Indiana football overlooked again? Why Curt Cignetti's IU is still a national title contender

BLOOMINGTON — One of Curt Cignetti’s viral moments last season was also among his most prescient.

Standing on the Beaver Stadium field just moments before kickoff, Cignetti faced a question from Fox sideline reporter Jenny Taft about what it would take for Indiana football to win at Penn State for the first time in program history.

“This team,” Cignetti replied, “has never played here.”

His Hoosiers will confront another one of those firsts — they’re beginning to run out of them — on Saturday, when Indiana takes Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium as, for the first time, defending national champion. Expect college football to watch with interest how well the Hoosiers defend that title.

Cignetti doesn’t see it like that, which is the best way to understand how he will tackle the challenge now in front of him.

“Going into this season, I know I’m going to get asked some questions (about defending a national title),” Cignetti said at Big Ten media days in July. “Our focus is on the things you have to do to improve as much as possible. To improve as much as possible today. We don’t talk about product, results. We don’t talk about champions, playoffs, national championships. …

“We have a way of doing things, we’ve got guys that have been together, and all we do is win.”

For Curt Cignetti, each season becomes its own siloed, individual challenge, the moment the previous one ends. Yes, its success or failure is influenced by past experience, but it is not formed by it, and Cignetti doesn’t intend for this team to be either.

This Indiana expects to contend for a national championship again. Not because its predecessor won the last one, but because this team believes it is good enough to win its own title.

Crucially, it’s right.

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Curt Cignetti set IU football tone with 'Chapter 3' declaration

Listen close enough, and you’ll hear Curt Cignetti tell you this sort of thing.

Not necessarily the championship part of it. No coach will ever give away more than confidence in their people and their process. Besides, his results speak for themselves.

But his framing of a season — this season or any season — always remains the same. When he announced at the Hoosiers’ national championship celebration in January in Bloomington that “Chapter 3” began the next day, he was being honest about his own eagerness to turn the page, from the history his team made to the chance to make more.

The sport won’t always work like that. Whatever Cignetti’s pronouncements, Indiana will have to navigate a world it’s never visited before, one where it begins every game painted as a target. The Hoosiers winning their national title means they just became a prize to almost everyone else, beginning with North Texas on Saturday.

Which is why this team’s greatest test might be living out its coach’s promise. Blocking out any attendant distraction, refusing for even a moment to live in its now-illustrious past, and aiming only at the opportunity ahead to do it all again.

Maintaining that focus is IU’s primary challenge in the months ahead. Because talent should not be a problem.

Why IU football can contend for a championship again

Indiana has it in abundance. College football might not fully realize that yet.

Here, the Hoosiers are probably taking on two realities at once. First, that it’s still difficult to imagine programs that don’t recruit at the level of Ohio State, Georgia or Alabama seamlessly reloading after such a pronounced talent drain. And second, that we’ve all come to realize in the portal era, stacking the depth necessary for that kind of consistency is just very difficult.

It’s not disrespectful to wonder whether a team that saw nine players — including its Heisman Trophy winning quarterback — drafted into the NFL, with more than a dozen in full camping somewhere in the pros, might struggle to replace so much impact.

Any such assumptions overlook the enviable wealth of talent returning from Miami.

Imagine a defending national champion returns, in effect, four starting offensive linemen, all-conference-caliber players at receiver and running back, All-Americans at defensive tackle and linebacker, and multi-year starters at cornerback and safety. Then imagine that team adds more such talent along both lines of scrimmage, in its offensive and defensive backfields, at multiple skill positions and behind center, where it replaces that Heisman winner with the nation’s leading returning passer.

Now, imagine ranking that team outside the top five nationally, as was the case when both major polls were released earlier this summer.

Whether Cignetti and his players draw motivation from that perceived slight is up to them. A team committed to blocking out any distractions, to removing anything that might cause the slightest drag on its cold, remarkable efficiency, probably doesn’t need to search that hard for purpose and confidence.

If college football wants at any level to see the Hoosiers prove themselves again, it’s probably about to get its wish.

How 'the JMU guys' left mark on IU football

Because this team is absolutely a Big Ten contender. It might not be the betting favorite, but returning to Indianapolis is hardly a pipe dream. And in modern college football, any Big Ten contender is almost by default a national contender as well.

Like anyone, Indiana will need some good fortune. A friendly break in a close game. A cleaner-than-average bill of health.

But if teams — as coaches are fond of saying — make their own luck, this one is a master of the craft. All that aforementioned talent and experience. A coaching staff once again blessed with enviable continuity. A process that’s produced winning seasons in all 15 years the man pulling the strings from the top has been in charge.

Cignetti went out of his way in those same media day comments to say that “all the guys that have been with us for two years, that were at Indiana my first year, they're the JMU guys.”

He was referring to the baker’s dozen transfers that came with Cignetti from Harrisonburg to Bloomington, and from their first days together in their new program helped their coach establish the habits and expectations that transformed a perennial cellar dweller into a national champion.

And “the guys” he referenced are the players who, with all but one of those former Dukes now gone, stand as testament to the same process, as well as the same results. Elijah Sarratt begat Charlie Becker. James Carpenter became Mario Landino. Aiden Fisher handed down his position and his responsibilities to Isaiah Jones.

The faces have changed. The process, and the man directing it, have not. History tells us he’s not slowing down, and therefore, neither is his team.

IU might not win a national championship this season, but anyone waiting for the old Hoosiers to return will be wasting their time.

Curt Cignetti isn’t going anywhere, and neither is Indiana.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana football overlooked again? Why Curt Cignetti's IU is still a national title contender

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