BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Bob Knight, who would have turned 85 Saturday, would have loved Curt Cignetti and his IU football team. He would have loved the way they not only beat the living daylights out of opponents week after week, but they never, ever beat themselves. They are smart. They are disciplined. They are selfless. They are tough, physically and mentally. Just like Knight's teams, especially back in the glory days.
At this point, the second-ranked Hoosiers aren't just fighting their opponents; they're chasing perfection. They came into Saturday's game, a dominating 56-6 victory over UCLA at Memorial Stadium, ranked fourth in the nation in scoring offense and fourth in scoring defense. Those numbers will be gaudier after this game.
Knight knew a little bit about winning national championships, bringing three of them to Bloomington, but this football team, wholly focused and unaffected by success, has a more-than-reasonable chance of walking away with the national championship.
Don't chuckle.
This team is that good, that complete, that balanced.
(I know, I know, the very notion that IU could be a national title contender seems too outlandish to be possible. But it IS possible. Trust me.)
There are competitors out there who likely have more depth -- thinking Ohio State, among a few other members of the game's super-elite -- but IU compares favorably with anybody in the nation. They've already proven it twice, waxing then-No. 9 Illinois and beating Oregon in Eugene.
Where's the weakness? Not on offense, where they run and throw with the best in the nation. Not on defense, where the Hoosiers kept UCLA completely bottled up. Even the special teams continue to play exceedingly well.
This UCLA team wasn't supposed to be a soft touch, although IU made them look like one. UCLA has turned its season around since firing head coach Deshaun Foster, having won three straight games. During that time under interim coach Tim Skipper, the Bruins had averaged 233 yards per game on the ground and 33.3 points per game. They had converted on 50 percent of their third-down attempts, and had controlled the ball 36 minutes per game over that span.
What happened when they showed up in Bloomington? They managed six points and 201 total yards. They were 1-of-11 on third-down conversions. The Hoosiers, who spent the day in the UCLA backfield, came out hard and fast, producing three sacks and six tackles for loss in the first half alone, and never relented.
In a world where you get what you pay for, Cignetti's long-time defensive coordinator, Bryant Haines, was given a hefty raise in February when some of the game's bluebloods came sniffing around. Back in the day, the Hoosiers couldn't hope to keep their best assistants, but these days, they're playing hardball with the big kids. The money is there -- only three Big Ten assistants make more -- and so are the results.
"I think (Haines) is difficult to prepare against, does a lot of different stuff," Cignetti said. "...He does a great job. The kids respond. They have a lot of pride. We've got some (defensive backs) back there that have really good ball skills. Like the safeties, as much as I like to get on them about being late to get lined up and stuff like that, they've got really good ball skills. Our linebackers do, too. We do a good job of stopping the run. Philosophically, that's where it all starts, TFLs, pressuring the quarterback.
"You look at Oregon, a premier offense, right? We had a dominant second half in that game. We didn't start very well against Michigan State...Probably felt pretty good about ourselves (after the Oregon victory). I was worried about that with the offense a little bit today."
At one point in the post-game interview with Cignetti, it was noted by a reporter that the Hoosiers have allowed just six touchdowns in eight games.
"Not bad, yeah" he said, coming perilously close to cracking a smile. "That's pretty good."
Yeah, pretty good and completely overwhelming. The Hoosiers served notice on the first snap, defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker got penetration and sacked UCLA's quarterback Nico Iamaleava in the backfield. One play later, All-American linebacker Aiden Fisher stepped in front of an Iamaleava pass and returned it for an early touchdown. The rout was on.
Fernando Mendoza didn't stuff the stat sheet -- he completed 15 of 22 passes for 168 yards, two passing touchdowns, one rushing TD and an interception, just his third of the season -- but he didn't do anything to hurt his Heisman candidacy. On a day when the Hoosiers wideouts weren't getting their usual separation -- hey, Cignetti said it -- Mendoza began just 2-of-6 before he got himself and the offense in gear, converting on 12-of-16 third downs.
This was a day when it was quite enough to run the football, the Hoosiers finishing with 262 rushing yards.
"Our backs run hard all the time, they really do," Cignetti said. "When you start to see a team wave the white flag, so to say, break their will, it takes a while. It usually happens sometime in third quarter...Good to see those rushing totals back up again."
No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana are on a collision course. I simply don't see this team tripping on anybody, much less Maryland or Penn State. See you in Indy.
Bob Kravitz is an award-winning columnist who has been in the sports journalism business for 43 years. He's worked at Sports Illustrated, the Indianapolis Star, The Athletic and other publications, and is now an Indiana-based publisher at Roundtable Sports. You can follow him on X @bkravitz.