Hard Rock Stadium won’t host Lee Corso on Monday night as Indiana faces Miami in the national championship. Travel has become optional for the College Gameday legend. At 90 years old, Corso prefers his living room couch instead. Ahead of kickoff, Corso shared bold praise for the Hoosiers with a key Indiana insider.

Prominent Indiana booster and former Hoosiers captain Terry Tallen revealed a conversation he had with the former coach over a phone call. He claims Corso was assertive about the Hoosiers being leagues above other programs in the country,

“I think that this [Indiana] is the best college football team that I’ve ever seen,” Lee Corso told Tallen. “I’ve been around for a long time, so I’m qualified to say that.”

Lee Corso knows Indiana football better than almost anyone alive. He coached the Hoosiers from 1973 to 1982, compiling a 41-68-2 record that still ranks third all-time in program history. He led Indiana to its first-ever bowl win, a 1979 Holiday Bowl victory over BYU.

Indiana’s rise under Curt Cignetti has been fast and ruthless. The Hoosiers are 15-0, won the Big Ten championship, and are the No. 1 team in the country. Their postseason path has included a 13-10 win over Ohio State in the Big Ten title game, a 38-3 demolition of Alabama in the Rose Bowl, and a 56-22 rout of Oregon in the Peach Bowl. 

Meanwhile, the Miami Hurricanes, under Mario Cristobal, have had their taste of success this past season, too. They are 13-2 heading into the National Championship. And the program won the Cotton Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl games as well. But they didn’t dominate as much as Indiana did with massive victory margins.

Regardless, the irony is that Indiana has lived this movie before, just without the ending. The program flirted with relevance during the shortened 2020 season. It faded just as quickly. Tom Allen went 9-27 from 2021 to 2023 and was dismissed. Bill Lynch. Gerry DiNardo. Cam Cameron. Promises followed by regression.

Then, Indiana hired Curt Cignetti, and the language changed immediately. At his introductory press conference, Cignetti rejected the idea that the Hoosiers had a ceiling. Weeks later, when asked how he would sell recruits without a single game coached, he gave a two-word answer that still defines the program. “Google me.”

Curt Cignetti – the ‘Google Me’ guy

If you Google him, Curt Cignetti has a 145-37 career record, playoff success at multiple levels, and a reputation for immediate transformation. Indiana had two AP Top-10 finishes before him. It has two since. The Hoosiers had three bowl wins in program history. They have two this season alone.

After an 11-win breakout in 2024, Curt Cignetti doubled down. He added another transfer class, headlined by Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza, who most teams overlooked. Now, nobody has beaten Indiana once. That is why Lee Corso’s statement mattered. He’s laying a verdict from someone who has seen the sport evolve for half a century and helped narrate it for 38 years on ESPN’s College GameDay. He retired earlier this year, closing his career with one final headgear pick – Ohio State over Texas, which proved correct. 

GameDay will be in Miami on Monday. Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Nick Saban, and Pat McAfee will all be there. Lee Corso will be watching from home as his voice hovers over the broadcast, even without a microphone. The question now is whether Miami can do what no one else has done. And that’s handing Curt Cignetti his first loss of the season, and possibly the only one that ever mattered.

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