Long before Angelo Pizzo penned the scripts for two of America\u2019s most iconic sports movies, he and his father would make the one-block walk from their home to Indiana\u2019s football stadium.<\/p>\n
The strolls home usually seemed to take a bit longer because even then, in 1955, losses were the norm. Eventually, the man who introduced the world to such motivational flicks as \u201cHoosiers\u201d and \u201cRudy\u201d accepted the reality Indiana\u2019s program may be permanently stuck in mediocrity<\/a> \u2014 or worse.<\/p>\n Pizzo found himself in good company in these parts.<\/p>\n Seventy-one years later, he \u2014 like so many other long-suffering Indiana fans \u2014 has a new perspective. Suddenly, the Bloomington native is bursting with excitement, enthusiasm, even a sense of disbelief as the Hoosiers have gone 26-2 over the past two seasons and he\u2019s now heading to Miami to watch his beloved alma mater try to pull off a \u201cHoosiers\u201d-like ending by beating the 10th-ranked Hurricanes on their home field for the program\u2019s first national championship.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n AP AUDIO: No. 1 Indiana looking for a storybook ending to complete this real-life Hollywood script at Miami\n <\/p>\n In an AP interview, Indiana athletics director Scott Dolson says he remembers the end of first conversations with IU football coach Curt Cignetti.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my first memories, talk about being in my DNA, was we always lost,\u201d Pizzo told The Associated Press this week. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of like, except for a couple blips along the way \u2014 certainly the (1968) Rose Bowl team, I was in school there and the boys Jade Butcher, John Isenbarger, Harry Gonso were all good friends of mine \u2014 so that was a great adventure. I thought we\u2019d turned the corner and then it went back down. It returned to what was normal and we went back to losing.\u201d<\/p>\n Storybook turnaround<\/p>\n Curt Cignetti<\/a> promised to change Indiana\u2019s image from the moment he took the job five days after the end of the 2023 season. The no-nonsense 62-year-old coach neither minced words nor wasted them when asked at his first news conference why people should believe he\u2019d end all this losing.<\/p>\n \u201cI win. Google me,\u201d he famously boasted that day.<\/p>\n It was a brash, bold statement from someone tasked with fixing a program that hadn\u2019t won a bowl game since 1991, an outright conference title since 1945 and carried the banner of losingest major college team in the country.<\/p>\n Rather than tamp down the expectations, though, Cignetti doubled down at a basketball game.<\/p>\n \u201cPurdue sucks, but so does Ohio State and Michigan,\u201d Cignetti said to roaring cheers.<\/p>\n Pizzo and other fans were understandably skeptical.<\/p>\n For decades, they\u2019d seen hopeful coaches come promising big turnarounds only to depart when they failed to achieve such lofty goals in front of half-filled stadiums.<\/p>\n How bad was it?<\/p>\n When coach John Pont had the Hoosiers fighting for Big Ten crowns in the 1960s, fans enjoyed chanting \u201cPunt, John, Punt.\u201d In 1976, then-coach Lee Corso called timeout in the second quarter to snap a photo of the scoreboard with Indiana leading Ohio State 7-6. They lost 47-7.<\/p>\n In the 1990s and 2000s, some tailgaters never made it inside the stadium, which prompted coaches to rally students to show up. And twice, Indiana took aerial photographs of sellout crowds clad in red \u2014 when the Buckeyes came to town.<\/p>\n On the field, it was equally abysmal.<\/p>\n In addition to the 713 all-time losses Cignetti inherited, the Hoosiers also had lost five of its previous six against dreaded rival Purdue and was 9-18 since 1997 against the Boilermakers. Plus, they had only one win over the Wolverines since 1988 and none over the Buckeyes since 1989 \u2014 the longest active skid against one team in the Football Bowl Subdivision.<\/p>\n Athletic director Scott Dolson had a different vision for the program, one Cignetti shared.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember even during our first conversation, I said to him, \u2018Curt, do you really believe you can win here?\u2019\u201d Dolson told the AP. \u201cHe just said, \u2018Scott, if I have average resources, I\u2019m 100% sure I will win here. There\u2019s no question about it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Investing in success<\/p>\n Perhaps the greatest impediment to success was the perception Indiana wasn\u2019t fully invested in football. Salaries for head coaches consistently lagged near the bottom of the Big Ten and each new coach seemed to be fighting to get their assistants paid, too.<\/p>\n The change began when former athletic director Fred Glass started upgrading facilities. But when NIL money and the transfer portal changed the college football world, Indiana didn\u2019t adapt quickly and the delay led, in part, to the firing of coach Tom Allen in 2023.<\/p>\n According to the Knight-Newhouse database,<\/a> Indiana\u2019s football budget has increased from $24 million in 2021 to more than $61 million last year.<\/p>\n Allen, who grew up in Indiana and whose father was a longtime high school coach in the state, landed at Penn State as defensive coordinator in 2024 and then took the same job at Clemson last season. Today, he\u2019s impressed with the results \u2014 and the commitments.<\/p>\n \u201cJust really, really happy for those guys and just really, really happy they\u2019ve chosen to invest in football,\u201d Allen said in December. \u201cThat\u2019s something they know they needed to do. They had not done that in the past to the level necessary, and it\u2019s been awesome to see them recognize that and invest and be able to be rewarded for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Honestly, though, Indiana didn\u2019t have a choice.<\/p>\n Schools need football revenue to make athletic departments function. So empty seats, even at a basketball, can be costly.<\/p>\n But winning has helped Indiana strike gold.<\/p>\n School attendance and admission applications are both up. So are donations, which includes a significant contribution from billionaire Mark Cuban, an alum. In addition to shedding the label of America\u2019s losingest team in November, it also surpassed Penn State in October for the nation\u2019s largest living alumni base. And over the past two seasons, Memorial Stadium has drawn eight of the largest 10 crowds in school history.