{"id":666903,"date":"2026-01-10T19:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/666903\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T19:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:40:12","slug":"curt-cignetti-was-only-thinking-about-one-thing-after-indianas-cfp-win-in-viral-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/666903\/","title":{"rendered":"Curt Cignetti was only thinking about one thing after Indiana&#8217;s CFP win in viral moment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Curt Cignetti gave his best Stone Cold Steve Austin impression after a dominant College Football Playoff (CFP) smackdown Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>The Indiana coach cheekily revealed that he his mind on opening up a cold one and not on his preparations for Miami after <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/09\/sports\/indiana-dominates-oregon-to-advance-to-national-championship-game\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a 56-22 semifinal beatdown of Oregon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really not thinking about the next game,\u201d Cignetti said to ESPN on the field. \u201cI\u2019m thinking about cracking open a beer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cignetti, 64, flashed a big smile and chuckled after his remark, clearly enjoying the moment with his team one win away from immortality.<\/p>\n<p>His 15-0 Hoosiers are making their case to be considered one of the greatest teams in the history of the sport and perhaps one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/09\/sports\/indiana-making-sports-history-with-curt-cignetti-fernando-mendoza\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">best college football stories ever<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Indiana has historically been a pushover in the Big Ten and is a basketball school, yet it making mince meat of historical programs in pursuit of its first national title.<\/p>\n<p>The top-seeded Hoosiers destroyed Alabama, 38-3, in the quarterfinals, and the nearly matched that 35-point victory by defeating Oregon by 34 points in a game that was over at halftime.<\/p>\n<p>Indiana defeated the Ducks, 30-20, in Eugene, Ore., earlier this year, and it\u2019s a testament to Cignetti\u2019s coaching in his second season with the program that the rematch turned into a glorified exhibition.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38146946\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/indiana-head-coach-curt-cignetti-118611066.jpg\" alt=\"Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti holding up the Peach Bowl trophy after winning the game.\" class=\"wp-image-38146946\"  \/>Indiana\u2019s Curt Cignetti celebrates Friday\u2019s win. AP<\/p>\n<p>Fernando Mendoza showed why he will likely be the Raiders\u2019 No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft with a masterful 17-of-20, five-touchdown performance.<\/p>\n<p>Indiana\u2019s defense, meanwhile, made Jets fans wonder if they <a href=\"http:\/\/Cignetti Indiana\" rel=\"nofollow\">still want Oregon quarterback Dante Moore<\/a> after he struggled with the game still in reach.<\/p>\n<p>Moore eventually led some garbage-time touchdown drives after Oregon went ahead, 42-7.<\/p>\n<p>Indiana is a 7.5-point favorite at BetMGM for the Jan. 19 national title game against No. 10 Miami.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople, blueprint, the plan,\u201d Cignetti told ESPN of his program\u2019s turnaround. \u201cYou get the right people on the bus and they prepare the right way and you got a process, anything\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Curt Cignetti gave his best Stone Cold Steve Austin impression after a dominant College Football Playoff (CFP) smackdown&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,332,7,4725,49,48,575,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-666903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-college-football-playoff","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indiana-hoosiers","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-oregon-ducks","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}