Every offseason, college football enters a mode of self-reflection and self-scouting. General managers examine their rosters and sort out where they can fill holes or upgrade. Coaches may look to identity trends with where the game is going and how they can adapt. Athletic directors are in a constant search to drive revenue and devote even greater sums of it to players. <\/p>\n
This offseason the biggest questions were: How the heck did the Hoosiers do that, and what will be the ultimate impact from such a run on college football? It\u2019s much easier to understand how bluebloods like Ohio State, Michigan or Alabama win a national title. It\u2019s another thing to fathom how the greatest loser in the sport became its ultimate winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably not as complicated as maybe people might make it. It really comes down to unbelievable alignment with myself, our president and Coach [Curt] Cignetti,\u201d Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson said. \u201cPeople have talked about or come to me to ask how all this came together, there\u2019s no question that Coach Cignetti and the players get the majority of the credit. But I\u2019m just saying without us, without president [Pamela] Whitten and her support, we never would have had this opportunity. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat word alignment sometimes gets overused\u2014what does it mean? Does that mean other schools are not aligned? I\u2019m not saying that. What I\u2019m saying is the three of us are really wired to think the same. We\u2019re wired the same, we have the same work [ethic], there\u2019s a lot of things that move the same. That\u2019s been key.\u201d<\/p>\n
Replicating that cohesiveness is something many schools chase but few fail to realize. <\/p>\n
It helped that Whitten, who grew up in Tennessee and had stops at Michigan State and Georgia earlier in her career, understood the value of football to a university\u2014even one closely associated with basketball like Indiana. She inherited Dolson as athletic director upon taking over in Bloomington, Ind., and the pair oversaw notable growth in the football budget, taking it from $23.9 million in 2021 to $50.7 million four years later. The school also rather uncharacteristically paid a massive $15.5 million buyout to dismiss former coach Tom Allen before eventually hiring the final piece of the puzzle in a proven head coach to lead the program in Cignetti. <\/p>\n The Hoosiers kept things humming along in lockstep ever since, with investment in the program continuing to increase from new contracts to keep Cignetti when others expressed interest, all the way down to an ever-growing budget spent on the roster which stays within touching distance of fellow College Football Playoff contenders<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you can paint a broad brush and say everybody is rushing to hire an older [lower-level] coach,\u201d one executive at a search firm says. \u201cBut schools, ADs, search committees are probably a little more open-minded about candidates after seeing [Cignetti\u2019s] success.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard not to see some of that Indiana inspiration in the subsequent coaching carousels with candidates who channel Cignetti traits.<\/p>\n Jason Eck parlayed three successful seasons at Idaho into the New Mexico job and will be a serious candidate for Power 2 gig if he can replicate last season\u2019s historic nine wins. Scott Abell won at the Division III level and with a non-scholarship FCS program before landing at Rice. Jimmy Rogers won a national title at South Dakota State, coached Washington State to a bowl bid under difficult conditions and now is in charge at Iowa State. Eric Morris cut his teeth as a head coach at Incarnate Word while developing a future No. 1 pick (Cam Ward), quickly won 11 games at North Texas and was then hired at Oklahoma State. <\/p>\n Perhaps the most interesting example is Cignetti\u2019s successor at James Madison. <\/p>\n Though Bob Chesney didn\u2019t have to do much in taking over a turnkey program like the Dukes, he was largely a turnaround specialist at lower levels prior to taking JMU to the CFP last season. His first job was at Division III Salve Regina, which had losing records in eight straight seasons before the young coach went 23\u20139 with the Seahawks. It was much the same at D-II Assumption, going from 3\u20137 the year prior to his arrival finishing with a 44\u201316 mark across five years. He resurrected Holy Cross for good measure, too, as the program made the FCS quarterfinals for the first time since 1983.<\/p>\n Chesney\u2019s overriding philosophy is simple: focus on the details, an outlook that would certainly earn an approving nod from his new Big Ten coaching peer in Cignetti. <\/p>\n \u201cThe thing I always feel like is you have to identify your standards, but then you gotta stop doing the things that the losers do. I think if you could just stop doing that, you know you don\u2019t even have to do anything else,\u201d Chesney says. \u201cJust stop doing those things\u2014stop leaving the locker room a mess, stop leaving the weight rooms a mess, stop talking down to people, stop missing class, stop being late. You stop all these things, all of a sudden you find yourself in a pretty good spot. Then you can add your own standards and truly advance and accelerate the program.\u201d <\/p>\n Concentrating on the fundamentals always helps, but it\u2019s much easier to do when you have some guys who understand what you want them to do right away and can help set the tone with the culture in the locker room. Though Cignetti was far from the first to bring players with him to his new school in the age of the transfer portal, it\u2019s hard to deny the impact of the 13 which came west two years ago and formed the core of a national title run. Linebacker Aiden Fisher and corner D\u2019Angelo Ponds needed little adjustment going from the Sun Belt to the Big Ten and were central to having such a good defense for the Hoosiers. Receiver Elijah Sarratt and running back Kaelon Black became top threats on offense.