Indiana football’s 16-0 national championship run has pulled in plenty of attention, and one of the loudest voices cheering from the sidelines belongs to a familiar Hoosier: Kyle Schwarber.
The Indiana alum and four-time MLB All-Star has been watching Curt Cignetti’s rise closely, from his stint as a guest picker on ESPN’s “College Game Day” in Bloomington during the 2024 season to his role as IU’s honorary captain for the Peach Bowl against Oregon in January. Schwarber said Monday on “The Pat McAfee Show” that the championship game left a lasting impression.
"The championship game, wow," Schwarber said Monday on 'The Pat McAfee Show'. "That was a hell of a fight by both teams, the defenses were unreal.
But then the (Fernando) Mendoza play (rushing touchdown), hopefully they build a statue for the guy. Just build a statue for the guy out at Memorial Stadium."
Schwarber, who was a two-time first-team All-American at Indiana, also looked back on being part of the pregame coin-toss group at the Peach Bowl. He stood alongside team captains Aiden Fisher, Pat Coogan, Riley Nowakowski and Elijah Sarratt, and said he made a point of staying out of the way.
"I see these boys walking in and I'm like, 'I'm not gonna say a word to these guys. These guys are locked in, I'm not gonna say a word,'" Schwarber recalled.
"So I just stood there, I dapped them up, and I just stood there behind them like I was invisible. And good thing I was because they just went out there and absolutely smacked (Oregon)."
He also said he has not really crossed paths with Cignetti, and that’s by choice.
"I haven't gotten to talk to him actually," Schwarber said. "I like to stay out of the way.
I want to enjoy it. I'm not here to be a distraction by any means."
Even from a distance, Schwarber has been taken with what Cignetti has done in Bloomington, especially over just two seasons. He said the coach’s new contract extension is well earned.
"He deserves it," Schwarber said. "He went from worst college football team pretty much, to being in the Playoffs year one, playing Notre Dame, we lose to Notre Dame, then the next year we go undefeated. That was crazy."
Schwarber’s own Indiana years ran from 2012-14, before the football program’s recent surge. He remembered a campus scene where the tailgating was lively, but the stadium itself didn’t always match the energy outside.
"We'd just get done with baseball practice and we're like, 'We're gonna go to the game.' Then we'd show up and we're like, 'Man, those (tailgate) fields are packed still and the game is going on.
Why is there no one in there watching this?'" Schwarber said.
"No offense to the guys back then, it always felt like we had a good offense, but it just never worked out.
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