'Is this real?' At Indiana, Curt Cignetti is forcing fans to embrace a football frontrunner

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- As the clock approached midnight Saturday, with the loudspeaker playing Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" through a victorious haze with sprinkles of rain, Indiana fans happily shuffled out of the Memorial Stadium after a beatdown so complete it left them in various stages of shock.

Hoosiers fans have experienced the other side of these outcomes more times than they care to recall. Now, lopsided scores in favor of the crimson and cream are becoming a weekly occurrence. Second-year head coach Curt Cignetti has yet to lose a home game, and Indiana's 63-10 pounding of then-No. 9 Illinois sent yet another reminder that this program no longer is a football pushover. After an 11-2 campaign ended in the College Football Playoff last year, the No. 11 Hoosiers are out to prove without subtlety that they are no Cinderella story.

Throughout its 12-game home win streak, Indiana has beaten opponents by an average of 39.2 points. Even more impressive, the Hoosiers have crushed their six Big Ten foes at home by 33.5 points per game.

"We're all still like, is this real?" said fan John Wiethoff, who attended the 1968 Rose Bowl after Indiana's last co-Big Ten championship. "We're noticing that it is because of the parking situation. It's crazy. Tailgating is getting bigger, and people can't even get to their tailgates because there's so many people here."

The party scene stretched from Memorial Stadium and the parking lots surrounding Assembly Hall all the way to campus, which some observers couldn't remember ever happening before. Thousands of fans lingered without tickets just to revel in the atmosphere. This year's 4-0 start has made 2024 seem less like an aberration and more like a stepping stone. These performances have left supporters once resigned to accept football struggles as a down payment for basketball success to wonder whether Indiana can become -- dare to dream -- a football school. Cignetti's unwavering confidence has inspired fans and administrators alike. But first, he had to get them to believe.

"When I got here, I just detected a doom-and-gloom despair type. I'm talking day one," Cignetti told The Athletic. "I had just come from a place that won five straight championships. I'm used to winning, and I wasn't going to lower my standards. Then I did a couple national interviews, and I could detect that same kind of attitude toward Indiana.

"I had to raise the expectation level and standard around here and find out if the fan base was dead or just on life support. They need woken up."

A day after accepting the position, Cignetti walked to center court at Assembly Hall during a media timeout at an Indiana-Maryland men's basketball game. Before a sold-out crowd, he let loose. "I've never taken a back seat to anybody, and I don't plan on starting now," Cignetti said. "Purdue sucks! And so does Michigan and Ohio State!"

It was unnatural for Cignetti, who chalks up the moment as "I said what I said." Cignetti took a calculated risk that night, just as Indiana's athletic director, Scott Dolson, did by hiring him.

As a student at IU, Dolson worked as a basketball manager for Bob Knight, the late and controversial hall of fame basketball coach, from 1984 to '88. Dolson also spent time with then-football coach Bill Mallory, who gave him pointers on how Indiana football could compete in the Big Ten. When Dolson dismissed Tom Allen following the 2023 season, he recalled lessons from both coaches and created a checklist for what he required in an ever-changing college football era.

Dolson wanted a successful sitting head coach with an offensive pedigree who majored in quarterback development. Staff continuity and recruiting prowess were nonnegotiable. If the coach had personality, that was a bonus. Perhaps most important was confidence and a blueprint toward success. Cignetti checked every box.

"Our players under coach Knight felt if they executed the game plan that we were going to win," Dolson said. "They had so much trust in coach Knight, and I see the same thing that coach Cig established here immediately. I know our players completely trust that he's going to put together -- with his staff -- a blueprint, a plan for each game. And if we execute, then we should win."

Cignetti, 64, is a late bloomer when it comes to leading programs, but he spent 28 years as an assistant, including a four-year stint as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Alabama for Nick Saban. In 2011, Cignetti took over as head coach at Division II Indiana University (Pa.), where his father, Frank Cignetti Sr., coached for 20 years on a field that now bears the Cignetti name. After six seasons at Indiana (Pa.), Cignetti spent two years at Elon, then five at James Madison.

Dolson said he forged an instant connection with Cignetti during their first call, the same day he fired Allen.

"It just felt like this is a perfect fit for what we need here, in terms of all the things that were important to us in a head coach," Dolson said. "Then equally as important is just the way he carries himself, and the way he believes in what he does. He believes so much in his system that he can win that it makes you believe it as well."

With assurances for NIL funding and other commitments, Cignetti quickly accepted the position. He knew about Indiana's football history and wondered how he could invigorate a fan base that had heard a million different pitches over generations of football mediocrity. Hoosiers fans didn't want promises; they wanted results. That played right into Cignetti's strengths.

