'Pray for Oregon': Inside the locker room before Indiana shocked college football
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Indiana’s perfect season became a collage of the most remarkable moments fans anywhere could remember. Dominant wins followed fourth-quarter drama all the way to Miami, as detailed in “Unthinkable to Unstoppable: How Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers Stunned College Football.”
Behind-the-scenes accounts throughout this forthcoming release from Triumph Books — authored by longtime IndyStar IU beat writer Zach Osterman and Bloomington Herald Times IU beat writer Michael Niziolek, both part of the USA TODAY Network — take readers onto the sidelines where Indiana made history. This exclusive excerpt finds the Hoosiers huddled in the cramped visitors’ locker room at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore., preparing for a nationally televised game against Dan Lanning’s Ducks.
Oregon entered the weekend ranked in the top five nationally, having won its past 18 home games. These were the moments when Indiana fell short the season before, moments the Hoosiers knew they needed to meet this time around.
(Excerpt edited for clarity.)
BUY: Unthinkable to Unstoppable – How Indiana Stunned College Football
With about 20 minutes until kickoff, IU coaches made final adjustments while players grabbed Gatorade. The Hoosiers’ typical routine involved Cignetti delivering a brief speech before leading his team in the Lord’s Prayer. In the charged atmosphere of what amounted to a small shack—with Autzen Stadium beginning to shake, and a national television audience waiting — Cignetti this time forgot himself.
A creature of habit like his coach, strength coach Derek Owings caught the error immediately. He briefly considered letting it go, but decided it was too important of a tradition to let pass: “I better say it, or he’s gonna rip my ass if I’m walking down this tunnel.”
“Coach, are we going to pray?” Owings asked.
Cignetti turned, checking his watch.
“Ah, f— it,” he said. “Pray for Oregon.”
Indiana’s coaching staff developed a plan of attack, but Xs and Os became a secondary concern in Cignetti’s mind. He channeled much of his energy in the days before Oregon into building what he called an “indomitable will” in his locker room, a belief he felt was absent on IU’s sideline in losses to Ohio State and Notre Dame the previous year.
It was a common theme, as well, in defeats he’d suffered at James Madison in big moments. To this day, the JMU transfers who ended up in Bloomington still haven’t come to terms with a loss to Appalachian State in 2023 that ended what was then an undefeated season. That loss stuck with Cignetti as well. The first time he met with receiver Charlie Becker after coming to IU, Becker mentioned his brother was a linebacker on that Mountaineers team, to which Cignetti replied, “That’s the last we’re gonna talk about App State ever again.”
Experiences like that added another layer of seriousness to Cignetti’s tone leading up to Oregon. Offensive lineman Pat Coogan summed up Cignetti’s message plainly.
“We can’t f— around,” Coogan said, “and be scared of these guys.”
Indiana’s Heisman-candidate quarterback had a rival on the home sideline. In fact, Dante Moore entered the game more widely recognized as an early frontrunner (if not the early frontrunner) for the award. The Hoosiers did not necessarily share that opinion. In particular, (defensive coordinator Bryant) Haines and his defensive staff felt Moore might be vulnerable.
From the outside, that seemed like a dangerous assessment. Moore arrived having passed for 1,210 yards with at least three touchdowns in four of the Ducks’ first five games. He enjoyed the fourth-best completion rate in the country (74.6%), with precious few mistakes for his trouble — through five weeks, Moore had thrown one interception, and taken just one sack.
As with quarterback Fernando Mendoza at Iowa, Moore set up the undefeated Week 6 showdown with his heroics in State College. He converted a crucial fourth down that set up the first of his two passing touchdowns in overtime, scores that eventually won Oregon the game. Moore looked like a potential top-five pick, and a lock to become the program’s third-straight quarterback to take a trip to New York, following in the footsteps of Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel.
The Hoosiers didn’t want to take the ball out of Moore’s hands. If anything, the opposite. Haines wanted to make Moore hold onto it longer, and take away what defensive back Devan Boykin called Moore’s “easy access throws.” Indiana wanted to force Moore into second and third reads, and make him prove he could cycle through them quickly enough to beat IU’s pass rush.
Haines and his staff prepared players with such great detail that multiple Hoosiers said later they knew what Oregon was running out of certain formations. Indiana threw a lot of deep-third and two-high coverages — zone-based looks that are easier to disguise — to confuse Moore.
“It was big that game, making him think post-snap and not giving him easy reads, easy looks, and making him make decisions after the ball was snapped,” Boykin said. “From there, it’s just about getting pressure, making them uncomfortable and getting them off the spot.”
Indiana’s rush delivered immediately. Defensive lineman (Kellan) Wyatt matched Moore’s season sack total on the first snap of the game, shedding right tackle Alex Harkey and joining defensive tackle Mario Landino to bring Moore to the turf. It was the first of six IU sacks that afternoon, the Hoosiers shocking the country with their dominance. In total, Pro Football Focus (PFF) charted pressures on a whopping 20 of Moore’s 42 dropbacks.
From the first whistle, Indiana looked like a team transformed at the line of scrimmage.
“I think we eliminated some of their offense and rattled him for sure,” Wyatt said.
As the afternoon wore on, over and over, Moore had to pick himself up off the Autzen Stadium turf. Pressure forced him out of his pocket and off his reads. His offensive line struggled so badly, Indiana actually logged one of its sacks on the same play Harkey was flagged for a holding penalty. The Hoosiers declined.
From their sideline, they watched as the physical toll mounted on Oregon’s quarterback. By the second half, they didn’t see a Heisman candidate behind center. They saw a weary, battered Moore beginning to shrink from the game.
“We were on the sideline [saying], ‘Oh yeah, we got him,’” running back Solomon Vanhorse said. “‘He don’t want to be here no more. He’s tired of this.’ Then you could see the whole offense shut down.”
Excerpted from the book “Unthinkable to Unstoppable: How Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers Stunned College Football.” From Triumph Books. Reprinted with permission.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Pray for Oregon': Inside the locker room before Indiana shocked college football
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