Curt Cignetti’s Rapid Success Raises Questions For USC

Indiana Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti has built his program into the new premier team in college football after leading them to its first national championship. His rapid turnaround at Indiana increases the pressure surrounding the USC Trojans.

Jan 19, 2026; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti looks on in the second quarter against the Miami Hurricanes during the College Football Playoff National Championship game at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Indiana Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti pulled off one of, if not the greatest coaching jobs in the history of sports. It’s a remarkable turnaround for an Indiana program that had a combined nine wins over the last three seasons before Cignetti arrived in 2024, to reaching college football’s mountain top in his second year. 

Indiana began this season as the losingest major program in the history of college football and ended it hoisting the school’s first national championship trophy at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Monday night. 

Jan 19, 2026; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti looks on in the second quarter against the Miami Hurricanes during the College Football Playoff National Championship game at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Cignetti made waves in his opening press conference with the Hoosiers when he stated, “I win, google me.” It was a factual stated then, compiling a 52-9 record in three seasons at James Madison and even more so now with a 27-2 record at Indiana, which includes becoming the first team since 1894 to finish a season 16-0.

The Hoosiers defeated the reigning national champion in Ohio State in the Big Ten title game to earn the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. They throttled Alabama in the Rose Bowl and then routed Oregon the Peach State, defeating them for a second time this season en route to beating Miami in the national championship. 

The 64-year-old coach built a football power at an institution that has been historically known as a basketball school. And Cignetti didn’t do with a roster filled with blue-chip prospects. Indiana doesn’t have a single five-star recruit and only seven four-star high school recruits on its roster. 

Cignetti built a team of veteran players that are disciplined, physical and extremely well-coached and then the talent blossoms. They hit big in the portal and found players that fit Cignetti’s vision for the program. The Hoosiers have the right leadership in place, both coaching and amongst the players. 

It wasn’t a multi-year rebuild. Cignetti found instant success in year one and raised the bar in year two. Now, they are attracting blue-chip prospects and have a significant NIL investment from billionaire Mark Cuban. It's a freight train that has no interest in slowing down.

Clock is Ticking in Lincoln Riley Era

Dec 30, 2025; San Antonio, TX, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley watches in the first half against the TCU Horned Frogs during the Alamo Bowl at Alamodome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Lincoln Riley just completed year four at USC and has yet to reach a College Football Playoff in Los Angeles. The Trojans will travel to Bloomington next year and be face-to-face with the program that has become the new premier team in the Big Ten. 

Southern Cal does have the elite recruits, which matches Miami’s roster more so than Indiana’s. Regardless, it’s one thing to sign highly touted prospects, it’s another to develop them and turn them into NFL bodies on a college field. 

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And it’s not that USC hasn’t developed players under Riley, they just aren’t doing it at a high enough rate, particularly at some key positions, to compete with upper echelon of college football. 

The Trojans will return all five starting offensive lineman from last season. It sounds great on paper but that group has to not only turn into one of the best units in the Big Ten, but the entire country. 

USC has to improve dramatically on the defensive line if they want to compete with the elite teams in the Big Ten. It plagued them throughout the season and was glaring issue in each of their four losses. 

Nov 7, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley watches game action against the Northwestern Wildcats during the second half at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Indiana and Miami were in a heavyweight battle on Monday and it started the trenches. Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza was battered and bruised by the end of the contest and Indiana had the Canes offense dead in the water in the first half because of great play in the trenches. 

All eyes in the spring will be on the continued growth at the line of the scrimmage for the Trojans. And overall it’s time for players that have been on the roster for years to blossom into the stars the program had hoped for when they recruited them out of high school, especially on the defensive side of the ball. 

In addition to both teams being dominant in the trenches, they had rosters filled with veteran players. The Trojans need those players to step up and become more than just quality starters. 

USC also signed the No. 1 class in the 2026 cycle. Can those players be put in a position to make an instant impact next season. The next eight months are the most crucial in Riley’s coaching career.
Patience is running thin and it’s time for results to be seen under Riley in a major way.