Into The Hurricane: Indiana Has Changed College Football, Thanks To Curt Cignetti's Belief In Team And Mendoza

ATLANTA — Two years ago, Indiana finishing the 2023 season with a 3-9 record sparked the school to hire Curt Cignetti to bring this program out of the dungeon. Just over two years later, the Hoosiers will play Miami for a CFP national championship after destroying Oregon 56-22 on Friday night.

Do you believe yet? Have you gotten past the name scripted across the front of their jerseys? If you haven’t, boy have I got some news for you. 

Led by a coach who chooses to believe that you don't have to spend money on flashy five-star recruits who will certainly garner headlines, the Hoosiers have essentially turned the college football world upside down in their thinking. 

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I'd imagine the Oregon fans leaving Mercedes-Benz Stadium at halftime were wondering how they once again were beaten by an Indiana team led by a quarterback that seems almost too cordial at times to take seriously. 

That is, until you line up against Fernando Mendoza on the field. Whatever thought process a team has before taking the field against Indiana quickly evaporates once the final seconds tick off the clock. You want proof? There are fifteen witnesses that can provide first-hand testimony about this Indiana team.  

"They're complete. Again, they do a lot, and they do it really, really well. And there's not a weakness in their game," Oregon coach Dan Lanning said postgame. 

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Fernando Mendoza of the Indiana Hoosiers celebrates a touchdown pass against the Oregon Ducks. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

And if we're being honest, I'd imagine Miami fans felt better about their chances before witnessing the first-half destruction of the Ducks. Just as the Hurricanes did against Ohio State, the Hoosiers struck fast, thanks to a D'Angelo Pounds on the first play from scrimmage. 

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Just how good is Indiana? After Oregon mounted a 75-yard drive in the first quarter to get on the board, they wouldn't score again until the 7:50 mark of the third quarter, while Indiana put together a defining 35-7 run. 

Maybe this is the best football team since the 2019 LSU Tigers. Certainly, this is the best story we've seen in college football in decades. Oh, and I guess Alabama fans can lighten up on Kalen DeBoer, given that Indiana inflicted the same amount of damage to the Oregon Ducks as we witnessed during the Rose Bowl. 

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And Curt Cignetti is absolutely the most inspirational leader in recent memory, turning this team that, up until a defining Big Ten championship game, was compared to "Cinderella" into a juggernaut. 

"I'm really not thinking about the next game, I'm thinking about cracking open a beer," Cignetti said immediately after the win. 

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Prepare yourselves, South Beach, the Hoosiers are headed to town and bringing a hungry group of supporters with them. After demoralizing Oregon and Alabama in a two-week span, this Indiana team is looking to finish its story with a championship celebration on the beach. 

After securing its 26th win over just two seasons, it's how they've run through their last two opponents that should frighten opposing fans across the Big Ten. 

In their two playoff games, the Hoosiers have outscored the Crimson Tide and Ducks 94-25, with 22 of those opponent points coming after Indiana had already secured a 45-7 lead on Friday night. 

That is domination, and not some sort of "David versus Goliath" type of outcome. 

Curt Cignetti not only had this football team ready to duck hunt, but it looked as though they hadn't skipped a beat since defeating Penn State in the final seconds earlier this season. 

It's one thing to do this against a few unmatched opponents in the Big Ten, but the Hoosiers have beaten Ohio State, Alabama and Oregon over the past three games. 

Is there a better stretch of football? And I'm not even counting the twelve straight wins before that. We get caught up in the fact that we are hoping to see a better game when a rematch strolls around, but maybe that's just second nature. 

We expected Dan Lanning to have his football team ready to play, which it looked like they were until the second turnover of the game. 

But, as we've seen numerous times over the past two years, Indiana has found a way to turn from the hunted into the hunter. 

"People really don't know our team," Cignetti said about the narrative surrounding Indiana. "They don't know what we're made of, what we got. And I get it. There was a lot of skepticism after last year, that we were a fluke. That team did a lot of great things and got it all started. That team never trailed until the ninth game of the year, and when it did, 10-0 in the first quarter up at Michigan State, they scored 47 straight.

"I think a lot of that negative stuff in the media fueled the guys returning from this team, and we added some real key pieces, the main ones sitting right here on my left, but other ones as well. Great leaders, great players."

Fernando Mendoza warms up before the 2025 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

Feeding off the energy of what looked like a crowd attending a game being played in Bloomington, the Hoosiers never took their foot off the Ducks' throat. If anything, they were hunting geese on Friday night in Atlanta, prepared to go track down the other Duck, "Sebastian," nine days from now along the sidelines of Hard Rock Stadium. 

How are we not supposed to look at this Curt Cignetti team as a group full of guys with a killer mentality, based off the mindset of their intense head coach? 

Sure, they are the new kids on the block in this chaotic era of collegiate sports, but even that narrative is growing old. This is the best team in college football, and an underdog like Miami is going to have to dethrone them inside their own stadium. 

Fernando Mendoza Gets Chance To Finish Story In Hometown

What better way to complete your time in college by playing a football game one mile away from your hometown address? 

"I've actually not played in Hard Rock before, but I've been to a lot of games there," Fernando Mendoza said after the win. "And it's a very full-circle moment for myself. If you open Google Maps and put my address, the University of Miami campus, it's under a mile away. And I walked there, biked there, played basketball rec games in the offseason there.

"It means a lot to me. However, I think the National Championship means a lot to everybody."

Not only will Fernando Mendoza get that opportunity to lead Indiana to an undefeated record, he will get the chance to finish his story surrounded by family and friends from the Miami community. 

Hoosiers marching straight into the hurricane, as Fernando Mendoza looks to finish story in hometown of Miami. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)

After throwing eight touchdowns to just five incompletions over the past two games, Mendoza has grown into this silent assassin that seemingly changes his demeanor once he steps off the bus.  

Now, just over three weeks to the day when Mendoza committed to Curt Cignetti and the Indiana football program, he'll get an opportunity to fulfill a dream that was not promised to him by his head coach when he decided to transfer from Cal. 

"I still remember when I was in the transfer portal, Coach Cignetti said, 'Hey, if you're going to come here, you're going to develop into a hell of a quarterback.' And it wasn't at that point about, 'Hey, I'm going to promise you a National Championship.' It was you're going to develop and have that belief."

If you keep treating this team like a one-hit wonder, you don't quite understand what you're watching unfold. 

In nine days, Indiana gets the chance to finish its story against Miami by hoisting a CFP trophy. Now imagine someone telling you that two years ago. 

Yeah, I probably wouldn't believe it either.