One Thing Indiana Isn't Giving Oregon Ahead of Peach Bowl Showdown

There is a feel around the Peach Bowl that it will determine college football's national champion this season. That's not meant as disrespect for Miami or Ole Miss, but whoever wins between Indiana and Oregon will enter the title game as a favorite over the Fiesta Bowl victor.

On Thursday, both head coaches of the Peach Bowl showdown met the media. During that session, Curt Cignetti continued what has been a trend by himself and his team all week long in leading up to the latest "biggest game in Indiana University program history".

As Indiana prepares, it's seemingly going out of its way to not rattle the cage of the bear that is Oregon head coach Dan Lanning.

Indiana Providing No Bulletin Board Material for Oregon

At every turn this week, Cignetti has been beyond complimentary of Oregon football. He's gone out of his way to praise Lanning and the entire Ducks program in a way we don't usually see.

It's not that Cignetti is usually talking smack to his opponent leading up to a game, but he seems a bit more guarded this time around. After all, this is the guy who proclaimed that Purdue, Michigan, and Ohio State all "suck" the first time he addressed Hoosiers fans at a basketball game.

It's like he's doing it this week intentionally. Right after the Rose Bowl, he immediately started praising the coaching of Lanning and quickly began speaking of how great the Ducks are and how they have the advantage because of how difficult it is to beat a good team twice in the same season.

If you've paid any attention to how Lanning operates the Ducks, Cignetti's behavior this week makes perfect sense.

Dan Lanning Uses Anything to Motivate Team

Remember when the pandemic took sports away from us, and we had to settle for watching old games and documentaries? What a time that was...

Anyway, the most popular sports series at that time was "The Last Dance", the documentary about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty. One of the most memorable pieces of that documentary was when Jordan spoke about taking things personally - check it out for a refresher below.

That's essentially Lanning. He takes anything that can be used as motivation and does exactly that. Below are just a couple of examples.

Dan Lanning Shreds USC Before Big Game

Dan Lanning is a SAVAGE:

“They’re living off their history. Matt Leinart, he ain’t walking through there. Reggie Bush, he ain’t gonna show up.”

“Understand something. Why are you wearing black? You’re going to a Trojan funeral.” pic.twitter.com/OI438g2cJH
— Oregon Updates (@oregon__updates) November 25, 2025

Dan Lanning Rips Texas Tech and Big 12 Ahead of Orange Bowl

Dan Lanning dunked all over the Big 12

pic.twitter.com/0skkQGXiC8
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) January 5, 2026

For someone as detail-oriented as Cignetti is, his being aware of Lanning's tendency to do this is expected. He's clearly a guy who isn't going to do anything to try and get Oregon seeking even more revenge after what happened when the teams met back in October.

It's not one of those things I'll look back on after Friday's game and say it's why Indiana won or lost, but its certainly something that has stuck out to me while listening and reading pretty much everything the Indiana head coach has said leading up to the game.