‘Shock the World’ – Are the Hoosiers Just Getting Started?
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - It had to be center Mike Katic, who believed in this, who bled for this, who worked and sweated and cried and persevered for this holding-the-Old-Oaken-Bucket moment.
It had to be these Indiana Hoosiers, the ones who bucked a struggling program tradition because their head coach willed them to do so, because they bought into a system and an approach that works at a level no previous IU football coach has ever attained.
Saturday’s 66-0 record-setting win over Purdue clinched a best-in-school-history 11-1 record and set up a first-ever college playoff opportunity.
The Hoosiers, quarterback Kurtis Rourke says, aim to take full advantage.
“We felt we could have been 12-0, but 11-1 is a very special record. We’re looking forward to winning more games.”
Katic, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native, had waited six years for this opportunity that almost no one outside the program had envisioned; he’s gone through three offensive line coaches and two head coaches and the highs of bowl games in 2019 and ’20, and the lows of three-straight losing seasons.
He nearly left for NFL opportunity after last season, and a third-straight loss to Purdue, before conversations with head coach Curt Cignetti, offensive line coach Bob Bostad, and his family convinced him to stay for one last season.
If you saw the photos and social media videos of Katic in full celebration mode after Saturday’s victory -- mouth open, tongue out, Bucket raised for all to see – if you appreciated the sheer youthful joy of it, you understand what it means to him.
“Being through the ups and downs with this program, and finally breaking through and seeing the (Memorial Stadium) stands filled is an incredible feeling,” he says. “I’m so thankful I came back. It’s the best decision I ever made.”
Rourke couldn’t agree more.
“Mike is a guy who bleeds Hoosiers. I’m so happy for him.”
This, ultimately, is why you play this punishing sport, not for the NIL money or endorsements or selfish incentives, not if you aspire to team greatness. It requires belief that your teammates are your brothers, that you trust them because they trust you and that, together, you will do special things.
“Oh, yeah, 100 percent we believe it,” linebacker Jailin Walker says. “Since day one, this was the standard. Since Coach Cignetti came in and we had our first team meeting, and he laid out the standard. We just had to follow what he said.”
The Hoosiers play to that standard regardless of score. Doing less than their best is unacceptable.
“We don’t pay attention to point differentials,” receiver Elijah Sarratt says. “We go out there and go to work. We know we’re going to get the other team’s best shot, especially in a rivalry game. You have to play your best game.”
Because the Hoosiers did, prospects couldn’t be more promising.
“We have to keep building on this,” Sarratt says.
Season-opening blowout home victories over FIU and Western Illinois suggested potential, but it took the 42-13 mid-September win at UCLA in the Rose Bowl to show what that potential could be.
“It wasn't until we went to the Rose Bowl and took care of business against UCLA when I realized that we have a really special team,” Katic says, “and that we are going to do really special things.”
Cignetti gets things done. He always has in a 14-year head coaching career that has never produced a losing record. He’s not afraid to go where others will not.
Cignetti pushed for sell-out Memorial Stadium crowds, then pushed fans to stay until the end of games, and both happened. Then, when some fans left during Saturday night’s cold second half with Oaken Bucket victory assured, Cignetti pushed again.
“I guess they got a little cold, but we’ll fix that again,” he says with card-shark smile.
IU blew out 10 of the 12 teams it faced, and the two it didn’t, Ohio State and Michigan, are two of college football’s traditional powers. It beat Michigan and is better, Cignetti insists, for the 38-15 road loss to the Buckeyes.
“I think we come out of there stronger and learned some good lessons, and I'm talking mainly about the crowd noise and how to deal with that -- on the road with that kind of crowd.”
IU’s excellence wasn’t lost on now ex-Purdue head coach Ryan Walters.
“This was as dominant a performance as I've ever seen,” he says. “Hats off to Coach Cignetti and what they have going on over there. All three phases physically dominated. We got out-coached, out-schemed, and everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.”
The Hoosiers thrive on consistency, on dedication and commitment and belief, and do it with players most of the traditional powerhouses passed on, even though NFL rosters are loaded with small-school players.
“We have a lot of older guys that have made a lot of plays throughout their careers,” Cignetti says. “They are very consistent people, high-character people. We have a very consistent standard of performance.
“Our assistant coaches do a good job coaching them. We preach about playing one play at a time, first play to last, like it's 0-0 regardless of the competitive circumstances. Never get too high, never get too low, play physical, relentless, smart, disciplined, poised. Our guys buy into that.”
Buy-in came as soon as Cignetti arrived in Bloomington and transformed the roster with difference-making college transfers, 13 from the winning culture he’d developed at James Madison.
“It's been going on from the get-go,” Cignetti says. “I felt it (last December). The winter was good. Spring was good. Summer was good. Fall camp. But you've got to put it on the field.”
Boy, did the Hoosiers do that.
“It’s been a great year,” Cignetti says, “but it's not totally shocking to me. I said early that we were capable of doing this, and we have.”
Cignetti remembers the late-November night he accepted the job. He had looked at IU’s 2024 schedule and saw 10 potential victories, but still hadn’t officially decided to come to Indiana. Then athletic director Scott Dolson called and offered.
“Okay,” Cignetti said.
“We're going to shock the world,” Dolson said.
“You’re (bleeping) right we are,” Cignetti said.
And so they have.