Big talk, little walk from Curt Cignetti in the Hoosiers’ CFP loss to Notre Dame

Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball author

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – It was nearly midnight when the door to the visiting media room flew open and in walked Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti, the heartbroken rabble-rouser whose trophy cabinet is bursting with national honors after guiding the Indiana Hoosiers to their best season in school history, a turnaround , that will never be forgotten. Hours earlier, before the snow in Notre Dame Stadium had completely melted, Cignetti appeared on the set of “College Gameday” and ignited social media with his latest batch of confident comments. Between the legendary Nick Saban and former NFL player Pat McAfee, now a prominent personality at ESPN, Cignetti declared that programs he has coached “don’t just beat top-25 teams, we beat the s— out of them. ” At which point he sat back and crossed his arms as everyone on the podium shouted with joy.

But this was not the same Cignetti who sauntered into a postgame press conference with his metaphorical tail tucked between his legs, a series of baffling conservative decisions in his wake. The scoreboard at Notre Dame Stadium might have shown a modest 27-17 victory for Notre Dame, which had entered the weekend as a significant betting favorite, but nothing about the game itself was close. Cignetti’s team trailed by 24 points with less than five minutes remaining after Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard plunged into the end zone for a 1-yard score. Were it not for two touchdowns in the final 90 seconds — long after most Indiana fans had already left — the optics would have been even worse for a team whose resume was loudly questioned over the final two months of the regular season .

“The hardest thing on a night like this is saying ‘goodbye’ to your kids,” Cignetti said as he positioned himself behind a microphone. “They’re hurting because their old man got his kick.”

And it really was a… kick. An Indiana offense that entered the postseason ranked second in the nation at 43.3 points per game. game, was held to a single field goal in the first 58 minutes and change. Three of the Hoosiers’ first seven meaningful drives gained 2 yards or less, including two that went backwards. Another ended with a shaky interception by quarterback Kurtis Rourke, whose three worst outings of the season in terms of completion percentage came against the top three teams Indiana faced: Michigan (60.7%), Ohio State (44.4%) and Notre Dame (60.6% ). The defense, which played with remarkable effort, was undone by dozens of missed tackles and a fumble that set tailback Jeremiah Love on a 98-yard touchdown run to open the scoring. Punter Evan James threw his first two kicks and got an earful from Cignetti each time he returned to the sideline.

The second and third quarters produced a mesmerizing display of histrionics from Cignetti, who repeatedly walked the length of Indiana’s bench and isolated himself 30 or 40 yards from the rest of his coaching staff. How tightly could one man cross his arms in frustration after each of his team’s eight third down losses? “Our offense was doing nothing,” Cignetti said. How hard could one man punch his own hips as one of Notre Dame’s skilled players wriggled free of a defender’s grip? “We played good people who moved faster,” Cignetti said. How sarcastically could one man laugh when his last-second timeout before an uncharacteristically fake field goal attempt by the Fighting Irish wiped out what would have been a fourth-down stop? “You never get everything you want in life,” Cignetti said.

The lopsidedness of the game itself dulled what had otherwise been a magical day for college football, ushering in its ballyhooted 12-team playoff. There was minimal traffic on the drive into South Bend Friday afternoon, but not for lack of enthusiasm among the Hoosier and Fighting Irish faithful. Instead, fans poured into this small town beginning in the wee hours of the morning, before 7am, with videos of cars queuing for parking amid ongoing snow showers quickly making the rounds on social media; such was the excitement surrounding the first-ever College Football Playoff game played on a campus site. It was half an hour later when the official X account for Notre Dame’s athletic department shared a photo of the snow-covered stadium with three snowballs stacked in the foreground like a miniature version of Frosty.

But by mid-afternoon, with the precipitation gone and temperatures climbing into the 30s, every corner of Notre Dame’s campus reverberated with fans clutching beverages from every corner of the state and beyond. There were two violinists playing an impromptu concert on the doorstep of O’Rourke’s Public House, a busy bar at the corner of E. Angela Boulevard and N. Eddy Street, just behind the entrance to the school’s manicured grounds. Swarms of fans migrated past the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art toward the parking lots next to the stadium, where Irish flags dotted the skyline and canopy tents stretched to the horizon. Indiana fans donning the school’s famous candy-striped pants mingled with Notre Dame fans dressed as leprechauns or Santa Claus or Buddy Hobbs, the main character of “Elf.” A man poked his head from the yellow tip of a life-size cigarette costume to further the pun on Cignetti’s last name. A cart outside the Ara Parseghian Gate, named after the famed Fighting Irish coach who won national championships in 1966 and 1973, sold hot chocolate for $5.49 a pop. cup for fans whose efforts needed a shot of heat. Streams of private jets crashing into the local airport buzzed overhead.

“Ho-, hoo-, hoo-, hoo-siers!” shouted a handful of Hoosier faithful on their walk between the stadium and the Joyce Center, home of Notre Dame’s basketball team. “Loo-, loo-, loo-, loo-sers!” a snarky band of Fighting Irish supporters fired back, mimicking the rhythm and cadence of the song. Both sides shared a laugh.

There was so much for everyone to be excited about in this resurgence of what some dubbed the Indiana State Championship, with the two campuses separated by less than 200 miles. Not since 1991 had the Fighting Irish and Hoosiers faced each other on a football field to renew a rivalry that dates back to the 19th century. Since then, the former had become accustomed to competing for national championships. But the latter has lost more games than any other FBS program and reached 11 wins for the first time in school history.

That’s why there was still a twinge of pride in Cignetti’s voice when he answered questions about how this year’s Indiana team should be remembered. Sure, the Hoosiers had been beaten by Notre Dame in a game they had little chance of winning. But they would also set a new standard under Cignetti in an unforgettable year 1.

“Had a historic season, huh?” Cigetti said. “Set the foundation for hopefully what’s to come.”

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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