<\/p>\n So Dolson isn\u2019t about to let Cignetti \u2014 or his key staff members \u2014 get away if he can help it.<\/p>\n Cignetti has earned contract extensions each of the past two seasons, pushing his average annual salary to $11.6 million, No. 3 in the nation. Bryant Haines and Mike Shanahan also have received contract extensions pushing their salaries to upwards of $3 million per year.<\/p>\n Indiana fans will tell you they\u2019re worth every penny. Yet Dolson believes it\u2019s not just about cash.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t come in with demands, like saying \u2018Hey, I\u2019d only come here if I get this, that and the other.\u2019 We laid out, \u2018This is what our commitments are, this is what our plan is,\u2019\u201d Dolson said of Cignetti. \u201cOne of the misnomers out there is that it\u2019s not just a spending contest. It\u2019s more of having a comprehensive strategic plan for football and that\u2019s what we really put together.\u201d<\/p>\n Cignature style<\/p>\n Sure, Cignetti came to Indiana with a resume and a track record. He also brought most of his previous coaches and about two dozen James Madison players, too.<\/p>\n Why? They believed in the man and his principles.<\/p>\n \u201cCoach Cig just does such a great job of bringing out the best in his players, and obviously his coaches as well,\u201d said All-American linebacker Aiden Fisher, one of the followers from JMU. \u201cBut there\u2019s something about coach Cig that just makes you want to play your heart out for him and he does a great job getting the best out of everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n It explains how he\u2019s taken self-proclaimed \u201cmisfit\u201d recruits on the wildest journey of their lives.<\/p>\n Cignetti seemed to be built for this job.<\/p>\n He grew up learning the craft from his father, Frank Sr., a Hall of Fame coach at the Division II level. He spent more than two decades evaluating and developing players before he joined Nick Saban\u2019s staff at Alabama in 2007, where he served as the recruiting coordinator for Saban\u2019s first title team.<\/p>\n Somewhere along the way, though, Cignetti developed his own style \u2014 the short, punchy phrases, the quick quips and the unchanging facial expression that have created their own internet memes.<\/p>\n But Dolson was interested in Cignetti for other reasons.<\/p>\n He liked the notion of who Cignetti could bring with him and Dolson detected some similarities between Cignetti and another title-winning coach at Indiana, the late Bob Knight.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly, different personalities, but similarities in terms of their commitment to their blueprint, their plan, the focus on details and just the mental approach to competitive success,\u201d Dolson said. \u201cI feel like there\u2019s an elite approach to that. I definitely see the way coach Cig runs things, the way he coaches, there are a lot of similarities.\u201d<\/p>\n Movie time<\/p>\n Pizzo\u2019s phone started ringing repeatedly almost from the moment Cignetti responded to a post-Rose Bowl game question about Indiana\u2019s remarkable ascension.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would make a hell of a movie,\u201d he cracked.<\/p>\n Perhaps no filmmaker understands the Cinderella story better than Pizzo, who introduced the world to his home state\u2019s 1954 Milan Miracle team and captivated the nation by turning a previously little-known walk-on at Notre Dame into a recognizable star.<\/p>\n But Pizzo has no plans to make \u201cHoosiers 2.\u201d He thinks the story of Indiana\u2019s two-year football run needs to marinate for a decade or two, like his other two box office hits.<\/p>\n Besides, Pizzo has turned into a full-throttle believer, even suggesting the final chapter of this incredible run may not come Monday night.<\/p>\n \u201cLast season was the season of a lifetime, to get into the College Football Playoff. But I thought we had hit our ceiling because we were going up against teams like Ohio State and Notre Dame that had more four- and five-star talent and NFL players than we did,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to even think about Miami. I think we should win, but again, you know, it\u2019s just too good to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, the Hoosiers have exorcised their demons.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve won two straight against the Boilermakers. They\u2019ve beaten Michigan and Ohio State. They\u2019ve won the Big Ten title and the Rose Bowl. They have a Heisman Trophy winner, quarterback Fernando Mendoza.<\/p>\n Now they\u2019re one win away from a title nobody saw coming, except perhaps Dolson and Cignetti.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything he said in his interview, everything he articulated in his blueprint is the same as you see today,\u201d Dolson said. \u201cIn fact, everything he said during the interview has come true.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a>. AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long before Angelo Pizzo penned the scripts for two of America\u2019s most iconic sports movies, he and his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":521587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[232138,232140,1428,1369,151068,171,2778,6064,723,232146,232141,57,232139,6323,2862,9443,200436,101439,232145,232144,106648,26878,1426,61597,214,232143,53,20973,232142,62,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-521586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-angelo-pizzo","9":"tag-bob-knight","10":"tag-college-football","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-curt-cignetti","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-fernando-mendoza","15":"tag-fl-state-wire","16":"tag-florida","17":"tag-frank-sr","18":"tag-fred-glass","19":"tag-general-news","20":"tag-harry-gonso","21":"tag-in-state-wire","22":"tag-indiana","23":"tag-indiana-hoosiers","24":"tag-indiana-hoosiers-football","25":"tag-james-madison","26":"tag-john-isenbarger","27":"tag-john-pont","28":"tag-lee-corso","29":"tag-mark-cuban","30":"tag-miami-hurricanes","31":"tag-miami-hurricanes-football","32":"tag-michigan","33":"tag-mike-shanahan","34":"tag-movies","35":"tag-nick-saban","36":"tag-scott-dolson","37":"tag-sports","38":"tag-u-s-news","39":"tag-united-states","40":"tag-unitedstates","41":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}