Indiana’s national title in football has given hope to all — including Arizona | Michael Lev

No sooner had Indiana coach Curt Cignetti been soaked in celebratory blue Gatorade than fans and pundits across America wondered aloud:

Why not us?

Those were, in fact, the very words spoken by Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales during an interview with my colleague Justin Spears on his radio show this week.

In the aftermath of Indiana’s unprecedented national championship and undefeated season, everyone who’s invested in college football wants to know whether it can be replicated. Can there be a sequel to something that’s never been done before?

One could argue that the 2025 Indiana football team actually was the sequel — “Hoosiers II.” Were he still alive, the great Bill Paxton would have been perfect as Cignetti. I’ve got Xolo Maridueña of “Cobra Kai” fame as Fernando Mendoza (hat tip to ChatGPT for that one), Pete Davidson as Carson Beck, Bill Pullman as Mark Cuban and Dustin Hoffman as Lee Corso. But I digress.

Indiana’s unimaginable title run actually brings to mind a famous line from a different movie, “The Shawshank Redemption.” You probably know where I’m going with this: "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

That’s what Indiana has created for college football, whose past champions came from an exclusive club — the blue bloods. ESPN’s Dan Wetzel dubbed the Hoosiers’ triumph “a national title for the everyman.” He also noted that they were the first first-time champion of major college football since Florida in 1996.

If Indiana — which, before this magical run, hadn’t won a bowl game since 1991 — can win a national championship, anything seems possible. That’s both a blessing and a curse for college football coaches across the land. As Joe Rexrode of The Athletic wrote: “Cignetti is the marvel of his profession, and the scourge.”

The original question — Why not us? — can be viewed in two ways:

1. Thanks to NIL and the transfer portal, anyone can build a championship-caliber team. Exhibit B: Texas Tech, which went 12-2 and was the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff bracket. The Red Raiders had one double-digit-win season in the previous 47 years.

2. We’ve spent the money, we’ve built the roster and we’re still coming up short. What are we doing wrong?

It’s entirely possible that what Indiana did cannot be repeated because so many factors played a part in it. It truly might have been a once-in-a-lifetime confluence of people and events.

Nonetheless, I will state the case for “the next Indiana” for next season: Your Arizona Wildcats.

Continuity and disrespect

You know where the Hoosiers won that bowl game in 1991? Right here in Tucson. Indiana defeated Baylor 24-0 in the '91 Copper Bowl at Arizona Stadium. There’s always a connection.

For something more relevant, let’s look at the most important position in football. Arizona has a returning fifth-year senior star in Noah Fifita. Unlike Mendoza, Fifita won’t be the first pick in the NFL Draft. But he was first-team All-Big 12 in a league loaded with marquee quarterbacks.

The Wildcats have lineup holes to fill, as all teams do, and they addressed most of their needs in the transfer portal. Although the coaching staff tried to mimic last year’s successful formula of bringing in players with ample college playing experience, there’s no guarantee it will work.

However, it’s worth noting that Arizona did not lose a single rotation player that it wanted to keep. The UA also lost only one of Brent Brennan’s assistants, running backs coach Alonzo Carter.

Staff continuity was one of many factors that fueled Indiana’s success. Coordinators Mike Shanahan and Bryant Haines have worked under Cignetti for six and 11 seasons, respectively.

They did not coach a star-studded roster. Indiana had only a handful of players who were rated four stars or higher as recruits. The rest leaned into their identity as unwanted castoffs and misfits.

“There’s always a chip on our shoulder,” linebacker Aiden Fisher told reporters during the postseason.

Washington Post columnist Chuck Culpepper wrote that “digging into Indiana bios can feel like chasing inspiration.” I wouldn’t go that far with Arizona’s roster. But if Brennan wants to play the disrespect card, he already has plenty of material.

BetOnline posted futures for the 2026 Heisman Trophy. Thirty players had better odds than Fifita. They included Dylan Raiola, Oregon’s backup quarterback.

