It’s December in 2004. Indiana University has hired a new head football coach.
Terry Hoeppner, or “Hep,” was a Hoosier, born in Woodburn, Indiana. He was also a winner. He’d risen up the coaching ranks from high school to college, eventually taking over at Miami (OH) in 1999, leading the RedHawks to a MAC Championship in 2003 and winning the MAC’s East Division the next season.
He fully intended to bring that winning with him to Bloomington. As such, the lectern at his introductory press conference
came with something special: A large glass bowl containing a single, red rose.
“Indiana football presents a great opportunity, and a great challenge,” Hoeppner said. “We are accustomed to winning at Miami, and I want to carry that winning tradition over to the Big Ten. I know we can do that. We will build on the program’s foundation that is already in place. Our goal is simple – the Rose Bowl. We will shoot for perfection, and we can settle for excellence.”
Indiana had a few traditions when Hoeppner arrived, the most notable being “losing.” As such, its new coach set out to change a few things. First came “The Walk,” a tradition Hoeppner brought from Miami in which players walked among the fans on their way to the stadium. Next came “The Rock,” which in reality was two things. One, a huge limestone boulder, placed inside Memorial Stadium and touched by the Hoosiers as they took the field. The second, the stadium itself, with Hep rallying the fanbase with calls to “Defend The Rock.” Hep called for fans to pack the stands following a 31-28 home win over No. 13 Iowa at The Rock, urging them to “pack The Rock,” with 50,000 or more screaming fans. Last, but certainly not least, Hep relentlessly preached the message “Play 13,” meaning getting to a bowl game.
Hep led Indiana as head coach for two seasons, going 4-7 in 2005 and 5-7 in 2006 with two more Big Ten wins. The wins were coming. It’d just take time.
It’s December in 2023. Indiana University has hired a new head football coach.
Curt Cignetti, or “Cig,” was not a Hoosier. He hailed from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But like Hep before him, he was a winner who rose through the coaching ranks. Cignetti had taken on several head coaching jobs since 2011 and won everywhere he went from IUP to JMU. He’d won the Sun Belt’s East Division twice, just as Hep had done with Miami in the MAC.
Cignetti, like Hep before him, fully intended on bringing that winning to Bloomington. And, sort of like Hep, he went about generating enthusiasm within the fanbase. Only instead of creating new traditions, he talked trash and inspired confidence.
The program he inherited was significantly different from the one Hep did in 2004. For one, The Rock (the stadium) was now a fully enclosed stadium. The Rock (the boulder) was now named “Hep’s Rock,” in honor of the program’s late coach.
Hep sat out of Spring practice in 2007 due to health issues. Then June came and it was announced that he’d go on a leave of absence for the 2007 season. Shortly after, Hep passed away due to complications from brain cancer.
But Hep ignited a spark. His boundless, relentless enthusiasm for the football program was instilled in the fanbase. Calls to pack Memorial Stadium and make it to a bowl game remained.
But the Rose Bowl?
It was an online bit circulated by this blog’s forewriters and countless others online. Indiana lands a big time recruit? Rose Bowl. Indiana hires a promising assistant? Rose Bowl. Tom Allen kicks a trash can trying to high five fans after a home win over Virginia? Rose Bowl. Funny quote? Rose Bowl.
The granddaddy of them all? Maybe in the wildest of dreams.
Cignetti combined talented players and staff members from JMU with talented players and staff members who’d been with the program during Allen’s final year in 2023. Instead of taking years, Cignetti leveraged the new landscape to build a winner overnight.
Now, in 2025, Indiana isn’t just playing 13. It’s winning 13. The Hoosiers, the Big Ten Champions, earned this trip to the Rose Bowl with a hard-fought win over Ohio State, the program’s first in decades.
It’s easy to give a lot of credit to Cignetti and he deserves so much.
But this isn’t possible without the man who took a chance on Indiana back in 2004 and breathed life into the lifeless. Cignetti didn’t need to create new traditions because Hep had done that for him decades before.
Cignetti’s Hoosiers go on The Walk, greeting fans on their way into Memorial Stadium on gamedays. They lay a hand on Hep’s Rock, which was moved outside the stadium to be accessible to the fanbase and is the last sight players see before they enter The Rock (the stadium!). The 50,000+ Hep called on to pack it is now the average home game.
The 2026 Rose Bowl was decades in the making. Several coaches, players, staffers and others laid the foundation to help Cignetti push through.
Now, one last time:
Rose Bowl.
