Indiana coach Curt Cignetti takes Nick Saban aside before the Maryland game

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Curt Cignetti resembled legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban before Indiana’s crucial Week 5 game against Maryland.

Cignetti served as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator on Saban’s staff at Alabama from 2007 to 2010, which included winning a national title in 2009. Now he’s off to a dominant 4-0 start as coach of the Hoosiers and is on the verge of Indiana’s first 5-0 mark since its founding in 1967, Cignetti knows that with success can come danger.

He’s confident his team will avoid this due to their maturity and strong veteran presence, but he used a famous Saban phrase to keep the Hoosiers in check.

“When you win, it’s about maintaining your edge and avoiding complacency,” Cignetti said. “And not having warm fuzz and not taking rat poison, right?”

On his way to winning seven national championships, Saban often used the term “rat poison.” The rat poison he is referring to is the external praise from fans and media that comes with success. If a team ingests this “rat poison,” they may relax too much and not take their next opponent seriously, which can lead to defeat.

Cignetti knows this challenge. He went 52-9 over the past five seasons at James Madison and has a 123-35 record as a head coach, with stints at Elon and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

He often talks about the role of mental preparation, in addition to the Xs and O’s and physical attributes that a successful team requires. Cignetti wants his team to take a no-nonsense approach and never get too high or too low during and after games.

After Indiana’s last two wins against UCLA and Charlotte, Cignetti said he would give the team 24 hours to enjoy the win and then get back to work. That’s not to say that Cignetti discourages confidence, but there is a balance to be found.

“Success leads to confidence, which leads to success, and so they go hand in hand,” Cignetti said. “But you still have to put in the work during the week because everything we do is no fun. You have to pay the price in terms of your commitment, make some decisions, good ones and sacrifices. But we should be a confident football team at the moment, but we still need to put in a lot of work.”

Indiana’s 4-0 start was successful on both sides. The Hoosiers rank fifth nationally with 50.5 points per game and 11th with 513.8 yards per game. Indiana became the first FBS team to surpass the 200-point mark in 2024, and its 202 points are the most in a four-game stretch in program history, breaking the previous record set at the end of the 2015 season.

Defensively, the Hoosiers have allowed a total of 300 yards or fewer in all four games, the program’s longest stretch since at least 1990. Indiana has forced seven turnovers and is one of three FBS teams, along with Georgia and Louisville, that have not turned the ball over around.

Starting with Maryland on Saturday at noon ET at Memorial Stadium, the task becomes more and more challenging. ESPN ranks Indiana’s strength of schedule at No. 119, considering only games played so far, and its remaining strength of schedule is at No. 34.

And despite the early success, Cignetti is holding his team to a high standard and is not yet satisfied.

“We don’t want to maintain the level. We want to raise the standard in everything we do,” said Cignetti. “We want to improve because that’s not the case – no one is capable of regressing in college football. So you have to keep trying. This is a really good football team coming here. We have to play our best game. But I would be shocked if our guys don’t understand that.”