"I'm really just focused on developing the football team, recruiting, development, retention," Cignetti said. "The fan base, I knew in my heart -- build it and they will come.

"They were starving for a winner."

Ten of Indiana's 2023 offensive starters entered the transfer portal, and just one starting defender stuck around to greet Cignetti on his first day. But he persuaded receiver Elijah Sarratt, edge rusher Mikhail Kamara, linebacker Aiden Fisher and cornerback D'Angelo Ponds to follow him from James Madison, and they became All-Big Ten performers on a Playoff team. Cignetti articulated a vision, his former James Madison players formed the backbone and Indiana's infrastructure around the program worked overtime to make it happen.

"When we made the transition here, it was not so much the place; it's the people that make it," Fisher said. "I think we've done a great job bringing in the right people, the right staff, the right players, to really get this thing flipped fast. And the buy-in from the fans, the community has been incredible."

There was some financial exposure for Dolson and his staff in making the hire, too. He borrowed $26 million from the university to cover Allen's buyout. Dolson and Indiana president Pamela Whitten agreed on a robust name, image and likeness strategy to elevate the football program beyond its traditional role as a Big Ten bottom feeder. "I could sense that they were going to ramp the commitment up," Cignetti said. "The commitment has been -- I'm not going to say tenfold -- but it's been quite significantly more since I've gotten here than what was promised."

Indiana's collective, Hoosiers Connect, has tapped into the nation's largest alumni base to elevate and sustain the football program. Hoosiers Connect has enabled Cignetti to not only keep every player he wanted but land a top-tier quarterback from Cal in Fernando Mendoza. Against Illinois, Mendoza completed 21 of 23 passes for 267 yards and five touchdowns.

"There's no more exciting time to be an Indiana fan," said Hoosiers Connect executive director Tyler Harris. "Winning sells itself, and people want to be close to, and be a part of, and have an impact on generating that success and helping keep us sustainable. We've got the right people leading the programs to make that happen, and donors are wanting to support, because the atmosphere protects their investment.

"I have no idea where we stack up, but we definitely will make sure that we're competitive."

Before Cignetti's arrival, the men's basketball NIL budget dwarfed the money dedicated to football, Harris said. Now, they're both prosperous.

Most Big Ten schools invest heavily in men's basketball, and at a handful of campuses, it is the more popular sport. But basketball is more than just a sport at Indiana. It is Indiana. As recently as the 2024 fiscal year, Hoosiers fans spent more than $15 million on men's basketball tickets, which is nearly $6 million more than any other Big Ten school.

Indiana's football players recognized their status when they first arrived on campus.

"Everybody let us know IU's a basketball school," Fisher said. "'Good luck trying to get football going.' I think we flipped that pretty quick. That's no shade or anything on the basketball program. It is good to hear that maybe this is a football school. ... 'Damn right it is. That's why we're here.'"

"When I first got here, there was some excitement, but they didn't really know, just because they hadn't had a good football team in a while," Sarratt said. "But now I go out and people are saying my name, taking pictures with me. The area loves the football team."

Saturday's raucous atmosphere was more proof Indiana fans are smitten with the football program. But they're just not ready to shed the basketball school label quite yet.

As a 9-year-old in 1960, George Graessle had season tickets to Indiana's first football season at Memorial Stadium. He was Knight's head student manager in 1973 when the Hoosiers qualified for the Final Four. Graessle said Cignetti reminds him of Knight "because they're both pretty tough, and they'll let you know what they want."

It's convenient to invoke Knight when weighing Cignetti's immediate success, but more than a few faces clenched up when asked whether Indiana can shift from a basketball school to a football school.

"You're not going to have a year or two that's good and then be a football school," Graessle said.

Indiana graduate Noah Zimmerman and his father, Vic, donned a few of the more creative T-shirts on the tailgate scene. Vic's crimson shirt read "Make Indiana Basketball Great Again." Noah's shirt featured three helmets depicting the Good (Indiana), the Bad (Iowa) and the Ugly (Illinois). They were caught up in the atmosphere but winced at the football school suggestion.

"It's gonna take a lot," Vic said.

"The basketball culture, it's just ingrained here," Noah said. "But if we string together another Playoff, maybe we can win a game in the Playoff. I think that'll go a long way."

For Dolson, there's no decision to make, no either/or on characterizing the programs. Indiana can be both. Basketball may remain the heartbeat, but the Hoosiers can excel in football, too. The good news for Indiana is when the football coach inspires long-time Hoosiers to reminisce about their championship basketball past, something is going right.

"Given the state of college athletics, the state of college football, conference expansion, all the things going on, we need to be relevant in football," Dolson said. "We are committed to that. It was certainly an investment that has paid off already, and I feel really confident about where we're headed."