Lane Kiffin didn’t need to say a word-he just let the scoreboard do the talking.
Moments after Indiana clinched its first-ever national championship with a 27-21 win over Miami, the LSU head coach took to social media and dropped a subtle-but-pointed reminder of a take that didn’t exactly age well. Kiffin reposted an old clip of Paul Finebaum questioning Indiana’s decision to hand Curt Cignetti a massive contract extension midseason.
No caption. No commentary.
Just a little digital nudge that said, *remember this? *
And how could we forget?
Back in October, Finebaum appeared on First Take with Stephen A. Smith and made his skepticism loud and clear.
He wasn’t sold on Cignetti as one of the top coaches in the country and urged Indiana to pump the brakes on the eight-year, $93 million commitment before the season had even wrapped. That take, in hindsight, didn’t exactly hold up.
Because Indiana didn’t just finish the season-they finished it perfectly.
Cignetti led the Hoosiers to a flawless 16-0 record in just his second year at the helm, delivering a national title to a program that had never even sniffed that kind of hardware. Under his leadership, Indiana is now a staggering 27-2 overall, including an 11-2 playoff run back in 2024. That’s not just success-that’s a full-on program transformation.
The championship game itself was a showcase of resilience and big-time playmaking. Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza delivered the go-ahead touchdown with a gutsy fourth-quarter run that put the Hoosiers on top for good. And when Miami had one last shot to flip the script, Indiana’s defense stepped up-Jamari Sharpe’s clutch interception of Carson Beck with just 44 seconds left sealed the deal and sent Bloomington into a frenzy.
For Kiffin, who’s never been shy about engaging with the college football conversation, this was low-hanging fruit. A quiet repost, but a loud message: sometimes, the bold moves pay off. And sometimes, the critics get left behind.
As for Cignetti? He didn’t just prove he belongs in the conversation-he might’ve just rewritten it.