Directionless. Apathetic. Worst record in the Big Ten.
Indiana football, on Nov. 30, 2023, checked all three boxes. Then, it hired Curt Cignetti as its head coach.
Exactly one year later, the Hoosiers, ranked No. 10 in the country, appear headed for the College Football Playoff. They entered Saturday’s game against Purdue in front of 53,082 heavily bundled fans inside Memorial Stadium, even with kickoff temperature sitting at a chilly 28 degrees.
Indiana sent Purdue back to West Lafayette with a 66-0 defeat. It was the Hoosiers’ most points ever against the Boilermakers, and Saturday marked Purdue’s largest loss in program history.
The Hoosiers faked a punt already leading 38-0 in the third quarter. Junior receiver Elijah Sarratt lifted his knees three times before pounding his chest, a nod to NBA star LeBron James. Cignetti kept his starting offense on the field until the team reached 59 points with 12:01 remaining in the fourth quarter. Indiana finished with almost twice as many touchdowns (nine) as Purdue had first downs (five).
Indiana, in Cignetti’s words, took it to Purdue. Sarratt said Saturday the Hoosiers approached this week as they have every other — in essence, business as usual.
But for Indiana, a program that went 9-27 over the previous three years before Cignetti’s arrival, 66-point wins are far from commonplace. For the 2024 team, which led college football in margin of victory through the first 10 weeks, it truly has become the status quo.
The Hoosiers are 11-1 as result. They still want more.
“This is just step one,” senior linebacker Jailin Walker said postgame. “We’re getting ready for the College Football Playoffs. This wasn’t our ambition — our ambition is to go to the College Football Playoffs.”
Still, some Hoosiers, like sixth-year senior center Mike Katic, winning the Old Oaken Bucket in such dominating fashion means more than a regular win.
One year ago, Katic thought he’d played his last collegiate game in Ross-Ade Stadium, home of the Boilermakers, and walked off the field with a 35-31 loss. He entered the NFL Draft shortly after but ultimately returned to school, which he dubbed the best decision of his life.
Two years ago, Katic watched Purdue clinch a trip to the Big Ten title game on the Memorial Stadium turf. Indiana won’t be playing for a Big Ten championship, but it likely will have a shot to compete for the national title — a stark contrast from where the program stood in years past when the Bucket has been distributed.
“It’s crazy how much a difference two years can make,” Katic said. “We were at the low of the lows, and now we’re at the high of the highs. It’s an incredible feeling and I’m just happy I stuck through everything.”
Cignetti is at the forefront of Indiana’s turnaround. Redshirt junior outside linebacker Mikail Kamara said he saw the Hoosiers’ process shift throughout the spring, when the number of players who skipped lifts or other team activities steadily diminished.
Indiana’s players bought in, Cignetti said, to a plan he had in his mind the night he accepted the job. Cignetti looked at the Hoosiers’ 2024 schedule while lying in bed with his wife, Manette, and he saw 10 wins as a possibility.
His team exceeded that mark Saturday. Afterward, while walking into the locker room, he shared a brief embrace with Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson and IU President Pamela Whitten.
The moment — and all that led to it — may have seemed unlikely at the start of the season, when Indiana was projected by the Big Ten’s media to finish 17th in the 18-team conference. Yet for the parties involved, there’s little surprise the Hoosiers have reached this point.
“Scott called ... and told me I was the next head coach at Indiana,” Cignetti said postgame. “And I said, ‘Okay.’ And he said, ‘We're going to shock the world.’ And I said, ‘Eh, right, we are.’”
The Hoosiers returned only 36 scholarship players from last year. Cignetti flipped the roster in the transfer portal, bringing 13 players with him from James Madison University. He’s said often this year he needed to change the mindset of his team, and many of his newcomers — several of whom were honored pregame during Senior Day ceremonies — helped accomplish that.
Cignetti said postgame the nature of the coaching industry means he hasn’t had much of a chance to reflect on how much Indiana’s program has changed. He’s process-oriented and often moves onto the next task or next game of film to watch.
He did, however, take time Saturday night to relax and, in his words, drink a beverage or two. It’s the culmination of a process he’s long believed in and watched unfold from winter workouts through the best season in program history.
“When you’ve got capable people that are very motivated, disciplined, committed and all think alike — like they keep their eye on the bull's eye, and there's no personal agendas — anything is possible,” Cignetti said. “This group has proven that.”
After its first loss this season Nov. 23 to then-No. 2 Ohio State, the Hoosiers faced questions about the legitimacy of their record. They won only three games against bowl-eligible teams and will enter the Dec. 8 playoff selection with no ranked victories.
However, on a college football Saturday in which several teams — including Ohio State — lost or dealt with close calls to inferior teams, Indiana handled business. Cignetti felt the Hoosiers made a statement. Sixth-year senior quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who threw a career-high six touchdown passes, said the statement centered around the team’s resiliency.
On a broader scale, Indiana’s regular season, Rourke said, is a lesson rooted in what a team with one goal can accomplish together.
“We had no individuals on this team — we had all teammates — and everyone just wanted to win for each other and win for this team,” Rourke said. “And even if, on paper, we weren’t the most talented team going into the season, we had the most heart, we had the most will to win. It showed, and every game, we just wanted to prove we belonged.”
The Hoosiers did that. They’re now entering waters once unthinkable — for those not named Cignetti, Dolson or Whitten.
And to Katic, who proudly lifted the Old Oaken Bucket as soon as the clock hit zero, this year’s Indiana team is merely the start of turning a once-dormant program into a national contender.
“I think it’s done so much, and I’m so happy I could be a part of it,” Katic said. “I’m just so happy for the fans and the alumni and people that are coming back for games and traveling for games. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, and I’m just so happy for the future of Indiana football.”
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and columnist Jhett Garrett (@jhettgarrett) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
