Curt Cignetti has really made history by taking the Hoosiers to their first-ever 11-win season. He stepped in after Tom Allen’s tough 3-9 season and turned things around. Nobody really predicted the run that Indiana had. Over the course of the season, they beat the two programs that appeared in the 2023 Natty final. The Huskies and the Wolverines. Cignetti ramped up the team’s performance. However, moving forward, he’s looking to change the culture at the Hoosiers for good. Getting the program into the national spotlight is just the start for him. There’s still a lot of work ahead to keep climbing higher. But if he looks back, there’s one move from the season that still bothers him.

Heading into the new season, Coach Cignetti has only high hopes and huge affirmations for his boys. “What I really liked the most about last season was how consistently we played from the beginning to the end, for the most part up until about the first half of Michigan,” the IU head coach beamed with pride while expressing his satisfaction in the team’s performance in a one-to-one conversation with Big 10’s Rick Pizzo.

But there comes a blow. The 2024 season wasn’t a utopia. They had their moments of blemishes from time to time. They fell flat to 38-15 to the Buckeyes later in the season. It was a cursed day overall for the Hoosiers after they couldn’t capitalize on a 7-0 lead following their first drive of the game. Indiana didn’t find the end zone again until late in the fourth quarter. “I was a little disappointed in the way we finished, to be quite honest with you. We got off to a decent start against the Ohio State, had a lead midway through the second quarter, dropped a punt snap, and, you know, kind of imploded there a little bit,” Curt Cignetti came clean on the mess he made.

“We didn’t play as well as I expected us to against Notre Dame,” the IU head coach continued, giving a fair chronology of the bumpy games. At one point, the Hoosiers were losing by 3-20 in their playoff game against the Irish. The offense had the ball at their 40 early in the fourth quarter. They managed to push it to Notre Dame’s 48 and had a 4th-and-11 with 10:34 left. Surprisingly, Coach Cignetti went for a safer option. Indiana chose to punt, and it was game over. The final score of 17-27 probably doesn’t tell the whole story of this one-sided encounter.

But despite all the late hiccups, Curt Cignetti finds some solace. If everything had gone according to the plan, there might not be the drive to fill in the gaps, do better, and come back stronger next season. The feeling of a pinch of salt keeps them fueled. “So, to me, the silver lining of that is that you came out of there with a kind of sour, bitter taste in your mouth heading into this season, which isn’t a bad thing in terms of motivation,” said the Indiana head coach. “Being you know, for this next journey. But I give our coaches and our players a lot of credit for the way they approached the season and everything they accomplished.”

However, the past woes might be a redemption fuel for Cignetti, but the future errors won’t have that privilege. So they need to be restricted and scrutinized beforehand. Can Cignetti really make his offense soar without Kurtis Rourke under the center?

Fernando Mendoza has a high ceiling in the Curt Cignetti’s QB room

Fernando Mendoza has a lot on his shoulders. He replaces the fierce Hoosiers QB1, who is now a San Francisco 49er. He needs to be extra careful of breaking the big-game finishing curse of the Hoosiers. The former Cal transfer can be the next Rourke in the house. But channeling his talent in the proper way might be a little challenging for the coaches as well. Curt Cignetti has a classic record of developing his quarterbacks. Each of the last three seasons, he ran the offense with three different quarterbacks and made them the gems they are today.

But Mendoza is a different breed. The 19-game starter at Cal threw for 3,004 yards on 69% passing last season while playing behind a line that surrendered the most sacks in FBS. Can he roll into Cignetti’s offense and chisel out his best?