Curt Cignetti gave his best Stone Cold Steve Austin impression after a dominant College Football Playoff (CFP) smackdown Friday night.
The Indiana coach cheekily revealed that he his mind on opening up a cold one and not on his preparations for Miami after a 56-22 semifinal beatdown of Oregon.
“I’m really not thinking about the next game,” Cignetti said to ESPN on the field. “I’m thinking about cracking open a beer.”
Cignetti, 64, flashed a big smile and chuckled after his remark, clearly enjoying the moment with his team one win away from immortality.
His 15-0 Hoosiers are making their case to be considered one of the greatest teams in the history of the sport and perhaps one of the best college football stories ever.
Indiana has historically been a pushover in the Big Ten and is a basketball school, yet it making mince meat of historical programs in pursuit of its first national title.
The top-seeded Hoosiers destroyed Alabama, 38-3, in the quarterfinals, and the nearly matched that 35-point victory by defeating Oregon by 34 points in a game that was over at halftime.
Indiana defeated the Ducks, 30-20, in Eugene, Ore., earlier this year, and it’s a testament to Cignetti’s coaching that the rematch turned into a glorified exhibition.
Fernando Mendoza showed why he will likely be the Raiders’ No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft with a masterful 17-of-20, five-touchdown performance.
Indiana’s defense, meanwhile, made Jets fans wonder if they still want Oregon quarterback Dante Moore after he struggled with the game still in reach.
Moore eventually led some garbage-time touchdown drives after Oregon went ahead, 42-7.
Indiana is a 7.5-point favorite at BetMGM for the Jan. 19 national title game against No. 10 Miami.
“People, blueprint, the plan,” Cignetti told ESPN of his program’s turnaround. “You get the right people on the bus and they prepare the right way and you got a process, anything’s possible.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
