Curt Cignetti has done something no one else has ever done in college football: win the Associated Press Coach of the Year award in back-to-back seasons. And he’s done it while turning Indiana - yes, Indiana - into the most dominant program in the country this year.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate what that really means. Since the award began in 1998, only three other coaches - Nick Saban, Brian Kelly, and Gary Patterson - have won it twice.
But none of them did it in consecutive years. Cignetti is in a class of his own now, and so are his Hoosiers.
This season, Indiana is the only team in college football to finish the regular season 13-0. They’re sitting atop both the AP Poll and the College Football Playoff rankings.
They have the Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Fernando Mendoza. And they just took down the nation’s top-ranked team to get there.
That’s not just a good season - that’s a program-altering, legacy-defining run.
Indiana’s 13-10 win over No. 1 Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship wasn’t just a statement - it was a seismic shift.
That victory snapped the Buckeyes’ 16-game win streak, the longest in the country at the time, and handed the Hoosiers the top spot in the CFP. In the process, Indiana now owns the nation’s longest active win streak at 13 games, and the longest home win streak at 15.
Not bad for a program that once held the record for the most losses in FBS history.
Cignetti’s two-year record in Bloomington now stands at 24-2. The only teams to beat him?
Last year’s national champion (Ohio State) and the runner-up (Notre Dame). That’s elite company, and it underscores just how quickly he’s elevated Indiana into the upper tier of college football.
Before Cignetti arrived, Indiana had never won more than 13 games in a single season. Now they’ve hit that mark and still have a chance to add more.
His debut team went 11-2. This year’s squad is a perfect 13-0 heading into the College Football Playoff, where they’ll face the winner of Alabama vs.
Oklahoma in a Rose Bowl quarterfinal on New Year’s Day.
The numbers tell the story, but the way this team is winning might be even more impressive. Against Ohio State - a defense that had allowed just 203.9 yards per game all season - Indiana racked up 340 yards of total offense.
Mendoza threw for 222 yards, nearly doubling the Buckeyes’ average passing yards allowed (121.3). The Hoosiers also sacked Julian Sayin five times - he’d only been sacked six times all season prior to that game.
And let’s not overlook the historical weight of that win. Indiana had lost 30 straight games to Ohio State before this one.
That streak is over. And now the Hoosiers are Big Ten champions for the first time under the current format.
This season has been a record-breaking ride for Indiana. Here’s a quick rundown of what they’ve accomplished under Cignetti:
- First 13-0 season in program history
- First No.
1 AP Poll ranking since the poll began in 1936
- First No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff
- First perfect regular season (12-0), surpassing the 1945 team’s 9-0-1 mark
- First 9-0 Big Ten record
- Most wins in a single season (13)
- Most wins over a two-year span (24)
- Most Big Ten regular-season wins in a two-year span (17)
- First Big Ten Championship under the current format
- First time winning four Big Ten games in a single season by 45+ points (including a 63-10 rout of No. 9 Illinois and a 56-3 demolition of Purdue)
And now, the road to a national title goes through Pasadena. Indiana will take the field in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 at 4 p.m.
ET, awaiting the winner of Alabama vs. Oklahoma.
Win that, and they’ll head to the Peach Bowl on Jan. 9.
From there, it’s on to Miami for the national championship on Jan. 19.
This isn’t just a feel-good story. It’s one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent college football history.
Under Curt Cignetti, Indiana has gone from a perennial afterthought to the team everyone’s chasing. And with a Heisman winner under center, a defense that just shut down one of the nation's best offenses, and a head coach making history, they’re not just here to participate - they’re here to win it all.