It seemed ironic when Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti announced, “I win. Google me,” at his introductory news conference after taking over the losingest program in the history of college football.
Two years and 26 wins later, it appears prophetic.
Indiana tied the modern-era FBS single-season wins record Friday night, rolling past Oregon 56-22 in the Peach Bowl for its 15th victory. The Hoosiers will now have a chance to tie the record — set in 1894 by Yale — for the most single-season wins in college football history when they play in the College Football Playoff national championship next week in Miami.
When Cignetti was hired, Indiana led college football with 713 all-time losses, had never won 10 games in a season and had not won a bowl game since 1991. Naturally, he had plenty of skeptics following his initial remarks.
“I was actually at the basketball game where he went out there and said he would beat Purdue, Michigan and Ohio State,” Indiana student Andrew Gus told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I looked at my buddies and said, ‘This guy has got to be kidding, right?’”
Cignetti quickly delivered on two-thirds of that.
Wins over Michigan and Purdue highlighted Cignetti’s first season with the Hoosiers, but double-digit losses to Ohio State and Notre Dame kept some doubts alive. Inside the program, however, belief never wavered.
“There was a lot of skepticism after last year that we were a fluke,” Cignetti said. “That team did a lot of great things and got it all started. I think a lot of that negative stuff in the media fueled the guys returning from this team, and we added some real key pieces.”
Among the returners were defensive back D’Angelo Ponds; wide receivers Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr.; and linebacker Aiden Fisher. Cignetti also turned to the transfer portal to add quarterback Fernando Mendoza and running back Roman Hemby.
They didn’t arrive as superstars, they arrived as believers.
“The bottom line in this business is you gotta get everybody to think alike,” Cignetti said. “If you can get everybody thinking alike, you can accomplish anything.”
No one embodies that belief more than Ponds, the Peach Bowl’s defensive MVP. Ponds followed Cignetti from James Madison to Indiana two years ago, placing his trust in his coach’s vision.
“I feel like I believed since Day 1,” Ponds said. “If I didn’t believe, I wouldn’t have come here. I knew that we were going to be successful.”
Senior wide receiver E.J. Williams Jr., one of four Hoosiers to catch a touchdown against Oregon, reached the same conclusion by a different path. Williams transferred to Indiana in 2023 to play for former coach Tom Allen but chose to stay after Cignetti’s arrival.
“The resume speaks for itself,” Williams told the AJC. “He beat ACC teams when he was in the G5, so I just really believed in him. To have that confidence in yourself, that’s something that I really liked because I have that kind of confidence in myself.”
Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner, said belief drove Indiana’s unprecedented success.
“Although social media before the year was like, ‘Oh, Cinderella Story,’ we all had internal belief in the facility behind closed doors,” Mendoza said. “I believe that’s what helped propel us to this moment.”
Two years after telling the college football world to Google him, Curt Cignetti no longer needs the search results. His team has made the case for him, powered by belief in themselves and belief in their coach.
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