All season long, Curt Cignetti has been — unapologetically — himself.
His Indiana football team has followed in that same mold. And both he and his players exemplified that in the Old Oaken Bucket Game, as IU steamrolled Purdue in a 66-0 victory.
The Hoosiers (11-1, 8-1 Big Ten) led 38-0 in the third quarter, and faced a 4th and 6 from the Purdue 44 yard line. They sent out the punt team, to put their dominant defense back on the field — at least, that’s what Purdue (1-11, 0-9) thought. Cignetti, even with the big lead, dialed up a direct snap to defensive tackle James Carpenter, who ran for 18 yards. IU’s offense scored a touchdown four plays later.
On the ensuing kickoff, with IU now up 45-0, James Bomba committed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The FS1 broadcast cameras caught Cignetti chewing out the tight end on the sideline with an expletive. Even in a blowout, he couldn’t — he wouldn’t — relax.
Cignetti knows his team is being watched very closely, and other schools and conferences want to bump it from its position as a potential College Football Playoff participant. And he knows the best impression Indiana could make in a game like this: total domination.
“Style points are important this time of year, right. Style points are earned, right. But more than anything else, we wanted to play from the first play to the last play in a rivalry game that Indiana had not won in four or five years,” Cignetti said after the game. “I thought we had to play well tonight, and I think we did.”
The numbers speak for themselves. The Hoosiers allowed only 67 yards of offense — they gave up 121 to FCS program Western Illinois in a 77-3 week two win. IU countered with 582 yards itself, including a career-high 165 receiving yards from Elijah Sarratt. Kurtis Rourke also set a career high with six passing touchdowns, which tied a single-game program record.
Indiana, just like its head coach, didn’t let off the gas. Purdue picked up only 13 yards in the second half. The Boilermakers committed five turnovers, and four came after halftime. Cignetti didn’t pull his starters until midway through the fourth quarter, with the score at 59-0.
And still, Cignetti parroted the same sentiment he’s shared after nearly every win this season: his IU team won’t ever be satisfied with its performance.
“It’s a tremendous win. We certainly made a statement again. Can’t say enough about what this team has done between the white lines. But they are not satisfied. They are not done yet,” Cignetti said. “They want more. They are going to get more.”
Indiana’s future is now left to the CFP Selection Committee. The Hoosiers have a strong probability of making the 12-team field after the best regular season in program history.
Simply qualifying for the College Football Playoff would be a momentous achievement for a football program with very few to its name. Cignetti exudes particular confidence that the committee will put his team in the bracket, and several other results from this week — Clemson losing to South Carolina, Ohio State losing to Michigan, Tulane losing to Memphis, and Miami losing to Syracuse — surely help IU’s chances. Some who follow the program may still hold their breath until the final rankings are announced on Selection Sunday, Dec. 8.
The sport never stops, and Indiana will have a busy stretch coming up regardless of its postseason fate. The transfer portal will open, and Cignetti and his staff will have recruiting and roster-building ahead for 2025 and beyond. Some IU assistants could receive other job offers, and any departures would create additional holes for the Hoosiers to fill.
But if Cignetti allows his players and staff to enjoy victories for 24 hours, surely fans can do the same. The Hoosiers did all they could reasonably do in this regular season. They gave away the big game at Ohio State with some easily correctable special teams mistakes, but otherwise, IU couldn’t have done anything more.
For the IU fans, the journey of the 2024 season is worth reveling in. They watched this team steamroll opponents from the beginning of the year to the end. They saw Memorial Stadium transform from a half-empty afterthought to a sold-out madhouse with white towels soaring through the air. Nothing that happens the rest of the season will change that.
It’s a vision Cignetti knew was possible last winter, and spoke into existence all throughout the offseason and the build-up into this season.
“My wife will tell you that the night I accepted the job, that we were laying in bed, and I said, ‘Look at this schedule, there’s 10 wins on this schedule.’ And, of course, at that point I was sort of hedging whether to stay or come,” Cignetti said. “And then Scott (Dolson) called ten minutes later and told me I was the next head coach at Indiana. And I said, ‘Okay.’ And he said, ‘We’re going to shock the world.’ And I said, ‘Right, we are.'”
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