Avoiding distractions, IU football treats national title game like any other game

• Josh Pos

• 41m ago

 

While recovering in the training room in the bowels of Memorial Stadium this week, senior tight end Riley Nowakowski noticed something that needed to change. Sports talk shows on television were previewing Indiana’s next game — the national championship against Miami.

Instead of grabbing the remote to turn up the volume, Nowakowski walked over and shut off the monitor.

The outside noise around Indiana football is far more positive than it was a month ago. But as the Hoosiers finish preparations in the Mellencamp Pavilion before departing for Miami, the mindset inside the program hasn’t shifted: it’s just another game.

“We don’t need to hear the talk about us,” Nowakowski said Tuesday. “It’s probably a little better stuff now than maybe at the beginning of the season. People may have a little more belief. But either way, good or bad, it doesn’t help us out.”

That mindset starts at the top at Indiana, set by head coach Curt Cignetti, and filters through his captains — Nowakowski, Pat Coogan, Aiden Fisher and Elijah Sarratt.

All season, Cignetti has preached that the most important game is always the next one on the schedule. Whether it was Kennesaw State or Ohio State, Indiana approached each week’s matchup as if it were a national championship.

But now, as the national championship game looms, the focus, ironically, turns to treating it as just another game. Luckily for the back-to-back coach of the year, his players heed his advice and act upon it.

Cignetti’s roster strikes the perfect balance of talent and character, players who buy into every aspect of his system.

“He’s big on character when he chooses who he wants here,” Nowakowski said. “If you have a big group of guys, all of good character and have a similar mindset, it kind of pulls some guys along that might not fully be there yet.”

The defining trait of Cignetti’s tenure in Bloomington is his team’s ability to tune out what they call the “outside noise and clutter.” As impossible as it sounds in the 21st century, every player and coach has bought in.

What once sounded like a scripted answer has grown into a rallying cry for the program. Cignetti’s business-like approach to every game gives his team confidence in their head coach.

“We all know Cig’s been in these positions before. He’s played in big games. At the end of the day, players just want to win,” Fisher said. “Whatever he deems is the most important thing, we’re going to follow that.”

Transferring in from Notre Dame, Coogan brings national championship game experience. He was the starting center on the Fighting Irish team that finished as runners-up to Ohio State last January.

Now with one game left in his collegiate career, the redshirt senior understands that what’s said or written ahead of the game won’t matter between the white lines.

“It has no impact on our ability to go perform on the football field,” Coogan said. “It’s not going to score us any touchdowns. It’s not going to convert any third downs defensively. It’s not going to stop any third downs or get us off the field.”

Indiana has been must-see TV all season, playing before a national audience in all but one of its 15 games. The Hoosiers’ first two College Football Playoff games drew record-breaking audiences despite lopsided scores, with the Rose Bowl averaging 23.9 million viewers, the highest in the 12-team CFP era.

Incredibly, the public cannot get enough of Cignetti and his team. ESPN will stream 11 alternate broadcasts across its platforms on Monday, placing Indiana squarely in the spotlight.

The moment has yet to be too big for the Hoosiers, whose preparation has carried them to the doorstep of the mountaintop, one win away.

Yet little has changed on the practice field, especially for Sarratt. His routine remains intact, from catching 100 passes after practice to his weeklong preparation. The extra pomp and circumstance is something he and his teammates refuse to get caught up in.

“We understand it’s the national championship and a lot of people are going to be watching,” Sarratt said. “But we’re going to treat this practice week the same. We’re going to go in and work every single day leading up to that game.”

The prep work at home is complete, and the Hoosiers will depart from Indianapolis International Airport on Friday afternoon. The noise will have nowhere to go but inside the stadium — and at watch parties back in Bloomington. Indiana will take the field for the final game of its dominant 2025 campaign.

What follows in the Sunshine State will determine what plays on the training room screens when Nowakowski flips them back on.

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