Can Indiana Be a Template For Cal?

On Saturday evening, capping two days that generated incredible momentum for the Cal football program, Old Blues watched on TV as a former Golden Bear ascended to the highest rung in the college game.

Quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who abandoned the Bears a year ago, led Indiana to a 13-10 victory over top-ranked Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game.

The Hoosiers snapped a 30-game losing streak to the Buckeyes, won their first Big Ten title since 1967 and completed their first unbeaten regular season since 1945. Mendoza, against all odds, may have clinched the Heisman Trophy.

Some Cal fans, still feeling betrayed by Mendoza’s exit, will be reluctant to celebrate his success. Others, recognizing that Mendoza did what he believed was best for him, will appreciate the achievements of a decent young man for whom they once cheered.

There is another way to look at this: What coach Curt Cignetti, Mendoza and the Hoosiers have accomplished can be viewed as potentially a template for Cal going forward.

Cignetti, talking after the Hoosiers were announced as the No. 1 seed for the College Football Playoff on Sunday, said instilling confidence and training to be elite were building blocks to what Indiana got done in two seasons.

With that as a foundation — not merely hope but belief and preparation — Cignetti said, “Anything’s possible.”

That sounds a little bit like Tosh Lupoi, introduced Friday as Cal’s new coach. The 44-year-old returned to his alma mater for that exact reason, because he believes anything is possible.

Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele | Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images

Lupoi isn’t waiting around for success to magically land in Berkeley. He showed his hands-on approach when, almost immediately after his introductory news conference, he boarded a flight to Hawaii and convinced freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele that Cal is his best option.

Cignetti did the same thing a year ago with Mendoza — minus the flight to Hawaii — when the Hoosiers were better positioned financially and competitively.

And let’s face it, climbing toward the top of the ACC is a far easier task than doing so in the Big Ten.

Lupoi believes in the total package that Berkeley offers, starting with its yearly status as the nation’s No. 1 public university. Bring football closer to that level. he said, and “this place can separate itself from every other school in America. We’re about to get dangerous.”

There is a mountain of work to do to build Cal into a national-caliber program. Lupoi must assemble a coaching staff and the Bears need to augment their roster with high-end talent.

Retaining Sagapolutele should certainly help attract players who want to block for him and catch his passes, two areas where Cal was largely deficient this season.

There is no guarantee Lupoi and the Bears can pull this off.

But they are in a far stronger starting position than Indiana was two years ago when Cignetti arrived at Indiana from James Madison.

Former coach Justin Wilcox never quite got the Bears over the hump, but the program he built is far more solid than what he inherited. Cal is 7-5 and headed to a bowl game for the third year in a row.

Lupoi is not walking into a football disaster, but a program that needs a bump to the next level.

Compare that to the Indiana situation that greeted Cignetti.

By at least one measure, the Hoosiers were the worst FBS program . . . ever. Their 713 all-time defeats entering the 2024 season were the most by any team in college football history.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, right, and the Hoosiers celebrate Indiana's win in the Big Ten championship game | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Hoosiers were 3-9 the year before Cignetti arrived and from 1995 through 2018 had enjoyed just one winning season.

Cignetti established winning from Day 1, going 11-2 in his debut season a year ago to earn a spot in the CFP. Through two seasons, his record is 24-2. Even Indiana basketball hasn’t been that good recently.

The timetable of his rebuilding project may not have been possible without the transfer portal, where programs can plug in mature, ready-made talent to the holes in their lineup.

Besides Mendoza, this year’s Indiana team was powered by first-year transfers that included running back Roman Namby (Maryland), who led the Hoosiers with 918 rushing yards.

There is safety Louis Moore (Ole Miss), who led Indiana with five interceptions, and center Pat Coogan (Notre Dame) and tight end Riley Nowakowski (Wisconsin), both third-team All-Big Ten selections this fall.

Other key first-year Hoosiers included safety Devan Boykin (NC State), offensive linemen Khalil Benson (Colorado) and Zen Michalski (Ohio State) and punter Mitch McCarthy (UCF).

A year earlier, Cignetti brought with him a handful of players from JMU, including wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, who caught 12 touchdown passes this season to earn second-team All-Big Ten honors, and running back Kaelon Black, who rushed for 798 yards this year.

Linebacker Aiden Fisher also followed Cignetti to Bloomington, earning first-team All-America honors last year. Defensive lineman Tyreke Tucker had 10 tackles for loss this season.

That same transfer portal is available to the Bears. They fared pretty well finding players in the portal a year ago, but general manager Ron Rivera reports Cal is now fully funded for purposes of acquiring and retaining talent.

We don’t know if Lupoi, who will remain defensive coordinator for Oregon through the postseason, will poach any Duck defenders before settling in at Cal. But we do know he is a relentless recruiter who expects to upgrade the Bears’ talent level.

Steve Roach, who was Cignetti’s athletic director for two seasons at Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania, could have been talking about Lupoi when he provided this description of Cignetti.

“Football is what makes him tick,” Roach told The Athletic. “He loves it and his preparation is like no one I’ve ever seen. And the motor never stops.”

Sound familiar?

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