Nick Saban, who was Curt Cignetti's boss at Alabama, used to talk about "rat poison" all the time. Whenever he sensed his team was getting fat and happy with its successes, when the local journalists were writing paeans to 'Bama's greatness, when fans were patting the players on the back and making them feel like they were untouchable...THAT was rat poison.

And rat poison can be deadly.

There was a lot of rat poison to be discovered in Bloomington this week.

The third-ranked Hoosiers, who will be ranked second in the nation after erstwhile No. 2 Miami's loss and IU's 38-13 victory over Michigan State Saturday in Bloomington, were coming off the euphoric, program-changing victory at Oregon, arguably the greatest win in IU football history. 

Fernando Mendoza, the most special IU quarterback since Antwaan Randle El, was getting lots of Heisman chatter, and is now the betting favorite to win the most important individual trophy in college football. As rain fell late in the Hoosiers' relatively casual victory, the shirtless hordes in the stands started yelling, "Heis-Mendoza! Heis-Mendoza!"

And, of course, there was Curt Cignetti signing a new eight-year, $93 million contract, making him the third-highest paid coach in college football behind Ohio State's Ryan Day and Georgia's Kirby Smart. With Penn State sniffing around and Florida likely to change coaches sometime in the near future, athletic director Scott Dolson chose to be proactive and extended Cignetti, who will, in all likelihood, retire a Hoosier. 

So yeah, there was a lot of rat poison going around in Bloomington this week. 

Cignetti knew this, and as early as Monday, he was talking to the media at his weekly news conference, insisting his players and coaches needed to "rip off the rear view mirror." Which sounds great, but you're still dealing with young men who may be inclined to consume the rat poison. The football Hoosiers are the toast of the town, the toast of the college football world, Cignetti having engineered one of the most remarkable program turnarounds in the history of the game. 

With all the happy talk, how would the Hoosiers respond against a Michigan State team that had lost all three of its Big Ten games, including a blowout loss at home to UCLA last week?

Turned out, just fine, thank you. 

"What did Mike Krzyzewski say when he retired?" Cignetti told reporters after the game. "He said the toughest opponent he ever faced was human nature. Well, human nature after winning against Oregon is to be happy and relaxed -- support staff, coaches, players, trainers. My job is to make sure they've got the right mindset (and are) ready to play."

Cignetti worried that the rat poison was being consumed late in the week, and gathered his team Thursday for a message: Last week is gone. Last week is ancient history. All that matters is now. 

"I think it was starting to flip a little bit Thursday after practice," Cignetti said. "I sent them a good message. I thought it was flipping our way Friday. Look, you can't be a real nice guy when you have a job like mine; know what I mean?"

Look, it wasn't an overwhelming performance -- Michigan State led twice early in the game and was moving the ball with a diet of screens and plays that used IU's aggression against them, but it was workmanlike and it was effective. The Hoosiers scored touchdowns on their first five possessions while Mendoza, the hottest thing going in college football, completed 24 of 28 passes for 332 yards and four touchdowns.

Some weekends don't quite require a team's best, and this was one of them. The defense struggled some early. The running game didn't get untracked until late in the game. In general, though, IU played with ruthless efficiency, especially on offense, specifically in the passing game.

This is what special teams do. There's a real professionalism about this outfit, a competitive intelligence. This game had "let-down" written all over it, but the Hoosiers, a. veteran group, handled it the way you expected them to -- with conviction. 

The rat poison was overflowing this week in Bloomington. The Hoosiers, though, didn't fall prey to human nature. That's a sign of a team with real-world national-title aspirations, a program that has left a century of losing behind and become the talk of the college football world. 

UCLA is next. 

Avoid the rat poison, and the Hoosiers will be playing for the Big Ten title at Lucas Oil Stadium. And after that...who knows what they can do in the college football playoff? At this point, only a fool doubts them.

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.