Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti took one of college football's most downtrodden programs to the College Football Playoff in his first year, and one insider thinks he can do it in Year 2 as well.
While the Hoosiers were underestimated and discounted throughout their improbable run to the CFP a year ago, Pete Thamel is a believer in Cignetti and Indiana in 2025. In fact, the ESPN college football insider named IU as one of his picks to make it back to the playoff this season.
“If you look at what Curt Cignetti has done with quarterbacks, going back to JMU, they have pretty much had the quarterback who is the conference player of the year or leads the conference in passing every single season,” Thamel said on the ‘College Gameday' podcast with Rece Davis. “There's a lot of great buzz about Fernando Mendoza. I've taken in the offseason to listening to Todd McShay's podcast, Rece, he kind of breaks down individual players, does a great job. And he loved Mendoza. Mendoza, there's probably 10 or 11 quarterbacks who could be considered like first-round pickish-type guys this year. We are in a golden age of college quarterbacks, and I think Mendoza in that system, which has done nothing but produce effective and efficient quarterbacks, is gonna thrive.
“They had the number-two defense in the country last year, Rece. Now, are they gonna have the number-two defense in the country? No, but they have All-Big Ten linchpins at all three levels coming back on defense, so until Cignetti starts to lose games, I'm a believer seeing it up close, and I think they just have a ton of personnel, and you gotta trust him with his portal evals at this point, too.”
We made our CFP picks on the @CollegeGameDay Podcast. I went with Indiana making a return trip, as there’s faith in Fernando Mendoza with Cignetti/Shanahan’s history with QBs. Also, shout to @McShay13, who loves Mendoza as a prospect. https://t.co/NXD3MT0kwI pic.twitter.com/o85Mz5rJ4T
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 26, 2025
In five years at James Madison, Cignetti took the Dukes to three consecutive FCS semifinals (including one title game appearance) before leading them to a 19-4 record in JMU's first two seasons at the FBS level. The success grabbed the attention of Indiana, which hired him to lead a program that had lost more than 200 more games than it had won, had never sniffed a CFP berth, and had not even won 10 games in a season.
While it's gonna take IU a while to climb out of the all-time win-loss hole, Cignetti immediately took the Hoosiers to the CFP and got them not just to 10 wins, but 11. For his work, he earned nearly every national Coach of the Year award, as well as Big Ten Coach of the Year.
No. 20 Indiana opens its 2025 season on Saturday at home vs. Old Dominion. The Hoosiers' first game against a ranked opponent is scheduled for Sept. 20, when they host Illinois.
