Curt Cignetti and Indiana just proved the Hoosiers are contenders

EUGENE, Ore. – Enough with the credibility nonsense when it comes to Indiana football.

Enough with the constant scrutiny of the Hoosiers’ schedule, their record against ranked teams, the worn-out stigma that they’re merely a basketball school or anything else that suggests Curt Cignetti’s football program isn’t the real deal.

You want credibility?

There it was on Saturday afternoon at an ear-splitting Autzen Stadium, a place where Oregon had won 18 straight games, the longest active home winning streak in the country, and a place that typically chews up and spits out opposing teams.

But not this Indiana team, which never expected anything but to win and did just that, a convincing 30-20 victory over No. 3 Oregon, which had won 23 straight regular-season games. And to be fair, it was much more than just a convincing victory. It was a statement victory in a game that saw Indiana recover from an interception returned for an Oregon touchdown in the fourth quarter to tie the game and saw the No. 7 Hoosiers do just about everything else it takes to win a game of this magnitude on the road.

“We’re not just a one-hit wonder,” said Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who transferred from Cal to be a part of days like this and a program in Year 2 under Cignetti, intent on crashing the party of college football’s blue bloods.

As everybody from Indiana president Pamela Whitten to athletic director Scott Dolson to jubilant fans in red and white candy-striped pants celebrated on the field after the game with the players, there were chants of “Cig! Cig! Cig!”

And some questions, too. One Indiana fan turned to his buddy and said, “Can you believe this?”

Cignetti and his players weren’t rubbing their eyes. They could believe it. They talked all week about what it would take.

“I really felt like our team was in a good place,” said Cignetti, who led Indiana to an 11-2 record, the first 10-win season in program history a year ago. “The most important thing to me was our mindset going into this game that we believed, expected and prepared to make it happen and could handle the ups and downs of the game without flinching, showing frustration and anxiety.

“That was the only thing you don’t know until you play the game, and we passed that test.”

They didn’t just pass it. They aced it.

For all the accolades surrounding Indiana’s College Football Playoff appearance last season, there was more noise on the outside about what the Hoosiers didn’t do – beat a ranked team.

Well, after being 1-72 all-time against AP top-5 teams entering Saturday’s game, it’s safe to say that monkey (or duck) is off Indiana’s back. The Hoosiers had lost 46 straight games to top-5 foes and own the dubious distinction of being the first FBS program to reach 700 losses.

But that was then, and this is now. A new era of college football with NIL payments, revenue sharing, and the transfer portal, paving the way for more than just the usual suspects to have a chance to feast at the main table.

“You’ve got to change the way you think,” said senior linebacker Aiden Fisher, who followed Cignetti last year from James Madison. “When we first got here, all this team knew was losing football and weren’t used to being in big games. We were used to losing games and just kind of being like the punching bag of the Big Ten. I think we did a great job as soon as we got here of changing the way Indiana thinks, changing the way we think as individuals.

“We’re primed for games like this. This is why we play this game. This is why you come to Indiana. You want to play in top-ranked matchups. You want to win top-ranked matchups, and you want to play for somebody like Coach Cig, who’s so confident in himself that it just flows into his players. This program is in a really good spot right now with Coach Cig at the helm of it and just how much he believes in his players and how much we believe in him.”

What was once a losing mentality in Bloomington has suddenly transformed overnight. However, Whitten told On3 on the field as she posed for selfies with Indiana fans that “this is something we’ve been working toward. We understood what having a winning football program can do for a school, and Curt was the one to get us there. I can’t wait to see where we take it from here.”

To truly appreciate what Cignetti has done, consider that Indiana had suffered through losing seasons in 14 of the previous 16 years before he arrived. One of those winning seasons came during the 2020 COVID year.

So while not downplaying what was easily one of the biggest wins in Indiana football history Saturday, Cignetti said the real value of the win will “depend on what we do with it from here.”

In other words, show up for work on Monday and get ready for Michigan State.

There’s nothing about this Indiana team (6-0) that would make you think differently. The remaining schedule doesn’t look menacing with no ranked teams lurking. At least, for now.

“We’re a good football team, but we knew that,” said Indiana receiver Elijah Sarratt, who caught eight passes for 121 yards and the game-deciding touchdown and continues to make his case as one of the premier receivers in college football.

“On the outside, people are always going to say stuff, but to us, we’ve just got to keep on rolling. We know we’re nowhere near where we want to be right now, so we’re onto the next game starting tomorrow. … It was a big win for us, but we want to keep going.”

Cignetti emphasized several times Saturday how much respect he had for Dan Lanning and Oregon and what a good football team the Ducks had. There’s a reason Oregon had won 17 straight Big Ten league games overall and the Big Ten championship a year ago. They were averaging 46.6 points per game and more than 500 yards in offense per game.

On Saturday, the Hoosiers held the Ducks to 267 total yards and just one offensive touchdown. The last time Oregon was held to a single offensive touchdown at home was the 2017 season.

There was nothing remotely flukey about this game.

“I thought their plan was better, and ours wasn’t,” Lanning said.

What was so impressive about that plan was the way Indiana executed it.

Indiana’s tackling was excellent. The Hoosiers swarmed Oregon ball-carriers, usually three or four defenders at a time. They made contested catches on offense. See Sarratt’s 8-yard touchdown catch in tight one-on-one coverage to put the Hoosiers ahead for good. They made all three of their field-goal attempts, one a 58-yarder by Brendan Franke to give Indiana a 13-10 halftime lead.

And they absolutely dominated the fourth quarter. Indiana outgained Oregon 104-15 yards in the final quarter. In fact, until Oregon got the ball back with 32 seconds remaining and the outcome already decided, the Ducks had been held to minus-8 total yards in the fourth quarter.

Indiana’s defense also forced Oregon quarterback Dante Moore into two interceptions and sacked him six times. Moore had thrown 14 touchdown passes and just one interception coming into the game.

“There’s not a single moment we don’t trust each other to do our job, and then we just feed off each other,” said Fisher, part of a linebacker unit that combined for 34 tackles in the game. “One guy makes a tackle, and now I’ve got to go make a tackle to kind of even it up with him. So it’s just complete buy-in, and everybody is so confident and playing well off each other.”

Indiana’s defense hasn’t given up more than one touchdown in each of its last five games.

“Honestly, I think confidence is just flowing through our room right now,” Fisher said.

And as much as anything, the fact that Mendoza never lost his confidence after throwing the pick-6, allowing Oregon to tie the game, and sending the crowd into a frenzy, tells you everything you need to know about the makeup of Indiana’s entire team and the synergy on this team.

Mendoza trotted back onto the field and promptly led a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that ate up more than six minutes on the clock. Twice, Mendoza converted clutch third-down passes, the second one to Sarratt on third-and-goal from the 8 to break the 20-20 tie.

“I went to the sideline (after the interception) and had all the leaders and basically everybody on the team come up to me and say, ‘Hey, we’re still behind you. We got your back,’” Mendoza said. “That can be very frustrating for a defense who’s played so well the entire game and then the offense allows a touchdown. So for everybody to have belief in our offense, that we were going to be able to have that drive and score a touchdown, was phenomenal. … There was no panic.”

And nobody should be surprised, either, at anything Indiana does the rest of this season, a season that’s already included its share of twists and turns and the so-called mighty not being so mighty.

“We still have many more big games to go. This was just one of them,” Sarratt said.