Right from his introductory press conference in 2024, it was clear that Indiana Hoosiers’ head coach Curt Cignetti carried an air of confidence. Now, just two years later, he has the wins and trophies to back it up. In an interview with On3’s Chris Low, Cignetti discussed how his usual stance helped set the tone for the Hoosiers’ locker room before their impressive victory in the Big Ten Championship vs. Ohio State last December.

Cignetti carried the kind of confidence of the man who had taken the Hossiers from a 3-9 record in the 2023-24 season to winning a national championship. Beyond his confidence, process-oriented approach, and drive to better, Cignetti revealed that he often performs better when he is angry at opponents. The head coach explained that he always finds something that fuels that anger, and that mindset led to what he told his players before the Big Ten Championship game against the then-unbeaten Ohio State.

“Act like we’ve been there before because we have. Like it was just another day at the office because it was,” Cignetti said to his players.

Curt Cignetti told his players to resist the urge to stick their fingers up in the air as they came out of the tunnel. He did not want them acting like players who were getting the No. 1 CFP ranking for the first time, even if that was the reality. The finger gesture is so universal that even the best college football teams like Alabama, Ohio State, and the like had no problem flaunting their status as the top-ranked team or self-declared best college team by sticking their fingers up. But rather than do what the best teams would normally do, Cignetti decided to go against the status quo.

The result of starting the game with that mindset was a statement victory that proved Indiana was ready to make history. The Hoosiers won the game 13-10 to end a 32-game losing streak to the Buckeyes, with their last win dating as far back as 1988. The Buckeyes first took the lead with a touchdown pass from Julian Sayin to Carnell Tate, and went seven points up. Indiana then responded with two field goals to make it 7-6.  At halftime, it was 10-6 after the Buckeyes extended their lead with a field goal.

The Hoosiers then scored a second-half touchdown to make the game 13-10. Indiana’s brilliant defense in the fourth quarter nullified everything the 2024 NCAA champions threw at them. Curt Cignetti himself was intentional about showing no excitement as he walked across the field to shake Ryan Day’s hand. However, Cignetti’s approach and demeanor have invited comments from fellow football coaches.

Nick Saban on Curt Cignetti

Cignetti’s confidence has not gone unnoticed, with President Trump showering him with praise for his boldness during the team’s visit to the White House and calling him the “coach of the last decade”. But Nick Saban, who he left at Alabama to take a $200,000 pay cut to become the head coach of Division II Indiana University at Pennsylvania (IUP) in 2011, had more to say.

“I remember him telling me where he was going, IUP, and thinking that’s a big drop from coaching in the SEC. But he wanted to be a head coach. He was ready to be a head coach,” Saban told On3 back in January this year, before Indiana won the championship.

“He was ready to be a head coach, and it tells you a lot about the belief he had in himself that he would take a job at that level at a place that hadn’t had great success. But that’s what he’s done his whole career, take programs that weren’t football hotbeds and turn them into winners,” added Nick Saban. And that’s exactly what Curt Cignetti did at Indiana.

Cignetti’s personality was at it again when the Hoosiers gave Alabama a 38-3 blowout. He had instructed his players that he did not “want to do any trick plays, weird stuff. I want to line up and beat the s— out of them.” Different things may work for others, but for Cignetti, it was his almost stoic demeanor, mixed with his unique approach, that revived the Hoosiers and elevated them to National Champions.