Given the hypersonic ascent from one of the saddest programs in college football history to one of the most consistent and dominant over the last two seasons, Indiana football has been one of the most talked-about
programs in the country since Curt Cignetti took over.
Cignetti is, famously, is not afraid of making headlines with his own press-conferences, using them to set expectations for the program and announce his intention to retire a Hoosier, among other things, but not all of the narratives are favorable for Indiana.
This week, Indiana got another nationally-televised matchup with Fox’s Big Noon kickoff because its opponent, UCLA, appeared to be experiencing a similar transformation. The Bruins went from down-and-out to knocking off one of the most talented teams in the country when Penn State went to the Rose Bowl, the start of a three game win streak that reignited the team’s postseason hopes.
Asked about whether this was something he was concerned about, Cignetti was characteristically blunt:
As his quote and overall sideline demeanor demonstrate, Cignetti is concerned with one thing and one thing only – meeting his own high expectations. The opponent, the stakes, the setting are all secondary to each player executing each play to the highest of his ability.
Remarkably, that does not come at the cost of knowing what each opponent may want to do in a particular game. The attention that he and his staff put into scouting each and every week makes he and his coordinators look borderline prophetic, ready for any tricks an opponent may have up its sleeve.
We saw that again today, with Indiana completely unfazed by a UCLA fake punt early in the first quarter, when the Hoosiers had just a seven point lead. As we have come to expect, Cignetti and his staff had been ready for this all week:
As Indiana continues to stack impressive wins, there’s no reason to expect the anti-Indiana narratives from stopping any time soon.
A blowout over a top ten Illinois didn’t mean much until Cignetti put the “can’t win a big game” narrative to bed more emphatically in Eugene. Even that win and the respect of the AP Voters hasn’t kept people from circling Indiana as their most likely upset contender on a weekly basis.
As things stand now, the Hoosiers won’t have much more to prove over the remaining four games besides staying healthy and undefeated, something it’s now heavily favored to do. The lowest win expectancy left on the slate from ESPN is a 71.3% chance of victory over a Penn State team that still has some nice pieces on the roster.
If Indiana can take care of business through November, it should find itself staring down a Big Ten Championship against the current No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes. It’s one of the two teams Cignetti has lost to at Indiana so far, and a program that has dominated the Hoosiers for decades.
If that matchup does, indeed, come to fruition, it will be the Super Bowl of Opinions from good and bad faith media figures desperate to make sense of just what Indiana football has become. A lot of things about the remainder of the season are uncertain, but the heightened scrutiny of Cignetti’s resume at Indiana is a virtual guarantee at this point.
The good news, for Indiana fans, is that the other guarantee is that Cignetti himself has not shown himself to be susceptible to outside chatter. He’s going to be meticulous and fearless in his preparation for each game and judge the outcomes based only on how his teams perform on a play-by-play basis.
The ultimate ball coach.
