Entering the 2024 season, there were a plethora of uncertainties about what Curt Cignetti could do in his first season in Bloomington.
A dormant program that, aside from a few outliers, has a half century long tradition of being one of the worst college football programs in the country.
No. 23 Indiana's 41-24 victory over Northwestern Saturday afternoon in Evanston has Indiana not only as the first team in the expanded Big Ten conference to become bowl eligible, but they became the first team in the country to eclipse six wins this season.
Cignetti, who rebuilt James Madison over a five-year span, has completely changed the narrative about Indiana football in year one.
With the win, he becomes the second IU head coach in program history to get his team bowl eligible in his first season with the program.
"I'm really proud of the team up to this point," Cignetti said postgame. "We can certainly improve a lot more as we are only halfway through the season."
The 17-point win on the lakefront marked Indiana's second conference road victory, both of which being a double digit margin of victory.
For decades, the success of an Indiana football season was determined based on if the team amassed the six-win threshold to make a bowl game.
Now, in the first year of the Cignetti era, the bar has been raised and now the Hoosiers will look to improve which bowl game they will be headed to in December or potentially be talking about a date in the newly expanded College Football Playoff.
Despite making history every week of his first season in Bloomington, Cignetti still isn't satisfied and wants his team to feel the same way.
"I want the chip on their shoulder to keep growing."
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