BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana coach Curt Cignetti could not relinquish the fight.
His No. 16-ranked Hoosiers annihilated Nebraska 56-7 on Saturday, providing a victory margin unequaled in their long and mostly discouraging football history since 1945. Before it ended, many of the fans left the smallest of the Big Ten’s three Memorial Stadiums, and Indiana’s largest and most vociferous home crowd since 1979 was a surprise in its own right. Yet Cignetti offered no let up in his approach on the sidelines, no matter how many supporters were celebrating the victory in the parking lots.
“I wouldn’t let them get complacent,” Cignetti said. “With the coaches, either.
“I was a maniac in the fourth quarter of this game. A maniac.”
This is an Indiana football team (7-0 overall, 4-0 Big Ten) that is unrecognizable to its past, which largely consisted of sharing revenue in exchange for being the Big Ten’s party favor for a century. (Basketball is a different story.) But this isn’t a Cinderella season like what Northwestern experienced in 1995. This is a Hoosiers squad that is more than capable of not only crashing the College Football Playoff but competing in it and winning games.
In seven weeks, the Big Ten will fight for four CFP teams and likely wind up with three. Indiana legitimately is one of those four teams, and it might not rank fourth, either. The Hoosiers are as complete as any Big Ten team, save for Oregon and Ohio State. Indiana boasts a relentless team mindset that’s as subtle as a two-by-four to the shoulder blade and possesses a pensive swagger that’s more intimidating than demeaning.
“We’re gonna keep our foot on the gas,” Indiana receiver Miles Cross said. “We’re looking to dominate whenever we can.”
Miles Cross and the many transfers who make up Indiana’s roster have come together quickly under Curt Cignetti. (Rich Janzaruk / Herald-Times / USA Today via Imagn Images)
To put this win in context, consider the day opened with Nebraska owning just one loss, and it took place in overtime. The Huskers ranked No. 13 nationally in total defense and were only two spots out of the AP Top 25. Yet Indiana — much maligned for its schedule — beat Nebraska like a sparring partner.
For the sixth straight game, the Hoosiers surpassed 40 points. If the game lasted another quarter, they might have scored 70 for the second time this year. Nebraska gave up eight touchdowns in its first six games, and the Hoosiers scored eight touchdowns on 12 possessions. The Huskers were the only team nationally not to give up a rushing touchdown this year. On Saturday, Indiana rushed for five.
It didn’t matter who was playing quarterback for the Hoosiers. Starter Kurtis Rourke played the first half, completing 17 of 21 passes for 189 yards before a torn thumbnail on his right hand sidelined him after halftime. So backup Tayven Jackson stepped in and completed all but one of his eight passes for 91 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. Indiana scored touchdowns on all seven red zone possessions.
Swagger meet performance.
“With success comes belief, comes confidence,” Cignetti said. “I think we saw that really kind of start against Western Illinois. It wasn’t a great team, but we played well. And then we went to UCLA, and I think we have just seen it build off every other week.”
What makes this season all the more impressive is just how Cignetti built Indiana so quickly. A year ago, he guided James Madison to a 12-win campaign, then replaced Tom Allen as Indiana’s head coach. Brimming with confidence, Cignetti grew tired of reporters asking him how he planned to turn around a program that was 224-529-24 all-time against Big Ten foes.
“It’s pretty simple,” he said at his introductory news conference. “I win. Google me.”
Cignetti brought 12 former James Madison players with him, including several All-Sun Belt honorees. He landed Rourke from the transfer portal and along came Cross, his top target at Ohio. In seven games this year, Rourke has completed 74.6 percent of his passes for 1,941 yards, 15 touchdowns and three interceptions.
But Indiana has had terrific offenses before, under both Kevin Wilson a decade ago and with Allen in 2019-2020. What separates this team from its predecessors is its defense. The Hoosiers have yet to allow more than 28 points in a game, and this was the fifth time they held an opponent to 14 or less.
Saturday, the Hoosiers destroyed the Huskers in multiple ways. They produced seven tackles for loss, a pair of sacks and intercepted Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola three times. In what Cignetti called the game’s key play, defensive back Shawn Asbury II intercepted Raiola at the Indiana 3-yard line and returned it 79 yards. Three plays later, Indiana scored its fifth touchdown to take a 35-7 lead.
To a man, the CFP is the furthest thing from the players’ minds. In fact, they struggle to know who is up next on the schedule. As he repeated the script of not looking ahead and focusing on the next opponent, linebacker Jailin Walker stopped, looked down and paused before uttering “Washington.” So, if the Hoosiers have eyes for Michigan on Nov. 9 or Ohio State on Nov. 23, they have no interest in sharing those details. For those who did so in Walker’s presence, it was just “rat poison.”
“Whoever’s next on the schedule, just focus on that,” Cross said. “If we get to that point, we get to that point. But right now, we’re just focusing on the next team, looking on dominating the next team.”
At 7-0 overall, Indiana is one win shy of matching its best untied start to a season in 1967. Only twice since joining the Big Ten alongside Iowa in 1899 as part of college football’s first conference expansion has Indiana claimed a league title. One was in 1945 at the end of World War II. The other was in 1967 when it tied for the crown with Purdue and Minnesota.
The last time Indiana beat a Big Ten opponent by 49 points also took place in 1945.
“I sort of got a sense of the history, but I don’t really dive too much deeper to that,” said cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, who joined Cignetti from James Madison. “Our job is to win. Take it one game at a time, and just win.”
(Photo of Indiana coach Curt Cignetti: James Black / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
