Clipart of football
When Curt Cignetti was hired as head coach at Indiana University, no one could imagine his team would become national champions in just two years.
“I win. Google me,” Cignetti told the press in 2023. It didn’t take long for college football to take him seriously as he changed the narrative for the team with the most losses in college football.
The Indiana Hoosiers defeated the University of Miami Hurricanes 27–21 in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday. The Hoosiers became the first team since 1996 to win a national title without previously winning.
“You don’t go to war with warm milk and cookies,” Cignetti told the press leading up to the game against Miami.
The team, with not one five-star recruit, was the epitome of a well-coached and disciplined team, proving a fairy-tale season going 16–0 — the first time a college football team has done that since Yale University in 1894.
“We are just a bunch of misfits,” 2025 Heisman Trophy winner and quarterback for the Hoosiers, Fernando Mendoza, said after winning in the Peach Bowl against the University of Oregon 56–22.
Mendoza, who grew up in Miami and was a Hurricanes fan, attempted to walk on to the team for his freshman year of college. He was rejected. Mendoza then attended the University of California, later transferring to Indiana and now defeating his former dream school for the national title.
Against the Hurricanes, Cignetti called a historic fourth-and-4 play, changing the atmosphere of the game with 9:27 left. It was a quarterback draw, and Mendoza rushed 12 yards, broke tackles, and dove into the end zone for a touchdown to make the game 24–14.
The game, which encapsulated the magical season for the Hoosiers, had a miraculous blocked-punt touchdown that changed the course of the game during the third quarter. The game ended with Miami’s quarterback, Carson Beck throwing the only interception in the championship.
This Hoosier team represents a new step forward in college football. It brings the history of coaching, grit and hard work to programs that are becoming increasingly more professional. The team shows the world that you don’t always need the five-star players — although they help — or the lengthy career as a Division I head coach to put together a Cinderella-season.
What the team lacked in star power, it compensated for with players who had ample experience, as nearly all Indiana starters had at least three seasons of college football. It was discipline that Cignetti pushed for throughout the whole team.
“There’s no secret, there’s no magic pill,” said center Pat Coogan. “The secret is in the work.”
The Hoosiers proved to all of college football that history is still being made in sports, regardless of the industry evolving. The misfits, transfer portal, and rejected players coming together to build a team with a 16–0 run will become the stories that animate sports history. Coached by Cignetti, an emotionless man who will crack a beer in celebration of winning the national title, whose mission was outright from the beginning, the Hoosiers can win it all.
The 2025 Hoosiers represent the ever-true underdog story, delivering a title to a fanbase that never believed it could happen and now will celebrate this win and changing tide to college football.
“We won the national championship at Indiana University,” Cignetti said after the game ended. “It can be done!”
