‘We’ve climbed that mountain’: Curt Cignetti reflects on the journey as Indiana Football focuses on playoff matchup with Notre Dame

The Indiana football program finally learned their fate in the College Football Playoff as they are set to travel to South Bend where they will face Notre Dame in the first round of the playoffs.

Unlike most teams, Curt Cignetti and his team did not host a big meeting or event to watch the game.

“We expected to be here, we didn’t have the team together. We knew we were going to be in this playoff, and it’s business,” Cignetti said during an interview with CBS Sports.

Cignetti took over a dormant program and in just one year built them into a playoff team.

During his first media availability since the bracket was released, Cignetti reflected on the journey while remaining focused on the task ahead.

“I really still haven’t had a chance to reflect and let it all sink in. I did walk outside my office this afternoon for about 30 seconds and looked around the stadium between interviews, and it kind of hit me, and it was like, wow, we’ve accomplished a lot in 12 months,” Cignetti said during a Sunday press conference.

After winning nine games over the last three seasons under Tom Allen, Cignetti led Indiana football to a program record 11 wins.

Cignetti usually won’t pat himself or his players on the back as he doesn’t like to get too high or too low, but even he recognizes the job he’s done.

“This team’s accomplished a lot. I’m proud of what they’ve accomplished. I think the coaches have done a great job, players have done a great job,” Cignetti said. “But in saying that, no one’s satisfied. No one’s satisfied. The players are hungry for more, the coaches are hungry for more.”

Cignetti has emphasized staying focused all season long and now is no different. During the off week Indiana football focused on preparing for potential playoff matchups.

Cignetti shared that during the off week, the team spent three practices preparing for three possible opponents. On Monday they did basic preparation for Georgia, Tuesday it was for Ohio State, and on Wednesday they looked at Notre Dame.

Cignetti said the preparation was extremely basic for all three opponents, but still gave the Hoosiers the chance to familiarize themselves with Notre Dame.

“Our eyes are forward right now on what we got to get done in terms of preparation for the next opponent,” Cignetti said.

Going into South Bend and taking down Notre Dame will be a major challenge. The Fighting Irish boast the third-best scoring offense and third-best scoring defense in the country. Indiana football is very comparable as they boast the second-best scoring offense and sixth-best scoring defense.

Notre Dame’s only loss of the year came at home to Northern Illinois, but since that game, they have won ten straight games by an average margin of victory of 30.7 points.

“What stood out in the little bit I’ve seen is a really good football team that’s very disciplined and very well coached and executes at a high level,” Cignetti said about Notre Dame.

After that early slip-up, Notre Dame got right back on track and positioned themselves as a contender for a National Title.

While Notre Dame has dominated the state when it comes to football, Cignetti and the Hoosiers will have a chance to establish themselves as the new force in the state of Indiana.

“I think it’s a great game for the state in general, for Indiana and Notre Dame to be playing in the College Football Playoff,” Cignetti said. “But regardless of who we play, this is the playoffs. You win or go home, and we’re in it to win it.”

The two schools have played just once since 1960. The game took place in 1991 and the Fighting Irish went on to win that game 49-27. Indiana football is 5-23-1 all-time against Notre Dame with four of the wins coming before 1910.

All year long Cignetti and his program have heard the same things said about their team. Whether it was ‘you can’t win at Indiana’, ‘they haven’t beaten anyone’, or ‘they would not be 11-1 with an SEC schedule’, Cignetti does not seem to care.

They will likely head into Notre Dame as sizable underdogs, just like they have been all season long.

“Our odds of probably making the College Football Playoff at the beginning of the season, I don’t know what they were, but they were pretty darn low, I’m sure. We were picked 17th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten,” Cignetti said.

“Our odds of winning the next four games are probably significantly higher than they were of making the college football playoffs in the first place. So we’ve climbed that mountain.”

The job is not nearly done for Indiana Football, but getting to this point seemed almost unimaginable before the season began. Cignetti preached changing the culture as soon as he took over, and he recognized the process it took to get to this point.

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It started with changing the way people both inside and outside the program think and feel about the program. That change was clear as Indiana football sold out the final four regular season games.

From there the expectations surrounding the program changed as Cignetti implemented his plan and system. 

“You’ve got to be committed to improvement. You’ve got to have high standards, and expectations, and you can never lower your standards. This is the end result of a process, and this is the reward for a job well done,” Cignetti said.

“But it’s like opening a gate into a different world, right? There’s work to be done, and there’s things out there, there’s goals out there to be accomplished, but you only have that opportunity because you changed the culture, the product, the result, and the expectation level.”

Cignetti and Indiana football have done the impossible all season long and will have a chance to continue to shock the nation when they face Notre Dame at 8 p.m. on Dec. 20.

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