How could Curt Cignetti do this so quickly in a dormant program where no one conceived of such possibilities? Why don’t the normal rules for building championship teams suddenly apply?
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We want it to make sense. We want to know the secret. We want to know if Cignetti possesses some kind of football Rosetta Stone that no one else in the sport’s 155-year history has discovered.
And the lack of an answer is breaking people’s brains. It’s even gotten to the point where insinuations about cheating (without any evidence, of course) have taken over social media and even among a subset of sports administrators who are convinced. something Something nefarious must be happening in Indiana even if they can’t identify it.
But what if the real answer to Indiana football being on the brink of a 16-0 national championship season is that there is no answer? What if it’s one of those accidents in history where everything aligned just right with both Cignetti’s arrival in Indiana and in college football in general to open the door for a traditional underdog? What if Indiana beats Miami on Monday night and the conclusion of the story, as we all strive to put into perspective, is that this was a unique moment that cannot be replicated and exists forever as a sports anomaly that cannot be adequately analyzed?
“It’s been a little surreal, but you do it with the right people and the right direction,” Cignetti said Monday. “We’ve been fortunate to have great staff continuity, and then in the locker room, we have a lot of older guys that have great character and great leadership traits. They’re very consistent, day in and day out, in terms of being committed and working hard to get better and being able to come in every Saturday prepared with the right mindset and then put it on the field. It’s about people, and you have to have a plan and a plan. There’s no doubt about it, that’s what matters.” “It has brought us to this point.”
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That’s not a very satisfying answer because it’s the same thing most coaches say about their programs, even those that don’t come close to national titles. If it’s simply that Cignetti is better than his peers at the nuts and bolts of coaching, it’s almost an indictment of every coach and every downtrodden program that couldn’t accomplish anything close to this.
And that’s probably why the conspiracy masterminds are having fun with Indiana right now. They simply cannot conceive that a team without an Alabama, Ohio State or any other blue blood logo on its helmet could be as good.
(Jonathan Bachman via Getty Images)
The narrative turn of “This Indiana story is wild!” to “They have to be cheating, Paul!“really ramped up when Indiana completed its 56-22 rout of Oregon in the semifinals, a game that began with cornerback D’Angelo Ponds reading the first play from scrimmage as if he knew exactly what was coming. As soon as Ponds jumped the route, hauled in the interception, and carried it into the end zone for a pick 6, theories started flying on social media.
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Were they stealing signs? Did Indiana find a way to hack into its opponents’ computer systems to download their game plans and practice films? Did a spy get into Oregon’s headphones?
Such wide-ranging spying is not only unlikely given the security measures the teams take to protect their online databases, but it is also unoriginal. Even when the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal unfolded in Michigan two years ago, the most mythical claims about what he did turned out to be a James Bond fantasy.
Yes, the Stalions went to great lengths to illegally scout their opponents in person, violating NCAA rules, but it got a little silly when paranoia about hacking into the Catapult system to steal practice footage began to infect multiple programs. Alabama didn’t even allow players to watch film individually on their iPads before that year’s Rose Bowl. It got to a point where Catapult had to come out and say publicly that there was no evidence of security breaches.
Similarly, there is no hint of any evidence that could discredit Indiana’s success. Those theories seem to stem from disbelief that the Hoosiers can really be that good, especially when they often talk about how little they practice relative to other teams. (Cignetti has been a famous advocate of short, high-intensity practices, well below the 20 hours per week allowed by NCAA rules.)
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However, in these situations it is often useful to apply Occam’s razor, a philosophical principle according to which the simplest explanation for something tends to be the correct one. Is it more likely that Cignetti’s 26-2 record at Indiana is the product of a grand conspiracy or that a coach who won big in D-II, FCS and then the Sun Belt came to the Big Ten and continued winning with a group of players who were far more talented than anyone understood?
Yes, the Hoosiers are benefiting from the presence of several seniors and fifth-year players at key positions (but so are many programs). Yes, Mark Cuban and other billionaire Indiana alumni have invested in NIL and roster funding (donors tend to get excited when you win).
If you want to criticize Indiana for that, go ahead. But who knows if anyone else used the formula of a veteran-laden team and an expensive roster to win a national championship? That would be Ohio State last year. And probably all the national champions for the next few years. This is nothing innovative.
I hate to break it to you, but the real secret is no secret: Although Indiana doesn’t have the five-star recruits that have traditionally been the foundation of almost every championship team in history, Cignetti has managed to build a team without weaknesses.
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What is the best part of the Indiana team: the offense or the defense? What position group can you attack? It’s hard to say because no one has really identified anything to mess with. The Hoosiers have shown their ability to win a tough game at the line of scrimmage against the best in the country or they can win a shootout with the potential No. 1 overall draft pick in Fernando Mendoza by handing him off to future draft pick Roman Hemby and throwing to three future NFL receivers in Omar Cooper, Elijah Sarratt and Charlie Becker.
Oh, and Indiana has projected mid-round picks all over its defense, leads the nation in turnover margin and is noted for having the second-fewest penalty yards in the country.
It’s a pretty normal way to build a great team. It just happened in a place that isn’t normal, and it happened at high speed because Cignetti was able to bring some key pieces of his success at James Madison through the transfer portal. Ponds is a great example: A three-star recruit, largely because he’s a 5-foot-9 cornerback instead of a 6-foot-2 cornerback, he was incredible as a freshman at James Madison and has continued to be incredible for two years at Indiana.
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And especially now, as programs with more pedigree fight for continuity and building depth the traditional way by stacking recruiting classes, it makes sense that college football would run into an outlier champion who has talent, experience, continuity and great coaching.
Does that sound like a conspiracy or lightning bolt? If Cignetti had been hired at Alabama instead of Indiana two years ago and built his roster in exactly the same way, is there any doubt that the Crimson Tide would be playing for a national title right now without worrying about whether there was more to the story?
Instead, it’s happening in Indiana. College football has never been built for a program to go from a total loser to a national champion overnight, and some people are going crazy watching the Hoosiers become one of the most dominant playoff teams we’ve ever seen.
But every day a lottery ticket comes out somewhere in the United States. If this is truly Indiana’s moment, there probably isn’t much more to it than what the Hoosiers have shown us over the past 15 weeks.