By Rock Westfall
Google him, he wins.
Indeed, he does.
Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti has a career record of 127-35. Additionally, Cignetti played a key role in forging Nick Saban’s Alabama dynasty as the recruiting coordinator, setting the foundation for six national championships.
This year, his first at Indiana, Cignetti has caught lightning in a bottle. Upstart Indiana is 8-0 and controls its destiny for a shot at the Big Ten championship and a coveted slot in the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
Indiana is enjoying its greatest season since 1967, when it reached the Rose Bowl. It is the “impossible dream” campaign that has become all things possible. It is lightning in a bottle. And that’s just it. Cignetti, to his credit, is doing what nobody ever did or thought possible. But he is doing so by masterfully exploiting a set of circumstances that will be impossible for him to duplicate next year, whether at Indiana or somewhere else.
Google him, he rebuilds programs out of the ashes.
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Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule engineered two heavy lifts as head coach of the Temple Owls and Baylor Bears. Now in his second season at Nebraska, he is one win away from securing Big Red’s first bowl game in eight years.
Rhule’s approach could not be more opposite to Cignetti’s. Rhule is using the oldest formula in college football in his Big Red rebuild.
Cignetti defeated Rhule two weeks ago 56-7. But Rhule’s crockpot recipe is based on perpetual satisfaction for the long term. Cignetti’s microwave approach is an undeniable success at present but impossible to maintain at its current level.
Pot roast slow cooked in a crock pot always beats a nuked burrito.
It just takes a lot longer.
Ohio State in a fight for their lives in Columbus vs a Nebraska team that Indiana beat by 49 last week. The Big Ten runs through Bloomington. pic.twitter.com/qiQ3iEbV4y
— Jeff (@jeffmcg88) October 26, 2024
Cignetti’s Microwave – Transfer 13 Players Transferred In From an 11-2 Team
Curt Cignetti arrived at Indiana with great bravado. During his introduction to Hoosier fans at a basketball game, he took the mic to proclaim that Purdue, Ohio State, and Michigan all “sucked.” There were a lot of raised eyebrows and rolling eyes at that moment. But not anymore. Cignetti has masterminded one of the greatest immediate turnarounds in college football history.
“Purdue sucks… so does Michigan and Ohio State”
new Indiana Football Coach Curt Cignetti is making ENEMIES already
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) December 2, 2023
Following Cignetti to Indiana were 13 players who were part of an 11-2 James Madison team. Cignetti led the Dukes to an 8-3 record the season before as a newly transitioned program that arrived in the Sun Belt Conference from the FCS. All told Cignetti hit the transfer portal hard for 31 incoming players, including quarterback Kurtis Rourke from the Ohio Bobcats.
Cignetti’s success is not an accident. Arguably, his best win was last week at home against the Washington Huskies. Without Rourke, who was sidelined with a thumb injury, and in an obvious letdown spot after routing Nebraska on Fox Big Noon Saturday, the Hoosiers prevailed 31-17.
With a November 9 home game against the Michigan Wolverines and a November 23 road date against the Ohio State Buckeyes, Cignetti has the chance to prove his words that both schools “suck” while chasing the Big Ten championship and CFP.
Cignetti is a good and proven coach who is producing a season that Indiana fans thought they would never live to see. But this historic campaign for the Hoosiers had better be enjoyed while it lasts.
If Cignetti stays, he may still win, but not likely at this rate. More traditional recruiting and transfer portal prospects that did not come from an 11-2 team will fill his future rosters. Thus, the Indiana “microwave” approach is fulfilling for now, but not something that will likely satisfy in the future compared to now.
It’s a party here in Bloomington. The dream season has reached 8-0. #iufb https://t.co/cyvgGjwpVm
— Tom Ackerman (@Ackerman1120) October 26, 2024
Is Rhule’s Crockpot Dinner Finally Ready?
Following the debacle at Indiana, Nebraska and Rhule faced a firestorm of criticism. Rhule’s honeymoon in Lincoln ended, and the same doubts that plagued his predecessors resurfaced.
Nebraska was expected to be ruined at Ohio State last Saturday. Instead, the Big Red rose to the occasion and lost a game (21-17) that they arguably should have won. Nebraska’s performance at Ohio State was indicative of the culture and program that Rhule is building. The Big Red flashed its pride and full faith in Rhule.
Like Dabo Swinney at Clemson, Rhule is using the slower traditional approach to making a more substantive meal that will last. On Saturday, Nebraska hosts the UCLA Bruins, with an opportunity to clinch a bowl berth. How the struggling UCLA offense scores on the Blackshirts remains a legitimate question. UCLA’s porous defense should give the struggling Nebraska offense opportunities to exploit.
Once Nebraska clinches its sixth win for bowl eligibility, it will be more relaxed and could take off like a rocket.
Indiana and Cignetti are to be saluted for all they have accomplished in an inspirational season that has captivated the country.
Nebraska and Rhule earn respect for building toward bigger and better days ahead.
As ‘sophisticated’ UCLA arrives, Matt Rhule says Nebraska won’t ‘panic’ https://t.co/ih1piCWB9s
— Journal Star Huskers (@LJSHuskers) October 28, 2024
