To appreciate Curt Cignetti's greatness, watch the NFL Draft

Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAYTue, April 21, 2026 at 9:09 AM UTC

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Curt Cignetti appreciation week is upon us.

What, did you miss the memo?

OK, there was no memo. This is all very unofficial. That doesn’t mean we should let it go unnoticed.

The NFL Draft in Pittsburgh will pull back the curtain on the remarkability of Cignetti’s Indiana Hoosiers going undefeated and winning the national championship.

OPINION: Don't believe Big Ten has really passed the SEC? Watch 2026 NFL Draft

1 / 0Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over MiamiIndiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza (15) embraces his family on the field Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, after defeating the Miami (FL) Hurricanes in the College Football Playoff National Championship college football game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.Why NFL Draft proves Curt Cignetti can outcoach competition

For many years, you could boil down the formula to winning a national championship like this: Out-talent everyone else.

Assemble the best players, put a competent coaching staff around them, and let that talent cook.

Nick Saban did it, better and more consistently than anyone. Then, Kirby Smart did it. Ryan Day executed that playbook in the 2024 season.

That makes Indiana’s championship such a zag to the sport’s usual zig.

The Hoosiers will be well-represented in this draft, but not to the level of champions past.

In 2021, Alabama tied a national record by having six players selected in the first round after going undefeated and winning Saban’s seventh and final national title in the pandemic season.

Months after Smart won his first national championship, 15 of his Bulldogs were drafted, including nine within the first three rounds.

That’s not to minimize the achievements of Saban and Smart, or Day, whose 2024 Buckeyes dominated the playoff before producing 14 draft picks.

Talent assembly is the name of the game, and those coaches did their jobs.

But, Cignetti came along and reinvented what a championship team can look like.

Several Hoosiers are projected to go throughout the draft's seven rounds. But, Indiana’s representation won’t be on par with the output of teams like 2019 LSU, 2020 Alabama, 2021 Georgia or 2024 Ohio State.

Fernando Mendoza meant so much to Indiana

Fernando Mendoza’s impact on the Hoosiers’ national championship cannot be overstated. The Indiana quarterback should go to Las Vegas with the No. 1 overall pick.

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Wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. might go in the first round, too, and projections call for cornerback D’Angelo Ponds and wide receiver Elijah Sarratt to come off the board in Rounds 2 or 3. A few more Hoosiers will be picked at some point, too, but don’t expect a draft bonanza to the extreme of national champions past.

Indiana didn’t out-talent every opponent, but it outplayed everyone it faced, sometimes by massive margins.

Alabama sent 12 players to the NFL scouting combine. Indiana sent nine.

I don’t need to remind anyone in Tuscaloosa of this, but the final score of the Rose Bowl looked like this:

Indiana 38, Alabama 3.

“Just solid across the board. Consistent,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said recently, when I asked him for his take on the Hoosiers’ success formula. “A lot of upperclassmen, older players.”

“Those guys executed, especially in the big moments,” DeBoer added.

Nobody’s saying Indiana didn’t have good players. It did.

Cignetti assembled a group of guys who were mostly overlooked as recruits coming out of high school. He developed them and created a disciplined squad that didn’t beat itself, pounced on opponent mistakes and benefited from elite quarterback performance.

If you have a quarterback, you have a chance. Indiana had Mendoza.

If you have a quarterback and you don’t make mistakes, you really have a chance. The Hoosiers led the nation in turnover margin. They ranked second behind Army in average penalty yardage.

That’s how you become college football’s first 16-0 team without lapping the field with NFL talent.

Mendoza. Turnover battle. Penalty battle.

Oh, and Cignetti.

Mastermind, guru, genius, they’re overused words in college football circles, but the label must apply to a coach that won it all with a team that had just a few players who'll hear their names called in the first two days of the draft.

When Roger Goodell comes on stage this week, Cignetti appreciation week begins.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why NFL Draft will make you appreciate Indiana national title even more

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