Indiana, led by Curt Cignetti, might make the College Football Playoff

Curt Cignetti sent an email blast to the entire Indiana student body late last week urging them to get their butts to Memorial Stadium for Saturday’s win against Maryland. If you didn’t catch that, Cignetti called his shot days before Indiana’s 42-28 victory over the Terrapins.

Tailgating? Partying? Studying? Nope, Cignetti wrote. All of that can wait. Students — every Indiana supporter — should be at the game to watch this Indiana team improve to 5-0 for the first time since The Beatles released its studio album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

“When the clock hits zero and we’re 5-0,” Cignetti wrote in the email, “I want you there to be able to celebrate a historic win with us.” 

When? 

When?

We’re saying when? At Indiana?

While we’re at predicting things, here’s another one: Indiana has a legitimate shot of making the College Football Playoff this year. We’ll get into that more in a bit.

First, it’s important to acknlowedge Cignetti’s prediction came true, taking the Hoosiers one step closer to inclusion in that Playoff discussion. Indiana didn’t play a clean game against Maryland — it turned the ball over three times in the first half — and still beat the Terrapins by two touchdowns. It improved to 5-0 for the first time since 1967, and when you take a long gander at the Hoosiers’ schedule, they should be favored in all but two of their remaining games. They realistically could be 9-0 heading into a home game against Michigan on Nov. 9. And if you dare to dream — Michigan has trouble completing forward passes, after all — Indiana could be 10-0 the following week for a road game against Ohio State.

In this 12-team CFP era, things could get a little weird.

Cignetti is different. When he left James Madison, it would’ve been easy to say he took a job at a dead-end program that will surely eat him alive. Yes, Indiana is in the Big Ten, but that’s where the pluses of the Hoosiers job stopped.

From Cignetti’s point of view, he took over at a place in one of the two prestigious conferences in the country. Indiana has fat checks coming in from the conference and is a place at which he felt he could change the perception. He wanted to elevate the view of this program and raise the bar for how success was viewed. He didn’t just want to be a cute, lovable story people admired much like they did when the Hoosiers were good in the odd 2020 COVID-19 season. He wanted to win. He wanted to be real.

How would he ever attract recruits?

“It’s pretty simple,” Cignetti said in December. “I win.”

Everywhere he goes, he wins. He won at IUP. He won at Elon. He won at James Madison. All three of those programs enjoyed stark turnarounds under his leadership.

And now, gulp, he’s winning at Indiana. 

How? The Hoosiers upgraded their roster immediately after he took over. Cignetti went to the transfer portal and added quarterback Kurtis Rourke from Ohio, running backs Justice Ellison from Wake Forest and Ty Son Lawton from James Madison, and receiver Elijah Surratt from James Madison. Rourke, Ellison and Surratt are Indiana’s leading passer, running back and receiver, all of whom have been highly productive players so far. Interior defensive lineman CJ West, a transfer from Kent State, has also been fun to watch.

Cignetti is also attempting to recruit at a high level out of high school. For example, he has attacked five-star quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis of Carrollton (Ga.) High, who is currently committed to USC. Cignetti is leveraging Lewis’ relationship with Tino Sunseri, and though it’ll be difficult to complete the flip, he isn’t backing down simply because five-star prospects aren’t supposed to go to Indiana. Why not the Hoosiers?

Cignetti talks. But more importantly, he believes what he is saying is true. Then he backs it up through actions and results. That’s exciting anywhere. At Indiana? It’s electric.

Every Sunday, I publish a “Bubble Watch.” It’s a weekly exercise to try and project what the College Football Playoff field will look like in December. It examines which teams will be in the mix for the final few spots in the 12-team field. This past Sunday, I included LSU and left off Indiana. That caused quite a stir on social media, and after being defensive at first, I stepped back and really thought about it. Turns out, I was wrong.

Indiana hasn’t lost. It has a manageable schedule and I’m not certain the Hoosiers couldn’t beat this LSU team, especially after the Tigers lost star defender Harold Perkins Jr. for the year. The only thing the Hoosiers don’t have that LSU possesses is a deep, talented roster from a recruiting rankings standpoint. In this era of college football, it has to be more than that. It’s painful to write, but it’s true.

I still firmly believe talent will usually bear out in the end. LSU has recruited infinitely better than Indiana, but the Tigers haven’t proven to be a better team yet. Indiana and LSU have a common opponent in UCLA, and the Hoosiers were more impressive in their win over the Bruins.

If this annoys LSU fans, that’s fine. Remember, it’s a long season and the projections will become easier — and more accurate — once results start to pour in. LSU has a chance to rack up some quality wins and show it’s deserving. But the results so far this season favor Indiana.

The Hoosiers still need to keep winning. The truth is, Indiana plays in an 18-team conference and hasn’t played anyone particularly good yet. The Hoosiers don’t have to play USC or Oregon and won’t see Ohio State or Michigan until November. There is a lot of runway for Indiana to rack up wins and it isn’t out of the woods yet. It’s hard to go 9-0 or, especially in this case, 10-0. 

But can Indiana do it? Absolutely. And while we wait, the Hoosiers absolutely deserve the recognition that comes with this sensational start.

“We’re 5-0,” Cignetti said after the Maryland win. “But this isn’t the end for us.”

Now would be a good time to start taking this man at his word.