{"id":685405,"date":"2026-01-18T00:45:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T00:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/685405\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T00:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T00:45:26","slug":"curt-cignetti-on-being-a-wizard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/685405\/","title":{"rendered":"Curt Cignetti on being a &#8216;wizard&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/ncaa-football\/indiana-football\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Indiana football<\/a> head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/curt-cignetti\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Curt Cignetti<\/a> heads to Miami with a \u201cwizard\u201d label attached to him. What he&#8217;s done in Bloomington cements the wizardry \u2014 taking the losingest power conference team to the national title game. <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/ncaa-football\/indiana-football-news-curt-cignetti-real-potentially-coaching-nfl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Even NFL teams are reportedly liking what they&#8217;ve seen from Cignetti<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But does Cignetti embrace the \u201cwizard\u201d moniker?<\/p>\n<p>He insists he&#8217;s not the w-word. But did explain \u201cwizard\u201d is inside IU&#8217;s play sheet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m no wizard, that\u2019s for sure. But we do have a play called wizard that we put in for this game, however,\u201d Cignetti <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ColinMcMahon31\/status\/2012616291400421565?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">said to reporters<\/a> on the eve of the Monday championship.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Cignetti catches Miami off guard through calling \u201cwizard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indiana, Curt Cignetti facing this call-out<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3662778\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Indiana-head-coach-Curt-Cignetti_f0e11c.jpg\" alt=\"Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti holds up the trophy as confetti falls Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, after defeating the Oregon Ducks in the Peach Bowl and semifinal game of the College Football Playoff at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>Grace Hollars\/IndyStar \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately Indiana&#8217;s sudden rise comes with a potential take down from the outside world. And it doesn&#8217;t involve the Hurricanes and their own game plan.<\/p>\n<p>IU and Cignetti got accused of \u201ccheating.\u201d The nation noticed the way <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/ncaa-football\/indiana-football-news-pat-forde-lays-out-why-cheating-conspiracy-theories-asinine\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">IU became built via the transfer portal<\/a>. Yet Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated called the rumor \u201casinine\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college-football\/no-indiana-is-not-cheating-cfp-playoff\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">in his in-depth report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Indiana took advantage of the new climate of college football \u2014 one involving teams building with CFB veterans. Except this roster features past talent from James Madison with ties to \u201cCig.\u201d The other hail from other non group of five teams or where guys once under recruited.<\/p>\n<p>But IU is winning over past Power Four players \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/ncaa-football\/indiana-football-news-curt-cignetti-adds-explosive-transfer-wr-with-alabama-tulane-experience\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a la former Alabama wide receiver Shazz Preston<\/a>. Even Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza played in the Atlantic Coast Conference last season.<\/p>\n<p>The Hoosiers took a new page in building their roster, leading to this moment. This construction feels magical and wizardry to the nation. But Monday night will decide if Indiana&#8217;s approach becomes the new formula moving forward for other CFB teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti heads to Miami with a \u201cwizard\u201d label attached to him. What he&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[332,16784,7,26781,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-685405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football-playoff","9":"tag-curt-cignetti","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indiana-football","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115913341884221435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685405","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=685405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}