Expectations are on the rise for Indiana, Curt Cignetti

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- While Indiana coach Curt Cignetti and his wife, Manette, enjoyed a cocktail on vacation in the Dominican Republic earlier this year, a stranger approached them at the resort.

Unprompted, he recited Indiana's team mantra from 2024: "Fast. Physical. Relentless. Smart. Discipline. Poised."

Cignetti, unaccustomed to being recognized outside of his own college town, could only chuckle. Hearing the Indiana program jargon in a foreign country signified the season's outsize success, coming in the wake of a year where it was repeated and executed relentlessly.

With Cignetti's "Google Me" bluster backed up with blockbuster first-year results, he has quickly refocused on building on the momentum. Cignetti came to Indiana with the belief the school could win a national title. And the results of Year 1 have a lot of Hoosier fans toasting that notion as a possibility, something unthinkable in the generations prior to his arrival.

"You get it going in football, it's different," Cignetti said recently in his office. "And I think everybody saw that last year."

The roll call of Cignetti's first season included a College Football Playoff bid, seven different national or conference coach of the year awards and a program record for victories both overall (11) and in the Big Ten (8). Indiana finished ranked No. 10 in the AP poll, the highest since 1967.

There are less tangible things, like inspiring belief in an awakened fan base, tapping into institutional excitement and giving a peek at a new dual identity for a school that for generations has been basketball-forward. Indiana is spending accordingly, giving Cignetti a new deal for $72 million over eight years, and it now has an $11 million staff salary pool. (The pool projects to be top five in the country.)

That's a distinct uptick for Indiana football, which wants to keep tasting football success after decades of being a doormat.

"Last year was an incredible start," athletic director Scott Dolson told ESPN. "We are paranoid. We don't want to be a one-hit wonder."

Fitting that theme, Cignetti spent more time in a recent interview reflecting on what didn't happen and what needs to happen for improvement. After authoring the country's feel-good story of 2024, Cignetti dwelled on the shortcomings.

"When we played the big boys, it didn't happen," Cignetti said. "There's a real disappointment about the way we finished."

The finishing conversation starts with the 27-17 loss at Notre Dame in the first on-campus College Football Playoff game in history. Indiana trailed 27-3 in the fourth quarter, and Cignetti mentioned one specific regret -- not picking up the offensive tempo earlier in the game.

"Should have gone two minutes sooner, but hindsight is 20-20," he said. He added: "That's probably the silver lining of the Notre Dame game is a sour taste it left in my mouth and everybody else's mouth in terms of motivation to get started this year."

It's not hard to make a case for a strong 2025, even if the schedule is more difficult. Indiana landed one of the top NCAA transfer portal quarterbacks in Cal's Fernando Mendoza and upgraded an offensive line that faltered against the elite in 2024. Mendoza will have third-team All-Big Ten receiver Elijah Sarratt (957 yards, 8 TDs) to throw to.

Coordinator Bryant Haines' defense, which finished No. 2 overall in the country last year, returns a first-team All-Big Ten player on each level -- cornerback D'Angelo Ponds (nine PBUs in 2024), linebacker Aiden Fisher (118 tackles in 2024) and defensive lineman Mikail Kamara (15 TFLs in 2024).

When Cignetti says he "suspects [Mendoza] will follow the same curve as all the others" he has coached at quarterback, it's quite the humble brag.

Ben DiNucci (2019) and Cole Johnson (2021) both won the CAA's Offensive Player of the year under Cignetti back when James Madison was an FCS school. Indiana's offensive coordinator, Mike Shanahan, has been Cignetti's coordinator and playcaller since 2021, and the results have been steadily high-end.

In 2022 at JMU, transfer quarterback Todd Centeio (Colorado State/Temple) won the Sun Belt Player of the Year at James Madison, as did transfer quarterback Jordan McCloud (Arizona/USF) in 2023.

Then came 2024 at Indiana when Kurtis Rourke arrived from Ohio University with little fanfare. He ended up as the Big Ten's second-team all-conference quarterback, the country's No. 2 most efficient quarterback behind Jaxson Dart and No. 3 in overall quarterback rating.

Why has the Cignetti-Shanahan system worked so well?

"We build around the quarterback and the strengths of the team," Cignetti said. "And at JMU, we had good players, and Rourke made it happen last year. He was accurate, good touch, got the ball out of his hand, threw the ball in rhythm, played with a lot of confidence and we caught the ball."

Mendoza projects more upside than all of Cignetti's previous star quarterbacks, as he started 19 games at Cal and threw for 3,004 yards and 16 touchdowns last year.

One area that hurt Mendoza at Cal last season collides with the Indiana weakness that got exposed in the Hoosiers' biggest games, as they had a 13% sack rate against Ohio State, Notre Dame and Michigan last year, per ESPN Analytics, compared to 3% against the rest of their schedule. They had a blown block rate of 30.1% in those three games, compared to 14% in the others.

"When we played the real good people," Cignetti acknowledged, "we looked a little different."

Indiana addressed that glaring weakness up front with three offensive line additions from big brands -- Colorado's Kahlil Benson (who'd been at IU from 2020-23), Notre Dame's Pat Coogan and Ohio State's Zen Michalski. That gives Indiana six older and experienced linemen, to go along with returning left tackle Carter Smith and guards Bray Lynch and Drew Evans.

That's good news for Mendoza, who was the second-most sacked player in college football last year (41) behind Colorado's Shedeur Sanders (42).

The refurbished Indiana line should help Mendoza take a leap forward this year, as Cignetti is excited to have a quarterback who can extend plays. (For all Rourke's touch, mobility wasn't his thing, especially after it came out in the draft process that he played 2024 on a torn ACL.)

"We're going to have to settle him down in the pocket a little bit, because [Cal] just couldn't protect him in the pocket last year," Cignetti said. "And, so, you can only take so many hits until you start getting a little antsy back there."

For Indiana, a step forward will mean performing against a stiffer schedule. While Indiana's non-league schedule is again sponsored by Puffs Plus -- Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State -- the Big Ten schedule will be more difficult.

Last year, Indiana's best wins came against eight-win Michigan, and the only other wins over bowl teams came against Washington (6-7) and Nebraska (7-6).

We'll get a cleaner picture of Indiana much sooner this year. IU will face Illinois at home on Sept. 20, travel to Iowa the next weekend and then travel to Oregon on Oct. 11 following a bye week. It will also travel to Penn State later in the year.

Cignetti is working for Indiana to be ready. He thinks the revenue share era college sports are expected to enter will be good for the Hoosiers, as he raves about the support of president Pamela Whitten and fund-raising chops of Dolson.

Indiana's best off-season wins came from fending off suitors for Haines, Shanahan and strength coach Derek Owings. Haines got two new deals thanks to outside interest and is set to make $2 million. Owings picked a pay raise in Bloomington over going to USC, as he inked a new three-year deal. IU lost quarterbacks coach/co-offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri to UCLA, where he became the play calling offensive coordinator, and replaced him with promising NFL assistant coach Chandler Whitmer.

After Indiana surprised the college football world by paying more than $15 million to buyout former coach Tom Allen, they have rallied to be sure they can push the momentum forward.

"We want to strategically invest," Dolson said. "We felt all the things we've done since we brought Coach Cig here have been strategic. Not off the cuff."

And that leaves Cignetti and Indiana adjusting to a new challenge -- expectations.

"Last year's over, and you got to start over again from ground zero," he said. "And you got to be hungry and committed and disciplined and do the things you got to do to be successful on a daily basis."