goal.
Luke Drzewiecki nails it, and Indiana is left with 18 seconds to play and down 16-13. Then, a little luck comes into play.
First, Minnesota decides to kick the ball deep instead of kicking a knuckleball and forcing IU to return the kick and run clock. Then star wideout Charlie Becker makes an unreal catch on a back shoulder deep throw — on the sideline! — for 33 yards to the Minnesota 42.
An incompletion later, Indiana kicker Paddy McAteer hits a 60-yard field goal to send the game to overtime. Indiana wins, and Cignetti is a genius once again.
But maybe, just maybe, we can all admit Cig blew it. Badly.
Minnesota’s overtime possession ended with a sack on 4th-and-goal from the 4, and had the Gophers scored, there’s little doubt a 2-point conversion was coming. And that’s the key to this whole botched clock management.
Indiana should’ve never been in that situation. If Cignetti calls timeout with 61 seconds remaining in regulation, what does Fleck do? It was 4th-and-8 at the IU 42, he certainly wasn’t trying to convert that first down.
Worst case scenario, you’ve stopped the clock and given him time to think about kicking a field goal he was going to kick, anyway. In that specific scenario, Indiana would’ve had at least 55-ish seconds for a final drive.
Not a last-gasp attempt at a field goal, but enough time to win the game in regulation.
Cignetti has done the unthinkable at Indiana, turned around the worst program in the history of the sport and won a national title. He has won with different starting quarterbacks (three in three seasons), and now with a backup quarterback.
He keeps finding new ways to reinvent who and what he and Indiana are. It’s rare and it’s magical all in the same moment.
But if Minnesota finds a way to get a defensive stop in regulation and win the game, Indiana is teetering on the edge of the College Football Playoff — likely having to win the Big Ten to get there. If the Hoosiers can't win the Big Ten, the nonconference schedule of Moe, Larry and Curly comes into play.
Which is fitting in this very moment.
A stooge move that almost cost Indiana a chance to repeat as national champions.
“This team just finds a way,” Cignetti said.
Sometimes in spite of its all-powerful coach.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB. Listen to him daily, from 12-2 p.m., on 1010XL-Jacksonville.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Curt Cignetti blew it. Indiana’s title defense somehow survived | Opinion