<\/p>\n Athletic directors have quickly caught on in the wake of that success, understanding they\u2019re not hiring only a head coach but a roster architect who will have part of the team joining him. Morris has several key players from North Texas among the 92 new faces at Oklahoma State this season, including QB Drew Mestemaker and tailback Caleb Hawkins. Auburn coach Alex Golesh had a similar approach in moving from South Florida. Optimism around Penn State is not just around the Nittany Lions\u2019 schedule, but that Matt Campbell took plenty of veterans who won a bunch of games at Iowa State alongside him.<\/p>\n \u201cCurt did such a great job taking over. He brought players with him from James Madison, he was able to move on from a bunch of [mediocre] players at Indiana, then he had enough money to land guys out of the portal to flip the roster,\u201d an ACC coach says. \u201cThat\u2019s an ideal model. It\u2019s not for everyone because some schools won\u2019t be able to flip the roster like that or have enough players [from a previous school] capable of playing at a high level, but you can see a lot of people following the same script.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened in Indiana, I don\u2019t think anybody saw that coming. But I think that\u2019s the way college football is now, those stories can happen,\u201d says TCU\u2019s Sonny Dykes, who took a 5\u20137 program to the national title game in his first year in Fort Worth. \u201cWe felt like going into the year, we had a decent team. We won a couple of games we probably shouldn\u2019t have won early, then played Oklahoma and blew out a pretty good team. All of a sudden, guys thought, \u2018O.K., we\u2019re really good.\u2019 I don\u2019t think any of it\u2019s really new, but we saw the team come together and grow. I think you could say the same thing about Indiana.\u201d<\/p>\n As much as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Hoosiers have become a blueprint for teams changing coaches and those trying to elevate their roster overall. <\/p>\n Though teams are spending more on players than ever, that Indiana won a title has made it much easier to convince donors to open up their wallets in an era where every dollar is crucial and they can produce tangible results on the field. While in the past conversations about raising a half-million dollars to land an offensive linemen may have been met with skeptical reactions from boosters in certain places, having the Hoosiers to point to makes it a much easier case.<\/p>\n \u201cI see that around the landscape of college football,\u201d Boston College coach Bill O\u2019Brien says. \u201cIf you look at the Indianas, the Vanderbilts, the Virginias, previous years weren\u2019t very good but now look where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n Regular contenders are not ignoring what they saw last season either as Indiana ran through Alabama, Oregon and Miami on its way to the trophy. The Hoosiers had plenty of upperclassmen on their two-deep last season and have continued fellow Big Ten national champions Ohio State and Michigan\u2019s trend by having far more veterans taking snaps. <\/p>\n \u201cWe made a conscious effort this year to get older from where we were a year ago. I still think we are the fourth- or fifth-youngest team. Georgia, I think, is the youngest team in the country and I know Kirby [Smart] has made a conscious effort to get a little bit older,\u201d Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. \u201cThat\u2019s seeing the effect that Indiana\u2019s team had a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Less clear is what effect it may have on the job security of coaches and athletic directors in a world where every FBS fan base just saw one of the least expected programs of all-time bag a historic title. <\/p>\n Does Will Stein have time to perform similar miracles down the road at Kentucky, or will patience in Lexington get tested early in his tenure after the school spent big on Mark Stoops\u2019s buyout, hired a new athletic director and now is spending more on its roster? Wisconsin kept Luke Fickell last season, but it certainly doesn\u2019t sit well that it was the Hoosiers who broke through before their own much more historically successful program did. Lincoln Riley is certainly feeling the heat at USC<\/a> as fans may hear his remarks about how the Trojans are finally aligned in Los Angeles but can\u2019t seem to square them with diminishing results for the amount of money committed to the program already.<\/p>\n Even James Franklin, for as much fan fare as his hire at Virginia Tech has brought, likely doesn\u2019t get the same kind of leeway<\/a> in either years or postseason wins that he once did at Penn State.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve made it much harder for all of us,\u201d joked one Big Ten athletic director, the chuckle underscoring a kernel of truth. \u201cNow nobody can say you can\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n That notably includes Indiana, which isn\u2019t resting on its laurels even if the attention on Cignetti & Co. has increased significantly this offseason. <\/p>\n There\u2019s still tape to watch, funds to raise and a fan base to fire up about 2026 and beyond starting with the Week 1 opener against North Texas. As much as the impact of the team\u2019s remarkable run will continue to reverberate across college football for several more years, the start of a new season is yet another reminder that the last one is now just relegated to the memories. <\/p>\n \u201cNone of us sit around and think we just figured this thing all out. As far as people in the room, we think we\u2019ve got to double down and work harder,\u201d Dolson said. \u201cYou know it\u2019s fleeting. Now we\u2019ve got to kind of prove ourselves again.\u201d<\/p>\n If they\u2019re able to evolve like that, then seeing \u2018national champion Indiana\u2019 in bright lights and across a banner at midfield won\u2019t be a phrase that draws a double take ever again.<\/p>\n PODCAST: <\/strong>Listen to SI\u2019s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes<\/em>, hosted by Pat Forde, below or on Apple<\/a> and Spotify<\/a>. Watch the show on SI\u2019s college YouTube channel<\/a> or on SI TV.<\/p>\n![\"Indiana](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_0,h_0\/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/voltaxMediaLibrary\/mmsport\/si\/01m1hwt5egzse2z6p75f.jpg\" "\\"Indiana")
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