LOS ANGELES – Indiana football is no stranger to outside noise. The Hoosiers have had their fair share of detractors and skeptics for the first two years of Curt Cignetti’s head coaching tenure.
Some outsiders move the goalposts at every turn. Others fire up calculators, utilizing physical measurables and recruiting stars in a search for any disparities that give Indiana’s opponents a hypothetical edge, only for those on-paper comparisons to topple when the games are played in reality.
While Cignetti preaches the importance of eliminating all noise and clutter, his assistants have kept receipts this season, cashing them in when the clock hits zero. Defensive coordinator Bryant Haines has been at the forefront, publicly acknowledging discourse around the size disparity between Indiana’s defensive front and Oregon’s offensive line prior to the Hoosiers’ visit to Eugene.
No. 7 Indiana beat No. 3 Oregon 30-20 on a gloomy October Saturday, snapping the Ducks’ 18-game winning streak at Autzen Stadium and putting the nation on notice. Haines’ defense sacked Oregon quarterback Dante Moore six times, which matched the total number of sacks by Oregon’s other 11 regular-season opponents combined.
Moore threw two interceptions for the first and only time in the regular season while Indiana’s smaller, more agile defense flew around the field and wreaked havoc on an offense that averaged over 45 points per game before facing the Hoosiers. Haines and strength coach Derek Owings came to collect what was theirs.
While players such as Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza abstain from all social media use — save for the occasional LinkedIn post — others use the abundance of outside noise as bulletin board material. Haines, a former all-MAC linebacker at Ball State who has earned his keep and become one of the nation’s highest-paid assistant coaches, treats it the same way.
“Part of me does it for them,” Haines said on Tuesday. “I want them to know how I feel about it.”
Things died down on the social media front as Indiana continued to stack wins. His reaction to Indiana’s dramatic 27-24 win over Penn State was more in line with Cignetti’s focused, no-nonsense approach.
The same was true of his Big Ten Championship celebration. Now that Indiana had gotten the monkey off its back and won on multiple big stages, things seemed to be business as usual. A brief moment of revelry, and then on to the next opponent.
“We heard so much in the leadup to the big-platform games last year, whether it be Ohio State or Notre Dame, that we didn’t belong,” Haines said. “Maybe some guys started to believe that.”
After snapping one of the nation’s longest home winning streaks in Eugene and picking up its first-ever road win at Penn State, it was clear to the masses that Indiana was more than just a feel-good story.
Then, it won the Big Ten outright for the first time since the end of World War II, snapping then-No. 1 Ohio State’s 16-game winning streak that included the 2025 national championship.
Buckeyes quarterback Julian Sayin was sacked six times in the regular season, but Haines’ defense brought him down five times in the Big Ten Championship. It was a masterclass in scheming and execution, two key pillars Indiana has leaned on throughout the season to overcome opponents that are, on paper, more well-equipped.
The doubters went silent. It seemed like all possible avenues of mental gymnastics had been exhausted and Indiana had earned its place at the big-boy table.
At least, that was the case before No. 9 Alabama beat No. 8 Oklahoma to set up a College Football Playoff Quarterfinal game between the Tide and No. 1 Indiana. Despite each program existing for over 120 years, this year’s Rose Bowl marks the first meeting between the two crimson-clad teams.
Alabama is one win shy of 1,000 all-time while Indiana has a 17-21 overall record against SEC teams, winless in four postseason tilts. Perhaps unaware that Cignetti and Co. care little for what went on in Bloomington prior to his arrival in 2024, Alabama reporters and fans alike have taken jabs at Indiana.
Highlights include focusing on the Hoosiers’ lack of size, a noticeable absence of blue-chip talent and, for some reason, a “weak” resume that includes handing No. 5 Oregon and No. 2 Ohio State their only losses of the season.
Along with the fanbase, Haines has seen this movie before. He’s heard the talk about how Indiana is overmatched and won’t be able to hang with a physical team like Alabama. Regardless of whether the naysayers in question have watched a single minute of Cignetti’s Indiana — rather than reciting the same Wikipedia talking points as many before them — he lets them know how he feels.
James Madison is the only Playoff team with a lower 247Sports talent composite ranking than Indiana. The Hoosiers have just seven blue-chip players, while Alabama has 64. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and no team proves that better than Indiana.
It stands alone as the nation’s last undefeated team not because it has the “best” players, but because it has a perfectly-crafted cast of players who know their roles and are extremely well-coached.
“It’s not about how many stars you had and all that stuff,” Haines said. “Throw it all out the window. It’s about who’s going to execute.”
Often overlooked, Indiana’s players have something to prove to everyone who once doubted them, and they’ve shown this year that they can do more than just hang around against the best competition that college football has to offer.
“I don’t think you can convince any of our guys that they’re not up to the challenge now, even if you try to,” Haines said. “I think that they would chuckle and say, ‘Yeah, we’ll see.’”
