Curt Cignetti’s season has been so dominant that it’s spawned conspiracy theories. As the Hoosiers prepare to face Miami in the College Football Playoff National Championship, they’re fending off wild accusations that they’ve been hacking into opponents’ practice film and cloud-based game plans. The noise got loud enough that linebacker Aiden Fisher felt compelled to address the ridiculousness publicly. 

“It’s just the way it’s played out. I’ve seen all the stuff about different things with our team. I mean, it’s just funny and kind of ridiculous to me,” Fisher said bluntly to the media on January 13th. “I mean, we watch film, we study, we prepare. I know a lot of people have put different things out. I mean, we just do a great job preparing. We have hints, we have things that we can see within our preparation. And then we have the best D coordinator in college football. So when you match up those things, you get off to fast starts as a defense.” 

The numbers back up why people are losing their minds. Indiana has been historically dominant in ways that make you do a double-take. The Hoosiers have outscored their opponents 163-38 in their last four playoff games, including absolute demolitions of Alabama (38-3) and Oregon (56-15). Quarterback Fernando Mendoza has thrown for eight touchdowns and zero interceptions while completing 31 of 36 passes in those two CFP games. That’s an 86.1% completion rate against two of the best defenses in the country. 

On the defensive side, they’ve forced 29 turnovers across 15 games and are holding opponents to just 11.1 points per game, second-best in the entire nation. Their +473 point differential is higher than the 2019 Clemson team’s +467 heading into a national title game. That level of dominance is wha t makes people question reality.​

The cheating narrative really picked up steam after Indiana’s Peach Bowl performance, when cornerback D’Angelo Ponds returned the very first play from scrimmage for a pick-six just 11 seconds into the game against Oregon. Fox Sports analyst Chris Fallica observed, “It’s almost like Indiana knows what play or look is coming almost every down. They’re so well prepped,” while CBS Sports’ Bud Elliott called them “so buttoned up.” 

Those comments, meant as compliments, became fuel for a conspiracy theory posted by an X user named @GoatKiffin, who alleged Curt Cignetti and Indiana had been “hacking into the VEO/Pixellot software to watch practice film of other teams” and infiltrating cloud-based systems where teams store game plans. The post went viral despite having zero evidence, because when you’re beating elite teams by 30-plus points, people will believe anything.​

A confident clapback 

The best response to cheating allegations? Meet them with confidence and a little swagger. That’s exactly what Bryant Haines did when Miami podcast producer Mike Ryan Ruiz tried to inject some humor into the conspiracy theory circus on January 10. Ruiz produces content for Dan Le Batard’s Meadowlark Media and is a massive Hurricanes fan. He tweeted, “I’ll spare Indiana from the narrative. It’s not my place to say if they do or don’t. But in case they do, I’ll spare them the time and effort and reveal our greatest secret. We’re running A Gap.”

Haines didn’t overthink his response. He quote-tweeted Ruiz with six words that summed up Indiana’s mindset heading into the championship game. “Thank you sir. We’ll meet you there,” he replied. 

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The exchange went viral immediately because it showed exactly how unfazed Curt Cignetti and co. are by all the noise. Haines is supremely confident in what his defense has built. So when Fisher says that they have the best defensive coordinator in the country, he might not be exaggerating. When you’re holding opponents to 11.1 points per game and have demolished Alabama and Oregon by a combined 94-25, you don’t need to justify anything to Twitter trolls. You just show up at the A Gap and dare them to try running through it.​