CHICAGO — Big Ten coaches regularly use media days to drum up interest in their team and tout their league’s prowess. Rarely do they unleash an avalanche of superlatives for one of their foes unless the feat was truly astounding. In this case, it was.
Indiana won the College Football Playoff title in January with an unblemished campaign that goes down as one of the sport’s greatest seasons. Only in mid-November did the Hoosiers relinquish the title as college football’s losingest program, and by late January, they completed a 16-0 season. The accomplishment directed by Curt Cignetti in his second season left Hoosiers’ rivals and fellow competitors in awe.
“He called his own shot like Babe Ruth,” Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said from Big Ten media days. “Babe Ruth, pretty good baseball player. And I put Curt Cignetti right up there with Babe Ruth because he did the same thing. (But) that was just a home run. That wasn’t a grand slam in the World Series in Game 7 to win it.”
Illinois football coach Bret Bielema shared similar praise.
“That is single-handedly the most impressive story I’ve witnessed in my college career,” Bielema said. “What Cig did: Came in, (took) over a program that’s historically been one of the losingest programs and in two years literally ran away with it.”
Fleck ranks second in tenure among Big Ten coaches. Bielema won three straight Big Ten titles at Wisconsin from 2010 through 2012. They both recruit against Cignetti, yet they’re willing to cede promotional real estate to offer tribute.
Last year, the Hoosiers torched Bielema’s No. 9-ranked Fighting Illini 63-10 in what then was considered an early-season showdown. Illinois still finished 9-4 with a Music City Bowl victory against Tennessee. Minnesota, which finished 8-5 last year, plays at Indiana on Halloween this fall.
“What Curt Cignetti did was the greatest college moment and maybe season of any sport of all time,” Fleck said. “I had never seen anything like that in my life, and he deserves all the credit in the world.”
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The Hoosiers swept through the Big Ten, then beat Ohio State 13-10 in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown for the Big Ten championship. In the postseason, Indiana reached the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1967 season and shredded Alabama 38-3. A week later, the Hoosiers demolished Oregon 56-22 in the Peach Bowl, then won the CFP title in Miami against Miami, 27-21. Indiana also had beaten Oregon during the regular season, 30-20.
“I know what they did to us,” Bielema said. “To see them do what they did in the Playoff … the way they dominated teams is really impressive. In my opinion, it’s the greatest run I’ve seen and the greatest story.”
Oregon’s Dan Lanning agreed.
“Indiana had an unbelievable team last year,” he said. “I think everybody that played them got to see that.”
Cignetti, who is 27-2 overall and 17-1 in Big Ten play, gets a chance to tell his story on Thursday, where he’s likely to garner more attention than ever before. He’s just as likely to dismiss discussion about last season’s accolades and accomplishments and instead focus on the upcoming season. The Hoosiers return about half of their starters, including consensus first-team All-American offensive tackle Carter Smith, plus a handful of All-American candidates on offense and defense. They likely will open the season ranked in the top five in both the AP and coaches polls.
“The bottom line is this: They’re a really well-coached football team,” said Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, the winningest coach in Big Ten history. “I’ve never seen a film where they don’t play hard and don’t compete hard.”
Bielema coached at Kansas State under Bill Snyder, who directed the greatest turnaround in college football history. Kansas State was a football wasteland when Snyder took over in the 1980s, and that era is difficult to compare with today’s environment. Cignetti’s success was even more impressive to Bielema.
“I think Indiana probably passed that one by,” Bielema said.