Urban Meyer emphatic that Indiana can win the national championship: 'Absolutely, yes'

Fresh off last Saturday’s impressive 30-20 road upset of Oregon, second-year Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti has the third-ranked Hoosiers on top of the college football world. That includes achieving the program’s highest-ever ranking in the AP Top 25 poll with three first-place votes.

Still, given Indiana’s fall from grace after opening the 2024 season with 10 straight wins before dropping two of its final three games, the question remains: Are the Hoosiers legitimate national championship contenders this season? At least one former national championship-winning coach believes there’s no doubt about it.

“Common sense would say no. But, I mean, as a football coach studying it, listen closely — absolutely, yes, they can when you watch them play. Absolutely, yes!” FOX Sports analyst Urban Meyer said on Wednesday’s episode of The Triple Option podcast with co-hosts Mark Ingram and Rob Stone. “They have good enough players and they’re as well-coached (of a) team (as there is) in the United States of America. How about that? We’ve got to get there, Big Noon (Kickoff) has to get (to Bloomington).”

Of course, given that the remainder of Indiana’s Big Ten schedule doesn’t currently feature a single Top 25 opponent, a potential on-site visit for FOX Sports’ Saturday morning pregame show seems unlikely. But should the Hoosiers run the table and advance to the Big Ten Championship game, Meyer and the rest of the Big Noon Kickoff crew will likely make the trip to Indianapolis for Championship Weekend.

Mark Ingram encourages Penn State to give ‘everything I got’ to hire Curt Cignetti

There is no job open in the college football world more interesting than the open Penn State Nittany Lions job. There is a bevy of qualified options out there, but the expectation is that Penn State wants to make a splash hire. The question is now who that hire is going to be.

The open job came up during a conversation on The Triple Option. While co-hosts Mark Ingram, Urban Meyer, and Rob Stone were debating the job, it was mentioned that AD Pat Kraft went to Indiana. Naturally, that prompted Ingram to emphasize that current Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti should be the top target.

“If I’m Penn State, I’m opening everything I’ve got to go get Cig” Ingram said. “I ain’t even going to lie to you. You get to hurt a team in the Big Ten.”

Cignetti is a Pennsylvania native who played for West Virginia. With a coaching career that began in 1983, he earned his first head coaching job at IUP in 2011. He’d have later stops at Elon and James Madison before making it to Indiana in 2024. Immediately, he delivered the best season in program history, winning 11 games and going to the College Football Playoff.

Now, he’s trying to build on that and has the Hoosiers ranked No. 3 in the latest AP Poll. Ingram then argued that Indiana’s success is tied to Curt Cignetti.

“Why? Because of Curt Cignetti. It’s not because of resources,” Ingram continued. “It’s not because of the school. It’s because of one man. The one man’s name is Curt Cignetti, and he’s proven he can bring his program from James Madison to Indiana. If he wants to, he can bring his program from Indiana to Penn State. He can do it.”

— On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this report.