A new energy, one seldom seen accompanying an Indiana football program that has long been known for its losing track record, surrounds the undefeated Hoosiers. Indiana has exceeded all expectations to start the 2024 season, and the man at the heart of the turnaround is head coach Curt Cignetti.
He didn't just bring his X's and O's to Bloomington. Cignetti's biggest impact on this team has been the belief he's instilled in each and every one of the players within the locker room.
It's a belief that has completely changed the mindset of the players. It's a belief that has sparked one of the best starts to a season Bloomington has ever seen.
"[Cignetti] instilled that we can go out there and beat anyone," safety Shawn Asbury II said on Tuesday. "When you have someone like that that's leading the program, it's easy to follow him. When you start seeing the results, it's easy to just keep going with it."
Cignetti's first step in turning around the Indiana football program was introducing a confidence that was severely lacking in Bloomington. Over the last three seasons prior to Cignetti's arrival, the Hoosiers had gone a combined 9-27.
It wasn't going to be easy turning a program full of perennial losers into a group confident enough to beat anyone in their way. Easy or not, Cignetti managed to do it.
"If [Cignetti] didn't have that message that he had coming into this year, we wouldn't know what to expect," wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. said. "That fact that he had that, we knew we had a standard to get to and if we didn't get to that standard, he was going to do what he had to do [to get us there] because that's his job."
Injecting the team with confidence is one thing. Actually turning that confidence into wins on the field was something else, and once the Hoosiers started winning, continuing that success was something different altogether.
"At the end of the day, it's football. I try not to worry too much about [the outside noise]," Cooper said. "[We] can't get complacent."
That mentality, a blend of staying grounded while staying hungry, has been the cornerstone of Indiana's undefeated start to the season. Cignetti preaches it every day, and the players have bought in, taking it to heart.
That discipline was put to the test early in the season. As the wins continued to pile up in successive fashion, the national spotlight, which for so long has been unfamiliar with the football program in Bloomington, began to grow too. With Big Noon Kickoff and College Gameday descending down on Bloomington in consecutive weeks, many teams might have let the spotlight overwhelm them. Not these Hoosiers.
"It's just showing everybody that we're real this year, and that no matter who we play, we're still doing the same stuff," Cooper said of Big Noon Kickoff and College Gameday coming to Bloomington in back-to-back weeks. "At the end of the day, it's just for the fans really. We have to worry about football."
It's that tunnel vision and that ability to block out all of the outside noise, that has kept Indiana focused on its ultimate goals, even as the nation begins to take notice of the revival of a football program underway in Bloomington.
Over halfway through the regular season now, Cooper admits the start the Hoosiers have enjoyed has been a bit of surprise.
"I didn't know what to expect," Cooper said, reflecting on the season so far. "7-0 wasn't what I expected, but with the great staff, the great team and how we all connected and bonded together, it's been showing."
The wide out points to Indiana's week three win over UCLA at the Rose Bowl as the moment that made him, and the rest of the team, believe this kind of success was truly possible. Between traveling across time zones and dealing with the challenges of playing on the road against a conference opponent, that game tested the team's resolve. That's when Cooper realized, "we had something special."
Other players, like Asbury, a transfer from Old Dominion transfer, already knew of Cignetti's ways. Asbury had known Cignetti for years, having been recruited by him as a high school and again when he first entered the transfer portal years ago. This time around, though, he didn't need much convincing to join Cignetti in Bloomington.
""There wasn't much [Cignetti] really had to do to get me here, I just wanted to win," Asbury said simply.
Winning, of course, is exactly what the Hoosiers have been doing. As a player, it helps when you have a coach that believes in you as much as Cignetti does. However, it's not just belief that defines Cignetti -- it's his pursuit of perfection as well.
"[Cignetti] is one of those guys that demands perfect," Asbury said. "That's something you want to be a part of."
That standard of perfection can be seen in everything Cignetti does. Whether it's his visible frustration with a penalty, or constant desire to keep the gas no matter the scoreline, perfection is an expectation for Cignetti.
As Indiana continues to climb the ranks of the AP Poll, still undefeated on the year, the players know there's still much more they'd like to accomplish this season. Complacency isn't an option in this program. The Hoosiers are fueled by their coach's belief and the pursuit of perfection.
While the rest of the country may be surprised by Indiana's success, those within the locker knew they had something special all along. Cignetti's Hoosiers are no longer a feel good story. They're a forced to be reckoned with, and they're just getting started.
–––––
Like this content? Join the conversation on TheHoosier.com's premium message boards and subscribe today!
– Follow TheHoosier on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!
– Subscribe to TheHoosier on YouTube for more content
– Interact with fellow fans on TheHoosier's Premium Football Board and Premium Hoops Board
