‘Right Direction’ – No. 3 Hoosiers Turning Heads, Not Looking Ahead
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Roman Hemby considers history, considers an Indiana football team on a winning trajectory that once seemed as likely as the sun setting in the east, and offers this assessment:
“The sky is the limit,” the veteran running back says.
The Hoosiers (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) are ranked No. 3 in the nation and receiving first-place votes in the national polls.
They went to Oregon and Autzen Stadium, a place where visiting teams go to not just lose, but lose big, and dominated. No team in America has a better victory.
They have won 17 of their 19 games under head coach Curt Cignetti after losing 27 of their previous 36.
Hemby, who leads IU in rushing (421 yards), is asked about this from a media opportunity setting at the Don Croftcheck Team Room around Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium.
“It was bound to happen,” he says. “You put the right guys in the right places. You get a great leader in Coach Cig, and you see a lot of up and up for the program.
“We attack our work every day with the same mindset. We don’t get caught up in that (hype). We know we have a lot of work to do. There are a lot of ways we can be better as a program, as players, as everything.
“We keep it in our back pocket knowing we’re doing something right. We’re turning heads the way we planned, but we have a lot of work to do.”
How unprecedented is this? History is a guide.
Bill Mallory has the program’s most coaching victories, with 69, but he also lost 77 games.
Last year in Cignetti’s debut, IU opened 10-0 for the first time in school history, finished 11-2 and made the playoffs for the first-time ever. It was very good then. It’s better now with offense, defense and special teams that rate among the nation’s best. Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium sellouts are now the norm, one of the reasons why Indiana is 12-0 there under Cignetti.
Few Hoosiers appreciate the turnaround more than junior linebacker Isaiah Jones. He endured seasons of 4-8 and 3-9 before Cignetti arrived.
“For me and the others who had been here before,” Jones says, “it’s special. To see what we could turn this place into. The involvement we get from fans. The support we get. It means a lot.”
Cignetti’s success at IU follows winning runs at Indiana University-Pennsylvania, Elon, and James Madison. What’s his secret?
“I saw it from Day 1 when I got here in January for winter workouts,” says Hemby, a Maryland transfer. “I could see everything was geared toward player success and player health. From the jump, you could see the coaches really care about their players. They take care of their players.”
As far as game planning and preparation, Hemby adds, “In the meeting room, we’re doing a lot more than I was used to.” He says they work on game situations to be prepared no matter what happens on the field. He says Cignetti’s message is that the Hoosiers can be really good “if we do the right things.”
And so the Hoosiers do.
“It’s a trickledown effect from Coach Cig to the other coaches to the players,” Hemby says. “We have the mindset to be successful. We’re doing the things that are necessary to win games.
“A lot of coaches have their ways of molding players into men outside of football. (At Indiana), they preach a message of how you do anything is how you do everything. What will you do when no one is looking?
“In everyday life, put your best foot forward because you don’t know who you will encounter. Be your greatest self every day.”
The result -- IU has positioned itself for unprecedented success if it sustains the “stay-hungry-and-humble” approach Cignetti constantly preaches.
“We had these goals set before the season started,” Hemby says. “We had high hopes. It’s hard work coming together to make these things a possibility.
“We wanted to win a Big Ten championship. We wanted to win a national championship. It’s going to work every day trying to make it happen.”
Now comes Saturday’s Homecoming game against Michigan State (3-3, 0-3).
“We won’t look ahead,” Hemby says. “It’s one play at a time, one game at a time until you come to the end and see where you are.”
A pause. There is, of course, so much potentially to see.
“It’s good to know we’re heading in the right direction.”