COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the first time all season, Curt Cignetti was humble in defeat.
For the first time in his short but decorated stint as Indiana head coach, Cignetti sat behind a postgame microphone and lamented all the ways his team was outmatched and came up short.
“Well, in life. all good things come to an end eventually,” Cignetti said through a pained smile. “I give Ohio State a lot of credit. They dominated the football game.”
No. 2 Ohio State defeated No. 5 Indiana 38-15 on Saturday, handing the Hoosiers their first loss of the season. It was a definitive victory for the Buckeyes. Cignetti has already reached unprecedented heights in his first season in Bloomington, starting 10-0 and winning double-digit games for the first time in program history, transforming the perpetually homely Hoosiers into the darlings of college football. But he couldn’t do what Indiana football has failed to do since 1988: beat Ohio State.
A promising 7-0 lead went pear-shaped for Indiana after a pair of special teams blunders gift-wrapped touchdowns for Ohio State. The 21-7 deficit was too much for Indiana to overcome against a defense that allowed just 151 total yards and sacked quarterback Kurtis Rourke five times.
Right through the punter’s hands 😬
Brutal mistake for Indiana 😳 pic.twitter.com/VuDphwoNQ9
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 23, 2024
“We didn’t handle the noise very well. We just didn’t,” Cignetti said afterward. “(Ohio State is) an excellent football team. I didn’t think we played our best game today, but I think a big part of that was because of them.”
Cignetti was talking about the crowd noise inside Ohio Stadium, where the 105,000-plus in attendance drowned out the Hoosiers’ snap counts and upset hopes. But one could mistakenly attribute his comment to the figurative noise heading into this game, and the suddenly growing backlash bubbling up against an Indiana team with a lack of quality victories and uninspiring strength of schedule.
The Hoosiers had admirably stacked wins against inferior competition through 10 games, blazing an undefeated trail on the strength of a well-built, well-coached roster and Cignetti’s charming “Google me” confidence. Yet in the team’s first matchup against a formidable opponent, the Buckeyes paved right over it.
Ohio Stadium just trolled Curt Cignetti pic.twitter.com/JZq1RnP4S3
— Adam King (@AdamKing10TV) November 23, 2024
“We wanted to finish it the right way and make sure that everybody knows that this is the Ohio State Buckeyes,” coach Ryan Day said after the game.
But before the fourth quarter even started on Saturday, the broader narrative had shifted from whether Indiana could keep pace with Ohio State to how far it will fall in next week’s CFP rankings. Is one quality but blowout loss enough to drop the Hoosiers out of the projected 12-team Playoff field in the eyes of the selection committee? We’ll see. Regardless of the answer, Indiana represents exactly why the new 12-team Playoff exists in the first place.
Under the four-team CFP format, this Indiana team would now be stricken from the Playoff conversation, never to be heard from again. Its dream, double-digit-victory run would be relegated to a nice but inconsequential bowl bid. And rightfully so — no one would argue Indiana is a top-four team after Saturday’s loss. But the problem with college football in the BCS and four-team Playoff eras was how often and quickly the many teams outside the top, elite tier were rendered irrelevant, even during historic, celebratory seasons for those programs. Cincinnati and TCU were the outliers, the exceptions that proved the rule. Despite the humbling result against Ohio State, the Hoosiers have still been one of the best — or at least better — teams in the country this season. Last year, that would no longer matter. This year? It still might.
Indiana’s Playoff prospects will get dissected and debated in the coming days and weeks, as strength of schedule and strength of record metrics collide with style points, quality losses and the ever-important eye test. With only lowly Purdue left on the schedule and minuscule odds to reach the Big Ten championship, the resume likely is what it is at this point. The Hoosiers ceded the higher ground and are battling against a very slippery slope. But they can still benefit from losses by other teams in the Playoff hunt, like Ole Miss, BYU and Colorado on Saturday.
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Whether the Hoosiers ultimately get into the Playoff or not, the Indiana debate is an argument worth having in a sport that for so long was designed to extinguish it. Cignetti made his thoughts on the matter clear after the game when asked if his team was still 12-team Playoff worthy, based on its body of work entering the final week of the regular season.
“Is that a serious question? I’m not even going to answer that,” said Cignetti, more puckish than indignant. “The answer is so obvious.”
“Is that a serious question? I’m not even going to answer that one. The answer is so obvious.” 👀
Indiana’s Curt Cignetti when asked if he believes the Hoosiers should still be in the 12-team playoff after the loss to Ohio State ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ZXpNH6gMB7
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 23, 2024
“That you should be in?” the reporter clarified.
Cignetti winked and nodded before walking away.
This year, we’ll see.
(Photo: Ian Johnson / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
