Hoosier Hysteria: Out-of-nowhere Indiana basking in spotlight

(Photo credit: Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The college football world has spent the last couple of months trying to tell Curt Cignetti how to think.

"You can't win at Indiana University."

"The Hoosiers can't be highly ranked in the college football polls."

"IU can't have a spot in the College Football Playoffs."

"IU-Ohio State is the biggest game the Hoosiers have played since 1967... maybe ever."

The Hoosiers' head coach isn't listening. In fact, he's not all that interested in what you think.

It isn't that he doesn't hear the outside noise. It would be difficult not to, what with ESPN's College GameDay and Fox Sports' Big Noon Kickoff consistently buzzing around. Unparalleled success comes with national attention, and the Hoosiers are among the biggest stories of the 2024 college football season.

After nearly 140 years of frustration, the program that has lost more games in its history than any other finds itself in the white-hot spotlight vs. the No. 2-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus with a chance to silence all of its critics. Big Ten title hopes lie in the balance.

A big game? Cignetti isn't having it.

"It's a big game because it's the next game," Cignetti says. "We treat them all alike. If there were a better way to prepare for a certain team, we'd do that for every team."

It's coach-speak, but it's also clear that Cignetti truly believes it.

His success not just at IU but at previous stops at James Madison and Elon has convinced him that his way of preparing for opponents and instilling belief in his players is the right way.

"It's pretty simple," Cignetti famously said after being hired at IU. "I win. Google me."

Belief has been the bedrock of the Hoosiers' historic season, from the belief the coaches have in one another to the belief the players have in their coaches and each other. Belief isn't difficult to come by when the head man has delivered on everything he promised since Day One.

And the IU administration is buying into the belief, too. With multiple sellouts of Memorial Stadium this year and the promise of a lot more in the future, IU Athletics Director Scott Dolson made sure nobody was going to poach his head coach by using the bye week to sign Cignetti to an eight-year contract extension worth upwards of $72 million.

Even when his team wasn't playing, Cignetti managed to win the weekend.

It's the best of times for IU football, and it will never be better.

There were no expectations on the Hoosiers coming into this season, and nobody in their wildest dreams believed IU would be undefeated and ranked in the top five in the country come the final weeks of the regular season. For a program that consistently searches for just six wins in a season to reach an elusive bowl, one that won a total of nine games in the last three years, every game at this point is playing with house money.

Nobody can be disappointed with anything that happens from here on out because nobody expected to be here.

Consider IU never won more than nine games in a season until this season. The Hoosiers could lose every game the rest of the year and it would be the most successful season in their history.

In the future, there will be expectations.

IU fans have felt the warmth of success, and they'll crave it with every fiber of their being. Disappointment and heartache are always a possibility. It has happened before.

But that's in the future. Cignetti has completely changed the narrative for IU football, which is now playing big-boy football for the first time in its history.

There is the contract extension and the dream of renovations at 65-year-old Memorial Stadium. You need more room for more fans. Cignetti has allowed long-suffering Hoosier fans to dream of becoming a football power, and he's certain this year isn't a fluke. It's just the beginning.

And you better believe it.

--Ken Bikoff, Field Level Media