ESPN’s Paul Finebaum sounds off on Indiana’s Curt Cignetti after the Hoosiers dropped a dud against Notre Dame
This year Indiana gave one of the best turnarounds you will ever see in college football. However, they would have liked that story to be even better with a College Football Playoff win. Notre Dame had no part of being a main character in that story and handled the Hoosiers to open up the first […]
This year Indiana gave one of the best turnarounds you will ever see in college football. However, they would have liked that story to be even better with a College Football Playoff win. Notre Dame had no part of being a main character in that story and handled the Hoosiers to open up the first round of games.
Before the game, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti was a bit fired up about the opportunity.
“We don’t just beat top-25 teams, we beat the (expletive) out of them," Cignetti said on ESPN's "College GameDay".
The lone two teams that are still ranked that Indiana played this season were Ohio State and Notre Dame. Both teams handled the Hoosiers without much issue. After the loss to Notre Dame, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum admitted he was bothered by Cignetti.
“It just bothered me to hear Curt Cignetti run his mouth, talking like he's actually done something," Finebaum said on “The Matt Barrie Show”. "What he has done is beat Purdue 66 to nothing and beating a bunch of middling teams. But he hasn't beaten a good team, and in the two games that he had against quality opposition, he got his head taken off.”
The final score of the Indiana vs. Notre Dame game may have been 27-17, but it was nowhere as close as that would indicate. In the fourth quarter, the Hoosiers trailed 27-3 before scoring two garbage-time touchdowns. Notre Dame had 394 yards of offense and punted just twice against Indiana. It was a solid win for Marcus Freeman in his first College Football Playoff game in South Bend, Indiana.
Cignetti going from James Madison to Indiana and going 11-2 was a job well done. However, the trash talk won’t be backed up until the Hoosiers find success against teams that are quality opponents. Until then, takes like the one from Finebaum have some validity to them.
Notre Dame now plays Georgia on Jan. 1 at 8:45 p.m. in New Orleans, Louisiana.