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Arizona fell out of the final AP Top 25 for the sin of losing by five points without its three best defensive players against a quality SMU squad on a neutral field. The Wildcats had won five in a row before that, climbing to No. 21 in the poll. One narrow defeat cost them nine spots.

(Full disclosure: I’m an AP voter. On my final ballot I had Arizona at No. 21, one spot behind SMU.)

It’s foolish to put too much stock in the various way-too-early Top 25s. But, again, if Brennan wants to keep receipts, they aren’t difficult to find.

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, a fan favorite around these parts, did not rank the Wildcats. He did rank Arizona State, which has lost three of four against Arizona and has to replace its quarterback, among many others.

Brandon Marcello of CBSSports.com/247Sports did not rank Arizona — not even in the six “others” he considered. ASU was in that group. So was OSU — as in Oklahoma State, which is coming off back-to-back 0-9 seasons in the Big 12.

Colleague Jon Wilner took it a step further, ranking the Cowboys No. 23. They might very well experience a dramatic turnaround under new coach Eric Morris. But that’s a steep climb in Year 1. Even Indiana wasn’t winless in conference play before Cignetti arrived. Wilner at least ranked Arizona, putting the Wildcats at No. 21.

Stewart Mandel of The Athletic did not rank Arizona. The Wildcats were among five teams that “just missed” Mandel’s Top 25.

One of one?

OK, time to pour some cold Gatorade on this argument. As Corso, who coached Indiana from 1973-82, would say, “Not so fast, my friend.”

For starters, Cignetti just might be one of one. He has a special eye for talent, serving as both head coach and de facto general manager for the Hoosiers.

Cignetti’s 2025 team played an incredibly buttoned-up brand of football. Indiana ranked in the top two nationally in turnover margin (first), third-down percentage (first), passing efficiency (first) completion percentage (second), run defense (second), scoring defense (second), fewest penalty yards per game (second) and red-zone TD percentage against (tied for second).

No stat is more remarkable than this one: The Hoosiers did not lose a fumble in their final 15 games. Simply put, they did not beat themselves.

(Quick aside: If you look at turnover margin on a per-game basis, Indiana actually finished second, percentage points behind ... Arizona.)

After seamlessly leading James Madison through its transition from FCS to FBS, Cignetti was able to bring 13 JMU players to Indiana via the portal. Seven were members of the 2025 team, and six were significant contributors.

The '25 Hoosiers were an old team — in a good way. They had 11 players who were listed as “redshirt senior-plus,” all of whom took advantage of the “free” COVID year of 2020. That path to extended eligibility finally has expired (probably; you never know these days).

Fifteen of Indiana’s 22 offensive and defensive starters were in at least their fourth year of college football, according to On3.com. And 15 had used a redshirt year, per The Sporting News, which tabulated the average experience level for IU’s starters at 3.86 years.

Could that type of lineup be constructed elsewhere? Sure; runner-up Miami had a similarly experienced starting unit.

Indiana also had the Heisman Trophy winner (Mendoza), insane turnover luck (the Hoosiers actually fumbled eight times; they lost only one) and a coaching staff, led by Cignetti, that prepared the players at a Nick Saban-like level.

Brennan did a great job in 2025. He strengthened Arizona’s culture, rejiggered the coaching staff and got the players to buy into a true team concept.

Is Brennan capable of coaching the Wildcats the way Cignetti led the Hoosiers — driving them to get the absolute most of their ability every single week?

You’re probably rolling your eyes at the mere suggestion. Then again, Brennan won over a lot of skeptics this past season. Maybe he has more surprises in store.

It’s also worth noting that hardly anyone, aside from the most serious college football diehards, knew who Cignetti was before he arrived in Bloomington in late 2023.

Up until then, Indiana was the epitome of a “basketball school.” The Hoosiers hadn’t sniffed a playoff berth in football, let alone a national title.

Sound familiar?