Inside Curt Cignetti’s 'secret sauce' for Indiana’s rapid revival

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti entered the large room inside the Miami Beach Convention Center on Saturday, wearing a navy blue suit and flashing his patented scowl. This could have been the moment it finally hit him like a ton of bricks:

Holy crap, I have Indiana — yes, Indiana! — one win away from capturing a national championship in college football for the first time in program history.

Even now, after months of watching the Hoosiers dominate their opponents, it still hasn’t fully sunk in that we’re living in a reality where any of this is possible. Cignetti, in less than two years in Bloomington, turned one of America’s most hopeless programs into a national power.

Guess what? It didn’t land for Cignetti in that setting, even after looking up at the lights, signage and reminders of what’s at stake here Monday. Before he proceeded to his podium for his media day interviews, he was asked a question about the pageantry of being involved in a game this big. His response was played over the loudspeaker for all the media in attendance to hear.

“The novelty of being here, to us, isn’t there,” Cignetti said. “We’re here and we’ve got a job to do.”

Maybe that’s just who Cignetti is, never satisfied until there’s a reason to be satisfied. He fully acknowledges Indiana’s two-year run is a lovable fairytale about the underdog that has captured national interest, one that seemingly hit its climax with three consecutive wins over traditional powers Ohio State, Alabama and Oregon. But there has to be something deep down in his chest, though, that he knows this won’t be a movie worth making unless Indiana wins its final game.

But how? How is any of this possible? What is Cignetti’s secret?

You ask around the team, and there isn’t one definitive answer. Nobody can provide a simple explanation of what Cignetti did to this program to transform it so dramatically.

“That’s the common that’s a common question,” Indiana center Pat Coogan told On3. “Everyone wants to know what’s, what’s the secret, right. There is no secret. The secret is in the work, the secret is in the prep. There is no magic pill to take, there’s no secret book we read that gives us all the keys to success. You have to put in the prep, put in the hours. I know that sound cliche, but at the end of the day, that’s really what it’s all about.”

Coogan, who played in the national title game at Notre Dame a year ago before transferring to Indiana as a graduate this past offseason, should be the most qualified to discuss this. He played most of his career at a national power, a program that expects to win the national title on the first day of fall camp every year. He should know what championship-caliber programs look like, especially after starting for Notre Dame in the national title game against Ohio State last season.

But there he was, giving a cliché — he said it – answer to a question we’re all dying to have answered. But maybe Coogan doesn’t realize it himself. He’s the secret sauce. It’s people like him.

Later in the interview, Coogan spoke about the importance of having a locker room filled with like-minded people, everyone who is willing to take the extra rep, to lay it all on the line for their teammates and do everything possible to win every snap. But that, alone, isn’t enough.

The thing the Ohio States, Alabamas, Clemsons and Georgias possessed during the previous decade of dominance was the best players. They had culture, sure, but they also had the NFL Draft picks. Cignetti didn’t just instill a mindset in Indiana’s team the second he arrived; he brought good enough players with him. Thirteen of those players came from James Madison, but he also utilized the portal to land guys like Coogan. Cignetti also ensured the newcomers gelled with Indiana holdovers like left tackle Carter Smith, who began his collegiate career in Bloomington.

The secret sauce? It isn’t just identifying good players. The tape tells the story, and everyone knows Cignetti has an eye for talent that may be unmatched by any of his peers. The real magic was identifying those like-minded players — the ones who would gel — within the culture he wanted to create in just a matter of days. It’s one thing to win in the portal. It’s another to avoid missing on personalities while assembling the roster. And again, you have to get to know players quickly. The portal pales in comparison to the time coaches can devote to relationships during the traditional recruiting process.

When Coogan entered the portal, he was driving back from South Bend to suburban Chicago where he’s from. During that 90-minute drive, Coogan had a 45-minute conversation with Cignetti over the phone. During that period of time, Cignetti must have known he found the perfect center.

That’s about reading people, getting to know them and what they’re about in minutes. That’s a superpower, especially given a player in Coogan’s positon would be interested in leaving the best possible impression on his potential next coach.

Indiana has good players, including quarterback Fernando Mendoza, receivers Elijah Surratt and Omar Cooper and cornerback D’Angelo Ponds. All four of those guys are going to play on NFL Sundays for many years to come. Mendoza came from Cal, Surratt and Ponds followed Cignetti from JMU and Cooper signed with Indiana out of high school before the coach’s arrival.

They aren’t just puzzle pieces. They fit together.

And it was done so quickly.

Maybe that’s why Cignetti isn’t as blown away about what Indiana is as we are. He knows about his ability and expected these results, even when none of us did.

“Obviously, the last two years, it’s been a great story. It’s been fast progress, kind of surreal to some degree,” he said. “It’s a big story nationally. I get that. But that’s separate, sort of, from our team mindset right now in terms of us physically being here and what our intentions are today, what we’ve got to get done today.

“It’s been great. We’ve got a lot of momentum. But we’re playing a great football team in Miami. Tenacious up front on the defensive line, really physical on the offensive line, big running back, athletes everywhere, playmakers at wide receiver. Special teams are very good. They’re playing on their home field. They didn’t have to travel. … It’s a big mountain we have to climb.”

It’s going to be a major challenge, sure. But Cignetti already scaled Mt. Everest.

Google him.