Urban Meyer knows better than most what happens when the confetti stops falling and the real pressure starts.
That’s the spot Curt Cignetti is walking into at Indiana after the Hoosiers’ improbable run to the 2026 College Football Playoff title. The program has reached a place it has never been before, and the next step may be the hardest one of all: doing it again.
Cignetti has won everywhere he’s been, from Division II to FCS to the Group of Six and now the Power Four. But sustaining a championship standard at Indiana is a different kind of test, especially now that the rest of college football is treating the Hoosiers like a team with a target on its back instead of a feel-good underdog.
Only two programs have repeated as national champions since the start of the BCS era: Alabama in 2011 and 2012, and Georgia in 2021 and 2022. Meyer, speaking on a recent edition of "The Triple Option," said the challenge ahead is less about the title Indiana just won and more about what comes after it.
"How does he respond after a national championship?" Meyer said.
"I remember those were tough years in my career, years after the national championship, just because expectations, the players change, the coaches change. The fan base now, they're going to expect you to win, how is he going to handle that?"
Indiana did keep its coordinators from the championship run, but the roster is changing in a big way. The Hoosiers are bringing in portal starters at nine different spots, including quarterback, running back, wide receiver and two defensive end positions.
The schedule isn’t doing them any favors, either. Indiana will host Ohio State and USC, while also traveling to Michigan and Washington. The path back to the College Football Playoff is there, but it’s a lot steeper now than it was a year ago.
Meyer has lived through versions of this before. His 2007 Florida team followed a national title with a 9-4 season, undone by early losses to Auburn and eventual BCS champion LSU. In 2009, the Gators went unbeaten in the regular season before falling to eventual BCS champion Alabama in the SEC Championship Game and missing out on a repeat.
Ohio State had its own near-repeat after winning the first College Football Playoff title. The Buckeyes finished the 2015 regular season 11-1, with the lone loss coming on a walk-off field goal to eventual Big Ten champion Michigan State.
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