Curt Cignetti's Core Principle is Indiana Football's Rally Cry Entering CFP

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Everything in Indiana football's Don Croftcheck Team Room was the same as usual. The wooden podium in its normal place up front, supporting an IU-branded microphone. The three columns and many rows of chairs holding reporters.

Then, Carter Smith noticed the difference.

Indiana's redshirt junior left tackle walked past the microphone, peered right and admired the backdrop draped behind the podium. The black curtain sported two logos: One belonging to the College Football Playoff quarterfinal, the other to the Rose Bowl Game.

"This is pretty," Smith said with a wide grin. "This is nice."

That was Smith's moment of acknowledgement. Then, he spent nearly eight-and-a-half minutes with a business-minded approach, answering questions less than one week before No. 1 Indiana (13-0) faces No. 9 Alabama (11-3) at 4 p.m. ET on Jan. 1 in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., to open the Hoosiers' College Football Playoff run.

Indiana's players are forgiven, if not encouraged, to have short periods in which they absorb the magnitude of where their feet are.

The Hoosiers, whose sudden ascent has freed them from the undesired tag as college football's losingest program, haven't played in the Rose Bowl since 1968. They're ranked No. 1 for the first time in program history and three wins away from their first national title.

But Indiana can't admire the moment for too long — and ultimately, center Pat Coogan says, it can't stray from its roots, because the dimensions of the field and the game itself is no different than any of the Hoosiers' first 13 games.

"You take it in for a brief moment. You're appreciative, you're grateful, you're excited," Coogan said Saturday. "But at the end of the day, and I learned this a long time ago at [Notre Dame], it's like 120 by 53 and a third. We've been playing on the same surface since we were all in third and fourth grade.

"So, you kind of just got to lock in and be a ball player, because at the end of the day, between the white lines, the field's the same. The opponent is the opponent, and you got to go out there and play."

In the Hoosiers' first team meeting after learning they'd face Alabama, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti told his players it's "go time." Every practice, every minute of preparation, requires full intensity.

The Hoosiers are now entering a one-game season with two outcomes: Win and advance or lose and watch the greatest campaign in program history come to an end. They have national championship aspirations — but their mind is fixed on New Year's Day in Pasadena and, sixth-year senior tight end Riley Nowakowski says, carrying forward the momentum of an unblemished season.

"I think with the experience we have, it's a lot easier," Nowakowski said Saturday. "We understand what this is. So, it's like it's a one-game season. It's a really big game, but the same game we've been playing our whole life.

"It's just balancing those two aspects of, 'Hey, this is what we do. This is what we've been doing. This is our livelihood. It's just another step in our livelihood.' But also, acknowledging the fact that if you don't win this one, it's over."

The idea of a one-game season is a core principle to Cignetti's philosophy. No matter the stakes or the quality of the Hoosiers' opponent, he preaches that week's game is the most important because it's the next on the schedule. The mindset is as crucial to his culture's fabric as three-word slogans "fast, physical, relentless," and "smart, disciplined, poised."

In essence, Indiana's urgency and intensity isn't newfound or suddenly implemented. It's part of the Hoosiers' identity — because Cignetti has emphasized it so much the past two years his team has no choice but to live it.

Now, Nowakowski says, it's a "huge" benefit to Indiana as it preps for, in nature, one of the biggest games in program history.

"I think it keeps all of us grounded, and it just keeps you focused on what's going on right now," Nowakowski said. "Because the next game, especially now, isn't guaranteed. Every game is like a one game season, and that's kind of how we approach it. If we're trying to get to our final goal, we need to win pretty much every single game.

"So, you can't let up one week just because opponent might not have the best record, or whatever it is. Every single week needs our full focus, and I think [Cignetti] hitting on that all the time just kind of ingrains it in us."

Thus far, the results are following.

Coogan said Indiana has "done a great job during preparation" of honing in on the task at hand and eliminating, as Cignetti often says, the noise and clutter. The Hoosiers have been present in meetings and thorough in their preparation for Alabama, which took a 34-24 victory over Oklahoma on Dec. 19 in Norman to earn its place in Pasadena.

A game captain in each of Indiana's first 13 games, Coogan, who played in the national title game with Notre Dame last season, has used his voice and playoff experience to lead the Hoosiers through a 26-day break between games.

The challenge, he said, is staying focused in between the white lines, which hasn't been an issue for Indiana this fall. The Hoosiers have met each moment, headlined by defeating No. 5 Oregon on the road Oct. 11 and beating No. 2 Ohio State for the Big Ten Championship on Dec. 6.

Indiana isn't oblivious to the stakes and consequences of Thursday's Rose Bowl. But the Hoosiers have no reason to differentiate from the approach or mentality that's left them as college football's last unbeaten.

"You don't want to get too overhyped for this game. You don't want to get too underhyped," senior receiver Elijah Sarratt said Saturday. "It's just about going in every single day, doing what we've done for the whole year leading up to this, just stacking those days and being able to, once those bullets are flying, being able to execute and not turn the ball over and just keeping things the same.

"We understand it's a big game, but it's just the next game for us."

Sarratt, along with nearly half of Indiana's roster, is equipped with College Football Playoff wisdom after last season, when the Hoosiers suffered a 27-17 loss to Notre Dame in South Bend.

The experience — being under the Playoff spotlight, walking through the Playoff fire — built Indiana an armor that withstood tests against Oregon, Ohio State, Iowa, Penn State and nine other challengers this season.

Indiana, Sarratt said, is ready for the moments that await in Pasadena — and perhaps beyond.

"Some of the details we have in place now, we may have not had in place last year," Sarratt said, "because, I mean, last year, it was a first for everyone in this building, a first for everyone in this community, just being in those big games, being in those situations."

Such was the Cignetti-led culture shift for the Hoosiers, who went from also-rans to one of college football's best stories. Now, Indiana isn't just one of the last eight standing, but the tallest peak on a mountain full of the sport's most elite teams.

Indiana has proven it belongs on the biggest of stages and underneath the brightest of lights. The Rose Bowl, oft referred to as "The Granddaddy of Them All," gives the Hoosiers their most prestigious canvas yet — yet they plan on painting the same masterpiece to open 2026 as they did in each of their 13 games in 2025.

And if Indiana can replicate its success, perhaps Smith will soon get to marvel at another newly branded backdrop — one that seemed so far, so inconceivable, just two years prior.

"It's been an amazing ride," said Smith, a starter on the 3-9 Hoosiers in 2023. "There's no other team I'd rather do it with."