Indiana is part Cinderella story, part spirit-breaking bully, and 'the secret's in the dirt'
By now the Hoosiers are used to seeing opponents wrestle with the reality as it sets in that they can’t measure up.
ATLANTA — Cinderella wears combat boots and brass knuckles.
She’s got a gold tooth, a face tattoo and a mean right hook.
For most of its history, Indiana football wasn’t an underdog as much as a doormat, but its unprecedented two-year rise is nearing an inconceivable mountaintop as the Hoosiers head to Hard Rock Stadium to face Miami with a national title at stake.
On Friday night, they feasted on Oregon for 60 minutes in a 56-22 win. They have been more dominant than any team in College Football Playoff history through two games, with wins over Alabama and Oregon by a combined 69 points. No other team in Playoff history has won two games by more than 55 total points.
That’s the way they like it. And they’re used to seeing opponents wrestle with the reality as it sets in that they can’t measure up.
“Body language tells you a lot,” offensive lineman Kahlil Benson said. “They’re a good team, but I felt like we broke them.”
When exactly that happened is a source of debate around the locker room, but there were plenty of candidates in Friday’s beatdown. Byron Baldwin delivered a big hit on the game’s opening kick.
“That was a tone-setter,” offensive tackle Carter Smith said.
A play later, cornerback D’Angelo Ponds picked off Dante Moore and ran 25 yards for a touchdown.
Oregon answered with a touchdown of its own, but Indiana scored the game’s next 35 points. At plenty of moments along the way, the bully smelled blood.
Center Pat Coogan, the MVP of Indiana’s Rose Bowl rout over Alabama, looked across the line of scrimmage and saw an Oregon defensive front that had enough.
“That’s one of the great joys in life,” Coogan said. “But it takes a lot of work to get to that point.”
Hoosiers, they are.
“Hoosiers,” this isn’t.
Cignetti has built a juggernaut at a place where such a thing seemed impossible for the past 139 years. In that span, the program won just two conference titles. It hadn’t won the Big Ten since Lyndon B. Johnson was president.
How, exactly, a relative unknown like Cignetti arrived in Bloomington and engineered the greatest two-year coaching job in sports history is a question without a simple answer.
The best explanation is that he recruited a team full of players who embrace the Saban-esque pursuit of perfection and treat Peach Bowls the same as voluntary June workouts.