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Curt Cignetti was not going to take Friday night’s College Football Playoff semifinal victory for granted.
For the first time in school history, the Indiana Hoosiers will be playing for a national title after walloping Oregon 56-22 in the Peach Bowl.
Eventually, the Hoosiers will sit down and watch film on No. 10 Miami, which has had quite the Cinderella run to take on the top-ranked, 15-0 Hoosiers.
But Cignetti had one thing on his mind while the Hoosiers celebrated at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
ESPN’s Molly McGrath asked Cignetti when he’d “stop and appreciate how special and how historic all of this has been,” assuming Cignetti was already “thinking about the next game.”
Cignetti, though, corrected her.
“I’m not thinking about the next game. I’m thinking about cracking open a beer,” he admitted.
The Hoosiers became the fifth team in modern college football history to go 15-0. Now they can become the first team of the modern era to go 16-0 and only the second of all time, joining an 1894 Yale team that played with leather helmets.
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Cignetti has left the college football world breathless with a dramatic turnaround of the Hoosiers program, going from one of the losingest teams in the Big Ten to potentially the most dominant single season of all time.
Following their undefeated regular season, the Hoosiers have only gained momentum in the CFP. After defeating Ohio State for the Big Ten championship, Indiana overwhelmed Alabama 38-3 in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal as Fernando Mendoza passed for 192 yards and three touchdowns.
Indiana will try to give the Big Ten its third straight national title, following Ohio State and Michigan the last two seasons. Few teams from any conference can compare with the Hoosiers’ season-long demonstration of balanced, strong play.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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