Indiana’s undefeated season brought them to the White House, but two things stole the show. First, star quarterback Fernando Mendoza missed the trip for his new NFL job. Second, President Trump warned the college football world about head coach Curt Cignetti, comparing his bold confidence to Muhammad Ali.

The visit to the White House on May 11 was anything but a standard ceremony. President Trump was clearly in a great mood, spending a lot of time praising head coach Curt Cignetti’s many feats, comebacks, and Indiana’s wild 16-0 season. However, before going on about Curt Cignetti, Trump called out the biggest talking point of the event: the absence of the Heisman winner and the No. 1 overall pick, Fernando Mendoza.

“This season was also historic because of starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza. Now, the reason he’s not here, he was so nice. He called because he actually has Spring Training. JD is a big fan of ours. You wouldn’t believe it because he didn’t show up,” Trump said. “I’m not happy, but that’s okay. The reason he didn’t is because he’s at Spring Training, right.”

While Trump jokingly mentioned “Spring Training,” the top overall draft pick was actually miles away at the Las Vegas Raiders’ rookie minicamp. Mendoza called the President personally to apologize. Missing a White House visit is huge, but skipping your first day as a pro quarterback is a risk he wouldn’t take.

So it’s a fair “snub,” one can argue. Trump had a funny reaction to the news, jokingly saying he was “not happy” that his favorite player wasn’t there, but he totally respected the hustle. He told the crowd that Mendoza is a “big fan of ours” and a “winner” who is focused on his new job.

Even though the President missed out on the photo op with the star QB, he clearly had a lot of respect for Mendoza’s discipline and the fact that he called to explain himself instead of just not showing up. In the end, he predicted Mendoza would find success pretty soon in the NFL.

Trump then turned his attention to Curt Cignetti and explained why he believes the Indiana coach has become such a difficult figure for the rest of college football to ignore. “I believe, I think he’s the coach of the last decade. Nobody knew him. Nobody knew the team, and he ended up taking this team all the way. People were betting against you all the way.”

He was clearly a fan of Cignetti’s “hard-nosed, cocky” approach toward things. Trump spent a good chunk of time talking about Cignetti’s personality and was pretty speechless about his famous 2023 recruiting line: “I win.” He playfully labeled him a “cocky guy” that he doesn’t personally like, only to whisper, “I like this guy.”

He even went as far as comparing his bold attitude to arguably the greatest athlete of all time, Muhammad Ali.

“When you do that stuff, you have to be able to produce when you act that way. Muhammad Ali used to get up there, and you know, over the years, I’ve seen people that did it better than Muhammad Ali,” Trump said while mumbling.

Trump ended that part of his speech with a message that sounded less like praise and more like a warning to the rest of the sport. “Never bet against a guy like Curt,” he said, making it clear he sees Cignetti as a coach other programs should take seriously

Key moments and the rest of the event at the POTUS

Trump pointed out a specific fourth-down risky play from the championship game against Miami, saying most coaches would be too scared to try it, but Cignetti has the “guts” to pull it off.

There were some pretty funny moments during the ceremony. At one point, mid-way through the praise, Trump was looking all over the stage for Cignetti, asking, “Where is he?” only for him to realize that the Google man was standing very right next to him the whole time.

They also joked about money and the modern era of sports. Cignetti teased that Trump could keep the trophy if he donated to the team’s NIL fund, which got a big laugh from the crowd. Cignetti kept his own speech short and sweet, sticking to his famous philosophy that the only real limits are the ones people put on themselves. He thanked the school’s leadership for believing in his vision and gave Trump a custom “No. 47” IU jersey as a souvenir.

Even with Nick Saban and a couple of other head coaches across various American sports who have visited the White House, Trump has never sung such ballads as he did earlier today. With all due respect, Trump saw a bit of himself in Cignetti. It probably reminded him of his early New York days hustle. Maybe that’s why the two clicked instantly. Great minds think alike, after all.

Once all the speaking and praising were done, he wrapped things up by taking the team on a private tour of the Oval Office, officially cementing Indiana’s spot at the top of the college football world.